Direct Mail Friday

It’s Direct Mail Friday

It’s a joy to get a visit from the mailman and occasionally he brings me goodies that are worth discussing.

Yesterday was no exception.

I have a friend who is in the auto repair industry and we talk about marketing automation for his database of customers. The thrust of the discussion revolves around mining the data and providing content that is targeted. Targeted without being “creepy”.

Have I talked to you about the Amygdala? Sometimes our targeting efforts trip that “how did they know that?” trigger, tickles the old monkey brain and it sends us back up into the trees. We can’t help it. Fight or flight.

Back to the direct mail piece that arrived yesterday. Take a look:

Pretty sweet, right? It looks like my grandma sent me a letter from beyond the grave. Such nice cursive!

As you can see, I ripped it open. Look at what was inside:

I don’t know who Tom is, but now the hairs on the back of my neck are standing up! Did I send him an email that’s coming back to haunt me? Did my kid do something wrong?

Wait. Oh, I get it. It’s about my car. This explains the burning sensation I felt on my ears Monday morning. It seems they were talking about the family truckster.

Now I’m all in. What’s this printed email all about?

Yep. Grandma left me a post it. I can get some dollars for a trade in!

I love the Page 1 of 1 at the bottom too. Kills it.

I love campaigns where everything was done on purpose. Armed with the  information from my last visit, this is tres cool. The creative team gets a thumbs up.

But does it work?

I had to find out. So I called the 877 number (tripping a tracking code – nice) and talked to the nice person. Can you guess their name?

Yes. Cheryl.

Well, it turns out that Bill and Tom are real people and work there but it takes a while to get to them.

I like it. Cursive made me open. Email print out kept me interested. Post it made it personal. Bien.

The Mrs. isn’t interested in getting away from the Highlander right now, but it’s now on the radar.

Drip. Drip.

Good stuff.