Unsolicited Marketing Advice

Jim Larranaga of Priority Publications has a nice white paper available for healthcare marketers available called “Launching and Leveraging Healthcare Podcasts” (PDF,available via e-mail request). It provides a general overview of the medium and its growing popularity for those who may not yet be familiar with podcasting, including reasons why podcasting is taking off such as its narrowcasting format, potential for time-shifting, convenience and variety of topics available.

Larranaga suggests that podcasts can be particularly powerful when used in four ways:

• To establish trust
• To address time-sensitive topics
• To present real-life stories (such as testimonials)
• To offer tips for improving one’s life

Additional Links
Larranaga interviews David Barrett of AudioAcrobat (MP3, 5.6 MB)
Early Adopters of Podcasting among Hospitals (Previous Unsolicited post)
The Current State Of Podcasting In Healthcare by Healthcare Vox

Healthcare Podcast of Interest to Marketers
Quackcast – Finally, a doctor with an opinion who’s not afraid to share it. Funny.
Vital Signs – Discover Magazine’s podcast about unusual medical conditions. Fascinating.
The Business of Healthcare – consultants discuss strategic healthcare topics. Yawn.
Kaiser Healthcasts - health policy news, events and interviews. Sorta like C-SPAN for healthcare.
Soundpractice.net – From the Journal of Medical Practice Management. Advice on running the physician practice.

Technorati Tags: Podcasting

Labels: Healthcare Marketing, Podcasting

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© 2009 Warren Allan Johnson
Posted by Warren Allan Johnson @ 12:00 PM | Permalink | |

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In direct mail work there are various ways to increase opening rates such as envelope design, teasers, live postage stamps rather than bulk indicia, and so forth. One technique of special interest to those in fund development is hand addressing of envelopes.

RightOnResults.com offers a number of reasons why hand addressing makes sense:

• Higher opening rates
• Communicates a “personal touch”
• Stands out from other mail (and your competition)
• Higher response rates and thus, ROI

The Newsletter on Newsletters reports that one mail house, Fasprint, conducted research finding that nearly 100% of all hand-addressed, delivered mail gets opened – compared to only 14% of mail that is machine addressed or labeled. That means that 86 out of every 100 pieces that you send out end up in the trash, according to the firm.

Of course, hand addressed envelopes do not qualify for bulk rates, but the first class postage that this approach requires is also shown to increase response.

Sources for Hand Addressing
While there are many firms available for envelope addressing using calligraphy such as done for wedding invitations, a standard cursive approach is more appropriate for most fund development and business situations. For non-profits, hosting an “addressing party” with volunteers who have neat handwriting may be a good option, especially for smaller mailings. In other situations, one may want to consider a firm that offers this specialized service, such as:

• Tom Richard Marketing
• Fasprint
• Write on Results

Technorati Tags: Direct Mail

Labels: Direct Mail, Fund Raising

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© 2009 Warren Allan Johnson
Posted by Warren Allan Johnson @ 10:15 PM | Permalink | |

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Marketers often ask what type of response rates they should expect from their direct mail efforts. The answer is actually quite simple: it depends.

Response rates from one half of one percent (0.5%) to two percent are often mentioned within the industry. But in reality, direct mail response rates are highly variable. In my experience, I’ve seen rates in this “typical” range, as well some as high as seven to 14 percent. One agency principal that I spoke with this week said she had seen rates as high as 30 percent in her direct marketing work, depending on the quality of the list, the offer, and the message/creative content.

Those three elements – list, offer and message/creative – are the three areas to concentrate on when developing direct mail. Traditionally, direct marketers have said the list is the most important, followed closely by the offer, with creative being the smallest contributor to the overall effectiveness of a direct mail effort. Thus, the relative importance of these elements to a successful direct mail campaign breaks down something like this (but John Tomkiw offers a counter-point):

• 40% on developing a targeted list
• 40% on providing a great offer
• 20% on presenting the message in an effective and engaging way

Some marketers add “timing” to this list and assign it 10 percent of the overall importance, but then weigh the list even more highly: 50-20-20-10. Regardless, there is a strong emphasis on the mailing list, and for good reason: the type of individuals that make up your list will greatly influence your response rate. One direct mail resource (cited by The Response Project) identifies who is most likely to respond to your direct mail, in descending order:

Who Responds to Direct Mail?

• Customers: 3–8 times more likely to respond or buy than anyone else
• People who have responded, but not yet made a purchase
• Former customers
• Referrals
• People who’ve bought a different type of product or service from you
• People who’ve bought similar products or services from competitors

Another point to understand when considering direct mail response rates is that one can measure response at various points and in various ways. In fact, as Unsolicited has previously discussed, there are three types of direct mail response: active response, passive response and alternate buying phenomenon. One could make an argument that any of these could be called a “response rate,” although the first is what we more typically think of, and the latter two begin to bring in the idea of conversion and sales into the definition.

Finally, response rates are only one part of a balanced breakfast. Proper direct marketing analytics also look at things like open rates, conversion rates, mail group versus control group activity and ROI or ROE. In the end, the goal of any direct mail campaign is to sell product or services, garner donations, recruit employees (or volunteers), or move people along a process toward one of those goals. This means any study of response rate must eventually be meaningfully tied back to the bottom line.

Additional Resources

• What's A Good Response Rate? – from InsideDirectMail.com
• Four Ways to Raise Direct Mail Response Rates – from MarketingProfs (free registration required)
• 8 Direct Mail Secrets for a Higher Response Rate
• Eight Common Direct Mail Mistakes – how to avoid the pitfalls that lead to truly wretched response rates
• Measuring the Return on Your Direct Mail Investment - gives two ways a small organization can look at (and use) direct mail response information
• Direct Mail Tips for Sophisticated Marketers – advice from Microsoft’s small business center
• DMA 2006 Response Rate Trends Report -- data to Benchmark Your Marketing Campaign ($445 + shipping)
• Response Rates to Expect in Direct Mail Fundraising
• Understanding and Achieving ROI with CRM -- white paper from Customer Potential Management (Nov. 6, 2002) (Free registration limited to qualified healthcare organizations)
  

Technorati Tags: Direct Mail

Labels: Direct Mail

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© 2009 Warren Allan Johnson
Posted by Warren Allan Johnson @ 7:00 AM | Permalink | |

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A newly unemployed relative recently asked me the merits of LinkedIn.com compared with CareerBuilder and Monster.

While it’s true all three can be used as an online resume site, LinkedIn is more of a networking destination, while Career Builder and Monster are more focused on job seeking. Marketing and PR professionals can benefit from LinkedIn while happily employed in their current position, and it can be especially useful for freelancers or self-employed consultants, as Shel Holtz has explained.

The idea of LinkedIn is to create a trusted way to communicate with people you know – and potentially with people they might know. From a career standpoint, this is the idea behind What Color is Your Parachute? – essentially, that networking is more important than classified ads and resumes.

LinkedIn.com is a good example of what people are calling "Web 2.0" (Wikipedia entry) – where people are beginning to use the Web for social networking – bridging their current relationships to the Web (like Myspace, Facebook, Flickr, and so forth), as well as building new communities with people they might not have known before, based on common interests.

In a way, this phenomenon is not that different from what previously would exclusively happen at conferences – you go; you meet old contacts; you do a presentation; you meet new people who have questions or comments; you collect business cards; you stay in touch, and so forth. The relationships lead to improved information to do your job, professional growth, career opportunities, and so forth. In the end, it's all about the relationships.

Additional Resources

• "The Missing Link" -- This lengthy article from Business 2.0 Magazine (on CNN Money, 28 Feb 2007) describes LinkedIn as "MySpace for grown ups" and explains why it is becoming a significant professional tool.
• Wikipedia entry about LinkedIn – A nice overview.
• Linked Intellegence – A Web site and blog exclusively focused on benefiting from LinkedIn, edited by Scott Allen, coauthor of The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online
• Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn – Guy Kawasaki (former chief evangelist at Apple) lists 11 ways (yep, count ‘em) to get the most out of LinkedIn.
• LinkedIn Answers – A new LinkedIn.com service that has the flavor of Yahoo Answers, but with better, more professional questions and answers.
• Linked In a Box -- A widget that displays your LinkedIn profile that goes beyond the standard badges that LinkedIn provides.
• ZoomInfo and Doostang - Other, albeit less popular networking sites.
• Job Seeking Advice for New PR Grads – One of Unsolicited’s earlier posts on career development.

Technorati Tags: Career Development, LinkedIn

Labels: Career

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© 2009 Warren Allan Johnson
Posted by Warren Allan Johnson @ 8:00 PM | Permalink | |

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