By Mark on Jun 11, 2008 in Direct Mail, Featured, Marketing, Process, Strategy, Testing | 0 Comments
You plan for offensive operations, while you prepare to play defense. You'll find this concept in both warfare and sports, and it's applicable in business as well.
I much prefer playing offense, because that's where you score and generate revenues. A strong business offensive plan also limits the amount of places you'll need to prepare to play defense, freeing up more resources for--you guessed it--playing more offense.
By Mark on May 5, 2008 in Direct Mail, Marketing, Strategy | 0 Comments
If you're mailing Standard Rate, you've got until Friday to present your material for entry at the USPS at the current rates. I hope you've been getting ready to mail at the old rates.
Is there anything you shouldn't try to get in the mail at this point?
I can think of a couple things. While [...]
By Mark on Feb 27, 2008 in Direct Mail | 0 Comments
A quick reminder that U.S. postage rates are going up on May 12th, with First Class postage going up by one cent to $0.42. The new rate schedule is available here.
Drop your mail before May 12th, if possible, but please don't rush. Never is the phrase "penny wise, pound foolish" more appropriate than when dealing [...]
By Mark on Feb 19, 2008 in Advertising, Copy, Database marketing, Direct Mail, Direct Marketing, Featured | 3 Comments
And sometimes I just shake my head. My apparently never-ending stream of poorly executed direct mail continues, with the latest effort being a shockingly bad example from Marriott's Fairfield Inn and Visa. It appears to be the result of a co-op promotion, which may account for the execution; nobody at either Marriott or Visa felt [...]
By Mark on Feb 11, 2008 in Database marketing, Direct Mail, Process | 0 Comments
After lashing out at Verizon and Vonage a little while ago, I thought I'd move on to other topics.
But Verizon can't help but make simple mistakes in their direct mail efforts. On Friday, I received yet another first-class mailing, this time promoting Verizon's FiOS Internet service.
Since I've now been a triple-play customer for two months [...]
By Mark on Jan 27, 2008 in Advertising, Direct Mail, Direct Marketing, Inserts, Marketing, Testing | 1 Comment
For the first time in a long time I took a few minutes to run through the Valpak co-op mailing I received last week.
After a few minutes of looking at the offers, I came up with a short list of things to consider if you're using Valpak (or other co-ops) as a marketing channel. The [...]
