EMERGENCY... call the cops, dial 911, 999 or get superman over here right now. I have a dillema and I would like some super-fast feedabck gang.

I have a client that has just invested just over £50,000 in a direct mail shot for a very large event in the UK in January.

The event is featuring some of the biggest names in UK business.

His window for delivery is tight and the copy is done. All is ready for lift-off. BIG PROBLEM... our postal service has just decided to strike. It could take 2-3 weeks before they can guarantee delivery.

He has asked me to advise him. I have but cannot call on any superhuman forces so have to rely on ME for now.

I have already advised but I thought it would be a good topic to open up and heck you might have ideas my brain might never come up with.

Ok all you superheroes ... ideas, ideas, ideas.

Alan, how many pieces? Is it local?

Can a courier service help? You might be able to negotiate bulk prices. Or, maybe hire a team of school kids (or boy/girl scouts) to hand-deliver them. Often, they will do it -- you pay them, and goes toward the scout organization. Or, another similar organization of that type.

Another is to fax -- if you have fax numbers. Now, I'm not a lawyer, I do not know the fax broadcating laws in the UK and I certainly do not know if you have fax numbers handy. Perhaps hire an assitant (or assistants, or kids, or part-time help, etc) to look up the fax numbers of these people -- if it is legal, of course.

Another recourse is to call them on the phone asking for their fax numbers. Or emails and securing their permission to email them -- blame it on the strike. Say it's a one-shot deal, or whatever.

That's off the top of my head for now.

Mike

we discussed fax today and we have fax numbers. I would like to know what kind of % response we can expect from fax, any ideas.

One I did recently got 73 from 20,000. I felt it was pathetic. They thought it was amazing since they had never had ANY before.

The number is far too large for hand posting and too spread out as a lot is in London and the client is based in France.

Any more feedback on faxing would be great.

1) Make your fax look like a letter, a real fax, not an ad. (You know, subject, signature, name and address, etc). Make it official: letterhead, coporate-looking, professional, etc. You can still be emotional in the copy, but if, at quick glance, some words are over-bolded or there is the appearance of a salesletter/ad, it will be rubbish.

2) Same thing for cover page. In facr, cover page must be devoid of any commercial-like appearance. No graphics, callouts or "LAST CHANCE!" Blah, blah, blah.

3) Use the cover page as a perfect excuse to explain the fax due to the postal strike: "Urgent Memorandum: Reply Required Due to Postal Strike" and then, "The current postal strike has stifled our chances of communicating this important information to you, and we require your reply, even if it's 'yes' or 'no'."

Or something like that.

The best approach would have been to fax them a letter asking their permission to courier them a letter due to the postal strike.

Perhaps you can use fax or email to drive them to a recorded phone message or what I think might be better, a web site where you can give it your all.


Peter Stone

Now, why didn't I think of that??? D'oh!

You can even use the strike -- work it in to a promotion. Pick any number that's big in the news such as how many days the strike is anticipated to last and use it as a number in a give away. One gallon of gas for every day they're on strike.

Tom, the postie, says that whomever runs the postal service are turkeys, so he's giving away 1 turkey to the first 100 who visit the web site and register to win. Keep the odds really good. Have them give complete contact information instead of just an email address and that should render a higher quality response.

Or 1 free ride - tuition, air, ground if it's a seminar.

If this is for one of Jay's events, how about a free or reduced rate half hour with him.

Any gears turning, yet?


Peter
(Speaking of Homer, my home town is Springfield, Illinois - D'oh)!

Thank Mike, Peter, Good advice.

Very interesting thread. Sometimes it pays to stray off the road and pay attention to the not so busy (or volatile ) threads. Great stuff and solid advice.