Comments on: Retro or Smart Marketing: Selling Biz Books via Direct Mail

By: Roberta Rosenberg

Roberta Rosenberg — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 14:05:38 +0000

@David, Quality marketing companies DO target and spend huge dollars on technology to do just that. Email, however, is super cheap so any spammer can afford to send out milles ‘o crap. The discarded mail you see at your apt building is unfortunate and wasteful on so many levels. Those companies could do so much better by using the geo-targeting technology that’s available.

Thanks for the clarification of your post and your kind words about my blog.

By: David Jace

David Jace — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 13:48:57 +0000

Roberta,
You absolutely /should/ take pride in what you do! If you can’t, then you shouldn’t be doing it. I hope I didn’t phrase my words offensively, I just almost never receive an ad about something that actually applies to me. Are there ways of targeting these ads? Do advertisers use those ways?
For instance, I sometimes see the garbage can by the mailboxes full of discarded ads for a mortgage company, carpeters, or roofers: I live in an apartment complex. No one in the complex is going to be a target for those ads.

Basically, I’m not trying to harp on this marketing technique, I’m just wondering if it can/ is done better than the examples I tend to see in my own mailbox.

By the way, loved the CraigsList video, and I couldn’t believe the Work for Free post. Thanks for the great blog.

By: Roberta Rosenberg

Roberta Rosenberg — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 13:39:56 +0000

@David – any offer/message you receive – paper or electronic – that is off the mark should be considered junk. But, and this is a big but, if the offer/message is of interest – so much so that you’re intrigued to learn more about – isn’t junk to my mind. It’s about providing information about potentially useful product/service to a receptive audience. As a copywriter, I take pride in what I do. Not only do I connect customers with products/services, I also assist organizations support their various causes. At the end of the day I generally feel pretty good about the work I do and the companies I work with. I also like making a pretty fair living as a writer.

Thanks for your comments. They’re appreciated.

By: David Jace

David Jace — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 13:05:53 +0000

Yet most of the rest of the world wishes it would all just go away, paper junk mail as well as e-mail spam.

Now, granted, maybe I’m misunderstanding the technical term “direct mail” so that we aren’t talking about what the rest of us consider “spam,” but most of the e-mail spam and paper junk mail I get has no relation to me at all, and goes virtually unlooked at, into the trashcan.

I see from the post and other comments that this is apparently effective, but I can’t imagine how. People really check their mail, read the junk mail and then order? If something caught my eye and I liked the product, I think I’d be more likely to go find it with a company that didn’t spam my mailbox to buy it!

By: The Direct Marketing Voice Links 6-18-2009 | The Direct Marketing Voice

The Direct Marketing Voice Links 6-18-2009 | The Direct Marketing Voice — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:13:15 +0000

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