For the-holidays you need it!

Sorry I’m going to have a rant!

In the past hour I received 35 emails from a nice gentleman called ‘Ov2.CialisViagra’ at yahoo, offering me ‘something’ for the holiday. What would that be? Christmas pud, box of crackers, a snowman, a rest? Yesterday about the same time another fellow called ‘LifeLove.EnlargePenis2’ at yahoo tells me my penis is like an expensive car. True but how does he know? Early yesterday I had 10 emails from a rascal called ‘joinconn2’ at yahoo telling me he is ‘USA only pharmacy’. Like I care, if it was true.

So enough already! Go away you nasty illiterate people! I like the size of my member, I like the watch I have and I don’t want you to drain my bank account. AND most importantly I’d like to do some marketing using email and not have you get in the way and muddying my message.

This blog is focused on direct mail for SME’s, so why you ask am I being wound up by email? In fact surely the more email gets its name bought down by spam the happier I should be?

Well yes I do believe DM is a better way to communicate but I do believe it should be done in unison with all the technology this modern world has to give us. Email is a fantastic communication tool its just no working as a marketing tool in the best way it can because users like me have to fight through the dross to get the relevant messages.

I want to be able to send marketing emails to people who want to know about my products. Even send emails trying to get punters to buy my Direct Mail product!

So for the holiday- you need it. Peace and goodwill not a bulging spam folder!

All the best

David Hyams

Direct Mail on Demand

Cheap, nasty and beautiful

I got a direct mail the other day from a shipping service, selling their wares. The mailer came in a brown C5 envelope with a big white crooked label. My name wasn’t quite right but the address was ok (you can’t have it all). The print inside looked like it was designed (if that’s the word) in Word, bitmapped logo, Times as the font. It was printed badly in black and white on a bad photocopy. You get the idea…

The direct mail purist would hate this mailer on so many levels. Cheap and nasty equals no response.

I kind of see things a bit differently. I read the mailing and did not bin it. By reading the mailing it had achieved its first aim. If the mailing had been sent using email marketing (spamail as I call it) I doubt I would have even got to see it. By having a physical presence it was hard to ignore and easy to refer to in the future.

Sure if Harrods had sent me a mailing like this, I would question their marketing nous. But this was a small business selling their services on a small budget and as such it should be commended. I reckon this company would have got a good response for their efforts. The mailing was targeted. It wouldn’t have cost much (for reasons stated) and it would have had a high chance of being read (how many Junk mails do you read?)

My mission in this blog is to prove direct mail isn’t dead and that it’s a cost effective alternative to spamail for SME’s. I’ll be sharing tips, techniques and stats which hopefully will enlighten and inspire you. My website Real Print has been built to give SME’s their own online system to create direct mail.

I’m always happy to see examples of good of direct mail that SMEs are producing and feedback on my mission of flying the flag for print!