If your call center is only making EBR (existing business relationship) calls, you may think you have nothing to worry about, right? No. Just because it is legal to dial a number, doesn’t mean you should.
Calling too often or for the wrong reasons could turn an EBR into a former EBR. This happened when I retaliated against a company that overcalled me.
I used to have a weekend newspaper subscription. Since I only had time to read it on the weekends, this was a splendid arrangement — one which I would have gladly continued if not for overzealous telemarketing.
One evening I received a call from an enthusiastic employee of the paper. They had a special upgrade price so that I could enjoy the paper all week long. I explained that I only wanted the paper on weekends.
A few months later, I received another call for the same offer from a different rep. I assumed that turnover had occurred and my preference for weekend-only delivery had not been noted in my account (so much for an effective CRM). I repeated my penchant for weekend-only delivery.
These calls became a regular occurrence — and I grew increasingly annoyed. Sometimes the interval was two or three months, other times only a couple of weeks; once it was two days.
No one seemed to realize that regardless of how often it was offered, I was not going to capitulate to their plea to expand my subscription. Even when it was offered at no additional cost, I declined. I asked that they stop calling, but my request was disregarded.
My exasperation over the persistent phone calls grew until it exceeded my satisfaction in reading the paper. I realized that by cancelling my subscription, the EBR provision would soon cease to be a factor and eventually I would have legal recourse should the calls continue.
I expected the effort to end my subscription would provide one final opportunity to stop the phone calls—and continue receiving the paper, sans telemarketing. I was mistaken. Incredibly, when I called to cancel my subscription, no one asked why.
They didn’t say they were sorry. Most surprising—especially given their proclivity for phoning me—no one made a follow-up call. Even though there was a window of opportunity for them to call to win me back, that never occurred. The unwanted calls stopped.
The paper thought they were safe by placing calls that complied with legal requirements, but they were wrong. Their unrestrained calling turned a happy subscriber into an irritated ex-subscriber. I wonder how much other business they lost because of their legal, but unrestrained calling practices?
Monday’s blog about the misdirected press releases generated a lot of interest, both in the form of official blog comments, as well as email messages.
Sara, who works in the public relations industry — and sends me good press releases — emailed me her thoughts:
“…love your blog – and cannot believe what utter rubbish press releases you receive! We work so hard to ensure that our clients’ releases are going to the correct journalist, and feel dismayed and disappointed that other agencies cannot be a little more astute when it comes to selecting publications to target!”
From my perspective, I concur that Sara and her company (Berkeley PR) do an excellent job in properly targeting press releases and do so in a professional and helpful manner. I am sure that if everyone functioned with similarly high standards that I would have had no examples to share in Monday’s post.
She further theorized that
“Press releases and other articles are simply distributed to every website and journalist…in the world with the hope that the copy will by syndicated to other sites with embedded hyperlinks – which in turn should help the natural search rankings.”
So then, if my blog had included links to the culprits’ websites, I would have been doing exactly what they wanted. I wish I could say that I’m too smart to fall for that, but this time it was just dumb luck.
By the way, I had so much fun sharing outrageous headlines with you on Monday that I think I’ll do it again sometime.
Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.
Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.
After yesterday’s column mentioning press releases that were poorly targeted, I made a list of the headlines sent my way recently. None of them have anything to do with what my magazines cover. Even though the summer months are light for news submissions, I still received quite a few. For some of them I am not even sure what they mean. Here is what I received this week in a 48-hour span:
Free Portal for Telemetry Applications
HRchitect Consultant Named IHRIM Member of the Year
Farmers Insurance Group® Puts Some‘Bite’ In Automobile Insurance In Michigan
Fujitsu Named Finalist for NXTcomm Eos Award
Conmio and TietoEnator build mobile Internet Service for Finnish mobile operator
Unified Communications Magazine Honors Interactive Intelligence with TMC Labs 2008Innovation Award
ET Can Now Phone Home
IP5280 VoIP Provider named finalist for Best Company to Work For in Colorado
3 Things Every Parent Needs to Know About Kids and Cell Phones
Exanet & Datrox Bring Revolutionary Storage Technology to Media & Entertainment Companies
Detroit Area Foreclosures Slow In May 2008
India and China Becoming Major Centers of Pharmaceutical R&D
AutoTrader.com Named “Innovator of the Year” During Verint Systems’ 2008 Customer Conference
Wireless Mundi Receives International Patent Application on Integrated Voice & Data Communication
DataCore Software Partner Interware Systems Makes DataCore the Foundation of Its Total Enterprise Virtualization Practice
Three Sequencing Companies Join 1000Genome Project
PerfectSoftware® and the workplace HELPLINE® announce strategic partnership
Fujitsu Announces Connection-Oriented Ethernet Transport for their Packet Optical Networking Platforms
Perfect Software to offer expert employment law advice through its HR and Payroll software.
Social Software Frequently Lacking in System / Administrative Services
If you’re a bit perplexed by these headlines, let me give you one more thing to contemplate: Someone was paid to write and email them to me. What a waste of time and money.
Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.
Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.
Each day I receive a plethora of press releases. While some are exactly the information I seek to share with readers of Connections Magazine and AnswerStat magazine, others are more broadly targeted, and too many are complete mismatches. Consider the numerous email missives I’ve received to save the manatees or promote Michigan Special Olympics. Although both are great causes, they do not comprise the news my readers crave. Even more off course are the many pleas to promote a “hot” indie band or club. Oddly they are always from out of state.
Someday I will share a few of these random headlines, but today I want to zero in on a specific one from yesterday: “Toxic Ties to ‘New Shower Curtain Smell’ Evident.” It seems that the Center for Health, Environment & Justice is taking a stand against shower curtains made of PVC. They announced a call-in press conference for this morning. I’ve never experienced a phone press conference (actually, I’ve never experienced any in-person press conference) so I thought I’d check it out.
These guys came across as rank amateurs. They started late, were unprepared, the technology confused them, the online information was not online during the call, and the audio was so choppy as to be unintelligible. Sadly, I learned nothing about the dangers of PVC shower curtains — only the dangers of bungling a live press conference.
To their credit, they did place a follow-up call to apologize for the audio problems and answer any questions. Figuring that I already wasted enough time on the failed press conference, I declined further information.
Still I wonder if I should be concerned about my shower curtains.
Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.
Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.
Five years ago, the call center industry was confronted head on with the DNC (Do-Not-Call) legislation. As millions signed up to block most telemarketing calls to their home, the pool of prospect numbers shrank dramatically. Since then, the face of outbound calling in the United States has been unalterably changed.
In the intervening years, many outbound centers switched from calling consumers to calling businesses. Others exchanged outbound work for inbound, or at least added inbound into their service mix. Many call centers scaled back as demand and efficacy plummeted, while a few closed their doors. Some outbound call centers fine-tuned their niche or redefined their business, allowing them to remain viable; only a few thrived.
Today, DNC registration has surged past the 100 million mark, with more residences now on the list than not. The latest development is that phone numbers on the registry have been made permanent, not expiring after five years as originally planned. All this adds up to some grave challenges for the outbound call center industry.
Throughout all this, the inbound side of the industry breathed a sigh of relief. “At least inbound is safe,” many a call center manager or owner thought. The only tangible change was that some of the formerly outbound-only call centers were now their competitors, bidding against them on RFPs (Request for Proposals) for inbound campaigns.
Given the immense popular support of the DNC legislation, politicians – seeing an opportunity to win votes and generate good PR – began introducing all sorts of bills to further regulate and restrict the manner and mode in which call centers operate, for both outbound calling and inbound response. These proposed bills stand as future industry threats, but they are not the biggest or the most ominous. That designation may be reserved for “Do-Not-Mail” legislation.
According to Jerry Cerasale, SVP of Government Affairs for the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), there are currently Do-Not-Mail bills pending in eleven states: Hawaii (both in the house and senate), Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, and Washington. Soon, enough states will have joined this initiative that a tipping point will occur, prompting action at the federal level. (Federal action is not all bad, as it will help usher in a single set of regulations with which to comply, hopefully replacing a patchwork of differing and diverging state requirements.)
“What does Do-Not-Mail have to do with call centers?” you might be asking. Plenty, it turns out. Direct mail, the specific marketing vehicle that would be limited or squelched by the Do-Not-Mail bills, is a huge driver of calls to call centers – inbound call centers, the ones who thought they were safe from onerous legislation.
Every direct mail piece is designed and sent to accomplish a specific purpose. That purpose, or call to action, is for the recipient to do something. This might include mailing a response, faxing a form, visiting a website, or placing a call. Making a phone call is the most commonly selected, easiest, and quickest option. That phone call might be to place an order, add a service, make a payment, take a survey, give a donation, ask a question, request literature, subscribe to a service, schedule an appointment, solve a problem, register a complaint, voice support, clarify a question, or pursue a myriad of other outcomes. Obviously, direct mail prompts and inspires a great deal of telephone activity, virtually all of which ends up in a call center.
According to the USPS 2007 Annual Report, over 74 billion pieces of mail were sent last year. Direct mail was cited by Cerasale to account for about one third of that. Even if just a small fraction of those mailings generated a call center communication, it is still an enormous amount. Consider what would happen if those calls went away. Billions of call center contacts would be summarily eliminated. That’s the big picture.
Now, look at the view from within your call center. Analyze your larger accounts to discover how they drive calls to your center. Is direct mail part of the mix? To what extent? Imagine those calls disappearing. How would that affect your call volumes, your economies-of-scale, and your profitability? How would you need to adjust your call center to adapt? Could you make the changes required to ensure survival?
Lest you dismiss this as an overreaction to an overstated threat that may not occur, outbound call centers found themselves at this same point five years ago. Yes, Do-Not-Mail legislation is a huge threat to the inbound call center industry – and to your call center.
The Do-Not-Mail bills also pose a more general danger to the cost-effective viability of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). The USPS management, staff, delivery schedule, and infrastructure all operate at a requisite level of mail volume. The revenues generated from that mail supports the current scale of operation and efficiency at the post office. If revenues drop, then the operational status quo cannot be supported and maintained. The result would be either that prices would need to take a huge jump or services would need to be drastically curtailed. This could include the hours that post offices are open, closing smaller, less used offices, eliminating Saturday delivery, or only delivering mail every other day. (One option is that half the routes would be Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and the rest would be Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Another option would simply be to pick up and deliver mail every other day, Monday through Friday.)
This is not a far-fetched scenario. Since about one third of all mail is direct mail, as Do-Not-Mail bills are implemented, the number of households to which unsolicited mail could be legally sent would decrease. Imagine a national Do-Not-Mail law with the same popularity and registration level as DNC. A large percentage of direct mail would cease to be sent, the USPS revenues would fall, and huge postage increases and/or dramatic service cuts would be made. Just as DNC permanently changed outbound call centers, Do-Not-Mail would forever and irrevocably affect postal service.
There are three possible reactions to this situation. The first is to do nothing, either out of apathy or denial. The second is to assume that Do-Not-Mail is a foregone conclusion and begin forming contingency plans. The third (and recommended) option is to get involved. The DMA (Direct Mail Association) is leading the fight.
Don’t let DNC history repeat itself with Do-Not-Mail.
One of the side effects of replacing my cell phone was having to transfer my number directory from the old unit to the new one. The cell phone company had a nifty device that would do this (surely there must be a means to accomplish this using the cell network instead of a physical connection).
Anyway, the salesperson connected my old and new phones to this data-transfer unit and in seconds had my numbers moved. As I thank her, she said, “Normally there is a $10 charge for this, but if you’ll complete phone a survey, I’ll waive the fee.”
Happily, I agree. She then gives me some strange instructions.
“On the survey, please give me all fives. Even if you give me a four—which seems good—it counts against me. Plus, questions like the store condition apply to me, too. So please give everything a five.”
Skeptical, but wanting to ensure I avoid the extra charge, I nod in agreement.
It was an automated survey and the longest I’ve every encountered. After several questions, I decided to just press “five” as quickly as possible to fulfill my half-hearted promise. But then things changed. There were now yes/no questions (press 1 or 2) interspersed with the “on a scale of 1 to 5” queries.
At the end, they gave me an option to record comments: “This is the longest and most ridiculous survey I have ever taken, and I will never complete another one from your company.”
When my future son-in-law, Chris, stopped in to have his numbers transferred, a different clerk gave him the same spiel. If these survey shenanigans are widespread, the results will be so skewed as to be meaningless, but at least their boss will be pleased.
Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.
He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.
I read a wide assortment of magazines each month. Most of them are free publications, effectively supported by the companies that advertise in them. Only three of the magazines that I read are paid subscriptions. One of them, a popular business magazine, used to be my favorite.
Its arrival was greatly anticipated and quickly read.
When the subscription renewal notice for it arrived, my wife would confirm I wanted it renewed and pay the invoice. This pattern repeated with each renewal request.
One day, I spotted yet another notice and remarked that it seemed we had just paid it. Indeed we had—seemingly every three or four months. Checking the expiration date on the magazine, I noted that my subscription was paid up for several years.
I wonder how many other people fell for their clever scheme. How many of these folks, like me, felt victimized?
Out of frustration we began summarily tossing every mailing that came from them. Eventually, my subscription ended. They continued to mail it anyway. Then it stopped for a while, then they gave me a complimentary year, and then it lapsed for good.
I had a few frequent-flier miles on a seldom-traveled airline. Instead of losing the miles, I re-subscribed.
Shortly after receiving my first issue, they sent me a renewal notice. I’m not falling for that one again. Besides, I don’t really like the magazine any more.
Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.
He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.
My wife’s Avon order arrived the other day and… Okay, I confess, the order wasn’t just for her, but mostly. The only Avon product I deign to use is their Care Deeply Lip Balm. It is the ideal combination of firmness and moistness.
Some competing products tear your lips off as you apply it, whereas others go on like lip gloss—not that I have any direct personal experience in that realm, but it’s what I think lip gloss might feel like.
Anyway, the Care Deeply Lip Balm came with a protective, plastic seal holding the cap on; a heavy, protective, plastic seal. I had never thought that necessary, but a nice safety touch nonetheless. I looked closely for a “pull here” tab or a perforation in the plastic, but alas there were none.
So I used the closest tool available—my fingernail; the plastic won. My wife then attacked it with great zeal and aplomb — using the closest tool she had on hand, quite literally: her nail; she won.
As she gleefully tore off the protective plastic she was dismayed to discover that the seal and label were one in the same! As a result, once you “open” it, you lose all identification as to it’s contents.
This results in two practical concerns. First, it could cause confusion in the event that other tubular products from Avon are similarly packaged: what’s in which tube? Secondly, when it comes time to reorder, how are you going to know what to order?
You might buy more of the same if you liked it, or something different if you didn’t. But with the identifying label AWOL, either option will be hard to do.
In the picture above: On the left, the product as it was packaged. On the right, the product once it was opened.
What were they thinking? Perhaps they weren’t!
On the bright side, at least I’ll know when I am about to run out!
Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.
He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.
Have you heard about the onslaught of Do Not Market laws proposed at the local, state, and federal level? You haven’t? Well, there is good reason that this pending legislation has caught you unawares. The fact is that it doesn’t exist—per se.
However, in reality there is a plethora of existing laws and proposed legislation that serve to significantly restrict how we all market our products and services.
In total, these well-intended but overreaching and imprudent bills combine to effectively amount to one massive Do Not Market law. What is at stake is our ability to promote our businesses and make sales.
Once these restrictions are placed on every business, the future of the U.S. economy and its viability as a nation will be in jeopardy.
Less you think this is hyperbole, consider what would happen if you were effectively prohibited from any and all marketing activities. You would be forced to rely on a “build it and they will come” approach to sales.
In effect, this would reduce your sales and marketing departments to the mode of reactive order-taker. What would happen to your sales numbers? Most likely business would decline, maybe even going into a free fall.
You would stop hiring and begin laying off staff; capital investments would be put on hold; expansion plans would be terminated. This would ripple through the economy, and a recession would follow.
Okay, I admit, this is a tad bit reactionary. But if we truly couldn’t do any marketing, this becomes a dreadfully real and inevitable scenario. Surely, you say, our elected officials wouldn’t go so far as to legislate our economy into disarray by prohibiting all forms of marketing—would they?
Let’s review:
For several years, we have been prohibited from sending unsolicited faxes. What was once viewed as an efficient and cost-effective alternative to direct mail was summarily made illegal. Nix the fax.
The bellwether bill was the national Do Not Call law and its numerous state counterparts. This devastated calling consumers. Given its immense public support and self-serving political expediency, we should also expect similar future limitations placed on contacting businesses via phone.
The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (yes, it was four years ago) put onerous restrictions on email marketing messages and solicitations. Since enforcement of this act is both challenging and cumbersome, it has yet to make a dent in spam, its intended target, which continues to grow unrelentingly. It has, however, given conscientious businesses pause in what content they include in email messages and to whom they send them. The honest have been dissuaded, while the crooks continue unabated. Plus, with the implementation of spam filters at numerous junctures along the path of an email message, there is serious doubt as to how often our carefully crafted and legally compliant messages actually get through to the intended recipient. To make things even more cumbersome on the law-abiding, there are proposed Do Not Email bills floating about.
Consider direct mail. The postal rate hike was discouraging enough, but many Do Not Mail bills are in the works as well. So, even if we can afford it, mailing promotional items may become moot.
Many other forms of marketing are facing restrictions on a local or regional basis, including billboards, the use of spotlights and PA systems, door-to-door selling, handing out flyers, the size and placement of signage, and so forth. Used wrongly, these can be deemed a nuisance by the buying public, but why should everyone be penalized for a few overzealous marketers?
What is left? Certainly broadcast marketing (radio and TV) is one option. With broadcast media, there are already many balanced, appropriate, and accepted laws on the books that govern ad content. Nothing more is in the works at this time.
Unfortunately, radio and TV are not effective media for many businesses and out of the question for many marketing budgets. Besides, with the proliferation of DVRs (digital video recorders), how many viewers are zipping past those television commercials anyway?
Concerning radio, be aware that more and more listeners are finding their music online, effectively bypassing commercial radio.
Perhaps the most viable remaining category is print media (newspapers, magazines, and newsletters). Like broadcast advertising, print media enjoys time-tested legislation that regulates what can and cannot be included in ads.
Print media can be distributed according to a subscription-based model (readers pay to receive it) or an advertiser-based model (companies pay for it to be sent to qualified individuals).
There are two challenges with print advertising. The first is finding the right publication that addresses your target audience. The second is designing an effective ad. Herein is the painful reality of print advertising: a great ad makes things happen; a bad ad does nothing.
Interestingly, the only threat to print advertising is not legal, but rather environmental, since no-longer-needed copies end up in the landfill. (This could be the impetus for future legislation.) T
o address the issue of paper waste, many publications offer electronic alternatives. Over 10 percent of Connections Magazine subscribers currently receive their copies this way; Byte magazine has been 100 percent online for over ten years. This is definitely a trend of the future.
Last, but certainly not least, is the Internet. In the World Wide Web there resides all sorts of interesting and intriguing promotional opportunities. Website sponsorships and banner ads are two prominent options.
Search engine advertising is growing at a phenomenal rate. Certainly, having a company website is a requirement. Trying to market in today’s economy without a website is a foolish and shortsighted endeavor, filled with frustration and wasted resources.
Increasingly, companies that lack websites are immediately dismissed by prospective customers, who view them as second rate or, worse yet, not even viable.
So faxing, calling, emailing, mailing, and broadcasting are increasingly limited marketing options (even when there is an “existing business relationship”).
The remaining opportunities exist in the worlds of print media and Internet marketing, which may well become the final frontier of advertising and emerge as the only effective and successful marketing medium in the future.
Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.
He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.
Have you heard about the onslaught of Do Not Market laws proposed at the local, state, and federal level? You haven’t? Well, there is good reason that this pending legislation has caught you unawares. The fact is that it doesn’t exist – per se.
However, in reality there is a plethora of existing laws and proposed legislation that serve to significantly restrict how we all market our products and services.
In total, these well-intended but overreaching and imprudent bills combine to effectively amount to one massive Do Not Market law. What is at stake is our ability to promote our businesses and make sales. Once these restrictions are placed on every business, the future of the U.S. economy and its viability as a nation will be in jeopardy.
Less you think this is hyperbole, consider what would happen if you were effectively prohibited from any and all marketing activities. You would be forced to rely on a “build it and they will come” approach to sales.
In effect, this would reduce your sales and marketing departments to the mode of reactive order-taker. What would happen to your sales numbers? Most likely business would decline, maybe even going into a free fall.
You would stop hiring and begin laying off staff; capital investments would be put on hold; expansion plans would be terminated. This would ripple through the economy, and a recession would follow.
Okay, I admit, this is a tad bit reactionary. But if we truly couldn’t do any marketing, this becomes a dreadfully real and inevitable scenario. Surely, you say, our elected officials wouldn’t go so far as to legislate our economy into disarray by prohibiting all forms of marketing – would they? Let’s review:
For several years, we have been prohibited from sending unsolicited faxes. What was once viewed as an efficient and cost-effective alternative to direct mail was summarily made illegal. Nix the fax.
The bellwether bill was the national Do Not Call law and its numerous state counterparts. This devastated calling consumers. Given its immense public support and self-serving political expediency, we should also expect similar future limitations placed on contacting businesses via phone.
The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (yes, it was four years ago) put onerous restrictions on email marketing messages and solicitations. Since enforcement of this act is both challenging and cumbersome, it has yet to make a dent in spam, its intended target, which continues to grow unrelentingly. It has, however, given conscientious businesses pause in what content they include in email messages and to whom they send them. The honest have been dissuaded, while the crooks continue unabated. Plus, with the implementation of spam filters at numerous junctures along the path of an email message, there is serious doubt as to how often our carefully crafted and legally compliant messages actually get through to the intended recipient. To make things even more cumbersome on the law-abiding, there are proposed Do Not Email bills floating about.
Consider direct mail. The postal rate hike was discouraging enough, but many Do Not Mail bills are in the works as well. So, even if we can afford it, mailing promotional items may become moot.
Many other forms of marketing are facing restrictions on a local or regional basis, including billboards, the use of spotlights and PA systems, door-to-door selling, handing out flyers, the size and placement of signage, and so forth. Used wrongly, these can be deemed a nuisance by the buying public, but why should everyone be penalized for a few overzealous marketers?
What is left? Certainly broadcast marketing (radio and TV) is one option. With broadcast media, there are already many balanced, appropriate, and accepted laws on the books that govern ad content. Nothing more is in the works at this time.
Unfortunately, radio and TV are not effective media for many businesses and out of the question for many marketing budgets. Besides, with the proliferation of DVRs (digital video recorders), how many viewers are zipping past those television commercials anyway? Concerning radio, be aware that more and more listeners are finding their music online, effectively bypassing commercial radio.
Perhaps the most viable remaining category is print media (newspapers, magazines, and newsletters). Like broadcast advertising, print media enjoys time-tested legislation that regulates what can and cannot be included in ads. Print media can be distributed according to a subscription-based model (readers pay to receive it) or an advertiser-based model (companies pay for it to be sent to qualified individuals).
There are two challenges with print advertising. The first is finding the right publication that addresses your target audience. The second is designing an effective ad. Herein is the painful reality of print advertising: a great ad makes things happen; a bad ad does nothing.
Interestingly, the only threat to print advertising is not legal, but rather environmental, since no-longer-needed copies end up in the landfill. (This could be the impetus for future legislation.) To address the issue of paper waste, many publications offer electronic alternatives.
Last, but certainly not least, is the Internet. In the World Wide Web there resides all sorts of interesting and intriguing promotional opportunities. Website sponsorships and banner ads are two prominent options. Search engine advertising is growing at a phenomenal rate.
Certainly, having a company website is a requirement. Trying to market in today’s economy without a website is a foolish and shortsighted endeavor, filled with frustration and wasted resources. Increasingly, companies that lack websites are immediately dismissed by prospective customers, who view them as second rate or, worse yet, not even viable.
So faxing, calling, emailing, mailing, and broadcasting are increasingly limited marketing options (even when there is an “existing business relationship”).
The remaining opportunities exist in the worlds of print media and Internet marketing, which may well become the final frontier of advertising and emerge as the only effective and successful marketing medium in the future.
