Dreck Mail

The US Postal Service may be floundering, but neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night will stay advertisers' use of direct mail.


No matter how attractively designed, in my book a direct mail piece that obscures the product or its benefits fails.


Case in point.


Yesterday's delivery brought me a hefty, richly printed B2B piece.


The piece arrived in a clear polywrap sleeve.


The advertiser was a major oil company.  


On the front side, below my name and address, appeared an offer ("Earn 5% rebates up to $30 on fuel purchases for 60 days").


On the reverse side was a large panel with a picture of a twisted highway.  


Above the picture was the headline, "Sometimes, managing your vehicles can seem, well... unmanageable."


I had to open the piece and pull a tab (marked "Pull") to slide the panel out.


My action revealed a picture of a straight highway.


Above was the headline, "Introducing real control and convenience."


Get it?


Before and after.


Before and after pictures should prompt me to visualize the product's benefits.


In this instance, they didn't.


I guess a picture isn't always worth a thousand words.


Only by opening the folder and reading the enclosures did I learn the oil company was pushing its credit card.


That's just too much work.

Should You Highlight Your Pricing?

In A letter to event technology companies trying to sell me stuff, event guru Adrian Segar challenges marketers to trumpet their prices.


"Bombarded with email from event technology companies," Segar begs vendors to "give me some idea upfront how much your products/services cost."


He bristles at firms that "have spared no expense creating great material designed to turn me into a customer," but don't disclose prices. 


"I'm sorry," Segar writes, "but I don't have time to enter into your next sales step—the 'contact us to discuss your requirements' dance—on the off chance that your actual pricing model represents real value for me."


Segar in effect warns vendors, if you're coy about costs, you can forget any consideration from me. "I can handle talking about money upfront. And so can you," he scolds.


Segar's letter speaks volumes about customers' mindset.


The simple fact: customers have been traumatized by "frugalnomics."


In many of their organizations, frugality still trumps growth (and will continue to do so until consumer and corporate spending return to pre-recession levels).


Should you respond to frugalnomics by highlighting your prices?


The short answer is: no.


That would be like a doctor showing the trauma patient photos of the accident scene to comfort him.


Your job as a marketer is to help prospects—with the aid of case studies and testimonials by gratified users—envision better days ahead.


Discussions about pricing should begin only after prospects understand how your products or services can improve the way they do business.

Social Media Marketing Would Make George Carlin's List

Oxymorons was one of comedian George Carlin's best routines.

Carlin relished the absurdity of stock phrases like "friendly fire," "resident alien" and "genuine veneer."

You can add to the list, "social media marketing."

Does your organization get it?

It's just a matter of good manners. 

Steering a conversation toward yourself is boorish.

And fruitless.


Unless it was started explicitly to solicit referrals, inserting a commercial note into a conversation will kill it. Quickly.


Given our need for commercial-free conversation, it's little wonder the social media platforms can't find an ad-revenue business model that works.

The Closer They are to Buying, the More Customers Talk about Your Advertising

As they near a buying decision, customers talk about your advertising, according to a 2011 study by the Keller Fay Group.


But if your advertising's not talkworthy, they won't have much to say.


That's why it's wise to begin any ad campaign with the copy.


No one ever talks about the clever use of of Calluna Sans in your mailers, the bold use of orange on your home page, or the relaxed read in your radio spots.


The words put the word in "word of mouth."


That's why Miami-based agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky asks its creative teams to submit their ideas for new campaigns in the form of a news release.


By framing the campaign in terms that are newsworthy, they increase the odds the campaign will also be talkworthy.

Tip #5 for the Business Writer

Keep Your Phrases Parallel
Part 5 of a 5-part series on writing well.


Parallelism adds clarity to your writing readers appreciate.


In a parallelism, you keep the structure of any series of related phrases consistent, repeating the same word forms (your nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.) in the same order.

Parallelism can occur within a sentence or within a paragraph.

Here's an example (from Florida Coconuts) of a faulty parallelism within a sentence:

Coconut water is fat free, delicious, and a great way to rehydrate after strenuous physical activity.

To make her structure parallel, the writer should say:

Coconut water is fat free, delicious and refreshing. It provides a great way to rehydrate after strenuous physical activity.

Here's an example (from Sony) of a faulty parallelism within a paragraph:

The installation of 600 Sony SNC-DH140T cameras was decided upon for three main reasons. The first was Sony’s outstanding image quality, both at day and night, in any season, and under any light conditions. The second related to backlighting: cameras in an airport terminal have to offer good image quality of the traffic inside as well as the people outside. The third criterion focused on the necessary integration with ADP’s existing Genetec software. Sony delivered seamless compatibility here: as soon as a Sony camera is installed on the ADP network, the Genetec software can add it automatically, without human intervention.

To make his structure parallel, the writer should say:

The installation of 600 Sony SNC-DH140T cameras was decided upon for three main reasons. The first was Sony’s outstanding image quality: images are clear both at day and night, in any season, and under any light conditions. The second was Sony's exceptional backlighting capability: cameras in an airport terminal have to offer good image quality of the traffic inside as well as outside. The third was Sony's seamless compatibility with ADP’s Genetec software: as soon as a Sony camera is installed on the ADP network, the Genetec software can add it automatically, without human intervention.