Yes You Can Send Prospect Email Without Being A Spammer

A prospect came to me recently looking to do an email blast. Unlike the email blasts I do for my business and for some clients—this one was different. They want to send to people who are not their customers.

As she described what she wanted to do, the only thing that popped into my mind was—SPAM! That’s one of those touching the hot stove issues I always want to steer clear of. But I told her I would look into it. And I did.

What I got was an education. Are you ready for an outline of what I learned? Here goes. Contrary to popular belief, there are legitimate, legal ways to email to prospects. For definition a prospect is someone who you don’t know and who probably doesn’t know you.

There are two ways to send out prospecting email. One was is through mostly offshore vendors. Their lists are typically gathered through questionable means. While I hate to throw stones—these are the spammers of the world. Their lists have a high degree of incomplete or out of date addresses. You risk being blocked by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and your legitimate email will not be delivered. You could also face penalties or fines.

The other way is through a credible list broker. Their lists are culled from opt-in lists where people acknowledge they will accept marketing info. Neither you nor I see the lists. The vendor holds on to them. They also will design the email template and they take care of sending your eNewsletter out. You will get access to tracking info and leads. We have worked with a couple mailing list vendors who provide this service. We trust them very much.

While this route is more expensive than the first, it would be less expensive than direct mail. Even though the response rate is much lower than postal mail, there could be a benefit in lower cost per contact and immediacy.

There is an indirect way. This might give you credibility of being associated with someone known to your audience. That is to get an article or profile about your organization into someone else’s email blast. You might have to pay for the space or trade for space in your eNewsletter. But you have control over the content. You also can look like an expert to this audience. The hard part is finding a partner who has a non-competitive offering but has a list of people you need to reach.

Allegra Marketing, Print & Mail of Rolling Meadows would be glad to answer any questions or provide you with a quote. Call Michael Tarpinian at 847/398-2500.

By the way we also design and support traditional eNewsletter campaigns directed to your current customers, clients, students, fans, or patients.

Letterpress

My guys recently had a successful test of letterpress printing. Before this test, we had used our letterpress for embossing, die cutting, and perforating paper. Lots of different stuff, but not for printing. Not bad for a fifty+ year old printing press, huh?

But there is an increasing interest in this old fashioned printing. Why? Nostalgia is part of it. The other part is the craft of letterpress printing. It looks different than our traditional printing or photocopying. There is a texture to the printing. It has a feel. It does not look flawless. It has character.

Some studios are commanding top dollar for stationery and wedding invitations of their letterpresses. We are looking at a slightly different model. We want to make note cards, business cards and invitations that are elegant and affordable. New techniques have helped to breathe new life into these old presses.

The movies American Psycho and the recent Seven Pounds have featured characters in an elegant business card throw-down and a letterpress printer respectively.

Mike’s Wish List

Perhaps there are a lot of business owners like me right now. After a couple of years of solid growth where we invested a lot of money back into our business, we hit a bump. Clearly the Great Recession has impacted businesses far and wide.

Now we are watching every expense. Closely. That’s the new reality. But here is where I take it to my own level of tightwadness (not a word, but you know what I mean). For everything that is non-essential to our operation, but would be nice to have, I am creating a list. It’s my wish list. Some is for new stuff, some is for software updates.

If there are others like me living a life of small business delayed gratification there are consequences. That is pent up demand. When the economy improves and businesses start spending again, there will be a rebound effect. People like me will loosen up and start buying the stuff they held off on purchasing. It could be a big snowball.

On the other hand, if we all see we have done without things for so long, maybe we don’t need them after all.

Is your marketing sending the right message?

A recent call to a clients office left me confused and surprised. It was a Doctor’s office and they were not in. So I got their answering service. Actually at first I got their answering services on hold message. After being told I would speak to an operator promptly, I heard their recorded music. Since almost everyone has gotten away from elevator music, this was pop music. Actually, it was the current queen of pop—Britney Spears. So I listened to about 45 seconds of her recent controversial hit [the one about Amy] which is out and out vulgar.

I’m no prude, but this song gets switched off when in the presence of either of my daughters. How it got on the radio in the first place is beyond me. It is up there with some of the nastier stuff Prince recorded in the ‘80s. And that was rarely on the radio.

After taking my message, the operator answered a couple questions I had about this song. Her company is aware of it, but it is out of their control. They pay for a quarterly subscription so they just have to wait it out. Really? Stop it now. Don’t wait.

Everything in and around your business is part of marketing. Your place of business, your printed materials and forms, your delivery trucks, your employees, and your style of handling phone calls. Whether you intend it to be marketing your business or not, it’s all marketing.

I would not let an employee make deliveries celebrating sex, drugs, or alcohol. Nor would they parade a controversial anti-hero in front of my clients. The same goes for my phone messages. You don’t have to go back to the watered down stylings of Muzak strings, but come on people use some common sense.

What tone do you want your marketing to hit? Do you want people to think you are staid, or hip, or conventional, or happy go lucky? Are you ok offending or being controversial? What message to you want your public to hear? Answer these questions and go for it.

Printing Magnets — on our printing press?

We recently worked on a fun project for a large Church organization. They needed a large quantity of magnets in a hurry and on a tight budget. Typically these are done by a silk screener. They are great quality but turnaround time and price might have been obstacles here.

Fortunately, we recalled a recent sales call from a paper mill rep from Nekoosa Coated Paper. They have a new magnetic sheet product that will run through a printing press. After trying the samples he left behind, we decided to go for it.

It worked great. They printed nicely, they dried quickly, and the finished product was beautiful. These were cut to business cards size but we could have cut them to just about any desired size. Also, with our die cutting capabilities on our letterpresses, we can cut them to almost any shape imaginable—triangles, circles, start, you name it.

Give us a call to see how we can promote your business or event with magnets.

They Don’t Live in Glass Houses

You know the phrase: “People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.” Have you ever thought the phrase is strange? People who live in brick or frame houses should not throw stones either. But this is not about that. This is about direct marketing.

There is a company or maybe a few companies who market directly to the public in an unusual way. You might have folks like this in your community too. Is it a widespread phenomenon? I don’t know. They take their flier or brochure, or whatever, and put it in a Ziploc® with a handful of rocks. No. Seriously.

Then they fling them out of a moving car onto driveways around the neighborhood. I seem to recall one being from a home repair business. But I don’t recall the name or if I ever looked at another one. The packages annoyed me. It was litter dumped on my property.

Why do they do this? Is it to save money? If so, I doubt it is cheaper. Between the cost of the baggie, the rocks, the labor to fill and seal the bags, and the cost to drive around, it all adds up. Now, if they had pretty stones in there, maybe. If they sold rocks and pebbles for landscaping, perhaps. But, I don’t think they are.

Standard Mail postage is about 26¢ each—it is a real good deal. Yes, we charge for our services to mail. But you are getting a professional direct marketing piece. Put down the stones.

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/tahliajayde/3600630428/)

Free Photos

Here is a special offer we want to let you know about—free stock photos. In partnership with a great stock photo agency, we are offering their entire catalog for your use, for free. Order any poster, banner, full color flyer or brochure to take advantage of this offer. Call us today to start your order and we will let you browse their online catalog or assist you with a search that fits your theme or topic. This offer will be good through at least March, 2009.

Print/Replant Redux

It is a cool feeling to surprise someone. I had a chance to do that this week. It happened while talking with a new client. I was explaining some of Allegra’s services and benefits. His head snapped to attention when I mentioned our Print/Replant program. Yes, we really do replant our National Forests with seedlings for every sheet of paper we use.

I did some calculating and came up with this statistic. Together, you and Allegra are responsible for planting an acre of forest. It is a drop in a bucket when we hear about hundreds of acres being scorched by wildfires. But, we are one printshop in less than one year into this program.

If you would like more information about Print/Replant, for information on how to get trees planted, or for a guest article for your newsletter, let me know. I would be more than happy to help.