A Lawyer as Chief Marketing Officer?
Probably not a good idea ...
| Vol. 6, Issue No. 3 February 9, 2010 By Denny HatchIN THE NEWS
Colleges Market Easy, No-Fee Sell to Applicants
RICHMOND, Va. — Over the last few years, the tiny College of Saint Rose in Albany has seen applications increase at least 25 percent annually, minority admissions rise and its standing in the U.S. News and World Report rankings climb more than 20 rungs. Its secret? Lifting a page from the marketing playbook of credit card companies.
—Jacques Steinberg, The New York Times, Jan. 26, 2010
The New York Times account of 100 institutions of higher education sending high-tech direct mail to high school students in order to rope them in as applicants—with huge success—grabbed my attention. I devoured Jacques Steinberg’s story.
It quickly became clear that some old direct mail pro had landed in the honey pot—a fossilized industry desperate for business—and cashed in big time. Using tried-‘n’-true techniques developed over the past 800 years, these colleges learned they could eat their competitors’ lunch.
In the middle of Steinberg’s story, the name of an old pro jumped off the page and grabbed me by the collar—Bill Royall of Royall & Co. out of Richmond, Va., who shook up direct mail more than 20 years ago.
Plus ça change, plus c'ést la même chose.
A Personal Digression
In Target Marketing magazine, I run an ad offering a free critique of anybody’s direct marketing effort. Last year I received an inquiry from a defense contractor.
The piece in question was a letter to all the attendees of a giant weapons expo who'd stopped by this company’s booth. Hundreds of follow-up letters were sent out, and not one reply was received. Zip. Zero. Nada.
I pointed out that the letter—in terms of copy, design and lack of offer—broke a ton of rules. I woke up at 4 the next morning thinking about that sad-sack letter, hit the computer and made some suggestions on what to test following the next big show.
The marketing folks liked what I said, so I offered to fly out to its headquarters—for travel expenses only—for a free day of consulting to see if a permanent relationship made sense. The company agreed.
I didn't know squat about military or defense marketing, but I do know marketing after spending 50-plus years in the field. I showed up at the offices with my laptop and started asking questions and taking notes. It took me about 20 minutes to find out what was needed, the basics that were being ignored and what wasn't being done. We bonded, and the company kept me over for a second day.
Takeaways to Consider
- You’ll have more marketing success turning an experienced marketer into an industry expert than putting an industry expert in charge your marketing.
- “The right offer should be so attractive that only a lunatic would say no.”
—Claude Hopkins - Make it easy to order.
- Use flattery. Analyzing more than 1,000 mailings, the late guru Axel Andersson—a brilliant statistician—discovered that 42 percent used flattery.
- Inserting a deadline will create a sense of urgency.
- Choose your deadline carefully. A date too far in advance has no urgency. On the other hand, pick a date that’s too close and if for some reason the mailing is delayed, your effort is chopped liver.
- In this high-tech, connected world of the Internet and e-communications, many marketers think they can save money by relying solely on e-mail efforts. I urge all marketers not to ignore old-fashioned direct mail.
- Recent surveys have shown that many in the 18-to-34 age group prefer old fashioned direct mail to e-mail. The reason: their brainpans are grafted to the Internet and their in-boxes are a perpetual blizzard of Spam—which they HATE, and do not trust people that send it.
- If you have the budget, test direct mail alone, e-mail alone and a combination of the two.
- Give the prospect multiple ways to order: mail, e-mail, phone and fax.
- The more of the key copy drivers—the emotional hot buttons that change behavior—that you can insert into your effort, the more powerful your argument. Those copy drivers are: fear – greed – guilt – anger – exclusivity – salvation – flattery.
- Royall’s hugely successful efforts to high school students are pinned to exclusivity, flattery and salvation.
- “Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.”
—Edward Tufte
Web Sites Related to Today's Edition
“Colleges Market Easy, No-Fee Sell to Applicants,” The New York Times
http://url2it.com/cbpp
Royall & Co.
www.royall.com
Companies Mentioned:
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As a parent of a high school senior I'm nearing the end of this college process. When "we" started getting mailings in his freshman year I was appalled, as a marketer, to their sameness, to their lack of targeting, and their lack of a call to action. And now I get to do it all over again with my next one!
"Make the customer think it's his idea" ..."simplify" ..."marketing professionals create direct response.--not lawyers, school administrators or accountants"..."multiple response avenues"..."establish relationships online": all excellent thoughts, but in a competitive market an excellent creative is the edge that gets the unexpectedly high return.
Marketing: Knowing the needs/wants of the target customer and fulfilling them.
Advertising: Telling the target customer how we will fulfill their needs/wants (Often including pointing them to what they need/want.)
Both of these examples started with marketing--identifying the customer's pain points which prevented them from getting their needs/wants. The difference in the outcomes was that the defense contractor didn't want to do the heavy-lifting of fulfilling needs/wants while the colleges saw it as vital to their success. Then the colleges were able to work with an advertising execution which highlighted the marketing concepts.
In consulting over the 18 months, I've found it both amazing and depressing how many companies don't want to do marketing.
Denny,
Great story about the defense contractor. Funny how blind the guy was -- you, the CEO of your company, gave a free critique and a free day or two of, I would say, pretty valuable consulting time, to land what I expect was at least a decent-paying contract.
I was speaking with a restaurant-marketing consultant this morning. He's a direct-marketing guy and doesn't even know it. Was a chef that took several restaurants to 5 stars. One thing he would do was have the servers test different scripted descriptions of specials on different days to find out which "offer" pulled better.
Anyway, what I got from him as he told me how he gets his clients to improve their profits, and I got from your story (the lawyer-marketer part) was the same lesson. Namely, at the start of it and in the long run, it all boils down to one key question:
How do you get people willingly change their habits -- and how do you get them convinced that it was *their* idea?
Brilliant! To me, the real magic was selling these schools on the principle of changing their recruiting ways.
**making it simple--not rigorous--to apply. Most schools are NOT MIT..
**dumping the fee, promising fast admission decisions--things the many kids who must apply to several schools (and their paying parents) appreciate.
*treating the stodgy "essay" requirement as antiquated or shortening it to a prior paper that tells if the kid can write English or not.
*Yet personalizing the mailing to kids less familiar with the device; Walt Disney is reputed to have said, "Every 4 years, a new audience."
Educators and their accrediting orgs, particularly at the college level, are bound by their own complex worldview, seldom facing the elemental truth that college, like the Socratic teaching role, must be "hired" by the consumer, no matter whether the $$ come from someone's pocket or US Dept. of Education grants/scholarships. This is ultimate consumer recognition!
Denny - Thanks for the proof that direct mail is not dead. Multi-channel direct marketing is the key. You have to build a relationship through multiple contacts and marketing methods. It's like dating. No girl is going to say yes to a marriage proposal on the first date. The relationship builds on Facebook, e-mail, phone calls and love notes in the mail.
Jeff Veesenmeyer