Here are the main bullet points from a recent article on marketing to one of the largest segments of decision makers in the United States.
1. Mail Package Format
The power of touch and physical ergonomics is one way to connect with Boomers. Physical ergonomics is concerned with human anatomical characteristics and some of the anthropometric, physiological and biomechanical characteristics as they relate to physical activity. It sounds a bit cliché, but arthritis is a real concern for Boomers and handling small items can be a task for some.
• Simple is best when deciding on a direct mail package format. Avoid using complex folds to deliver your offer.
• Go big with your mail package size if you can afford it, which will allow for larger mail package components (OE, Letter, Reply Mechanism, etc.). This will deliver an easier handling experience while providing more real estate and should be most effective.
2. Overall Type Size
This approach would involve the cognizant side of ergonomics and is the easiest to implement. Cognitive ergonomics is concerned with mental processes, such as perception, memory, reasoning, and motor response, as they affect interactions among humans and other elements of a system. As we age, it gets tougher to scan, read and recall type with a small point size.
• Consider headline point sizes of at least 14 point and body copy size of no smaller than 10 points. While your offer and copy messages are most important, if they cannot be read easily, you don’t have a shot.
• Avoid serif fonts that will become increasingly difficult to read when reduced. This applies to both print and digital marketing strategies.
• Do remember overall recall is higher with print media in general.
3. Icons
The use of simple and easy-to-decipher illustrations is another use of the cognizant side of ergonomics. Icons serve as a great platform when trying to communicate key subject areas or benefit points.
• Less is more when making a quick connection.
• Also, icons are a great substitute for costly photography, which, if not done tastefully, will be a complete turn off to Baby Boomers.
(via Print Buyers International)
Everyone makes mistakes. Here are some helpful ways to react that can benefit both you and your customers. I find #7 and #8 to be the most helpful.
1. Take a lessons learned approach to business
Don’t stick your head in the sand when you make a mistake in business. Develop a post mortem or ‘Lessons Learned’ document and reflect on what you did, what went wrong and why. Solicit reputable third-party feedback from business associates and mentors. Understanding the key takeaways from a mistake can prevent continued failure in a specific area of your business.— Erica Nicole, YFS Magazine: Young, Fabulous & Self Employed
2. Acknowledge them, learn from them and then move on—quickly
The worst thing you can do when you make a mistake is to cover it up, ignore the fact you made it and then dwell on it forever. As soon as you make a mistake, acknowledge it to whomever you need to (including yourself), identify the lessons you’ve learned from it and then forgive yourself and let it go. The faster you speed up this process, the more you’ll find mistakes are good for you. — Lea Woodward, Kinetiva
3. Take five minutes
Take five minutes and let yourself be sad, ashamed, embarrassed, destroyed. Then move on. Remember that failure is just one step on the way to success. — Colin Wright, Exile Lifestyle
4. Ask, “What can I do?”
If there’s a viable solution for fixing your mistake, do it without hesitation. If not, then you need to move on, otherwise you’ll waste time, energy and effort worrying about something you have no further control over. — Danny Wong, Blank Label Group, Inc.
5. Smile and don’t do it again
Lesson learned. Mistakes should be expected and welcomed. The best entrepreneurs are the ones that know how to bounce back as quickly as possible. Accept the mistake, ingrain it in your mind forever, and continue moving forward…until the next major mistake. — Logan Lenz, Endagon
6. Keep a failure file and a success file
I have a failure file where I document all of my failures—why they happened, what I can learn from them and patterns. I also have a success folder with projects I am most proud of. I believe we should cultivate our mistakes instead of avoiding them, that is how we learn from them. — Vanessa Van Petten, Science of People
7. Don’t be defensive
If a customer calls and points out a flaw in one of our products, or shares a problem about a recent interaction with our company, I listen carefully, and think of it is as an opportunity to make something better rather than an indictment of who we are. Admitting that my company can improve shows customers we are human and proactive, and allows my employees to react with the same confidence. — Vanessa Nornberg, Metal Mafia
8. Stay composed
Composure in my business is everything. When a mistake is made in the restaurant industry, chances of the customer knowing about them are slim, but your composure if not managed correctly, will bring your mistakes out to the public eye versus hidden and fixed behind the scenes. — Michael Sinensky, Village Pourhouse
9. Persistence and determination
Major mistakes are major lessons. Change your perspective and realize how much better off you are now that you have made the mistake and overcome its consequences. — Lucas Sommer, Audimated
10. Review major mistakes with mentors
We have to address mistakes in the moment and it’s hard to learn while operating in crisis mode. But taking the time to talk through the situation after the fact, especially with someone with a little more experience with such things, can be the best way to still make a mistake into a learning experience. — Thursday Bram, Hyper Modern Consulting
(via OPEN forum)
If you’re a nonprofit soliciting crucial donations, direct mail is a must. According to a recent report by software developer Blackbaud Inc., a large majority of nonprofit donors give through only one channel, and that preferred channel is mail.
Developed by Blackbaud’s Target Analytics company, the report finds that although multichannel giving has become a popular objective of nonprofits as a means of building constituent support, it is not widely practiced. The only donors who do significant multichannel giving are new donors acquired online. Large numbers of these donors switch to direct mail giving in subsequent years. This is the group of donors for which multichannel giving is crucial for garnering repeat gifts and realizing true long-term giving potential.
“The Internet is becoming an increasingly important acquisition channel, but has not proven to be as effective for retention,” said Rob Harris, Target Analytics’ director of analytic products and a co-author of the study. “It is the ability of online-acquired donors to use another channel — that is, to start giving through direct mail — that significantly boosts the long-term value of this group of donors.”
(via Deliver Magazine)
Taken from a press release from the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service:
The future of the Postal Service is vitally important to the U.S. mailing industry, which supports 8 million private sector jobs. In 2009, the mailing industry generated $1.1 trillion in economic activity, representing over 7 percent of our national GDP.
While the Postal Service is self-sustaining, relying on user fees, i.e., postage, to support itself; it is encumbered with an outdated operating structure, while being saddled with expensive, mandated over-payments into government retiree funds.
To avoid a costly postal bailout, it is critical that Congress enact meaningful reforms to the Postal Service. This must include short-term steps to maintain its solvency such as restoring fairness to its retiree obligations. It must also include longer term steps to free USPS to streamline its system, collectively bargain more effectively, and innovate expansively while preserving service to all Americans.
Whether you are new to a position or you’ve been doing it for a while misconceptions creep in and can take over how you do your job, whether you mean them to or not. It’s always wise to listen to good solid advice to make sure the foundation you work from is sound.
If you write any type of direct mail letter I think you will be helped by Jerry Huntsinger who put together 35 common mistakes made when writing non-profit letters. Below I’ve taken some of the highlights from that tutorial put together for the Showcase of Innovation and Inspiration.
Mistake 3: believing that your donors are going to read your letter word for word, starting at the top and ending at the bottom. Life isn’t that simple. People scan and jump and search for headlines – darn it, they often read the PS before they read the first paragraph.
Mistake 4: assuming that a fundraising letter will change a person’s opinion. You rarely change people’s thinking. For example, in prospecting the best list is one that has the greatest number of people who share your beliefs. Then you are most likely to get a response if you get them excited, or curious, or angry, or apprehensive. But change their minds?
Mistake 9: failure to understand that most literate people, highly educated or not, are most comfortable reading at a basic level, for instance that of a 13 or 14 year old. This includes the rich and famous, the nerds, the PhDs. Direct mail fundraising is ‘advertising to the point of action’.
Mistake 12: being ashamed to ‘sell’ in the letter copy. A fundraising letter is not an essay, or news story, or a case statement. Instead, it is a persuasive marketing device, and how you handle the persuasion and the emotion will be the hallmark of your success. Strong emotion that is not blatantly obvious is the goal of every writer.
Mistake 13: trying to convince the person to send a gift through the use of definitive words. Instead of ‘explaining’, help the donor to visualise with the use of stories. Let the story be a parable.
Mistake 18: failing to understand eye movement and the necessity for short paragraphs. Amateurs usually write long paragraphs. Professionals usually write short paragraphs. There’s got to be a reason for this. (Here, you can apply Jerry’s rule no. 137: the safest way to begin a letter is with a one-sentence paragraph.)
Mistake 26: believing that your donors think of you as often as you think of them. The only time they think of you is when a letter arrives.
(via sofii)
