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Nutritionalmarketing.com Weekly Newsletter Update
- Marketing Ideas, Information and Tips Nutritional Retailers Want
and Need!!
Volume
2, Issue # 42 - October 18, 2001
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In this issue:
Is
direct mail dead?
If
DM is out, then what?
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Is
direct mail dead?
One of the nice
things about doing a weekly enewsletter is that we can make it very
timely. We can write about hot topics that affect you today. I can’t
imagine a hotter topic than the anthrax terror that has arrived through
the nation’s mail. (I know some of our readers are in other countries.
But even if you are spared these terrible deeds, and I hope you are,
I imagine your customers will think twice about opening any mailers.)
Last night on Larry
King Live, a caller asked if mailing of anthrax via the U.S. postal
system would mark the end of "junk mail." I think it’s important to
point out that people consider "junk mail" to be any unsolicited mail
and mail that is not of importance to them personally. The people on
the show would not say whether "junk mail" is doomed, but I will!
Direct mail is going
to take a serious knock from what’s going on. It will be harder than
ever to get people to open and look at unfamiliar mail. If they don’t
recognize the name on the envelope or the city that it was mailed from,
it very well could be thrown away unopened. It’s safer to believe that
someone will call soon if it was important mail.
On the same Larry
King show, a person wrote in saying "To all my family and friends.
If you want to communicate with me, please use email or the phone.
I won’t be opening any mail for some time." Some of your customers
and prospects could already be thinking or doing this. They could be
turning off this entire form of communication.
You can’t blame
people for being nervous about opening mail. They’ve seen too many
things on TV, and they’re getting a little concerned. We know that
as of today the only credible targets have been high-profile people,
but who knows what will happen tomorrow? It could trickle down to random
acts across the country in hopes of creating a bigger panic.
Here’s what we’re
telling our clients, and I recommend it to you, too: don’t waste your
marketing budget on direct mail that will get an even lower response
right now. You need to look at an alternate plan. Look at other options
for communicating with your customers, options that they will not tune
out because of the scare.
Do I think direct
mail is dead? NO! It’s too important and effective for communicating
with your customers and prospects. Actually, I think this situation
could weed out some of the people who are mailing junk and clogging
up the system. We will need to be smarter and look for new ways to
get noticed, but it’s not the end, just a new beginning of direct mail
communications.
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If
DM is out, then what?
If you read the
first half of this enewsletter, you know that I don’t think direct mail
is dead. I do think it will be affected in some drastic ways, but it’s
far from being six feet under.
But I know some
of you rely on direct mail to get people to visit your store or to get
prospects to call you about new products and solutions. What are you
going to do?
First of all, don’t
panic. Just because direct mail is one of your favorite tools doesn’t
mean you can’t continue to grow your business. Now is the ideal time
to grow your business and by adding to your marketing communications
mix you could find that your marketing works even better.
Would I put an end
to all direct mail? NO. This is a great time to use postcards. They
don’t need to be opened and that makes people less afraid of discovering
white powder. I’ve mentioned www.amazingmail.com
on several occasions and I’m doing it again because it’s a great way
to get timely information out to your customers and prospects.
Self-mailers will
be important during this time of concern. There’s no envelope involved
and that means nothing can be hidden. This will get your message in
front of people.
Now is the time
to put all those customer and prospect email addresses to use. You
have labored to collect them and now your efforts could pay off. If
people won’t open snail mail, they may still open email. Yes, computer
viruses are no fun but they are nothing like a real virus.
When sending emails,
avoid making your message an attachment. That greatly reduces the chances
of accidentally sending out a virus. And that’s one less thing for
the recipient to worry about. People are jumpy, so make it easy to
just read your message.
Now is also a great
time to work on media relations. Your customers and prospects are most
definitely watching TV, listening to the radio and reading newspapers.
The media may be the best avenue for getting your message out to your
target market. Now is the perfect time to use the media to your advantage.
You could send your
target media a weekly press release with your thoughts on what people
need to know about the financial market and how it’s affecting the media’s
listeners or viewers. With the heightened security around media companies,
I would send all of the releases as text emails and not as an attachment.
The media will be more careful than ever.
This
whole situation could be a great opportunity for each of us to develop
new ways to improve our marketing communications and reach new prospects.
As
always, have fun with marketing!
Marty
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Quote
"Watch out for emergencies.
They are your big chance."
Fritz
Reiner
This is your big
chance to find new ways to contact and communicate with your customers
and prospects. Don’t look at it as the end. Look at it as a new opportunity
to reach people that need your help!
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Please
note that all of the marketing ideas that are mentioned in our enewsletter
or on our web site are designed to help you grow your business. As
you know one size does not fit all and some of the ideas may work better
for specific applications.
