Question

Topic: Advertising/PR

Direct Mail Brainstorm... Creativity A Must

Posted by Anonymous on 12/10/2004 at 12:12 PM ET 500 Points
Dear Distinguished Professionals,

My creative juices seem to have dried up this morning. I have a very simple direct mailing to handle and I'm short on ideas. The facts:

- A follow up to a trade show where roughly 500 contacts were generated.
- Extremely well received at the show, considered the "hit"
- The industry is a blend of Educational Officials (Superintendents, NYC Dept. of Ed. etc) and Technology Groups. Customers are serviced on a District Level. Technology Counterparts are to be leveraged for possible partnership opportunities (were held in high regard).
- The product is a webportal aligning the NYS Learning Standards for k-12 Education to high quality peer reviewed resources. Development tools (web page creator, assessment generator) are also wrapped into this concept.

These contacts are getting nailed with stupid e-mails, and boring letters from every friggin lamo raffle they entered, business card they dropped!

I need some magic, something poignant, thoughtful, out of the box, attention grabbing!

Nothing is too crazy, just consider a reasonable budget-

1 Winner gets all 500.

Best,

MJK
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by SteveByrneMarketing on 12/10/2004 at 1:24 PM Member
    Hi Michael,

    You could send something “in-the-box” like magic eight-ball with messaging specific to your audience.

    See link:
    https://money.cnn.com/2004/06/04/pf/expert/ask_expert/

    Or visit your local magic store for more ideas. Sending something in a 3-D package will stand out from the crowd. Then place a printed piece with your magic item that will direct the prospective customers to a landing page for the next step you want them to take.

    Hope this helps stir your imagination,

    - Steve
  • Posted by SteveByrneMarketing on 12/10/2004 at 1:31 PM Member
    forgot the link to the online magic ball --

    https://www.mattelgames.com/magic8/flash_index.asp

  • Posted by Janet O. on 12/10/2004 at 3:31 PM Member
    Don’t make it too gimmicky or the message may get lost. Most other companies will just follow up by sending their sales literature. To be different in a customer-beneficial way, provide an educational piece (i.e. could be an unbiased write-up about the different products available and how your’s provides a better solution). Give them an incentive to take action (i.e. schedule your free demonstration by _________, and receive ____________). Your sales people would still follow up after they receive this mailing.

    It would be ideal to put your message/information on a format that they would use/see year-round (i.e. mousepad, 2005 magnetic calendar for their file cabinets, etc.). Mail this in a non-standard package/mailer (i.e. colored puffy envelope).
  • Posted by SRyan ;] on 12/10/2004 at 8:43 PM Member
    What if you took an artifact of education and applied a short, jolting message to it? For example...

    ...in craft stores I've seen cheap mini-chalkboards in a range of sizes. You could get 500 of the 8x10 size, and write on each one, "Can you spell WWW?" or "Today's lesson: www.company.com." On the back (or in the same envelope) you could include your product/service information telling about the way your webportal improves the chalkboard.

    ...I vaguely remember two things my teachers carried way, way back in the 70s -- lesson plan books and grade books. They remind me of old accounting ledgers. Do you know what I mean? Anyway, you could take a similar approach with one of those as I described with the chalkboard.

    ...I'd also suggest Big Chief Tablets, but I looked for those online myself earlier this year and they aren't ANYWHERE.

    The drawback to these ideas is the handcrafting effort that they might require. But nostalgia paired with technology might have a terrific impact!

    - Shelley
  • Posted by telemoxie on 12/10/2004 at 10:01 PM Member
    Here's a technique I used with great success getting the attention of New York educators:

    1) Develop a one page fax with a one page attachment, to be printed on your stationery
    2) Call for the person - ask their assistant to leave a message that you are FAXing information
    3) FAX the information (immediately following the phone call).
    4) Stamp the faxed letter with one of those blue and white "FAXed" stamps, and be sure to put your initials in the appropriate place
    5) Insert the FAXed document into an envelope - hand addressed, hand stamped, and mark the outside "original documents enclosed". Be sure to include a few more pages of info.

    With luck, you will get three "impressions" (the message, the FAX, the letter) for each prospect.
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