We all receive a lot of email these days, a majority of which is junk, some of which are marketing emails from businesses that you are a customer of.

These companies, depending on the sophistication of their databases, have some information about you - what you bought, where you live, stuff like that. And that's not a bad thing as a customer, to have opted-in to promotions from a company that has an idea of what you like. Its great that Southwest Airlines knows I fly from PHX to SFO regularly and notifies me of deals. What I'm not interested in is getting prescription drugs, making my penis larger, or taking HGH. That's what separates email ads from outright spam.

I recently got this email promotion from an online printing company I've used several times over the last few years. They do decent printing at a low price and are great for my value-conscious clients. As an opted-in existing customer, why on earth would they send me a promotion for new customers only?

Furthermore, I've noticed a lot of companies sending more email promotions out. I'm a fan of email marketing, its cheap, and when targeted and executed properly can be very effective. But even for someone like me that has a higher tolerance for receiving opt-in mail, many companies have worn out their welcome by sending information too frequently.

So 2 rules of thumb to leave you with...

1. No more than one email promotion per week if you legitimately have something new, unique, and relevant. Most companies should do so even less.
2. Target your emails. Most email distribution companies have rudimentary ways of classifying your master list into multiple categories. Sort your list, and send your customers what they are interested in.
   

Labels: Advertising, direct mail, email marketing

# posted by Ray Huang @ 9:20 AM
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My last post, several months ago, chronicled my experience with auto insurance, which ultimately led me to drop my insurance company to go with Geico. I've noticed over the last several couple years, that Geico has a unique multi-pronged advertising campaign.

The current landscape only brings three, maybe four prominent auto insurance ad campaigns that come to mind, All-State, Progressive, State Farm, and Geico. Geico by far is the most active, with so many different themes going on at once.

At first I questioned their strategy... so incohesive and seemingly disjointed. But each of their campaigns has a series of print and and TV commercials behind it. They realize that their brand is known, and they want to keep it top of mind with several commercials, aimed to reach you and touch you in different ways ... mostly through comedic entertainment. You may have fast forwarded through the entire commercial break with your DVR, but if you're old-school like me, and usually channel surf during commercials, I rarely will switch away from a Geico commercial. They do a great job of keeping the ads fresh and entertaining, with a little bit of shock and awe.

	All-State - featuring actor Dennis Haysbert (or as I know him, Pedro Cerrano from Major League movies). These ads typically recount all the simple and common things we do that can cause accidents and then he tells us cpecific features of the All-State coverage.
	Progressive - featuring Flo, the "Progressive Girl," played by actress/comedian Stephanie Courtney. She takes a light-hearted approach to letting you know about different features and types of coverage.
	Geico Caveman Campaign - One of Geico's most successfully entertaining campaigns
	Geico Kash Campaign - "I always feel like, somebody's watching me."
	Geico Gecko - He used to just hang out quietly, then he was stalked by a clumsy old documentary host, and more recently has gone corporate.
	Geico Celebrities - features real customers alongside professional celebrities, Burt Bacharach, Peter Graves, Don LaFontaine, Little Richard, Charo and Verne Troyer.

Labels: Advertising, Branding, Positioning

# posted by Ray Huang @ 12:42 PM
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