Tony Attwood's Blog

Being a fair minded and reasoned sort of bloke I tend to have some sympathy for Royal Mail in December, what with all these people living in Northumbria, Tyrone and the Scilly Isles posting Christmas cards to their long lost friends in Northumbria, Tyrone and the Scilly Isles. Tricky business this postal delivery.

But then I thought, surely by now they have had enough time to get the postal service at Christmas right – what with technology and everything. I thought this particularly when I saw the Royal Mail delivery report for December 2007. It reads like this

First class delivered next day 36.6%
First class delivered two days after posting 26.8%
First class delivered three days after posting 26.8%
First class delivered four days after posting 9.8%

And I thought, that’s not really on – not after 100 years or more or Christmas cards and the like.

But then I thought – what about Amazon? Just before Christmas there was a big news story about how 133% of all people who had ordered stuff from web sites were not getting it by Christmas. Oh no, said Amazon, 99.5% of our stuff has arrived on time.

I asked some friends and they said, “no we ain’t had our stuff” – and I looked a bit further. One friend really looked into this, trying to get the delivery sorted. Day after day, before and after Xmas, the courier promised delivery, and day after day it never arrived. But when Amazon were phoned the answer was, “it has been delivered”.

“Oh no it hasn’t” said my friend
“Oh yes it has” said Amazon

I was expecting them to say “It’s behind you” but they missed that one. But in this case, in my tiny sample, Amazon helped up its delivery figures by taking the fact that the delivery firm SAID that they were delivering, as a statement of delivery.

So, just to give plenty of warning, here’s my January suggestion: We will have Christmas this December. People will post stuff. It is possible to prepare for this, now that I have told you in advance. Can the couriers get ready and continue with a normal service this year?

You can keep up to date with direct marketing information by reading the daily DMS news service. It is free and you can leave at any time. Send an email to direct-mail-secrets-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

You can find out a lot more about making direct marketing work for you on www.hamilton-house.com

Tony Attwood
Hamilton House Mailings plc reg number 2444392 VAT 354907535GB. Phone 01536 399 000.

If you read the blogs and commentaries about direct marketing these days there are two continual themes:

Theme one says direct mail is dead – or at least dying – the future is email marketing.

Theme two says response rates in email marketing are so awful, and with unwanted advertising now accounting for 97% of all emails received, that the day of email marketing has come and gone.

The fact is both are right and both are wrong.

Direct mail response rates to poorly written poorly conceived mailshots are slipping down further and further. 20 years ago it was possible to write an appalling piece of direct mail, but if the product was reasonable to still get replies. Now the level of advertising generally is so high that this is no longer the case.

But well-written direct mail can still get terrific response rates. Sometimes it is hard to get to the right mailshot – whereas 10 years ago I might have to send out 2 trial mailings to find a mailer that worked, sometimes I have to go through four or five such promotions. This is not (I hasten to add) because my creative skills have declined, but because there are many more traders out there, and I don’t always have the latest information about what my client’s competitors are up to.

So direct mail still works – and well – but we all have to try harder and be more creative to make it work.

But what of email? In my opinion that can still work well. I have just done a mailing to generic addresses (ie not directly to the individual I want to reach, but rather to the organisation in general) and picked up a 1.2% sales rate. That is not 1.2% opening the email, but 1.2% actually buying the £20 product. None of these were previous customers – it was a cold email. I don’t always score that highly, but it shows there is life in the system.

So, again the message is the same – it is the quality of the piece, and a knowledge of the technology that works.

I’m always happy to share my thoughts on these issues – if you want to tell me about your product and your promotion, or send me a copy of your latest mailing, I’ll call you back (as long as you are in the UK) and we’ll talk it through. No charge, no obligation. (If you are outside the UK, I’ll email my comments to you.)

I do it for free because over half the people I do these reviews for come back and ask me to write for them – which is how the service is funded. But there really is no obligation.

My number is 01536 399 000. There is more about what Hamilton House does on www.hamilton-house.com

Tony Attwood

Postal rates from Royal Mail all change in April 2008. Details of these changes have been covered in the DMS news group – if you didn’t get the details do give me a call on 01536 399 000 and I will forward our notes to you.

Below are some of the changes to postal collection services for businesses. Meanwhile if you want to receive daily updates on mailing issues just send an email to direct-mail-secrets-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Business Collection prices and details from Royal Mail change in April 2008.

If you spend more than £15,000 per annum on Royal Mail services at a particular site you are entitled to a free collection of post at that site and you will not be affected by the information below. If you currently pay for a collection e.g. because you are at a site which posts comparatively low volumes of post you will be affected by this. There will be a major change to our collection service. RM will charge a flat fee of £450 to provide a mail collection at a time of our convenience.

If you require a collection at a specific time, you will need to purchase a weekday timed collection at an additional fee of £750 per annum. Saturday collections at extra cost

Tony Attwood
Hamilton House Mailings plc

Postal costs change in April 2008. Here’s some detailed information

For certain services, volume related discounts will be introduced. 1 or 2 year contracts will be available for Mailsort services, giving extra discounts, if you guarantee you will post a certain volume of mail.

For second class post, the difference in price between account and franked rates, and stamps, will be even greater than now.

On first class post, there are substantial reductions above 2 Kg

International rates will be simplified – Rest of the World Zones 1 & 2 will merge, so there will just be ‘Europe’ and ‘Rest of the World’.

Mailsort 700 CBC – the difference in cost between Mailsort 700 and Mailsort 120CBC will reduce. In time (a couple of years) Mailsort 700 will be withdrawn due to the introduction of walk sequencing i.e. the machines will sort mail in the order of the postman’s sorting frame.

You will be able to send barcoded Mailsort using Mailsort 120 CBC

Minimum Order Value – will remain unchanged for on-line orders (at £5) but on posting cheques (paper dockets) the MOV will increase to £20 per docket and a £1 processing fee will be introduced on each docket

Packetpost Returns pricing will follow Pricing in Proportion like all other mail services

Timed Delivery fee increases to £3,000 per annum

Mail Collect fee increases to £2,520 per annum

Volume Related Discount will only be available on certain account-paid mail services not on franked mail. Services which will attract VRD are: Standard Tariff Mail, Cleanmail, Automatic Standard Tariff Large Letter, Packetpost. The discount will be in volume bands and will be up to 5.5% and will be in addition to any discount the service already offers. The discounts will apply on a single mailing of a single class posted via a single service.

You can stay up to date with direct marketing matters by subscribing to our daily news service by sending an email to direct mail secrets

There is more information about all aspects of direct marketing at www.hamilton-house.com

Tony Attwood

A survey of US journalists by Brodeur suggests blogs are having a huge impact on the news – and not just on the news itself but also on the tone and editorial direction of the news.

The report says journalists do not feel that blogs generate exclusives; rather they see them as helpful in generating context and angles. As a result, 70% of reporters admitted to checking blogs regularly.

So… what? Well, it means that if you want your company to be noticed more, you need to be blogging more.

The problem is that not all companies possess anyone on the staff who is able to write a blog in an interesting and stimulating manner – nor do they have the ability to create a blog that is going to be noticed. We’ve all heard of blogs that get picked up by the nation, and have millions hanging on every word – but these are extremely rare and don’t normally deal with the every day world of manufacturing etc. Most blogs are read by virtually no one.

As with everything else there are ways of writing and ways of publishing blogs that get them read – and where that does happen there can be great results (providing of course you are saying things that are of interest to the wider world. Blogs that merely reflect on the fact that you have just launched a new version of the VX190plJU software tend to have a more limited appeal.)

The best routes thus far seem to be linking blogs to web sites, linking them to a regular email news or commentary service, and linking them to PR and direct mail campaigns. One survey which we reported earlier, suggested that pound for pound, blogging brings in far more revenue than using services such as Ad Words.

We (that is Hamilton House) have been experimenting a lot with blogs, and we are now trying to replicate the findings about Ad Words. Thus far we have had some real success in getting these notes noticed – both as email news items and through blogs.

If you would like to talk about it, do give me a call on 01536 399 000.

Tony Attwood

I don’t believe in simple answers – like “do this and you will make a fortune.” Life’s not like that, and direct mail isn’t like that.

But still, we all like simple answers – a single point that we can take evaluate our mailshots against. Then we can say, “ah that one worked because it had lots of Factor X” and “that one didn’t work because it didn’t have enough Factor X”

So, to start the new year, here is Factor X. It applies in most direct mail. It’s dead simple, and most firms sending out direct mail don’t do it.

The more your direct mail reflects the world-view of the recipient, the more successful it will be.

If you get sent a mailshot that reflects this approach, please send it to me and I will put it up on the internet for all to see. If you get sent one that totally does not reflect this approach, I’ll put that up as well, and we can all have a look and see if we agree. (If you send me one of your own and want me to comment on it, that’s fine too – and I guarantee that WON’T be put up for others to see – I’ll only be displaying ads that are in the public domain, in that they are being sent out to potential customers.

If you want to know more about what makes direct mail tick, it is on

http://www.theory.bz/start.html