Don't call us, We'll call you.

I saw a promotion for the above titled webinar. I looked back at the direct marketing field and started thinking about what response looked like in the past. Thirty years ago people got a mailing for a product or service, (postal only by the way) and either went to the store to make their purchase OR, made a phone call if it was for a catalog. Then, email became a household method of communication. Although visiting a store and calling a call center continued to be key, people got used to seeing an email, clicking on the link and ordering their product or service.

Life got easier, more streamlined, but as with all new methods of marketing it too had it's problems. People would load their cart, then abandon them. They would respond to an email, click through and discover that what they thought they wanted, wasn't really what they expected. Forms asked for too much information so people just left, or they found that there are many more interesting things to click on than fill out a form or order.

Fast forward to the current environment and phones are as complex as a home computer. Everything that used to require a printed catalog and call center are now in our hand, accessible 24/7. I believe we have become overwhelmed with information. Everyone wanting a part of our time, a piece of our life. To the point where people no longer want to give their information to companies without a compelling reason to do so. Why? They know that the followup inundation of mail, phone calls or email will be more than they wanted. Which, brings me to the title of this blog.

People have developed the attitude of "If I want what you're offering, I will call you". I admit, I do this a lot. I get more advertisements (mostly email) from list managers pushing their latest and greatest list. Are these valuable to me? Not really. It's just more junk to delete and not particularly relevant. There are two sources that list every direct marketing list on the market. SRDS and NextMark and primary search engines for direct mail/email/telemarketing lists. Why keep or respond to an email for a new, updated list, when I can type in a few keywords and get a complete list of all lists on the market? It turns out, I have been using the Don't call us, we'll call you approach for years! I just didn't realize it.

What else does this new attitude toward our marketing message mean? Tracking sales is more critical than ever. Where did an order come from? If you do an email campaign, get an order but not from on line, where did that customer get the information they needed to order or attend your school? I guarantee you that if you have been doing billboards, broadcast ads, direct mail and email campaigns you likely have NO idea where your leads are actually coming from.

I had a client who spent hundreds of dollars on inserts in coupon packets. I did an analysis (at their request) of performance, added a user code, tracked it for 3 months and discovered that what they thought was a fabulous lead generation tool, generated zero response. NO ONE used their coupons to call and attend their school. Instead, their direct mail program generated over 50,000 leads over a period of years. Enough for them to call and follow up to attract new students.

The key to all of these changes in customer response is to build a system to track where your customers are actually coming from. Ask them. If you're a school in Higher Education, go to your Adult Students and ask "What brought you to our school?" It's simple, Ask and you will find out so much about your prospects and how to reach them. BUT, remember they are likely calling YOU, not responding in a way that you expect or anticipate.

Innovation in direct marketing list acquisition!

Innovation in Direct Marketing comes slow. MMP List Management Inc. is on the cutting edge of innovation by dealing with multiple issues that affect direct marketers. What is it that companies want?

• ·         Deliverable postal addresses.
• ·         Customers who WANT to hear from you.
• ·         Emails that don’t bounce.
• ·         Phones that actually connect.

So, what is the solution? MMP List Management Inc. has solved all of these issues. Instead of updating our files every quarter or every month, we update our files when ordered! We survey our database of over 140 million consumers asking if they are interested in hearing from your company….Your products or services. Those who say yes, get added to your prospect database. The results?

• ·         Prospects who WANT to hear from you.
• ·         Postal addresses are up to date and deliverable.
• ·         Emails with less than 5% hard bounce rates.
• ·         Phone that are current, cleaned through the Do Not Call system and will connect.

PLUS! You can take delivery of postal, email and phones to contact on your own. While under license, your prospect list will be updated monthly, allowing your file to stay fresh, deliverable and up to date.

Join an Innovative Company and let us give you a quote for our prospect mailing lists. We offer a Customer Satisfaction Policy that guarantees email delivery exceeding 95%. Don’t rely on surveys that were done a month ago, six months ago and are generic in nature. Get a prospect list that contains people who WANT to hear from YOU!

Call David Fant, President 616-914-0537, or write David@mmplistmanagement.com

A new approach to target marketing. Be on the cutting edge of targeting. Call us today.

Ideas from a Graduate Admissions Marketing Conference

I recently attended the Stamats Graduate Admissions Marketing Conference as one of their Corporate Sponsors. This was an enlightening conference that was filled with tips, techniques and ideas for targeting, reaching and communicating with graduate program prospects. Some of the most important ideas that I heard revolved around Web Analytics and the need for better, consistant tracking of your website, e-mails and social media.

HiPPO's- What they are and how do you deal with them?

One of the first items that struck me was the term HiPPO. NO, not an African animal, but a HiPPO is defined as the Highest Paid Person's Opinion. What this means is that when putting marketing plans together, the HiPPO will wield their power, not from knowledge but from their position of power. Whether it be the President, a Board member, a Dean, all of these people will influence your marketing decisions based on their perceptions, not based on fact. The most effective way to deflect a HiPPO is to develop quality analytics. Facts ALWAYS will take the power away from any detractor or power pusher since your facts trump anyone's opinion.

Hits- No, not the Soprano's or Elton John

This was an interesting topic. We always hear about how many "hits" your website has. Yet, most of us don't realize just what a "hit" is. Basically, if you have a home page with 14 graphics and text in it, when a visitor arrives, each picture will download. Suddenly you have 14 hits, yet, only one visitor. If 5 people visit you will then have 70 "hits". Not exactly what you wanted to know. You think you're doing great, but only had in reality 5 visitors.

When tracking website performance look at VISITORS, not hits. How many visitors did you have, how long did they stay on your website? What pages did they navigate to or did they abandon the site immediately. These are the telling statistics that you need to understand in order to build a case against your resident HiPPO.

Lifetime Value of a Student.

This was an interesting topic. I have used Lifetime Value of a Customer for many years with my retail and non-profit clients. Whenever I attempted to apply this idea to higher education I arrived at the conclusion that the lifetime value was while students are in school. Once they graduate, there is no value of a student. Boy, was I wrong! In reality while your student is attending your school, they have a great deal of value. But on graduation, that value changes from active student to Alumni. They join as an alumni, contribute to annual campaigns (I do this myself to the University of Minnesota), they create bequests and corporate giving programs. All events that can be quantified, evaluated and used to determine the true lifetime value of a student. 

Google Analytics

There is nothing more powerful than being able to see results as they happen on the web. You send out an e-mail campaign, you will se a jump in web results. Send our Direct Mail, see a spike in visitors. You will see where people are coming from, or where they are going. You can determine if people are spending time on your website, only to abandon it when something isn't there or doesn't work. We have a local Community College with many broken links. My wife has been looking into this school, yet, whenever she tries to find more information she tends to find a broken link. Analytics can help you identify these problems but they require you to actively look at what is going on with your site.

Remember, knowledge is power. The more facts you can bring to the table, the more effective you will be in deflecting your HiPPO's and that Dean who feels his course with 5 students should be on the home page. Google analytics has become easier to use, and much more effective in what it tracks. Take a few minutes to learn how to make it work. I know I will be doing that for MY firm.

I have other thoughts and they will follow shortly. These are some of the key ideas that I observed over the 2 day conference. If you have any questions or need any information about how Market Mapping Plus can help you effectively reach YOUR target audience, just let me know.

Response is a two way street!

I read that statement the other day in one of my trade publications and realized that for many of us this is not necessarily true. The statement speaks for itself. If you build an advertising/marketing program in an attempt to attract new students, is the method of advertising being handled properly? Are these prospects being acknowledged? Processed? Invited to participate? \And most importantly, are they told EXACTLY how easy it can be to become a student and earn a degree?



So many institutions create a system that is focused on THEIR needs, not the students'. The hoops they have to jump through are many, and the end results are elusive at best. A constant review of your marketing process, looking at what you are using to generate response, coupled with building a program that responds appropriately to the prospect and gives them what they need is critical to a successful campaign.



Response IS a two way street. You send something out expecting a response. But what, does that response look like and is it "student prospect" friendly?

Why? A critical question before using new media.

Why? A simple question that is rarely considered when jumping into something new. It's a simple question, yet the answer can be very telling and more important, will give you direction to your use of (or choice NOT to use) a new medium for prospecting.

Why use Twitter?
Why use Facebook?
Why use direct mail?
Why use billboards?

The answer to these will dictate how to use each medium AND will guide you to create tracking/performance strategies to show that the medium that you select is effective and meeting your needs. How can you determine if your use of a given media choice is effective if you don't know why you are using it? What do you hope to get from your use and most importantly, how can you track whether or not your use is effective?

Let's look at an example. The President of your institution announces "This Twitter thing is huge, we need to use Twitter to reach new prospects!". Not an uncommon event where the word for action comes down from on high. Yet, even though Twitter IS huge, can it be used for his intended purpose? I would state, without hesitation, that the answer is no. Twitter has no way of identifying people who want a degree or who want to return to school to finish their degree. Twitter is a highly effective way of communicating with people who ARE interested in what you are selling, but is a very poor tool for raw recruitment. The question has to be asked, WHY?

Everyone at the institution needs to understand the answer to the question "WHY?"! Use this question to do the following:

1. Determine what you want to accomplish.
2. Evaluate how a given medium can help you meet that goal.
3. If your goal can't be met OR measured, move to another medium.
4. Moving forward create and implement tracking methods to determine if your goals are being met.
5. Have everyone involved buy into the goals that you hope to accomplish and on the measurements that will be used to reach those goals.
6. Be prepared that if the goals aren't met, abandon this medium (for the given use only) and try something else.

The greatest failure in most systems is not asking Why? It's determining the answer to this question that will drive it's success or failure.

Looking back at the President's edict to use Twitter, ask them Why? Ask them what they want/think Twitter will do for them or their institution. Then, go do your research and see if it's possible to get more followers than Ashton Kutchner!

I picked up this idea at the STAMATS Adult Student Conference I'm attending as a sponsor. for more information, don't hesitate to contact David Fant, Owner Market Mapping plus LLC

Why use a list broker?

As with virtually every industry there are generalists and specialists. People who work in some industries have knowledge about fringe or related businesses, but their primary job may not be what you need for your project. As an example, if you have a plumbing problem you wouldn't call an electritian to do the work. Even though he may have knowledge of plumbing, his training and experience are definitely NOT in the area that you need.



List Brokers fall into the same classification. If you are looking for a mailing list why go to a printer, ad agency, or search the web? Although these may give you what you are looking for, are they specifically trained to make sure you are getting EXACTLY what you want in a format that you need it in? When was the list last cleaned or updated? Does it include marginal addresses that may not be deliverable according to the United States Postal Service? How is the list compiled? Who is the contact name ( if any) on the mailing list? Also, you have to keep in mind that printers and agencies tend to mark up their lists. So you are paying more than retail for your list. Something that will never (or should never) happen when dealing with a list broker.



All of these questions and hundreds more are what List Brokers do for their clients. Many people assume that they are saving money by letting their printer or ad agency purchase their list, but list brokers work in a unique environment where they are paid by the list owner to order their list for clients. The amount you pay is exactly what it would cost if you went directly to the list owner BUT the List Broker will do all of the leg work for you. They will prequalify the list, find out when it was updated last, if it is CASS Certified which will allow you to get the lowest postage discount possible, and if the list can be segmented by the demographics you need for your marketing efforts.



All of this work is done for you at NO extra charge. I recently did a search for a client and came up with six list recommendations for their direct mail project. My client only needed to evaluate each list, the source of the information, when it was last updated and the price. From there, they selected the lists that best met their needs.



In addition, List Brokers can help you understand that it's not just the list your buying, but if you are purchasing multiple lists, merge/purge them against each other, and the multi hits (names that fall into more than one list) are ideal for future mailings. Afterall, you paid for the name, use it!



As a List Broker of over 20 years I value the relationship with my clients. Finding more information and better lists for my clients makes them more effective AND brings them back for more. Don't look at your broker as a vendor, but rather a partner. Someone who is as interested in your success as you are. And, someone who can save you money by doing all of your research for free and NOT marking up your list costs.