"Lets Connect" Direct Mailer results

It has been a week since our most recent DM initiative, and I wanted to share the results.  The concept was called "Lets Connect!"  and was designed by award winning design house Hans Design (www.hansdesign.com).  The purpose was acquisition and education.  The form factor was a oversized postcard piece with a double fold over flap holding a diecut Iphone which featured a mobile enabled QR code.  The die cut iphone was a magnet which was to serve as the leave behind (business card).

We also used a process called 3d-UV which was used to create a glass like surface on the iphone as well as produce braille dots which were overlayed on the corresponding words MOBILIZE, PERSONALIZE and SOCIALIZE!

Metrics:

Web traffic increase (%) for the week of Dec 7th:

Unique Visitors: 235%

Page Views: 257%

Quotes Requests from New Customers: 4

Conversation/Education with Current customers greater than 20 minutes: 11

Mobile QR scans: 27 (indicating mostly new visitors)

Dollar Value of quotes from during week of Dec 7th: $86,521

Retail Cost of Production including postage:  $6200.00

Estimated Close Rate: 20%

Estimated ROI: (Gains - cost/cost) = 179%

TVP takes leadership in USPS EVERY DOOR DELIVERY as premier ad partner

Reach every customer in your neighborhood without having the addresses.

Direct Mail continues to be one of the most effective ways to reach customers. For a large business or a small business, Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) service makes it easier and more cost effective to get your message out. With this service you can:

• Use our online tool to target areas you want to saturate with your mailing — choose routes by neighborhood, ZIP Code™, or city.
• Get your mailing to every mailbox along the chosen routes — delivered by our Letter Carriers with the day's mail.
• Spend as little as 14.2 cents per piece on postage for jumbo postcards (5.5" x 11") and flats.
  
• Mail to as few as 250 prospects!
  

Lets connect and talk about your options and how to reduce your postage spend today!  Ask for Ravi at ravi@thinkvariable.com  at (312) 772-3191

3d UV, Dimensional Print, Digital Embossing, et al

We used one of the hottest trends in graphics arts on our latest direct mail campaign "Lets Connect".  This is not your fathers  (eg. Geroge Eastman's) dimensional print, rather this is hi-fi, in your face, touch me now dimensional print!!!  Check out the video of the process below.  We utilize inkjet technology to lay down a variable, yes, variable layer of graphics and text using a clear polymer that is the height of traditional embossing!  How would you like to improve response by 5-15%? Well then, "Lets connect." I can be reached at Ravi@thinkvariable.com or (312) 772-3191. 

Visualize your business connections

It was interesting to see a TED (ideas worth spreading) piece on how social networking was actually making us less social and more of a "silo."  The proof, an amazing visualization of all the FB connections around the globe.   It clearly showed the strengthening of connections between connection that would have existed anyway.  For example, a cousin in another country or a close friends friend appear on the surface to have expanded your network, but aren't these people "in network" anyway.  Couldn't you connect with them if you needed on a human, personal or business level without the social network?  SO the questions remains how social has social networking allowed you to be, have you connected someone out of "network" via social networking?  Has a factory worker in Detroit, who swears by social networking recently connected with a refuge from Rwanda recently?  Or a factory working at a auto plant in neighboring Canada? By and large the answer is no and visualizing these networks is clearly illustrating it.  My original intention of this post was to talk about a great tool that visualized your business network via LinkedIn.  Most of us consider LinkedIN THE business social networking tool.  (however contradictory that may sound!)  Check out the following link visualize your business connections, its actually quite amazing to see.  As a business owner, I could actually trace back how I developed those relationships over time and see who along the way intercepted relationships (competition) as well as see how real commerce happens in specific niche pockets of my world!  I have attached an image of my network below as well.  Let me know your thoughts after you run your visualization! 

http://inmaps.linkedinlabs.com/network

7 rules of CAN-SPAM Email Compliance

Do you use email in your business?  A quick "Do and do not" refresher on how you can e-mail prospects.  

The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003

The CAN-SPAM Act, a law that sets the rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have you stop emailing them, and spells out tough penalties for violations.

Despite its name, the CAN-SPAM Act doesn’t apply just to bulk email. It covers all commercial messages, which the law defines as “any electronic mail message the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service,” including email that promotes content on commercial websites. The law makes no exception for business-to-business email. That means all email – for example, a message to former customers announcing a new product line – must comply with the law.

Each separate email in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act is subject to penalties of up to $16,000, so non-compliance can be VERY costly. But following the law isn’t complicated. Here’s a rundown of CAN-SPAM’s main requirements:

1. Don’t use false or misleading header information. Your “From,” “To,” “Reply-To,” and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person or business who initiated the message.
2. Don’t use deceptive subject lines. The subject line must accurately reflect the content of the message.
3. Identify the message as an ad. The law gives you a lot of leeway in how to do this, but you must disclose clearly and conspicuously that your message is an advertisement.
4. Tell recipients where you’re located. Your message must include your valid physical postal address. This can be your current street address, a post office box you’ve registered with the U.S. Postal Service, or a private mailbox you’ve registered with a commercial mail receiving agency established under Postal Service regulations.
5. Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from you. Your message must include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt out of getting email from you in the future. Craft the notice in a way that’s easy for an ordinary person to recognize, read, and understand. Give a return email address or another easy Internet-based way to allow people to communicate their choice to you. You may create a menu to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to stop all commercial messages from you.
6. Honor opt-out requests promptly. Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your message. You must honor a recipient’s opt-out request within 10 business days. You can not charge a fee.
7. Monitor what others are doing on your behalf. The law makes clear that even if you hire another company to handle your email marketing, you can’t contract away your legal responsibility to comply with the law. Both the company whose product is promoted in the message and the company that actually sends the message may be held legally responsible.