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People frequently ask me to recommend my 10 favorite marketing books:

Last week, ShareLife held their 15th Annual Corporate Golf Tournament at Lionhead in Mississauga. As is the case every year, we were blessed with great weather – lots of sunshine and above all, no rain.

If you have ever played Lionhead, you know that it is not one of the easier courses. Instead of the usual 15-under par, the winning team from PricewaterhouseCoopers had to settle for a 10-under.

The annual golf tournament is ShareLife’s signature fundraising event and it helps support the work of ShareLife-funded social service agencies that deliver programs and services to those most in need in our community. This year, more than $75,000 was raised with 150 golfers taking part in this worthwhile cause.

Many thanks were extended to all the sponsors including CIBC, the presenting sponsor.

Our team, Denis Brillon, President of Bradford Direct, Howard Stevenson, Neil MacCarthy, Director of PR & Communications at the Archdiocese of Toronto and myself had to settle for a respectable 5-over final score.

A day well-spent away from the office.

Even though the United States Postal Service is reporting a significant decline in the volume of mail we all know from the contents in our mailboxes that we still seem to get plenty. It’s clear that direct mail marketing budgets have been slashed in many cases, but of course as some companies pull back from sending mail others see that as an opportunity to send more. We decided to research which profit and non-profit organizations are currently sending the most mail.

Top 10 For-Profit Mailers

56% of all the top 50 mailers in the U.S. are for-profit ogranizations. Several of these are large publishing companies athat sending publications, renewal notices, and other offers to the public.

• Publishers Clearing House – This household name in the sweepstakes industry makes over $620 million dollars a year through publishing and distributing millions of magazines and other publications. They are the overall largest user of direct mail in the U.S.
• The Economist Group – With revenues north of $516 million this is another publishing giant. They publish under the brands of The Economist newspaper, The Economist Online, Economist Intelligence Unit, and a few more.
• Conde Naste – You may not be familiar with this massive publisher with revenues of $454 million per year. They own some of the most subscribed to magazines in the World (GQ, Vogue, The New Yorker, etc.).
• Direct Brands – Like Conde Naste, you may say Direct Brands, Inc. who? Well they have revenues of $402 million per year with services you will recognize (Columbia House, Book-of-the-Month Club, etc.).
• Consumers Union – This company has revenues in excess of $249 million per year on sending direct mail, you may be more familiar with Consumer Reports.
• Omaha Steaks – With revenues of $200 million per year this company has made a bundle off of selling mail order mouth watering meats. Now that’s mail with some sizzle to it!
• Rodale – Has revenues of approximately $136 million per year and publishes magazines like Men’s Health, Runner’s World, and Prevention.
• Hachette Filipacchi Media – Another massive magazine publisher with revenues reported at $123 million from magazines like ELLE, Woman’s Day, Car and Driver, Road & Track, and more).
• International Masters Publishers – This publisher is well known for Recipes & Cooking, Wildlife & Nature, Home & Leisure, and similar categories of publications. They have annual revenues of $230 million.
• Boardroom – This is another publisher for a list that is most well-known for their Bottom Line newsletters in the subject areas of Personal, Health, Retirement, Natural Healing, and Wealth. Their revenues could not be reliably collected.

Top 10 Non-Profit Mailers

44% of all the top 50 mailers in the U.S. are non-profit organizations that are either soliciting for donations or attempting to collect on pledges via mailers.

• Smithsonian Institute – They generate donations/revenue of $532 million per year.
• U.S. Fund for UNICEF – They generate donations/revenue of $454 million per year.
• Habitat for Humanity – They generate donations/revenue of $356 million per year.
• The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society – They generate donations/revenue of $269 million per year.
• March of Dimes – They generate donations/revenue of $248 million per year.
• World Wildlife fund – They generate donations/revenue of $180 million per year.
• Paralyzed Veterens of America – They generate donations/revenue of $109 million per year.
• Humane Society of the U.S. – They generate donations/revenue of $102 million per year.
• Alzheimers Association – They generate donations/revenue of $95 million per year.
• National Wildlife Federation – They generate donations/revenue of $83 million per year.

It’s always interesting to see who is using the mail more frequently as a means of communicating with the American public. The biggest surprise is that in this list of the 20 top mailers, that are no banks or credit card companies. Judging by the mail I get every day, that’s a surprise.

(This article was recently published on ChangeofAddress.org. I thought it was an interesting read given how we are always reading about how direct mail is dying and being phased out in favour of other advertising media.  You can find the original article at http://www.changeofaddress.org/blog/2010/top-20-us-direct-mail-marketers/.)

Need Answers? Get A Copy...

My newly revised ebook on direct mail production is now available HERE!

It will provide you with answers to some of the most common issues that marketers encounter in their direct mail campaigns.

These are constant problems that you yourself may be dealing with. Discover how to avoid these problems once and for all.

Cost? Absolutely FREE but invaluable! A must-have for your marketing toolset.

Get it here.

All the best,
Rainer

P.S. This edition is SPECIAL, so make sure that get yourself a copy TODAY!

Need Answers? Get A Copy...

My newly revised ebook on direct mail production will officially be available on Tuesday, April 27th at noon!

It will provide you with answers to some of the most common issues that marketers encounter in their direct mail campaigns.

These are constant problems that you yourself may be dealing with. Discover how to avoid these problems once and for all.

Cost? Absolutely FREE but invaluable! A must-have for your marketing toolset.

Watch for it tomorrow…

All the best,
Rainer

P.S. This edition is SPECIAL, so make sure that get yourself a copy TODAY!

Need Answers? Stay tuned...

Be on the look-out for my newly revised ebook on direct mail production.

It will provide you with answers to some of the most common issues that marketers encounter in their direct mail campaigns.

These are constant problems that you yourself may be dealing with. Discover how to avoid these problems once and for all.

Cost? Absolutely FREE but invaluable! A must-have for your marketing toolset.

Watch for it soon…

All the best,
Rainer

P.S. This edition is special

Boy, how things have changed!

Back in 1976, critics were complaining that there was too MUCH coverage of the Montreal Olympics and that athletes were too intense about winning!

http://archives.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/clips/7333/

This was also the time when Olympic sports were called ‘amateur’ sports and funding was pretty pitiful. The Montreal Olympics demonstrated how a lack of support, financial and otherwise, can result in the first-ever host country  to go without a Gold medal. (Canada ended up in 27th position with 5 Silver and 6 Bronze – still an accomplishment considering the lack of resources for Canadian athletes.)

In contrast, the 21st 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics was fueled by a 5-year, $117-million program called “Own The Podium” designed to improve Canadian high-performance sport.

Did it make a difference?

Like… duh!

Fourteen – that’s 14 – Gold medal performances! 14 times that O Canada! was played on the international stage!

Canadians athletes nowadays have access to more and better training facilities, have better equipment, have more opportunity for international competitions, have access to better rehab facilities, and have the ability to better support themselves while training.

So what does this have to do direct mail?

Other than having a chance to say how proud I was to be Canadian at the end of it all yesterday and walk around with a puffed-up chest, it’s a good example of what can be achieved when you are willing to SPEND the money to achieve RESULTS!

Too many times, direct mailers are trying to find short-cuts to great results.

It ain’t gonna happen!

If you’re always going to go with the cheapest price knowing full well that you’re taking a chance, don’t expect a “miracle on ice.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_on_Ice

Be willing to pay for professional services and direct mail expertise. In the long run, it will SAVE you money and put you on the path to Gold-medal direct marketing.

Regards,
Rainer

I’ve been working on a few direct mail side projects, testing new content delivery techniques and trying to figure out what would be best way to deliver content to you.

Whatever the method is, it’s got to be quick, efficient and, most importantly, be of value to my readers and clients.

Video is hot these days both the ‘talking heads’ version and screen capture. It seems people have less time and are less willing to sit & read especially if they have to do it using a computer monitor. I don’t blame them.

Our world is filled with a constant daily barrage of information, and unless we want to spend our whole day reading and watching, we have to get very particular about what we choose to spend our time on.

I REALLY want to help direct mailers get their mailings out the door as cost-effectively and as quickly as possible.

The best way I know is to pass on production and printing tips/techniques/secrets so that mailers can be pro-active and AVOID a lot of the problems that cause delays and additional costs.

What is your preferred method of receiving such valuable information?

Here are some suggestions: (or suggest your own)

• weekly video posts
• weekly written posts
• free mini-course by digital download
• free mini-course by CD/DVD
• combination of the above

All the best,
Rainer

I was on a couple of direct marketing forums over the past few days and at one point the focus of the posts switched over to ‘clients and their sometimes unreasonable demands.’

Having been in the trenches of direct mail for almost 30 years, I certainly felt I had some expertise and opinion on this particular subject.

Mail production is at the tail end of a mailing and by that time, a lot of money and time has already been invested into the campaign by the client. At this point, they have gone through strategy, design, data analysis, board or manager approvals, perhaps even printing.  These various stages may have taken days, weeks or months depending on the complexity of the project.

When looking at the different components of a direct mail campaign, the importance of the stages relative to the success of the mailing usually goes something like this:
40% list
40% offer
20% creative execution

That’s 100%. No more % left over for production.

And yet, the production – printing, data, lettershop, even mail delivery – can make or break the campaign.

Too many mailers at this stage feel that the campaign is as good as done.

And with most mailings, this is probably true. If you are hooked up with a true vendor partner who knows what he/she is doing and will actually work with you, it’s a safe bet that the physical execution of your mailing will sail through to your donors or consumers, as planned.

But when things are rushed in the execution phase, this is when problems can occur and unreasonable demands made. Too many times, it’s up to the lettershop (mailshop) to make up time that was frittered away in the front end of the campaign.

Many times, a drop date to the post office was missed by one hour. Could that ONE hour have been made up somewhere in the design approval stage, or in the strategy meeting? Could the list broker have returned a call just ONE hour faster?  Could the client’s production manager have stayed at work ONE extra hour to finish the project details?

The first problem is: when the job gets rushed,  the risk of mistakes rises dramatically.

The second problem is: whose fault is the problem – the client or the lettershop?

Unreasonable clients:

* Will always say it’s the fault of the lettershop, even though the lettershop had to skip their usual quality control procedures to get the job out on time!

* Will always demand a post-mortem meeting to discuss how and why the lettershop screwed up!

* Will always tell only half the story (their half) to their manager!

* Will always want compensation for something that could’ve been avoided by the client!

* Will always ‘nickel-and-dime’ the vendor and question everything on the final invoice even though the vendor went out of their way and performed many tasks gratis!

* Will continue to repeat the same behavior over and over, until the vendor ‘fires’ them!

* Will go from one vendor to another wondering why the vendors are constantly screwing up!

* Will never admit to their own shortcomings!

In the end, unreasonable clients will never get their jobs properly executed until they learn what it takes to work within the system, on both a professional and social level.

Rainer Fischer
Your Direct Mail Success Coach

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