I found it interesting that the reader questioned the value of direct marketing and then quite aptly suggested reasons why some pieces might have more appeal. Direct marketing is a multi-billion dollar industry and it does work, although it works much better for some than others.

Like many things, direct marketing is what you make of it. It’s like a blank canvas. You decide the shape, the message and everything else that goes along with it. So, let start with some reasons why direct marketing and direct mail in particular works.

• You can select our own prospect lists and target markets
• You can apply interesting physical shapes
• You can differentiate messages for those that are brand loyal, prospects and by product interests
• You can create truly memorable experiences for both customers and prospects
• You are working with a medium that is tangible and fosters retention

You pick your own audience

Now, how good a deal is that? Radio, TV or newspapers don’t allow you to pick the specific people you want to target, but you can with direct marketing.

You can use your current customer list, you can rent lists or, with the plethora of information available on the Internet, you can build your own selected lists. Our own direct marketing target groups consist of several thousand or smaller groups that we hand pick for selected target mailings.

It is a great sense of marketing freedom to say this is what I want to market and these are the people that I choose to market to.

Letting it take shape

First, let me say that some marketing pieces are successful in spite of design. For example, that special invitation that you receive each year from a specific vendor to their 2-day blockbuster sale. But, on the other hand, many direct mail pieces could be a lot more interesting.

I believe that the direct marketing industry is going through a metamorphosis, where innovative pieces will continue to garner attention at the expense of those that are less interesting. That’s why we have been promoting die cuts for the last few years. Pioneering is not always easy, but now that we have helped a few clients enjoy success with innovative die cuts, it has certainly been worthwhile.

Direct Marketing is an investment. Like all other investments, you look for a return. If you can generate a much greater return by spending a bit more on mailing die cut pieces, that’s a good investment.

Creating a memorable experience

Our reader cited that “receiving gifts” can make a difference and of course receiving samples of actual products falls into this category.

Sampling offers a multitude of benefits. Everyone enjoys getting something for free and when it comes in the mail, addressed to him or her, it just seems to have more value. Sampling also lets you put your great product, associated literature and coupons into the hands of the consumer. From there, they can try your product to see how they like it, read more about your products and your company and enjoy the value of the $X off coupon that you provided. It’s a great experience for both you and the consumer. Further, it is an excellent way to build a relationship that can last a lifetime.

You can also gather names for sampling different ways. Having been involved in this market since the mid-nineties, we still favour website offers. This affords you the opportunity to gather key marketing information from consumers as well, which they are usually prepared to offer in exchange for product samples – provided you have a stated privacy policy in place.

For companies that can’t mail out product samples (e.g. those manufacturing larger items or those in a service industry), a novelty item that is tied to a campaign also works very well. Again, the small gift or token captures attention and helps you to build and/or further the relationship.

I often ask the question, “Would you spend $18 per piece on a direct marketing campaign?” And, as people reply with a quick, ”No”, I like to show them a full-size wine bottle, complete with a message from a “desert island” stuffed inside. We shipped almost 10,000 of these, broken down into smaller quantities at regular intervals. The campaign actually recouped all funds budgeted to it before completion. This may not be everybody’s “cup of tea” or “bottle of wine”, but in this case it was a worthwhile investment.

When you capture interest via samples, novelty items, die cuts and other forms of innovation, you not only stand out against the other hum-drum pieces, you also create truly memorable experiences that help to foster those ever-important relationships.

Differentiating messages

You might want to introduce a new product or service to both current customers as well as prospects. Wouldn’t it be nice to tailor your message differently for each group?

You can do this with specific personalization where you mention the persons name (e.g. Dave, we appreciate your loyalty to our brand) or by using other personal information – without going overboard (some forms of personalization do get too drippy). Optionally, you might insert a coupon that simply reads, “As a loyal customer here’s a $X coupon toward your next purchase of…”. Of course, you could tailor the message for prospects, accordingly.

Well-crafted messages that are targeted toward particular consumer/customer groups are always more meaningful. If you are fortunate enough to have information through which you can differentiate consumers/customers within your overall target group, you have a great opportunity to shine by speaking to them directly, at the appropriate levels.

Tangible aspect fosters retention

I think that the tangible aspect of printed material is often overlooked. This not only applies to direct mail, but magazines, brochures and other types of literature that we can pick up and peruse.

The blog post that we wrote last year titled “The Brain Prefers Physical Stuff” explains how the tactile sensation of holding a marketing piece makes a stronger impression than seeing the exact same information in the same form in a digital environment. And of course this is logical, as in the former case both the senses of touch and sight are engaged, whereas in the latter case, it is solely a visual experience.

Most mail that we receive is also both portable and convenient. You can receive a piece at the office that you might want to look at later. To this end, you can toss it in your brief case and read it later in the evening as you sit back in your recliner. Optionally, you can pass it around the office.

Unlike TV, radio and many other forms of non-tangible marketing, the physical presence of mail does prevail until it is read or tossed. Again, the overall appeal of the piece will always be a prime factor in its success.

As I wrap things up, I must mention one other key ingredient and that is repetition. You would never run a single TV ad or radio spot, and unless your offer is incredible, a single mail drop to new prospects may not make your phones ring off the hook either. I often suggest that it’s better to target the same 3,000 people 3 times, at one-month intervals, rather than targeting 9,000 people once only. It costs pretty much the same, but the results are almost always better.

In closing, I do extend my thanks to the reader who posed the question, “Is Direct Marketing still valuable?” It caused me to reflect on many things that we take for granted, as we work with this medium all of the time. So, is direct marketing still valuable? You know our thoughts, but I leave you to draw your own conclusions.

I don’t know that Canadian direct marketers are truly aware of how good they have it when it comes to creative marketing pieces and we have to thank Canada Post Corporation for the latitude that they offer.

As many of our readers are aware, Highland Marketing is a huge proponent of direct marketing pieces that dare to be tastefully different and this includes the die cut mailers that we help to design.

Over the last month we have hit a cost-prohibitive wall when it comes to sending die cut direct marketing pieces to addresses outside of Canada. Clients are just not prepared to spend almost double the postage costs to mail to these areas.

When sending die cut mailers as conventional presorted Addressed Admail (now that’s a mouthful) in Canada, we pay the same as a rectangular post card or an item in an envelope—and that’s a very good deal.

So, today I am not here to complain, but to commend and thank Canada Post for accommodating direct marketing pieces that take on a variety of shapes and sizes, create interest and engage consumers. After all, that is what direct marketing is all about.

“Bigger is better”. We hear this hackneyed phrase all the time. But some bigger things are better. Some like bigger apples. Most like catching bigger fish. And, others like bigger mailing pieces – when they make sense – and sometimes they do.

At Highland Marketing, we have long used the phrase “Sensible Solutions for Mailings”. One might be tempted to read “the cheapest solution” into this, but that would not be entirely correct, because “sensible” does not inherently imply “cheapest”.

This is not a “go big or stay home” story. It merely suggests that some larger packages demand and get a lot of attention. Probably the most extreme example that I have seen is a message in a bottle program that we ran for just over a year for the same client. Over that time we shipped out roughly 8,500 full-size wine bottles in break-proof packaging. The cost? All in, about $18 each (including pre-approach postcards and follow-up letters). The results, a 100% return on investment, before even completing the project, driven by a 1% close rate (not response rate). Quite remarkable and very effective – for the right type of business.

We have mailed some very odd packages as well. A few years ago we mailed receptacles for bull semen (no bull – sorry!). Someone had told our shipper/receiver that they were actually hummingbird feeders, so that became the more socially acceptable term for them. Although they were mailed into an agricultural market, who could ever forget receiving this type of hummingbird feeder?

If you are familiar with the history of Highland Marketing you likely know that we regularly mail product samples and novelty items as well. Although we don’t have any exact count, I expect that we have mailed several million over the last few years. Mailing samples allows you to put your company products on the line, the concept being, “Try it, you’ll like it, and if you like it you’ll buy it.” Of course depending on corporate products and services, product sampling may not work for everyone. However, we have also mailed many novelty items that fit a particular promotional theme, often in cases where mailing a product or sample many not be feasible. Packages containing product samples and novelty items are also normally larger than a plain envelope and there are many interesting shapes and designs, including pillow boxes, which can be used.

So, in some cases, bigger can better and the physical presence of a mailing piece can garner attention. It’s also important to emphasize that, in some instances, extraordinary returns can be leveraged by extraordinary investments in direct marketing, although, as we have said, this may not be fit for everyone.

Inasmuch as there are often several different elements at work in successful mailing programs, unless your piece is noticed, it can all be for nought! Therefore, we want to continue looking at different ways that you can heighten the visibility of your mailing pieces.

We have already looked at special die cuts and how some customers identify the company by “their shape”. It’s a powerful technique and it works, typically within 3 repetitions to the same target audience.

In this post I want to look at the use of polybags or clear envelopes. Before continuing, I also want to ensure readers that there are environmentally friendly, biodegradable polybags available at a modest cost, if that is a preference.

If we mail a postcard, die cut or otherwise, or some other form of self-mailer, we know that at least it will be seen*. But what about items that we insert into opaque envelopes? Do we know that they will be seen? Well, we can design attractive envelopes with teaser copy on the outside and that will often do the trick, but sometimes, poly or clear envelopes can be an interesting alternative.

Just like envelopes, there are different sizes of polybags and you can also source polybags with printed text and graphics, as well as coloured poly. Of course, if you go too dark on the colour, you may defeat the purpose of being able to see your materials through the poly.

You can also have different addressing options when using poly. In many cases you may be inserting a piece that has a spot reserved for addressing. If there is no place to address directly onto one of the inserts, I often recommend using a lead sheet, where we can laser or inkjet the address information and postal indicia. Or, optionally, using a 2” X 4” label, containing both the address and postal indicia and affixing the label directly onto the poly. Both work very well.

As we said, getting noticed is paramount, and with poly, your marketing piece can actually be a travelling billboard and the poly protects the contents too.

So, if you are having doubts as to whether your direct mail pieces are being seen, or if you just want to do something a little different with high visibility, poly or clear envelopes might be an interesting option to consider.

Stay tuned for our next post where we look at where bigger can be better and show that it’s not always the cost, but the return on DM dollars invested than can dictate what you might consider mailing.

* Special Note When Targeting Businesses Using Unaddressed Admail:

If you send Unaddressed Admail to businesses and do not specify the department or title to which it should be directed, it is likely going to be discarded upon receipt. Sometimes we may think that the recipient is obvious, but a receptionist does not always share our insights and may need some guidance. For example, in our case, would either inkjet or have the piece pre-printed with:

Attention: Marketing Manager

In our experience, this has certainly helped to get the piece into the right hands – and that’s what its all about.

I think that we can safely say that if no one reads your piece, it doesn’t matter how good the data is or how great your offer might be. Therefore, one of the primary objectives is to be noticed and there are different ways that you can do that. Your mail might be noticed simply because you mail on a consistent and periodic basis. You might mail a larger package that demands attention, use interesting packaging or delve into the world of interesting shapes.

In this day and age, unless you have an existing rapport with your audience, a me-too mailer in a me-too world is usually headed directly for one place. And, unfortunately, that place is the recycle bin. Results prove that most successful mailing pieces usually stand out – because there is something about them that is different.

We have already mentioned a few reasons why people might notice your direct mail piece, and one of these is to create your own shape – a shape that reflects your business. It works. We have one client that, very shortly, will have mailed out 9 variations of the same shape over the last couple of years, to largely the same target audience. They own their shape, and everyone in their community now recognizes it. If you would like to give this a try, be innovative and get creative. Take some paper and scissors and maybe even some glue into your boardroom and have some fun. What can you make that’s different and suits your brand and image?

A cool mailing piece with a different shape will stand out and be noticed, but that’s not the only ingredient to success. You also have to target the right audience at the right time, focus on benefits not just features and have a solid offer, all of which we will cover in upcoming posts under our Direct Mail – Making It Work series.

News, Updates & Information

When it comes to keeping people up to date on new postal products, new direct marketing ideas and what’s happening at Highland Marketing, I think we do a pretty good job. We do our own mailings, we deploy informative e-news emails, we post enlightening articles to our blog and we share information via Twitter. And, we run frequent seminars on direct marketing. I often meet new folks at different events that comment on the quality of information that we make available. So when it comes to news, updates and direct marketing information, “we keep you posted“.

Gathering Strategic Customer Information

Good business decisions are based on good information. Our survey services are an ideal way to find out what customers think of your organization and it’s products and services. From here you can modify and/or tweak your offerings to reflect what your customers are looking for. Using state of the art survey software, “we keep you posted” by delivering the strategic information that will help you to better understand your customer needs and desires.

Delivering Your Materials Into the Right Hands

Be it Admail, Publications Mail, Lettermail, Parcels or perhaps our premium Message In A Bottle Service, we turn your direct marketing projects around quickly. Our professional staff also keeps you informed of different mailing options to help you to minimize cost as well as maximize your ROI. Of course, we have been involved with direct targeting and effective personalization for many years and our data specialists can help to put your valuable materials into the right hands. Regardless, of the type of mailing product being used, “we keep you posted“.

Keeping you posted – at all levels – that’s just the nature of our business!


I appreciate that this topic is an integral part of branding, however, this post zooms in on how some things can easily create an image that is inappropriate for the purpose at hand.

As part of a marketing test, our new client wanted to insert a “special piece” into 20% of the pieces being mailed out. The original plan had been to use # 10 envelopes, but given the size of the special piece, we had to go to a 5 7/8” X 9 1/2″ envelope. Nonetheless, the client still wanted to use the #10 envelopes for the other 80% of the mailing that contained a folded letter, a brochure and a return envelope. What’s important here is that this had far less to do with cost and much more to do with image.

Simply, the rationale was that, as our client is a charitable organization, they did not want to give the impression of being wasteful by using a more expensive envelope than required for the other 80%. It only makes sense that if a charitable organization appears to be wasting money, at any level, potential donors may question just how their contributions might be used, and this could result in lower donations, right across the board.

On a similar note and where appropriate, many other organizations that we work with prefer to mail their newsletters as self-mailers, rather than inserting them into envelopes. I should note that, in Canada, provided that a mailing piece is securely bound and cannot come apart, the item can be mailed as a self-mailer for both presorted Addressed Admail and Publications Mail. In these cases, organizations can save on the cost of the envelopes, associated printing and insertion charges. We have mailed millions of these types of self-mailers over the years and have yet to hear one report on damage! For some organizations, this can also be a great way to save money and appear frugal.

Interestingly, inasmuch as we want to demonstrate thrift in some instances, the opposite can be said for other types of organizations. We just completed a direct marketing project for a large financial institution, where we mailed a high-end magazine along with a cover letter. Asked to coordinate the print on the letters, we selected a premium stock. The final package was as our client and their clients would expect – a high-end piece that fit the brand, image, and nature of the client’s business.

Regardless of the size or type of organization though, I think that everyone must also try to avoid the “silly factor”, which occurs when we do something that causes people to shake their heads – and it does happen. For example, a few years ago we were asked to mail single, one-page business letters in 9” X 12” envelopes. This was basic, non-promotional business correspondence, so there would be no reason to build intrigue or anything of that nature by using a 9” X 12” envelope. When we inquired, we learned that there wasn’t any reason that the letters couldn’t be folded and mailed in #10 envelopes. The difference in price, using today’s postage rates, is $0.66 per piece. On a thousand pieces, that’s $660 and on 100,000 pieces that’s $66,000 – and that’s silly – and worse yet, most people would recognize this. Fortunately, the pieces were mailed using #10 envelopes.

Isolating the “silly factor” and setting it aside (which we hopefully all can do), at the end of the day, only you can decide what type(s) of marketing makes sense for who you are. I do find it interesting though, that in some cases we want to tone things down to generate revenue, whereas in other cases, we want to maintain a constant, prestige image to obtain the same objective. I guess it’s just like the old saying “different strokes for different folks”.

It’s usually hard to pick favourites, but in 2010 three projects really stood out. Of these, one has already been written up in a marketing magazine, another will be written up in a different marketing magazine in about two weeks, and the other was a special personalized piece placed within a magazine.

I am going to share each of these projects with you, but hold back a little on the one to be featured in the upcoming magazine issue.

Die Cuts Proved That Unaddressed Admail Can Bring Outstanding Results

Investing in clients is always worthwhile. Last year we hosted a few free seminars, focusing on innovative DM techniques. One of these was attended by a couple of friends from the agency Bev Rock, Media Buyer.

If you know me, you’ll know that I squawk a lot about custom die cuts – they’re cool, they show innovation and they get attention. Bev Rock and her team picked up on this and had two fabulous dies made for Noble Insurance (with offices in Alliston, Barrie, Collingwood and Elmvale ON) – one an elegant and appealing house and the other a 50’s style automobile. Using 3 variations of these dies, they dropped Unaddressed Admail pieces at roughly one-month intervals, to the same target groups. They achieved excellent results and having repeated one variation of the same campaign already, we will be doing another one this spring. Yowsers, that’s great! This campaign is featured in an article that I wrote for the January 2011 issue of Direct Marketing News. Check out page 18. You can download it here, but please note that the entire issue is about 10 megs.

Personalized Postcards Inside Magazine Made Readers Feel Special

Both Matt and I have written extensively on the effective use of personalization and this next project went above and beyond marrying this with:

- a very cool custom die cut
- placed on top of the advertisers display ad inside a magazine
- where the die cut card matched the display ad

Wow!

Should you have missed it, I wrote a blog post on this project back in October, 2010.

This was everything that a project should be with excellent data (kudos again to those maintaining it), subtle personalization (using only a greeting name and community name) and a great die cut card that got attention. One of the readers actually contacted the advertiser to let him know that it made him feel special and that’s what personalization is all about! A final note on personalization. If you use it, don’t go overboard, because that can have the opposite effect.

Message In A Bottle Campaign Yields Extraordinary ROI

You can learn a lot more about this extraordinary campaign when it is featured in a marketing magazine in about two weeks.

Until then, we can tell you that YES, these were full-size wine bottles. We did not have a report of a single broken bottle. We helped to develop a very effective four-step program to maximize results. It was very expensive, the ROI was extraordinary and we shipped a lot of bottles.

Promise to say more in a couple of weeks!

Lots of Other Great Stuff

Glad to say that there were many other exciting projects at Highland Marketing in 2010.

We can’t forget our friends at Grand River Raceway in Elora. They used a couple of our oval postcard shapes together with some great design work and a special offer that had their dining room hopping. I can attest to this, because my wife and I were there!

Pillow boxes became more popular too. We were one of the first to ship product samples in pillow boxes and we saw more new uses of pillow boxes in 2010 and helped to design a few for new projects. Apart from the graphics and copy, which must look good, we did a lot of “behind” the scenes work coming up with cool spacers to avoid crushing during shipping. After all, the physical packages must also look good when they arrive in the consumers’ hands. Oh yes, Allen our resident mathematician came up with a super program that allows us to calculate the flat width of a pillow box, given the desired popped-up height and popped-up width. Very cool!

We were also delighted with the evolution of our overall fulfillment services in 2010. And, through some analysis of Addressed Admail delivery times in late 2010, we have come up with a computer program that allows us to minimize costs, while using a combination of Addressed Admail and Lettermail to ensure that delivery times are being met. Timing for this is perfect, as we are experiencing a significant increase in our 2011 sample fulfillment projects.

Okay, time to give thanks to our clients as well as the very cool and gifted agency folks that we work with – first for putting their faith in us and secondly for listening to some of our ideas and allowing us to be more than just a mailing house.

Although young, 2011 is already rockin’ and we look forward to more innovative and exciting projects. We have also brought back our survey services and look forward to working with clients and agencies to help them find out what people really want, enabling them to fine tune their products and services and deliver the messages that people want to hear.

As appealing as Machineable Presort may be, before you can use it either you or your mail service provider must have presort software that has been certified by Canada Post for Machineable Presort.

Our technical team has worked diligently with Canada Post to achieve the certification milestone and it’s good knowing that all of our clients will be able to use Machineable Presort and enjoy the postage savings that it offers.

Machineable Presort offers you from 3% to 18% savings on your Addressed Admail postage and that can really add up. As we have explained in previous posts, there are specific requirements for Machineable Presort that are quite different than those for conventional presorted Addressed Admail. It’s really a matter of understanding the differences before you design your mailing piece and we would be pleased to guide you through the details.

If you would like more information on Machineable Presort please give us call. We would be delighted to help you.

Today, more than ever, blog posts and tweets are offering us all sorts of advice on effective personalization, data segmentation and cross-selling opportunities. These are great concepts and I like what I am reading. I also see different articles on data hygiene and the value of accurate data, and I like these too. However, having seen some of the finished product and listened to the heartache stemming from some third-party direct marketing (DM) programs, I wonder why I am not seeing more about the actual delivery of the message. And, “delivery” in this context is not referring to Canada Post, the USPS or Joe’s Delivery Service. It’s referring to how some things are being expressed and, not necessarily just what is being said.

Much of how things are said hinges on the vital correlation between how you choose to deliver your message and the quality of your data. Both of these elements must integrate effectively with the overall design of the DM piece.

My early training was in applications systems design and we were always taught to look at what the system was intended to deliver and work back from there. This allowed us to look at each output field and determine if it was to be derived through a process or if it was static information that we could extract from a file.

Interestingly, digital print is also a systems process. So, if we want the end result to look good, we have to design the end product much the same way, visualizing it and determining which data elements will be used and if they will come to us in a static form or be calculated dynamically. Further, sometimes not all data is readily useable and we must plan for these contingencies by having a Plan B and often even a Plan C, so that we can adjust for all eventualities.

D for Data

It goes without saying that most of our clients design DM pieces with appealing graphics and excellent copy. As many of our contacts are seasoned marketers this is their strength. Yet, when it comes to incorporating variable data, we begin to see challenges. And why not? Databases are not usually their strength and data inconsistencies and misconceptions can often be the biggest source of trouble.

If you are a designer and you feel that a little Database 101 is not for you, I urge you to please read on, because what follows can help to minimize the chances of blowing your brains out over what many may consider nothing but menial tedium. It’s a dirty job, but somebody’s got to do it. If you don’t want to be the one, you can certainly pay someone to do it, but at the end of the day, if it’s not done, you could certainly end up paying for it anyhow.

I recognize that what is acceptable in format and manners has changed over the years. Virtually all business letters used to have formal greetings, such as “Dear Mr. Smith”, whereas today our business emails often start with “Hey Bill”. However, I still cringe when I receive a personalized (and I use the term loosely) letter or email that starts out as “Dear DAVE WARD”. It just looks to me like someone didn’t try or couldn’t be bothered to create a more appropriate greeting. After all there are programs that can split fields and do case conversions. And, I’m pleased to say that I don’t think that this is necessarily an age thing, as a “twenty-something” colleague that I was speaking with just last week expressed disdain for a greeting that she received structured as “Hi C. Smith”.

Sometimes people don’t understand data or fail to ask the right questions. Let me ask you this: if you were sending out a personalized DM piece would you like to use any of the following greetings?

• Dear Mr. _____
• Dear D.
• Dear DAVE
• Dear DAVE WARD
• Dear dAVE

I would hope not, and would be pleased to show you how you can avoid these challenges, eliminate “impersonal personalization”, connect effectively and keep your campaign dollars working for you, rather than spiraling down the drain.

First of all, if you are dealing with upper case data, you can have your mailing data converted to mixed case. Right off the bat, this will correct the “Dear DAVE” and “Dear dAVE”. Yes, it will also convert “Dear DAVE WARD” to “Dear Dave Ward”, but that is still less than ideal. So, what we want to do next is to parse the contact string into a first name of “Dave” and a last name of “Ward” so that our greeting simply becomes “Dear Dave”. Again, there are techniques that can be used to parse fields, albeit, in some cases some manual intervention may be required. The case conversions and field parsing should be viewed as one-time investments and you should have a way to either a) update your main system or b) have a corresponding, indexed file that your mail service provider can use to update key fields prior to mailing. These things should be discussed with your service provider at the outset, because you shouldn’t have to incur these costs every time you do a DM campaign.

Sometimes, however, we just can’t create a perfect greeting and it can become a matter of selecting the lesser of two evils. These challenges often stem from how the data fields were set up initially, as well has how the data has been gathered and entered. We have always recommended that the contact information be gathered or entered using a Title field (Mr., Ms. etc.), a First Name field and a Last Name field. This way, if the person enters a First Name of “P” and a Last Name of “Smith”, if we also have the title, we can simply use it together with the Last Name (e.g. Dear Ms. Smith).

Okay, but what can we do about “Dear Mr. ______” and “Dear D.”? Your options here would include:

• calling the contacts to update the information (not always viable)
• using a generic greeting (works better in some cases than others)
• excluding these records from the mailing

In our business, client preference always rules and we have used all of the solutions above at one time or another. For example, we had a very small handful of records where we used a generic greeting of “WHEAT PRODUCER” on the personalized baker cards that we recently tipped into a magazine on top of the advertiser display ad.

Also be cautious of rented listed lists. If you specify that all records must have first and last names, you might still receive some records where there is only a first initial rather than a complete first name. I recall a project where a client had rented a list and assured us that all of the first name fields were valid. However, as we loaded the data, we found several records that contained only a first initial. After discussing different options with the client, they elected to exclude these records rather than sending out greetings such “Dear D. Jones”.

D for Design

There are many different variations on the process of digital print and the variable substitution of data, but they all share two common elements. First, they have place markers where variable data will be inserted and second, the lengths of the fields to be inserted will vary on the finished pieces that are produced. No, it’s not rocket science, but if you don’t analyze the data first to determine your maximum field lengths, you will likely encounter premature line wrapping, which can cause:

• copy and possibly graphics to float off the page
• truncated copy within a text box

Does this really happen? Unfortunately, yes, and we have seen it on many pieces that we have received. Of course, some designs are more vulnerable to these types of challenges than others. Certainly some specialty mailers (such as die cut postcards) that are using larger fonts for greetings and other prominent text can be subject to these problems. But, at the same time, so can a personalized letter that has substitutions within a text box, so there is some degree of vulnerability at all levels. However, with a bit of effective data analysis, pieces can almost always be specifically designed to accommodate maximum lengths for all substitutions.

We shouldn’t expect most designers to perform this type of analysis on their own. After all, it’s not necessarily their strength. However, it is something that they must take into account, and requests can be made for third party vendors to provide a detailed analysis. With this critical information in hand, designers can then select the appropriate fonts and font sizes and allocate sufficient space within the design to accommodate all substitutions.

Before departing this subject I want to make one final observation on how the use of upper case can dramatically affect how much space you may require. Please have a look at the following l’s and L’s:

• 40 l’s: llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
• 40 L’s: LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

The foregoing shows the same font at the same font size, but just look at the difference in length when using upper case!

Of course, the other aspect of design is producing something that has appeal, gets read and generates responses. While experienced marketers will already understand these concepts, there may be others out there that can use a couple of tips. If those folks can simply remember “AIDA” when designing their marketing materials, they will be on their way to creating solid marketing pieces. “AIDA” is an acronym that stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action and you can read more about it at ChangingMinds.org.

D for Delivery of Your Message

Thus far, we have looked at how you can combat the effects of weak data on your campaigns, how field lengths must be taken into account at the design stage and we’ve touched on the important elements of Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. The last item that we want to examine is how some very successful marketers use data to deliver seamless, “touchy-feely” messages that make the reader feel right at home.

If you want to engage your reader this way, first you must be careful not to turn them off with a lot of servile flattery by using their name in every paragraph. Again, looking at the baker card campaign that I mentioned above, the card only uses two pieces of variable information. The contact name is used in the greeting and the community name is used, but once, to mention that the seeds being promoted might be perfect for the recipient’s own area. There is no fawning, just a plain, insightful message that worked.

Depending on the richness of the data that you are using, you can also engage your readers at a personal level without even using their names. Your present data may not be as extensive as what I will discuss here, but this type of data is available and, although it can be pricey, it can also be an excellent resource for building your overall client base.

Let’s assume for a moment that we have purchased a list of consumers that suffer from back pain, headache or both. We might also know what their favourite pain remedies are and whether these consumers are brand loyal or using competitors’ brands. This type of data is powerful medicine when used in the hands of a skilled marketer.

Although I’m sure that most people would not structure a letter this way, let’s look at what we would not want to say to someone suffering from back ache that is currently using a competitor’s brand of acetaminophen:

Dear Dave,

I know that you suffer from back pain and that you are currently using Pain-Whackers acetaminophen for your pain relief.

Dave, we want you to try our. . . .

If you are Dave, are you buying this? Chances are that your reaction would be something along the lines of thinking “Who are these people and where did they get all of this information about me?” as you scrunch up the letter prior to tossing in into “File 13” (the garbage).

Let’s contrast this to the following:

Dear Dave,

We all know that when back pain and headaches strike, it’s great to have fast-acting relief that we can count on.

The dependability of our advanced ibuprofen is unparalleled when it to comes to delivering. . .

Notice that this letter references both back pain and headaches, leading with the more appropriate (in this case, back pain). By mentioning both ailments in this order, it minimizes the likelihood of raising the suspicious question of, “How’d they know I suffer from back pain?”, as might be the case if only the one ailment were mentioned. Of course, if Dave happened to be a headache sufferer, these would be reversed, as follows:

We all know that when headaches and back pain strike, it’s great to have fast-acting relief that we can count on.

This letter also subtly extols the virtues and an alternate analgesic without mentioning the fact that we know that acetaminophen is currently the pain remedy of choice.

These types of letters can be structured in many different ways and I am sure that you can identify opportunities that you could use in your own industry. However, keeping it subtle and engaging the reader in an insightful way are key.

So, by embracing the philosophy of “less is more”, using specific personal information sparingly, and then tailoring your message to connect with your reader without being obvious, you can certainly deliver your message in a powerful way.

Sir Francis Bacon said “Knowledge is Power” and how you use the knowledge that you have at your disposal can certainly affect the power of you message.

As I said at the outset, I like many of the articles that I am reading and agree whole-heartedly with their objectives. But, I have also heard of some avoidable challenges that have arisen on some third-party projects. I would like to be able to tell you that we win every project that our many friends and associates are involved with, but that would not be true. If we did, I truly believe that we could circumvent these types of problems. However, we have helped to orchestrate quite a few successes in these areas and I hope that readers of this post will be able to use some or all of the ideas presented to drive successful personalized DM projects, minimizing or eliminating the various challenges that we have discussed.

Image credit: Kriss Szkurlatowski (modified)