Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

Years ago on my first trip to Paris, I finally tried escargot (after many glasses of vino)…So? The big thrill is the garlic butter sauce. You might as well be baking pencil erasers. Anything is good with garlic butter. (If somebody out there is a snail meat connoisseur, let me know what I missed.)

And so I come to snail mail marketing - or as most people call it, “Direct Mail.” This comes up repeatedly when I’m working with clients. They’ve got contact names, have bought lists, know snail mail is a cheap way to push out a lot of info to a lot of people. What they often forget is the garlic butter (and snails have to be scrubbed and purged, or you’ve got a plate of butter-coated nastiness.)

Direct Mail can be a good idea even (especially) in today’s electronic always on, always connected virtual world IF:
1. You’ve got a scrubbed and purged list. (Will these people care about what you’re sending? Are they the right contact in the company? Have you deleted the duplicates?)
2. You know what action you want the recipient to take (write, call, sign up, etc.)
3. You make it very, very easy for the recipient to read and act. I recommend oversized postcards in many cases. I hate junk mail and even I will “do the flip” of a postcard, at least glancing at both sides.
4. You make it tasty (fun, interesting, unusual.)

Creative packaging can also help. (I’ve also had fancy-schmancy escargot in puff pastry. But, again, the big thrill was the garlic butter…)

P.S. You also need internal processes to handle all those calls and requests. A frequent problem with direct mail is lack of follow-through and follow-up. Note to big companies: Don’t ask me to call you and then force me to jump through hoops, especially if I’m already a customer.