Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Stamps are back!

I’ve given up reading most of the marketing-related e-newsletters I receive, but there was an interesting item from Dan Kennedy (the “No B.S.” marketing consultant and author) this morning.

Noting that California’s new anti-spam laws make it illegal to send a marketing e-mail to anyone in that state who has not consented to receiving it, he wonders if that doesn’t just about kill e-mail marketing.

So he says "the Next Big Thing" in marketing is – old-fashioned direct mail! He calls it “the only targeted medium that hasn't been almost regulated out of existence.”

Sure, e-mail marketing is cheap, says Kennedy. But, he writes, “you just cannot beat a letter in an envelope, and if your business can't bear that cost, it's a lousy business. Fix it or get out.”

Kennedy’s rules of direct mail:

“QUALITY OF LIST has as much to do with success as MESSAGE.

“GETTING IT DELIVEREDAND OPENED is essential, or the MESSAGE doesn't matter. Once opened, COPY IS KING, so if you're going to be a really serious student of anything, pick direct-response copy.

"Nothing out-pulls a NURTURED 'HOUSE LIST' OF YOUR OWN CUSTOMERS, so you usually profit by mailing to them more frequently. A good resolution for this year might be to double your frequency.”

See you at the post office.

And if you like reading lots of capital letters, see more Dan Kennedy stuff at (where else?) http://www.dankennedy.com/.

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