Adventures in Direct mail

I think I may have mentioned before, or at least alluded to, the fact that I am employed in the direct mail industry... colloquially referred to as junk mail. And, as the firm I work for is heavily involved in the production of direct mail, if you live in the United States there's a very good chance you've actually touched some of my company's handiwork.

And promptly recycled it.

Well, at least you were responsible enough to recycle it. After all, our plant outputs millions of pieces of mail for our clients.  Every month. And we are typically just one channel of their marketing plans. And our division has several plants.

According to my job title, I'm a programmer (actually, my title sounds way more impressive- in fact, it doesn't really say "programmer"at all). The cold hard fact is I do a lot more quality control work than programming. And as boring as both of those functions may sound, quality control is way more boring than programming.

And, as sad as this may sound, I'm something of an expert at quality control.

So, as I look at a lot of mail,  I have a few pieces of advice for those of you in business who are trying to sell to the general public.

#1. Actually, this is the only piece of advice I have for you. In fact, if you cannot understand this, you are hopeless, your business offers no value to anyone, and you are completely lacking in imagination and have nothing to offer to your prospective clients. I should charge $10,000 for this, but for you- today- its free.

GET A REAL BUSINESS EMAIL ACCOUNT.

Period. Pay me $10K right now, and everyone will be happy.

Seriously, how many of you expect someone to respond to your ad when the reply email is jonniebubbles@hotmail.com or edzachary89557@aol.com?

Bueller? Bueller? Does anyone else hear the echo of the buterflies' wings?

Insurance agents, car salespersons, realtors, ANYONE with a product or service: GET A REAL, BUSINESS EMAIL ADDRESS. Here's a hint: your business email address should not end in aol.com, hotmail.com or yahoo.com... some folks even have issues with gmail.com. This list is not all-inclusive, but should be a good starting point.

Spend a few bucks and get a domain: sandy@realty.biz, george@hugeinscompany.com, or fname.lastname@agreatbusiness.com.

To be honest, most of the world that has money is at least a little internet-savvy, and while hotmail, gmail, and yahoo are all valid email addresses, none of them are typically the best choices for the business world. Why? Because they are free, and if you use them in your business, then you may be perceived as being a shoestring business operator.

In other words, you could be a cheap, fly-by-night operator to a prospect.

Now, I'm sure bubbleslovesbucky@hotmail really is a great sales rep, but as soon as I see that email, I immediately assume that her reputation might be for something other than sales. So, do yourself a favor and separate your professional email from your personal email.

As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.