What is the best (or worst) mailing you've seen?

by 23 replies
25
I got this ugly useless postcard in my mailbox last week.

My other half has since thrown it out but I was keeping it to share with you as an example of a wasted opportunity and probably an example of a waste of money.

The graphic below is a re-creation of what I can remember.

Printed one side in some putrid yellow with a logo, text and a website.

No CTA nothing - just

"Coming Soon"

Anyway I thought I'd follow the link as I remember it (ehouse.property) might have been a .property.au but anyway that was the domain.

Beneath the postcard I've pasted a graphic of the landing page.

Not much promise there I'm afraid.

What ads have you seen in your letterbox or anywhere that have either struck you as one's that stand out for the right or wrong reasons?

Hopefully this thread can become a resource of what to TEST and what to AVOID.

Here is the card (logo changed to protect the innocent)



Here is the landing page from the web address on the postcard.

Somehow I don't think anyone checked them out from the postcard, but I did.

I don't think many people would even if they were "In the market"

Look at the great "Opt-IN" (keep you in the loop) - how bad is that?

Pretty hopeless. . . but someone paid for it !



Please comment but also add your best and worst to the list.

Best regards,

Ozi
#offline marketing #direct mail #mailing #postcard #real estate #worst
  • Hi Oziboomer,

    Looks like a new business with excess cash burning a hole in their pocket.

    I noticed the post card logo and the website logo are not even the same logo, so it is truly an idea in the making.

    Post card marketing of this type only works when you do it at scale, and that is relatively expensive as compared to digital marketing.

    The general idea of pre-launch marketing can be effective if it is well targeted, and if it has a very specific message. I am not seeing that here. The message seems very vague, designed to generate curiosity at best.

    My guess is that digital marketing is clearly a mystery to this organization. They had a golden opportunity to tag their coming soon page with marketing analytics and remarketing tags, which are not present on their landing page (I checked). So, no... they are not smart marketers, just fools with cash to burn. What a waste of resources.

    You may have heard the expression "sling enough mud on the wall and eventually some of it will stick" that seems to be their approach with this campaign. They are not even measuring the results, so it is more like "flushing money down the toilet".

    Don Burk
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Hi Don,

      The card I recreated because my wife threw it out. I didn't want to copy their logo to the card so I just put the "H" there. On the original it had their logo.

      It was funny because I as saving the postcard to discuss with a few friends and to post here and when I got home it was gone. Rubbish collected that morning.

      I asked my wife "Did you throw out a card?"

      She said "The ehouse one?" - so she remembered the brand.

      When I told her I wanted to use it as an example of poor marketing she said "well you're talking about it so it must have had an effect"

      It is funny what we think of things as marketers and what a non-marketer would think of or notice.

      I was surprised she remembered the name but then maybe she wondered why I put it aside and she might have got her hopes up that I could have been looking at new homes.

      Best regards,

      Ozi
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • I would imagine that there will now be a number of "warriors" trying to contact them, offering to help them improve the postcard.

    Maybe not quite the "response" they'd hoped for.

    Ron
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Definitely not the worst I've seen! I think promises of gold bars from Prince Mutumbo kinda has this beat hahah.
  • The worst I've ever seen was a post card selling: Canookies

    Sounds rather lewd, but they were cookies in the shape of all things Canadian, such as their flag, hockey sticks, a maple leaf etc.

    The thing is, I was in Arizona at the time and I'm not Canadian.

    Why in the heck would I want them?

    Plus, they were pricey.
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • You got me googling "Canookies" and cookies were not the first result that came up.

      The recipes for biscuits did show down the page..

      It intrigues me as to why people trying to sell stuff miss their target market so often.

      Maybe the Canookie team had some demographic data that there was a greater percentage of homesick Canadians in AZ at the time so you got caught up n the spray.

      Best regards,

      Ozi
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
      • [1] reply
  • I like the image used for the opt in page and the future of real estate has me wondering what are they coming up with but does not intrigue me enough to subscribe.

    A lot of wasted opportunities here... Are you into Real Estate? Did they at least target who they're sending the cards too?
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • I guess they send the postcards in bulk, without segmenting potential customers so their postcard recipients are not targeted.
      • [ 2 ] Thanks
  • This is an interesting one indeed... This is literally something I would do.. and HAVE done. for me personally.. the phrase "The future of..." is a pretty powerful statement... Interesting that they chose a wordpress plugin lander page.. but a this phase probably not such a biggy.. if the final platform is wordpress.. well it wont be so epic future now will it.

    Did anyone take the time and check "ehouse" on Google? There is without question a pattern here... Foolish and stupid? probably not.

    When you use a piece such as this... it is probably sent in geographical pockets once a week. in that weeks time they can use the log ( old school indeed ) to #1 get an idea of how many people actually goto the site. #2 they can determine hot geographical locations... - because they were smart enough to break the mailings up geographically and drip mail across the country over a period of time. and #3 they could even be so geeky as to actually IP map the hits and get an idea where the visitors were from.. let alone time of day types of computers and all that good stuff that real marketers might actually look at.

    Oh that's right these folks are foolish. Chances are better than good - well ok its not better than good.. when you have a lander plugin such as this default would be that it would be no follow no index - hence why there is no Google listing... They are tracking within a closed loop ( the post card )

    This is probably the very beginning of a Branding campaign... they have a decent logo - a better than decent URL.. from what little language that has been used "Keep you in the loop" suggest Corporate Millenials and X and Y'ers ( following the money) as a target.. oh that's right, they aren't targeting now are they...
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Lol. I have seen many other ugly and so so ridiculous!
  • Banned
    [DELETED]
  • There's a real estate agent in my area that sends out a postcard once a year... and they are horrible!


    Here's one example: [Postcard Example] Can You Guess What This Postcard Is Marketing??? – Duke of Marketing


    Seriously... what's the first business that comes to your mind when you see this?! It sure isn't real estate.


    This is by far one of the worst ever.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [2] replies
    • I would have thought it would have been a "Garden center" or "Nursery".

      The least they could have done was ask the question "Thinking of selling your home this Spring?"

      Then on the back they could have the call to action to request the "7 simple things to do to your garden to add $15K to your home's sale price.

      Best regards,

      Ozi
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • Its probably not as bad as you think.. and she sends it every year for how many years now?

      From a buyers prospective... everyone knows you don't list your house in the winter ( unless you have to - or it didn't sell from last summer ) so the message hits a chord.... The images of gardening and spring and family.. I would suggest this is just short of a home run to the female end of the demographic.. you know the ones that actually dictate buying / selling a home more often than not.

      Its not salesy the CTA again is very female oriented " We can explore the possibilities together Call..."

      I would suggest all in all a pretty solid piece - considering the geography aspect is pretty tight.. that there appears to be some history locally with the agent... I'm sorry but sometimes a bit outside of the box.. and targeting ( and I would suggest hitting ) the female target audience.. its usually a winner.
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
      • [1] reply
  • As this thread has taken course towards real-estate I thought I'd share two different but similar lead generation flyers that have come through my mailbox recently.

    A bit like the comparison type approach from the insurance resellers and as they don't have one specific real-estate agent listed maybe more people might go and get the reports they are offering.

    Not sure whether they are selling the leads or just using them for whichever company is behind the marketing.



    Best regards,

    Ozi
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • [DELETED]
  • I don't have an example to post, but the very best sales letters I've read are political fund raising letters for top tier candidates....Really on either side of the isle, but mostly I study the letters to conservative voters.

    They have everything...an impending doom that must be fought...a common enemy....the language of the voter......portraying the political opponent as evil and attacking the voter's (letter recipient's) rights.....and a Call To Arms.

    There is real drama in these letters. They are designed to make your blood boil....build up a real sense of purpose...and portraying you (the loyal contributor) as a valued member of a team...the team that will save the country.

    And the beauty of political fund rising letters is that there is always a current catastrophe in the news....always a reason to raise more money.....a new cause...a new enemy to fight.....

    And they test the average contribution and post suggested amounts that raise the average contribution. Really, masterful sales letters that are pure examples of "Us against Them".

    If these were written 200 years ago, the reader would be excited to grab a torch and pitchfork. Now, they just want money..which is the emotional equivalent.
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
Join the discussion

Next Topics on Trending Feed