Treasures of My Desk

I don’t care how corny this sounds but I absolutely love the direct mail pieces from the US Post Office!

I’m a pack rat, I admit it. I love keeping things around; you never know when you’re going to need them! It’s that time of year again, time to clean out my desk because I can’t fit one more piece of paper in the drawers, and the files and folders stacked on top of my desk are getting kind of tipsy … they’re just asking for trouble. So in the midst of cleaning out my desk I ran across my file of direct mail samples I’ve been collecting the last year. There were a few that finally made it into the recycling bin, a few I just haven’t decided if they’re good enough to last another year in my desk, and then those handful that have definitely made it to the next round.

I must say, if you’re not on the US Post Office direct mail list, it’s time to get on it; their creative/designers have come up with some great stuff over the last year. Three of the five pieces that made it into the save pile are all from the USPS.

The first one, is one of the most true to life file folders I’ve ever seen designed/printed. It’s a six page piece that looks like an actual file folder; handwritten notes across the whole thing, binder clips, scraps of paper, post-its…surprisingly like all those folders I pulled from my desk and recycled, but not this one! This one has highlighter marks all over, even a napkin with a coffee ring on it and notes scribbled across it… the designer did a fabulous job graphically. The mail piece itself is promoting a free DVD about Results-Driven Marketing in the Down Economy and the entire piece, copy and design, is a perfect compilation.

One of their other pieces was quite entertaining, I even got a shirt out of the deal! It comes with the classic “Hello my name is” sticker as the address label on a plain white envelope. I couldn’t help it; I wanted to see what was inside. You open it up and it has nearly a dozen (sticky, usable) “Hello” badges but they are just beyond entertaining…Hello my dream job is , Hello my biggest pet peeve is, Hello my office nickname is, Hello my favorite way to look busy is… ! Those proved to be quite entertaining around the office! They send you to a personalized URL to fill out some personal “Hello my…” information and then print your customized shirt with a series of six “Hello” badges on it that describe you to a tee and mail that out. I love my shirt! What was the point of the mailing? Personalized and Database Printing… what a great way to prove your point that personalized mail is more enticing and interactive.

I love well built direct mail pieces, big kudos to the designers for the USPS this year!

Sadly, I didn’t find a million dollar check hiding in my desk, but these sure did make me smile. What treasures are hiding in your desk?



Ashley Keller
Project Coordinator
Dunthorpe Marketing Group, Inc.

Can I help you ma’am?

I had a wonderful customer experience the other day at the department store Nordstrom’s in Portland that, yet again, proved to me why I’m a loyal and enthusiastic customer of that chain (and I mean, really enthusiastic…).

I recently bought a waterproof watch there that was having some problems (nothing to do with wearing it swimming with my 3-year old), and as I wandered past the jewelry counter the nice lady there asked if she could help me… Spontaneously I told her about the watch (that I’d bought there a few months back) and without any prompting or pleading on my part, she instantly offered to swap it – without proof of purchase or me having to swear on my granny’s bible that I was telling the truth.

It was a wonderfully personable reminder of how much we all love getting great service. Somehow that feels like an old fashioned notion; that good manners, treating people respectfully, and doing your best by them, is still enough to keep you ahead in business. But it really does work and it’s still really relevant. We marketers may wrap it up in fancy ribbons but at the end of day, every person wants to feel that their business matters to your business…

I’ve worked in client services on the agency side for over 15 years and it’s a part of the business that I really love (well, duh) mostly because it’s all about people; their perceptions, their needs, their pressures, and the huge variability that comes with the territory. My job is to make the client’s job easier – and make working with the agency something that’s actually quite fun and rewarding rather than painful. Yes, I’ve had my share of difficult situations… but on the whole it’s been a blast…. taking care of people… just like my new best friend Stephanie at Nordstrom’s.

Mairi Burns
Director Client Services
Dunthorpe Marketing Group

Building a Targeted List

One of the best ways to save budget this year is limiting your marketing programs to targeted prospects only. It’s a sound strategy because you don’t have to shave the number of touches, creative or media, if you just cut the list of campaign recipients.

Sound easy? Well, it’s not hard – it just takes a few extra steps.

The first step is honing in on the specific criteria for a target contact and target account. You will want to reach contacts with the ideal title and responsibilities within accounts that match size, location, industry and other qualifications that make them probable customers. The more detailed the criteria, the better the list.

It is possible to rent or purchase a list through specialized industry sites and publications.

But, often the very best target lists are built through a series of steps:
1. Get a list of the target companies that match your criteria – if you don’t have the list internally, you can purchase a list of companies from Jigsaw, D&B, InfoUSA or other business databases. Get the closest contact name to your ideal title.
2. Pull the names you already have in your internal database from these specific companies.
3. Call into companies to verify the contacts that match your targets and add new target contacts
4. Load list into your database marked as target contacts and target accounts

This process might sound like it will be too time consuming or costly. However, when you think about the money you save in programs, it pays for itself many times over.

And you never want to forget the old rule:
“You will get better results sending a mediocre piece to a great list, than a great piece to a mediocre list.”

Susan Linman