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5 Direct Mail Tips to get the Envelope Opened
If the truth were told literally millions of dollars a years is being thrown down the drain on direct mail campaigns that fall flat on their face all because the envelope containing the offer is not getting opened.
Think of it - you can work...
Direct Mail – Don’t Assume, Just Test and Track
Where to Start: Most novice marketers have definite fixed ideas about direct mail that are way off base - most often in the area of what to spend and how much to do. You should determine what you are able to spend for your marketing budget, spend...
Direct Mail Formats: How to Choose the Right One
Which pulls the best response, a postcard, a self-mailer or a letter? The answer, you’ll be irritated to know, is clear. It depends. The success of your mailing depends on who you mail to (your list), what you promise (your offer), when you mail...
Direct Mail Response Rates Soar With Dimensional Mailers in Business-to-Business Lead Generation
The toughest job you face as a B2B direct marketer is reaching your prospect with your message. Reaching C-level executives is particularly difficult because they employ mailroom staff and executive secretaries who screen their mail, or your mail,...
Direct Marketing Strategies for Holiday Email Promotions
Tis the season to leverage customer interest data for successful email marketing. All of the information gathered throughout the year from customer purchases, customer feedback surveys, and other behavior offers direct marketers necessary...
In B2B Direct Mail Lead Generation, Work Backwards
Business-to-business lead generation is one of the few times in life when you should start at the end and work backwards.
Before you write a single line of copy or design a single element of your direct mail package, sit down with the sales people...
Raising Funds For Your Nonprofit Using An Annual Direct Mail Program
A good annual direct mail solicitation program can produce unrestrictive operating funds for your nonprofit organization year after year. And such an annual direct mail program, if done right, should produce more funding for your organization each...
Redirecting Your Mail When You Move
Have you recently moved into a new apartment? Wonder why your mailbox is empty? Did you remember to redirect your mail? It's difficult to remember all of the things you need to take care of before leaving your apartment. You've got hours of...
Testimonials Boost Direct Mail Response Rates In Business-to-Business Sales Letters
Correct me if I am wrong, but there is nothing more powerful in a business-to-business sales letter than a credible testimonial from a person in your prospect's peer group.
Testimonials are valuable because they say what you cannot. If you say...
Top 10 Tips for Growing Your Business with Direct Mail Postcards
Introduction: Why Use Postcards? If you've priced out display advertising or Yellow Pages listings, you know that they can add up to big money in a hurry. Quite often, these valuable promotional tools are beyond the budgets of many small and...
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Tales of Email Misdirection
Article:
It's wise to remember how easily email -- this wonderful
technology -- can be misused and misdirected, sometimes
unintentionally, with serious consequences. Unless you are using
encryption, the privacy of your message cannot be guaranteed nor
the authenticity of your correspondent.
Consider the case of a man who left the snow-filled streets of
Chicago for a vacation in sunny Florida. When he reached his
hotel, he decided to send his wife a quick email, who was
planning to meet him there the next day.
Unfortunately, when typing her address, he missed one letter,
and his note was directed instead to an elderly preacher's wife
whose husband had just passed away. When the grieving widow
checked her email, she took one look at the monitor, let out a
wail, and fell to the floor in a faint.
At the sound, her family rushed into the room and saw this email
note on the screen:
"Dearest Wife, Just got checked in. Everything prepared for your
arrival tomorrow. P.S. Sure is hot down here."
What actually hurts here is that the email was not being
intercepted but rather, inadvertently directed to the wrong
location. The nickname feature in many mailers can cause
accidental emails being sent to co-workers instead of family
members, or vice-versa. It's a strange new kind of
miscommunication, where you can misdirect emails a dozen times
before lunch. At least with misdialed phone numbers it becomes
apparent after a few moments and you usually stop before saying
too much. With email, it is now possible to quickly send a
completely coherent message that is nonetheless nearly
incomprehensible to a mistaken recipient.
Bigger mistakes can come from an accidental "reply" or even
worse, "reply all" instead of "forward". A recent example would
be when a congressional staffer accidentally hit "reply all"
when intending to forward a comment to fellow staffers on a
"Support the Captive Primate Safety Act" email he'd received
from an animal rights group. The original email was supporting
legislation to prohibit the keeping of primates such as monkeys
and great apes as pets, and
asking for co-sponsors to protect
not only animals but humans as well, as there are inherent
dangers in keeping such pets. The staffer's comment was meant to
be funny, and read: "Does this deal with those kids out in
Ohio(?) who were kept in cages?" However, this email went out to
the legislators behind the Captive Primate Safety Act instead of
being forwarded as an inside "joke", leading to a very sticky
political exchange.
Other instances of email misdirection puts organizations In
legal and/or financially risk, causing a number of compliance
issues. A 2005 Harris Interactive® for Fortiva poll, shows that
68 per cent of U.S. employees who use email at work have sent or
received email via their work email account that could place
their company at risk.
While all these examples may be a good arguments as to why you
should disable the "reply all" function altogether, the fact
remains that the way a standard, unprotected email is sent out
is very akin to the mailing of a postcard. With the wrong
address attached there is nothing, not even an envelope, to
dissuade an unintended recipient from reading about, for
instance, the naughty things you did while in Vegas. Even worse,
the mistaken recipient can in turn "reply" and you could be end
up with unsolicited correspondences for the lifetime of that
email address.
Use it wisely, and email is indeed a wonderful tool. Email is
fast, easy to use and has become a cultural method of propelling
personal and business communication. The bottom line is this -
do not trust confidential information to email unless you are
using security such as encryption or rights management. Whether
it's due to misdirected email or breach of email etiquette, your
email could be exposing yourself to more than you know.
About the author:
Schwarz is the director of creative marketing at Essential
Security Software and is responsible for worldwide creative
marketing strategy and execution, corporate branding, and public
relations. Essential Security Software (ESS) is a provider of
document and email security solutions.
http://www.essentialsecurity.com
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