Tag: Mailer

Catching Your Customer’s Eyes 👀 (Renewals by Andersen, Direct Mail Piece)

Posted on by brianjpombo

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Brian gives us a mail review from a mailer by Renewals by Andersen.

Transcription

Catching your customers eyes.

Hi I’m Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

I want to talk about a piece of mail I got today. So we’ve been talking about like deep things lately on our little conversations, our nightly conversations.

But today I want to show you, this is a piece of relatively thick cardstock, let’s say it’s cardstock. It’s a relatively thick piece of paper and I don’t know enough about the paper to tell you how thick this is but they kind of get an idea just by the sound by looking at it.

This showed up in my mailbox. It was sitting there with some other stuff and it was sitting there kind of wide open. Then I looked at him like this is this a piece of mail or did someone slip this in my box.

So the first thought that went into my mind because it looks like just a piece of paper. And it’s just a very thick piece of paper. So it’s got the address, it’s got it’s pretty sorted standard US postage paid, Twin Cities Minnesota. looks like it came from Springfield, Oregon, or at least that’s why it’s made to look like Springfield’s not far from here. It’s a little north, a few hours north of here.

This is by a company called, Renewals by Andersen. But I want, I want to just point this out if you’re looking to get attention from your customers, regardless of what style of marketing, this is direct mail, but regardless of what style of marketing, the whole idea is to catch their eye.

The whole idea is to get their attention for just one more second, and there are so many very subtle things about this piece that makes it different.

Number one, you don’t get many pieces of mail that are just like this, even a postcard, or an oversized postcard. A postcard this size, it tends to have a little bit more weight and a lot more gloss.

This is not glossy, it’s a very flat matte look to it. Okay, that’s the first thing that caught my eyes.

Second thing is, I’m not sure if you can tell from the lighting in here and everything else. But it’s a very interesting color. It’s not white. It’s not exactly pink. But it’s a very light, something in between white and pink.

That’s off putting it catches your eye, it’s not a typical thing that you’d see. In fact, it kind of looks as I’m looking at it.

Now it kind of appears to be like a, if you’ve ever seen those carbon copies that used to have these around a lot more often before copy machines became so plentiful, and then printers and scanners. But the carbon copies where you can write something, and then you get a receipt and someone else gets a receipt and the top one will be like white and the second one will be like pink, and the next one will be like yellow.

And that’s what this reminds me of.

I’m not sure if it’s made to look like that or not but it appears that way. So it definitely caught my eye as far as that this is not accidental.

I guarantee you this is not accidental. If it is it’s a brilliant accident.

Having a very off putting color is going to grab people’s eyes, especially when it comes to direct mail. Just something that’s unusual. So it’s an unusual shape and size for direct mail.

It just It looks like a piece of paper, it looks like something that was torn off of somebody’s carbon copy. And there’s more to it. Okay.

In this, they’ve got this, what appears to be handwriting. And looking a little closer, I’m looking to see if this is an actual font?

Yes, it is.

This is a font. It’s a font that’s developed to be made to look like handwriting, how you can tell it’s a font is how similar, Well, I think it’s a font that now I can’t tell it’s very well done. How similar, a lot of the letters are, if you look at the similarity between a lowercase i here and a lowercase i in some cases, they have fonts that will I can’t remember the term for it, but it switches back and forth between they have like three four different lowercase eyes and so it switches between them.

So it appears to be like someone hand wrote this. And if someone did handwrite it it’d be just as simple because they’re they photocopied ever. It’s definitely photocopied ink. It’s not actually handwritten, but it’s made to appear like it’s handwritten in that customer information.

None of its personalized. So this is a sure sure giveaway.

It says we’re available in your neighborhood where it should say name, phone number address. They just kind of wrote over it.

We’re available in your neighborhood to provide price quotes. And then it goes through replacement windows all types including picture double hung. Replacement patio doors and fringe hinged and sliding.

Call our helpline a very clear cut call to action which is very important in any type of marketing that you do get a free installation, it’s highlighted.

The coloring is very I mean, it really appears like it’s highlighted you can tell wasn’t but it gives the initial appearance because it isn’t the same.

It’s the type of coloring that would not work on this type of thing. And so it blends in it’s perfect.

Says, call our helpline by March 31 for our installer discount plus an extra 500 off extra 500 off your project / Alex with his phone number. Alex, and I’ve gotten these things before, I’m not sure we may have done we may have shown something by Renewal by Andersen. But I don’t think we’ve shown this piece before because I’ve seen their Alex character that they use in all these things.

Very, very slick marketing. And for somebody looking for window or door replacement, this might just catch your eye. It caught my eye just because I didn’t It’s not gonna catch everybody’s eye.

A lot of people that are looking are going to notice this and go straight in the garbage. But because it’s different on many different levels, it has a better chance than anything else catching your eye. That the main thing.

If you can just remember that you’ve got to be different, you got to stand out, you got to you got to try something, you got to mix it up a little bit. I’m working with a political campaign consultant with political campaign and one of the things they’re doing is a different shaped political sign. It’s going to drive people nuts, you’re going to have a whole lot of people say, what is it? What is it?

Why are they doing it like that and everything else, it’s gonna get people talking, just by having a slightly different size sign, then people are used to it, it doesn’t take much to get attention.

So these are just things to keep in mind, regardless of what media you’re using. I talk a lot about direct mail. That’s something we all have in common, and something that’s really really underused.

I mean, seriously, you ought to look into direct mail for your business. But besides that, I’m not paid by the post office or anything else to encourage you to buy direct mail.

Overall, you got to have the initiative you have to have the desire to get out there and be seen more and stand out.

That’s what my books all about, 9 Ways to Amazon-Proof of Your Business. You get a free copy at AmazonProofBook.com. It’s all I have for today. You have a good night and we’ll see you tomorrow.

In the meantime, get out there and let the magic happen.

Official Looking, Sneaky, Direct Mail 📫 (AAA Life Insurance)

Posted on by brianjpombo

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Brian shares an interesting mailer he got from AAA for Life Insurance.

Transcription

Official looking, sneaky, direct mail.

Hi I’m Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

We like to talk about tactics, strategies and principles that can help you in your business.

So much of the time I’ve been focusing on principles, but I want to kind of try something a little bit different here and talk about some tactics.

When you’re promoting your business, it’s a good thing to look at all options, especially the stuff that’s not as sexy. That’s not as new and modern, the stuff that’s been around forever, that’s the stuff that sometimes works better than the new stuff because no one else is using it.

In fact, some of the oldest tricks in the book, so to speak, can be really profitable and useful for getting people’s attention, which is really in the end what it’s all about, it’s all about standing out.

I’ve got this is a letter I received, I set it aside, I got this quite a while ago, I set it aside to be able to talk with you about it, and just never got around to it.

I am going to open it for you but I want to show you something, it’s a large envelope. It has my name and my full name and everything here. And it says, Oregon, which is the state I live in notification of eligibility. My name Brian J. Pombo says right there.

To open fold along this perforation side here, open it up, show you what we’ve got.

There we go right there. Nice little certificate now turns out this is from AAA and it says, AAA Life Insurance Company.

So this is going to be a pitch for AAA life insurance. You know, most people don’t understand this but AAA is an incredibly sharp business model.

If you’re not familiar with it, the main draw to AAA is to pay on a yearly basis so that you have access to roadside assistance. That’s kind of what their bread and butter and what that what they’re famous for.

But they have all these other things that come along with it.

Once they have you as a member, they advertise to you on a regular basis, all the other deals that they have going, which is probably really where the big money’s made, like life insurance, similar to something like Um, let me see here, what was the other one I was thinking of?

It’ll come to me, there’s another club that you could belong to. That does the same thing. Once they get you involved, they just go after you over and over again.

So the very official looking certificate noted notification of eligibility is Brian J. Pombo, is eligible to recruit quest term life insurance at group rates available only to AAA members and their spouses.

Once you’ve applied complete this for your records, if approved, you will receive a certificate of insurance. I’ve applied for blank, blank, blank.

So it has a little thing for you to fill out. As a AAA member of the State of Oregon, you’re eligible to apply for…..ok, and it kind of goes into detail along with the letter.

Everything is very personalized to me which is great. That’s really good looking, kind of draws a person and requires a lot of reading, you would think that something that requires a lot of reading wouldn’t get a lot of attention. That would draw people away but when it comes to something like this.

If the person is either interested or not interested in life insurance. they either have life insurance or they don’t.

If they do, they’re probably looking for something else. If they’re going to read this otherwise, no one’s even going to be interested.

But if they are, then you got to give them lots to go through.

Then they’ve got the coverage selection chart, lots of things to look into their AAA life insurance.

What’s next little pamphlet, benefits guarantees of this term life insurance, a little more bulleted material for people who are quick readers. Nice and fancy 31 day risk free review.

Very straightforward, but they give you a big old pack and then finally, Group Term Life Insurance Application.

So it’s already partially filled out with my name and address. I probably already showed you my just my business address, so it’s no big deal. No risk, no commitment for 31 days.

This is a common common model. They make it look as though it’s lined paper. The person I know that was famous for doing this was probably in the 90s when Ron Paul ran for president had a famous fundraising letter in which it was nothing but the yellow, like off of one of those pads, a yellow line pad, hand written that they just went and photocopied.

It pulled so much attention across the market. I don’t know if he came up with that I’ve just, I’ve heard that over and over again, they kind of did a similar thing, except it’s all it makes it look like it was actually done on typewriters.

If anyone actually uses a typewriter, but it’s still a font that gets attention.

No risk, no commitment for 31 days, when you return your application in this postage paid envelope below, you’re not risking anything, you’re not committing to anything for 31 days, just trying to try to get one last chance of again.

They got the envelope here. Pretty big, we got the return address just for me, really make sure every piece here, except for this has my name on it.

In many cases of address, very well done, I’m sure this, this piece does very well for them. But it comes down to the numbers. I mean, they have the money, a large company, like this has the money to send out a lot of this stuff.

They already know how many people are opening it. How many people are going to buy it. They know all that they’ve got all that information.

You’ve got to know whether it’s going to work for you. Based on your numbers, how many can you send out how many people actually have to open it and pay attention and do whatever the thing is, you’re asking them to do that call to action.

Very interesting piece. It’s something you can learn from, especially the the what gets you to open it.

It’s an oddly shaped envelope. Doesn’t give you any information on the outside.

Honestly, it looks very official, which is a different way of doing it. It’s got the pre-sorted postage just here.

So you that pretty much tells you it’s advertising. Got an address back here, but no name, no name of a company, there’s no way for you to know until you open it up in that curiosity, especially since they have a nice little open window here with your name popping out that curiosity draws people in.

Something to really keep in mind.

Yes, with direct mail, but really with anything when you’re talking email, anything else if you can make things look official, if you can have a have a curiosity, piece to it that really draws people in.

People will do it more often.

It’s not a for sure thing. It’s not.

It comes down to you know how good your list is and everything else. But you got to pay attention to these types of simple ideas to help make your tactics better, especially when it comes to direct mail.

Hey, that’s all I have for tonight. Go check out my book for more larger base strategies that you can use across the board, 9 Ways to Amazon-Proof Your Business.

When I’m talking Amazon proof, I’m talking making it competition proof where even Amazon.com can’t stop you. It’s all about standing out, 9 Ways to Amazon-Proof Your Business.

You can get you can go and purchase it off Amazon.com. They actually lead you on their Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com or any of the bookstores and you can go to AmazonProofBook.com, for a free copy. Free digital copy.

That’s all I got for tonight. You have a good one.

Get out there and let the magic happen.

3ABN Mail Review 😇 (Three Angels Broadcasting Network)

Posted on by brianjpombo

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Brian gives his thoughts on a direct mail piece he got from 3ABN.

Transcription

3ABN mail review.

Hi I’m Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

I like to talk a lot about direct mail. Because it’s one of those things that most people don’t pay attention to, but you can make a whole lot of money with and be able to reach your audience.

It’s just one of those things that that’s kind of been forgotten but still exists and cost less and has more results now than ever before, at least in my experience. And when I get direct mail that’s different.

If I can see that there’s some type of reaction if there’s marketing involved in it whatsoever,, I like to bring it to the show.

So this is an example of a piece that I received that was complete without me asking for it. Okay, this is unsolicited mail that showed up in my mailbox, which is always the funniest.

And this says it’s 3ABN and we’ll dig into what this is, I had already opened it.

Normally, I’d want to open it here and show you my kind of like an unboxing video, this is an anon below being video, were to kind of get my reaction. It was marked to the resident, but it was my address, and I am the resident of this address.

So I’m going to take it and I had no other name on it.

I’m not sure what they’re basing this off of or that this goes out randomly to people or if it’s based on demographics, I can’t really tell three ABN what’s that says Three Angels Broadcasting from West Frankfort, Illinois.

So Christian Broadcasting organization, I’m to assume I’m making no opinions on the religious content here. So I’ve done these before where I’ve done religious direct mail, and I get a whole lot of comments down below, with people, either for or against.

I’m not making any opinions or judgment calls on this.

This is a piece of mail that was unsolicited, I’m just going to comment on whether it achieves what it wants to achieve.

First, let’s look at the envelope itself. Now, this is something you can learn even if you’re in business, or if you have a church or whatever. This is something you can learn something from this, because of how it’s set up with the fact that it says a resident.

Most people, I’m telling you, most people without their names on it, they’re going to take this and toss it in the garbage. These people probably already know that.

But it’s important for you to know that if you’re going to send out something broad, just by saying resident on it. It’s not gonna it’s not going to hit that well, in most cases. says it doesn’t have a live stamp just says nonprofit org us postage paid. It’s got pictures on it. It’s so you know, it’s advertising right off the bat, that goes against it.

In general, if people know what’s advertising, they’re going to toss it especially if they weren’t expecting it. Is that so it’s got the pictures it says 10 commandments something about salvation so that about Hellfire free gift for you?

Well, that can be helpful.

If people want to see what the free gift is and it’s got some weight to it. As opposed to a lot of direct mail doesn’t have weight when has weight and has some thickness you can feel there’s something in there.

A lot of people are going to open it just out of curiosity. So it’s got that going for it.

So I opened it up what is inside?

Nothing besides three booklets.

It is nothing but a free gift, okay?

These three booklets you see here are the three booklets that are inside.

So let’s take a look at these. And there’s some writing on here that just disregard that that was an, I was using it as a piece of notepaper because I wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing.

So you got these booklets and what are these booklets about?

Let’s take this one. This one looks like fun.

Hellfire. Just goes straight into a story and it’s got pictures.

Kind of basic pictures of what you would figure for a religious text.

And I’m just looking at it just getting a general impression here. I’m going to give you a kind of a marketing critique of it. I’m not going to talk about the content so much.

What happens when a person dies?

I’m looking at headlines and so forth. So that’ll I’ll tell you what’s useful about a headline like this.

What happens when a person dies?

If you’re interested in that type of thing. The fact that it’s a question specifically will draw you in. It’s a little bit bigger than everything else. It’s one of the only headlines I see in here other than and read a little more. There’s certainly a lot of text.

Lots if there is any interest whatsoever. This is going to give somebody something to chew on.

How hot is hell?

There you go. There’s a good question.

How long does hell burn?

Oh, there’s no table of contents, nothing else and then here seems to be the only call to action whatsoever in this thing. It says 3ABN, the mending broken people’s network. Ways to watch and listen to three ABN so you got your Smart TV.

So what are they doing?

They’re promoting their TV station, they’ve got this you could how to do it on a smart TV, you do dish, YouTube, you do podcasts, you know, Google Play App Store, live 24 streaming on their website, you go to their website, check it out.

And they’ve got a radio station that plays available over 350 radio stations around the world. It’s an ad for their overall broadcasting setup their radio and television. in marketing terms, we call this magalog. Okay, you have a magazine, except it’s not selling anything other than a worldview and get on their TV and radio.

Now, what about these other ones same thing there, Danny Shelton thing, the truth about the 10 commandments. And it goes basically through the same concept, same layout, Sabbath is the Lord’s Day, 10 commandments, God’s standard, the bottom line.

Okay, a comparison of the 10 commandments in the laws of Moses got a little chart there. And then the same exact layout on the end, this is the main call to action is to go check this out. Same thing.

And then this third one, the truth about salvation.

Now, as I said, I don’t know maybe this is really great content, especially for the right person, this is that they’re going to eat this up. And this is going to be really good stuff that they’re going to want to read.

Maybe it’s extremely well written, I don’t know, I’m just looking as a browser, and you have to look at mailpieces as a browser, you really do, because that’s a most of the people that are going to open it up.

Most of the people that get into it, most of the people that open these up, are going to be browsers.

So they’re looking for something that draws them in.

Now, the people that get drawn in and go through and read all this, well, that’s really your audience. But that’s going to be a very, very, very, very thin percent of all of these that you get sent out, especially if you’re sending them out in a very broad resident manner.

Once again, on the same page on the end, there doesn’t seem to be any other call to action other than a sizeable each of these has a sizable footnote section. So you can go check out these other pieces.

You know, parts of the Bible and Bible study tools and other books that people have written. Interesting stuff. Once again, is Danny Shelton’s work. So these are three pieces.

Okay unto themselves, it all depends on what you want to say everything comes back to intent. It all depends on what you want it to achieve. If you want this to sit around in people’s houses, maybe it does that maybe people will hold on to them because they have a book-like consistency to them.

And people will open it, I’ll feel like well, maybe I’ll read it one of these days type of thing or sit next to their toilet or whatever.

That’s because people read on the toilet, not saying anything else.

So very interesting booklet concept. I’m interested to see how well they do with this, whether they are actually tracking it, whether they have something they’re trying to achieve looking to get more people on to their thing, or if they’re just looking to just randomly spread the word of God, it works for that too, I guess, but you can’t track it as well.

If we’re talking marketing, and we’re talking direct response and being able to track and know whether you achieved what you’re trying to achieve, at least initially on your initial concept.

This doesn’t quite do it a would be very difficult to be able to track any of this but a very interesting setup. What do you think if you receive something like that, would that draw you in?

Would you be interested to look into it more?

Are you Do you know anything about 3ABN do with this draw?

You know, I’d love to find out your background and see what you think about it. Leave me a comment wherever you’re watching or listening to this. If you happen to be listening like on a podcast, and you’re not able to leave a comment.

Go over to BrianJPombo.com. Leave a comment there now is my book, 9 Ways to Amazon-Proof Your Business. You can get a free copy. If you want a digital copy, AmazonProofBook.com It’s all I got for tonight.

Hopefully you found that helpful. We’ll be back tomorrow. In the meantime, get out there and let the magic happen.