Tony Attwood's Blog

There’s a lot of talk on marketing discussion groups about the issue of sending out too many emails.

One area of concern is that of news groups like this one.  In case you hadn’t realised, you get between three and five emails a week, each week via this service.

I try and keep these emails relevant, and because I get a fair number of emails back from readers I can see which emails are read and thought helpful, and which one’s not.

Anyway, I was thinking on this when I got a helpful email from Ticketmaster reminding me that I have a ticket for the Bob Dylan / Mark Knopfler concert next Tuesday in Nottingham.

That’s fair enough.  I haven’t forgotten, but I guess I could have done.

But what then made it so silly was that they went on to tell me that I might also enjoy the upcoming Cliff Richard concert and would I like a ticket?

It was rather like the thing Amazon does when it says, “Other people who bought ‘Theoretical nuclear physics and the issue of gravity’ also bought Noddy in Toytown.”

I am sure that someone bought both – even theoretical physicists have children, nephews and the like, but it just shows you how silly automatic systems can be.

And to stress, I have nothing against Mr C Richard.  Indeed only the other day I listened to “Living Doll”.  But I don’t think very many Dylan/Knopfler fans will also want to go to a C Richard concert.

My point being, yes, irrelevant and badly written news can turn people away from news services, but so can automatic systems that have no one overseeing them.

News services like this do work – and we have set up a number of them for a number of companies – and they generally do perform extremely well in getting the company’s message and image across, and in bringing in customers.  But like everything they need to be handled with care.

If you would like to talk this through or see how such a system could work for you, do give me a call on 01536 399 000.

Otherwise, I just hope you find some of the emails of interest.

Tony Attwood

Hamilton House Mailings Ltd reg number 2444392 VAT 354907535GB.  Phone 01536 399 000.

You can follow us on Twitter @HHMailings

I have from time to time recommended to companies that in order to bring in new customers  they should experiment with their advertising.

Perhaps because advertisers are always a little suspicious, or maybe because they have heard that on occasion I have written some rather eccentric adverts, my suggestions can be met with some caution – or even distrust.  (I think that’s unfair, as many of my ideas are as straight as straight could be, but reputations are hard to shift).

But the key fact is that even though I preach the sermon of “test everything” and “be open to new ideas” these companies still tend to be cautious and often call a committee meeting in order to do a review of my idea.

In other words, instead of trying the idea out by emailing or mailing a small number of individuals or companies selected from the postal or email list, they look at the advert and make a judgement.

Of course this is their prerogative.  It is their company and they are advertising their product.  And of course there must be a limit as to how far one might go in order to win some extra orders.

But what I do on occasion hear are comments such as, “we had a look but we thought it was a bit wordy”, or “I talked it through with my colleagues but they felt this style of writing wasn’t right for us.”

Such comments bring with them a problem.  They are based not on evidence, but on a feeling.  Of course you have a feeling for what people want – but it is quite possible that the reason that the people we are targeting are not customers is because they want something else in their advertising.  In short, while your existing advertising brings in some people, there are many others who are not attracted to you, because they don’t like the ads.

When I point this out, and suggest a different approach to the advertising I sometimes get the reply that these people would think it very strange if the firm suddenly changed its advertising.

My answer to that is, no they wouldn’t, because the chances are they won’t remember the past advertising.   Of course if the adverts are plastered across TV screens for months on end even non-buyers will remember them, but in terms of postal or email campaigns that go out to non-customers once a week or maybe just once a month, they tend not to be remembered.  (I can explain why this is the case and the psychology behind it, but I won’t just now, as I don’t want to be side-tracked.  Call me if you want to know.

Besides, we always talk about doing a test mailing, sometimes to as few as a few hundred people.

But, try as I might, I often fail to get the message across.   And yet, after half a lifetime working in direct marketing, I remain convinced that the only way to grow is to experiment and do trial mailings.

If you would like to try one or two approaches that might convert some non-customers over to being customers, do drop me a line (Tony@hamilton-house.com) or give me a call on 01536 399 000, and we can talk it through.   I’ll willingly give you some of my ideas on the phone without any obligation, without any charge, and without anything nasty crawling out of the woodwork.  You never know, you might be impressed.

Tony Attwood