Ahh… spring is in the air. Can you smell it? No, not the exhaust of the car in front of you on your way home, I’m talking about that smell of grass and soil. It smells great, but it reminds me of all the yard work I’m going to have to do. I’m seriously considering putting in artificial turf which will alleviate the need for mowing. This got me thinking about what else I could do, and as a grin spread across my face, I laid out my plan of genius. I decided that if I was going to go to the trouble of replacing the grass, I better yank out all the trees and bushes. Faux greenery doesn’t drop its leaves in the fall or have to be pruned. Plastic flowers don’t need to be watered and won’t die.

I decided that it would be best to run these ideas past my girlfriend. As I gleefully divulged my master plan, I watched the changing expression on her face. The anticipated look of awe never materialized and I quickly realized I was getting the “This better be a joke!” look. I scrambled for a punch line to salvage what was left of my dignity. Then I remembered what day it was… salvation was at hand. I yelled, “April Fools!” I knew my gambit had failed when she looked at me and without a pause replied, “You’re a fool alright!”

I crumpled up my landscaping plan and began working on this week’s issue of Web Marketing 101. It was while I was hiding in the garage that I looked at the lawn mower I had hoped I would never have to use again. The lever used to control the speed caught my eye and gave me the inspiration for this week’s topic. Slow is illustrated with a turtle and fast with a rabbit.

You see, the change of the seasons also reminds me that it’s the time of year when a lot of businesses start advertising spring sales and promotions and I’m almost guaranteed to have my mailbox stuffed with flyers and catalogs I don’t want. In this issue of Web Marketing 101 we will discuss the differences between traditional mail marketing (The Tortoise) and email marketing (The Hare). I said it before in a previous issue and I’ll say it again…

I don’t care what Aesop says… Slow and steady doesn’t win the race!

Let’s ignore the fact that the Hare in Aesop’s classic fable was an arrogant, self-centered, egotistical narcissist. Had he not spent the race lollygagging he surely would have beat the tortoise hands down.

Now, I recognize the fact that time is not always a factor, but let’s assume for a moment that it is. Traditional direct (mail) marketing is sometimes referred to as snail mail. As the name implies it takes time to get delivered. Where the intended recipients are located in relationship to the sender can impact how long it takes. Email marketing on the other hand is quick. Your message can reach your intended audience in a matter of minutes instead of days. Since email has become an integral part of business for many of us, it has sped up and simplified our ability to communicate one on one. Email can deliver the same quick and easy benefits to our marketing efforts.

That’s not an end table… it’s just a stack of today’s catalogs!

A few years ago my parents made a purchase from a catalog they had received in the mail. This single act sparked a course of events that became at first laughable, then annoying, and finally seriously debilitating. They started receiving more catalogs… a lot more. At first it was one or two here and there, but eventually it got to the point where they were receiving one or two catalogs a day. This went on for months before they were able to get themselves off whatever mailing list they had inadvertently subscribed to.

It’s true that this kind of thing does happen in the world of email marketing as well. However with legitimate email marketing campaigns, opt-out features provide a hassle-free way of removing yourself from the list. That’s something I can’t seemed to find on the 42- page cheese catalog I just received in the mail.

In marketing you don’t always get what you pay for!

We’re going to perform a mathematical experiment to illustrate the differences in cost between traditional mailing and email. We will simplify this by looking only at the cost associated with sending the information and not the cost of creating the marketing materials including costs for design, production and  printing and envelopes -if they are required.

If we are marketing to 1,000 recipients once a month what will are costs be? In the case of traditional email we will pay $2,288 in postage (Bulk business rates for postcards ranged from $0.199 - $0.223. For the purposes of this exercise we will use $0.199). Email marketing costs vary depending on what service you are using. With the iContact service for example, the fee for reaching 1,000 recipients once a month for a year would be $228. You don’t have to be John Nash to appreciate those numbers… don’t let communists know.

Don’t hold your breath!

One problem with traditional mail marketing is that after you send your material out it’s really hard to determine the impact you’re having on your audience (sort of like blogging and never getting any feedback. Ahem!). So after spending over $2,000 to send out our marketing piece using direct mail,  we have no idea if it has had any success. Did anyone read it or was it simply pitched out? Email software such as iContact gives us statistical data, such as read and click-through counts to help determine if what we are doing is working or not.

It is very important to note that I am not trying to get you to eliminate traditional mail marketing and replace it with email marketing; on the contrary, it is still an important advertising tool and can play an important role in your marketing campaign. I would recommend including email marketing into your campaign at certain critical points within your plan to cost-effectively increase touch points with the customer. Email marketing can be an ideal complement to your existing campaign or an excellent substitute when cost or timeframe are the deciding factors. 

Aesop’s fables were chocked full of life’s little lessons… but a Web Marketing Guru he was not!

Until next time… John W Svoboda, Web Marketing Guru, Fool every month of the year!