Marketing Mistakes

Around December 27, I got a very cute and interesting sales letter from Kelly Peterson of Bruce Lowrie Chevrolet in Fort Worth. It was a form letter, but it was in a very nice handwritten font on what looked like lined notebook paper (one sided, the back was unlined and blank). It was addressed to my old business name at my home address. It was also in a plain #10 window envelope with no return address, just a meter strip that indicated it was presorted standard mail (bulk mail).

On or about January 10, I got another letter (same letter), this time addressed to myself at my home address. Everything was the same except this one started “Dear Philip,” unlike the one to Freedcom, Inc. which started “Dear ,”.

On February 4 I got home to find 2 more letters (same letter again). One addressed to me again and my old business and one addressed to my wife. A total of four letters (all the same) over a one-month period.

“What a fun contest!

Mistakes are:

Mail list is not current – old business addresses hadn’t been scrubbed

There was no return address

First letter was not personalized “Dear ,”

Sent with a meter strip instead of a live stamp

Sent the same letter again, instead of a series of letters.

Mailing list was not scrubbed for duplicates.”

Karen came up with 6 mistakes. Two of them cost the car dealership big money; the rest cost them increased response rate or lost sales.

This all applies to online media as well as offline. How many of these mistakes are you making in your marketing? Need help to increase your response rates and sales? Contact me.

Philip Freedman