Direct Mail Advertising - How Effective Is It?

Direct mailing is an effective way to help your business succeed. This business solution can significantly boost sales and widen your customer base. Read on to know how it works.

Direct mail advertising is a type of marketing strategy that works by sending print materials to the consumers' mailbox. This method aims to promote different types of products or services, or an upcoming event like a fund raising activity. This is one of the oldest forms of marketing, but it proves to be a cost-effective solution for many businesses. Even non-profit organizations and government entities can use this type of advertising.

Direct mailing has certain advantages. For one, it is lower-priced than most types of advertising, as you can use bulk mail rates to reach many customers. All you need for a direct mail campaign is a mailing list, the mail piece itself, and money for the postage fee.

You can buy a mailing list of postal addresses so you can target particular neighborhoods or other demographics. This is cost effective in the long run as you can send the mails on the same addresses repeatedly. The mailing piece, on the other hand, has to be designed and written well. Like other printed promotional materials, the piece must be interesting and creates a good impression of the business. You must think of the printing and packaging costs as well. For example, more colors could mean bigger printing costs, while multi-page mails like brochures and catalogues could require higher packaging costs. In most cases, the postage accounts for one-third of the entire expense.

It is also easy to determine if the campaign is doing well. For instance, you can track the number of coupons used. This also makes it easier to see how much the sales increased after the campaign.

Those who are just starting up their businesses can also find direct mail marketing a good way to get their names out there. Introducing a new product or service through broadcast or newspaper ads can be costly.

While direct mail marketing has many benefits, some possible drawbacks come with it. There are cases where response turned out to be overwhelming. If a book publishing company sends mails to 10,000 addresses and their stock for the specific book they are advertising is only 5,000, it can lead to customer disappointment. Given that the company can print more copies, would there be enough time to comply with the number of orders? Many people are interested with such mails. This is especially true when you don't have a well-targeted mailing list.

With proper research and planning though, this can be the key to improve sales dramatically. Many companies can offer direct mail services. Professional direct mailers know how to work with your specific business needs. Consult with them when starting such marketing campaign. The Internet is a nice place to search for your service providers.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7120167

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Icons For Small Business Branding

These are three different kinds of powerful icons that these big businesses use in their brands. Let's examine how they're using them and what they do for them - and see how we can use those in our businesses.

I started out this little research-project looking up Wikipedia's definition of icons. It was dry. Incredibly dry.

So, I'll distill it for you, like this:

Icons are symbols. They're images of things that stand for something universally recognized and in particular.

They're often representational things - like animals, people or objects that have certain characteristics. They can also be more abstract - like the cross or a Valentine's heart.

Let's take a look at the three kinds of icons I called out above - how they work and how you can use them in your business.

• The KFC Colonel. A person's image can become an icon - especially if that person is known for something in particular. In this case, the Colonel is "the guy with the recipe".

If your story is a major part of your brand, and you're well-known, you can become an icon in your own brand. Person-based icons can be drawn like the current version of the colonel, or you can use your photo. In order to do this well, you'll want to create a link between your image and what it means. To do this, say what you stand for often in your brand so that people recognize what you're all about.

• Apple's Apple. Well, first of all, this makes name recognition easy, doesn't it? If you've got a name like this, and your icon can repeat your name visually, then you'll be able to create a visual anchor for your brand - tying the two together and doubling your repetition. That will get your name into their heads even more quickly. As a special added bonus, the apple also has a meaning that takes this icon into happy symbolic territory: The apple means knowledge. There are also some nice stories about the apple falling on Newton's head - this was an early inspiration for the company.

• TD Bank's Green Chair. For many people, banking is time-consuming and uncomfortable. In the words of TD Bank's Vice President Dominic Mercuri, "But if a bank can make the experience of dealing with them as quick, simple, friendly and straightforward as possible, they'll stand out from the others. And if that bank can actually build a brand that's comfortable, then it will have an advantage that's not only authentic and lasting, but nearly impossible to replicate."

They've developed their icon campaign around the green lounge chair. The green is distinctive - makes it clear that it's not just another chair. The lounge chair communicates that message of comfort. Plus, they get to have a lot of strategic fun with their chairs. They set up "rest stations" in malls over the holidays where you can sit in a green chair, put your feet up and sip hot chocolate. They've created an interview series where people sit in the green chairs and chat "up close" with the audience. It's all very inviting and comforting.

If you develop an icon, think about how you can use it in a fun way. Can you host a photo contest that encourages people to take photos with your icon? Can you carry it around and ask your clients and colleagues if you can photograph them with it? Can you create a little animation with your icon?

Consider using an icon in your next launch or in your small business brand to promote fun, recognizability and to give your brand a deeper meaning.

Erin Ferree is a brand strategist and designer. She works with small businesses to create brands with substance and style that fit their businesses perfectly.

She's designed brands for hundreds of small business all over the world. Her brands help her clients attract their ideal clients, outshine their competition and make them unforgettable. She also works with small business owners to develop complete clarity about their brand positioning and to develop total brand clarity.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7109045

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American Pain: The Largest U.S. Pill Mill's Rise and Fall

Christopher George and his twin brother Jeffrey opened their first pain clinic in a strip mall on the outskirts of Fort Lauderdale in 2008. There were a couple of rooms and a handful of doctors. No appointment was necessary.

It was a good year to be in the business of servicing people in pain. The economy was tanking. The real estate market was in free fall. People were losing their homes, businesses, savings, and jobs, and looking for an escape from their discomfort. The George brothers ran an ecumenical clinic. Their doctors didn’t discriminate among the causes of human suffering—be it back pain, fibromyalgia, toothaches, cancer, depression, divorce, boredom, mental illness, unemployment, hip replacement, or withdrawal symptoms.

Just about everyone who came through their doors walked away with the same remedy: a prescription for a month-long supply of powerful opioids. More often than not, the pills were small and blue—generic, immediate-release oxycodone-hydrochloride, which everyone called “roxies.” The customers often left satisfied and frequently returned.Palm Beach sheriff officeJeffrey helped run the nation’s largest pill mill operation

The George twins, now 31, grew up in Florida in an entrepreneurial family. Their father, John George, owned Majestic Custom Homes, a luxury development business that fell into bankruptcy during the recession. While their father’s company crumbled, the twins’ business flourished. Each of their four clinics—American Pain, Executive Pain, Hallandale Pain, and East Coast Pain—was bigger than the last. Christopher invested in two pharmacies. They charged patients $50 a referral to visit a mobile MRI business in a parking lot behind a strip club. Jeffrey bought a monster truck, a Lamborghini, and a bunch of boats. They advertised on billboards. They gave their mom a job.Palm Beach sheriff officeChris paid doctors up to $100 a prescription

Oxycodone and hydrocodone are opioids and controlled substances; their active ingredients are derived from the opium poppy. Each year in December, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announces how much of such controlled substances may be produced in the country in the following year. For 2012, the DEA has set the quota for oxycodone at 98 million grams, or about 108 tons, and for hydrocodone at 59 million grams, or 65 tons. Thousands of businesses participate in the multi-step process by which the opium derivatives are harvested in India, Turkey, and Australia, turned into dozens of different generic and brand-name narcotic medications, distributed throughout the U.S., and resold to individuals via prescriptions. There’s lots of money to be made along the way. In 2011, U.S. sales of prescription painkillers amounted to $9 billion, according to IMS Health.

Opioids are not only profitable, they’re addictive and dangerous. They can depress respiration. Take too many or mix them with other drugs, such as alcohol, and a patient can stop breathing altogether. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 14,800 Americans died from overdosing on opioids in 2008, the most recent year data is available—more than the number of deaths from heroin or cocaine.

Most opioids are Schedule II drugs, subject to regulatory restrictions from state and federal agencies. But the regulations are not always clear. Sell too many, too fast, with too much marketing or too little discretion, and suddenly the veil of social acceptability is yanked away. The resulting exposure can be perilous. Those who cross over the sometimes hazy line separating legal from illegal handling of the pills often watch as federal agents suspend their licenses, seize their products, and arrest them in high-profile busts with gothic code names. Recent crackdowns have included Operation Snake Oil, Operation Pill Nation, and Operation Juice Doctor 2.

In the spring of 2010, the George brothers were the target of Operation Oxy Alley. Local and federal cops raided their businesses, confiscated their opioids, and seized millions of dollars of assets, including safes full of cash stashed away in their mom’s attic, according to prosecutors. In August 2011 the Department of Justice unsealed a five-count indictment outlining a range of charges, from racketeering to possession with intent to distribute controlled substances, against 32 individuals, including 13 doctors and one wholesaler involved with the Georges’ clinics. From 2008 to 2010, according to the federal agents, the George twins were the largest illegal dispensers of oxycodone in the U.S.

“The significance of today’s takedown is that we have dismantled the nation’s largest criminal organization involved in the illegal distribution of painkillers,” said John Gillies, special agent in charge for FBI Miami. “Up until today, efforts focused on the demand by targeting individual users. Today, we attacked the source and choked off the supply.”

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