I’m a bit behind on my snail mail, so to procrastinate from writing anything useful on the book, I went through a pile that’s accumulated over the past week. Perhaps the most interesting piece of mail came from a very familiar brand: Facebook.
The letter had all the trappings of direct mail – a presorted postage mark, impersonal address label, etc. I almost tossed it, but then I thought, why is Facebook using snail mail to message to me? I guess Facebook can’t grow using only its own platform to market its wares. After all, Google is now a major brand advertiser, and probably does direct mail as well. It’s kind of interesting that Facebook is now marketing in new ways….so open it I did.
The one page letter was an offer designed for folks who run “agencies.” I don’t run one, but I do manage a business, registered in the State of California, through which I manage my writing and speaking work. Facebook clearly bought some list, somewhere, that had my name on it (oh, the irony – don’t they already have this information?). The offer was for Facebook’s advertising products – I could offer a free $100 credit to all my clients if I signed up for Facebook advertising myself. I’d have to qualify as an agency, and I’m pretty sure I don’t. So despite my desire to offer all of you, my reading “clients,” $100 in free Facebook ads, I’m afraid I can’t. But I can post (a bad photo of) the letter, in case you’re interested. The front is the offer, and the back is a case study of a company (Victory Motorcycles) that’s had success with Facebook’s platform. For the record, if nothing else.
Front:
Back:
Been saying that you have to have multi-channel campaigns for many years now. Most digital peeps think I’m nuts until they begin to grasp the concept of conversion rates. I’ve learned that Direct Mail delivers.
I used it a lot in magazine publishing, to good end. For the most part…
Interesting. I get a fair bit of advertising-related DM from Google, but haven’t seen anything from FB. I agree with Jim Reynolds; I think DM is potentially a great value these days because there’s so much less clutter.
Makes sense, in a way, if they’re trying to target a more “old school” crowd. Plus DM works better to cut through all the clutter we already get in our inboxes.
In addition, the majority of SMB’s are not online, and thus DM may be one of the only channels to reach them…!
Are you sure about that “majority are not online” statement?!
Oops, I mis-used the term SMB. What I was trying to refer to are small, local businesses that FB would like to target as advertisers.
I’m curious if they have some deeper insights into this study of direct mail marketing; is there a higher success rate? I know my email box and accounts are overloaded and cluttered with product/service opportunities. Perhaps, the process is beginning to reverse engineer itself; actually holding something tangible in your hands may stand out!
I changed, by not changing at all.” ~ pearl jam
Great article!
There is a great discussion on Linkedin pertaining a new direct mail concept. It involves getting several businesses together and sending out a flyer similar to this:
http://i1218.photobucket.com/albums/dd409/cincosquared/SampleCincoSquaredDirectMailPromo.png
Here is a short video that better explain what a recipient of such a mailer would experience:
If you want to read the discussion from printing companies and direct mail companies you can join in here:
http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&gid=99551&type=member&item=108603567&qid=7cee31dc-0548-4285-bff7-b92e60244f8c&trk=group_most_popular-0-b-ttl&goback=%2Egmp_99551
You can control the DM you get by opting out of unwanted direct mail at http://www.catalogchoice.org. DM is a powerful channel, but it needs a consumer choice model.
Thanks John- what’s really fun about this is that Facebook clearly bought a form used by Visa/MC, Farmers, and a few other insurance companies. Interesting… and rather cheap of them, if I must say, but clearly that particular form is the one that works.
Facebook has the monolithic goal of making regular websites and other small internet business platforms obsolete. Reaching out to folks who are focusing are their businesses vs. socializing on the web is a smart move for Facebook.
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