The art of positive image / product projection is often undervalued by many companies but if done professionally can greatly enhance a companies image / turnover. I am aware of small to medium size business's that will knock up a promotional letter for a mailing campaign in about half an hour. Send it out to 1,000 addresses and then wonder why the response is poor and decide that mailing campaigns do not work. The difference in contact/sale ratios from a well thought out mailing campaign to that of a half hour Word job can in some cases be threefold.

With regards to mailing campaigns. Preparing the content; deciding on which format and getting a balance between outlining KEY features of your product / service whilst keeping it short and concise, can not be achieved in half an hour if done professionally. I spent a good 3 days in preparation on a recent 4,000 address mailing campaign I carried out. The easy part of mailing campaigns is the actual Word processing and the merging of say, an Excel potential client name and address spreadsheet to a main document. The hard part is getting the content and formatting right but general common sense gives you an excellent guideline. Here are some of the factors I believe make the difference between a successful and unsuccessful mailing campaign...

1. Short, sharp and concise.

Remember those 3 main document characteristics and you have gone a long way towards the output of a successful mailing letter. Long winded explanations of how your product works and the 30 features it has should be left for a follow up letter or in a brochure. Do not make initial contact with a 3 page letter going through each and every feature. It will probably end up in "file 13" before the end of the first page. People generally react far more positively to short, easily understandable letters.

I personally do not believe in the creation of more than 2 sides in a mailing document. Much preferable is a one sided company introduction and outline of the KEY features in your product / service, with particular emphasis on unique features. Clear instruction on what the potential client must do next is also important. This is more important than most people think. Do not just leave your address and contact number at the bottom of a page. Instruct the reader to call /fax / coupon reply or whatever but don't believe it is obvious so there is no need to instruct them. Have you ever noticed on many advertisements how often the phrase "CALL NOW!" or "send your coupon in NOW!" occurs? They want an action and they are asking you (comes across as telling you actually) to act now.

2. Paint a picture

People understand pictures better than words so "paint a picture" when describing a product. e.g.. "The durable, well designed Acme printer..." is far more descriptive as "our printer..". In general paint a vivid picture of your products with the careful selection of descriptive words.

3. Grammar use and word selection.

Try hard to keep sentences and paragraphs short, particularly at the top of your letter. On many occasions you can substitute a comma with a full stop. Use plenty of line / paragraph breaks. Try not to impress with the usage of long words when short ones will suffice. Understandable and easily read letters produce the best results.

4. Person to person

People buy from people. You want to keep any mailing on as much of a personal basis as possible. Use individuals names where possible and use plenty of "You"'s and "Your"'s within the text. Do not write as you would when addressing a group. Consider your potential customer/client as one individual and try to avoid generalities such as "one can substantially increase business.." Much better is "Acme ltd. could substantially increase its business..."

5. Get to the point

"We shall get back to you shortly regarding this matter..."

"On the 25th of March we will contact you regarding this matter...."

Which one of the above two phrases is going to project the image of a competent, professional company?

The second of course. What you are saying is you have your business under control, which increases trust. Don't be ambiguous when dealing with clients / customers or potential clients / customers.

6. The use of graphics

Don't run through the Word CD looking for an appropriate piece of clip art which matches your mailing theme. If you are not prepared to pay for quality pictures or clip art or even take your own photos and have them scanned you should really leave out graphics altogether. There is nothing worse than a badly drawn line art graphic in your document. As mentioned earlier, people understand pictures better and various studies show the obvious, which is that the eye is drawn first to a picture. If it is of poor quality, it will have a negative influence from the outset on your readers perception of your company / product.

I personally steer away from .wmf type clip art and prefer to use photos. It goes without saying that the hard copy of such documents should be produced professionally and not on your deskjet colour printer. This can make a large mailing campaign expensive, but images do paint a thousand words and are in general desirable on promotional literature.

Above are just some of my observations with regards to a mailing campaign. Of course, marketing covers many other areas such as research, presence at trade fairs, sponsorship, advertising, Internet presence, logo design, company slogans etc. I have experience in most of these areas Especially mailings, research, Internet presence (E-commerce) and logo design. More on Internet presence can be found in my E-commerce page.

I am most definitely interested in a marketing job offer. Especially companies which are open to fresh ideas and reward success. Please contact me per E-mail with any serious offer within the reasonable commuting distance of Hannover, Germany.

Current employment status:
Still seeking a new challenge in the Hannover, Germany area!