The Deadly Sins of Direct Mail

Direct mail campaigns should be creative and informative in order to generate quality leads. This is highly intuitive and requires little explanation. However, it is possible to do these things and not meet expectations. With this in mind, let us review the deadly sins of direct mail. If you can avoid these mistakes, your chances of success increase substantially.

First, a campaign is only as good as the list you are using. Make sure your list has gone through proper change-of-address processing (NCOALink). Many lists and databases contain old addresses. Old addresses will lead to wasted postage and printing. Also make sure to only include leads that are likely to respond. Don't beat a dead horse with old so-called "leads."

Now knowing that the list is a good one, generating leads should be very plausible. However, make sure to provide appropriate follow up. Give leads a call and determine their needs. Then send appropriate information. After doing that, follow up once again to see if they have any questions. It's of little value to generate leads if the follow through is not strong.

Direct mail and direct marketing in general are powerful tools. Generally, companies successfully conduct branding campaigns through trade magazines and then generate leads via direct marketing. Just make sure you have great creative, a solid list, and the resources to follow up appropriately. If you do those three things, your chances of success are greatly improved.

What do high oil prices mean for the U.S. economy?

A well publicized result of the terrible tragedy in New Orleans is increased oil prices. There are numerous scenarios out there. Some say things will return to "normal" after a few weeks. Others say we'll see elevated prices for months. I fear the worst case scenario could have impact the economy in a grave way.

First, the so-called economic recovery has seen extremely modest real wage growth. So, people aren't making much more money (and are likely underemployed). Yet, Wall Street has been signing the praises of strong consumer spending. Now, what happens if oil prices increase? Heating and transportation costs increase.

So spending has been increasing despite already skyrocketing oil prices. Yet consumer savings is at a low not seen since the 1920s. So, people are in debt. This means it won't take much to cause them to fall behind or go under completely. That will result in a poor holiday season and layoffs. Of course, layoffs will depress spending further.

Needless to say, we can only hope that prices come down before the holiday spending season. If they don't, in my opinion, the U.S. economy has been walking a fine line for a while, and it could suffer significantly.