I don’t know how much data you need to be statistically significant, but I expect it would take my modest website awhile to get there in terms of analyzing who does what when they go browsing on www.otismaxwell.com. But I’ve noticed a very consistent pattern on the “examples” page where you can access samples of work. Virtually everyone who visits this page looks at the FIRST entry and the LAST entry but very little in between. It’s sort of like the P.S. in a direct mail letter, which research says is often the first thing read. Folks see what is at the top, what is at the bottom, then they form their judgment about this copywriter’s work.
Tag: Marketing
What’s wrong with the post office?
I am the world’s biggest cheapskate, yet on more than one recent occasion I stepped out of a line at the Post Office and drove across town to UPS to ship the package for three times the cost with slower delivery. I see other people doing the same thing. They arrive, look at the line, shake their head and leave.
What’s wrong with the post office? Why can’t they just take our money and mail our stuff since that, after all, is that they’re there for?
Part of the problem is that the USPS has become the shipper of last resort. Nobody is simply buying stamps. Everybody is shipping a poorly wrapped package to some mysterious place, and fluid is leaking out, and they want insurance, and the clerk tells them to rewrap the package and get back in line. (At the HEAD of the line, so even if you’ve worked your way up to the front you’re not sure you really have.)
And that’s not even the biggest problem.
Everybody’s started using Priority Mail which seems sort of like blackmail, paying extra to insure your package will arrive when it’s supposed to. So, now the post office has started selling something called “Priority Bundles”. If you say you want to ship Priority, they ask you if you would like proof of delivery, or insurance, or a signature at extra cost. Of course, it takes a lot of time to explain these options and still more time to do the paperwork. And the line grows longer.
I can see the USPS’ logic: their clerks and customers are there anyway, so selling the extra services provides pure profit. But they disregarded the opportunity cost which is so great that other customers abandon the post office… perhaps permanently.
Much of my business depends on reliable of transmission of lots of mail, so this kind of thing makes me nervous. I’m reminded of what the new Postmaster General said in Canada a few years back when he was asked some question about direct mail advertising and reliability. I’m assuming this guy was a political appointee and had not read his briefing book. He said something to the effect of “that’s ridiculous, nobody would ever had a business that depended on the post office”. Right.
The Shoemaker’s Children
Direct marketers in their self promos are some of the worst practioners of our craft, and this invite to a Catalog Age webinar is a great example. The subject line should tease… an intro headline should pay it off… then quickly get to the meat in the body copy of the invite.
Instead, this email repeats the same headline no less than three times before they get to the meat and the benefits. The row of identity-building images across the top is also a problem. This is appropriate for collateral but not for the recipient of the email; I already KNOW who I am. The muffed salutation… let’s say that is a service bureau problem… even so, if you’re not sure your data is clean maybe just forego the dear so-and-so ?