Category: Church of the Customer

Direct Mail Goes On a Diet?

It’ll be interesting to see next year’s version of Ben McConnell’s weigh-in : RRW’s Direct Marketing Blog reports that the Direct Marketing Association has eliminated the $1 fee it had been charging consumers to be part of its opt-out service, the DMA Mail Preference Service.

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I’ve written a white paper called The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them. It’s a study of some of the most common ways that companies waste their advertising dollars — along with suggestions to make those dollars work harder and smarter. Request your free copy here.

Direct Mail By The Pound

Ben McConnell of Church of the Customer has made a yearly tradition of keeping all of the direct mail he receives during the holiday season — and putting it on a scale.

 This year: 21.5 pounds. Up over two pounds from last year, and a more-than-50 percent increase from 2005. His post gives some examples of other things that weigh about that much:

  • 9.75 kilograms
  • About the equivalent weight of three newborn babies (or quintuplets for one couple)
  • Two bowling balls and a tray of white russians
  • A bit more than the average weight of the handbags of some women (contributing to a 30% rise in purse-related injuries)
  • The weight of a scarily large catfish caught in Missouri last summer

    • And the comments section has a very interesting dialog about the subject, with intelligent arguments on both sides.

    My question, for those of you who’ve been using direct mail for years: 

    With an increase in postage costs and (at least anectdotally) a significant increase in mail volume, how did your direct mail efforts pencil out in 2007? Is it still working as well as it did?

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    I’ve written a white paper called The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them. It’s a study of some of the most common ways that companies waste their advertising dollars — along with suggestions to make those dollars work harder and smarter. Request your free copy here.

    You’re on Candid (Cell Phone) Camera

    Would you change anything about your store or office if you knew that your customers were recording their experiences, and could post them folr all the world to see?

    Well, it’s happening. Check out the cell phone camera slide show from Paul McEnany’s visit to Kohl’s. Thanks to Church of the Customer for turning me on to this.

    Whatever you’re doing — good or bad — is fair game for the internet.