A programme switched on when the pipeline thins, with replies landing within the hour of a campaign going out.
See if You QualifyTony has been buying marketing for a long time, and the premise he keeps returning to is that this particular job has no do-it-yourself version.
“Your direct mail is a proven, tried and tested method. There isn’t a DIY option. There is no DIY option.”
What sits behind that is not knowledge so much as equipment.
“It’s not just the up-to-date knowledge, but it’s all the other pieces of software and expertise. Sending out emails, that’s fine. But do you know exactly which day to have them land and what time to have them land?”
He describes the infrastructure risk in concrete terms, and it is the part he says he tells people because it is mind-blowing.
“If you send more than probably about 100 or 150 emails which are all the same, you will get blacklisted for spamming.”
The fix is software that takes one email and produces a very large number of variants which keep the same meaning.
“You put one email in and it will throw out 10,000 different emails, having just changed a couple of words in each email. Still keeping the same consistency and the same context.”
Get that wrong and the damage is not to one campaign, it is to the company’s ability to send at all. And the rules do not hold still: every time the ISPs change their algorithms, the rules change with them.
A programme he can open and close at will, matched to whatever capacity his business has that week.
“Every company has bandwidth. Every company has an ability to handle a certain amount of business. Well, you can turn this on and off like that. You can say, ‘We’re quiet. Send me emails. Get some business going here.’ Within an hour, you’ve got leads coming in. You get over swamped, you can say, ‘Stop the world.’ And it can be stopped immediately.”
He contrasts that with everything else the budget could go to. Trade press has a lead time. Brand activity cannot be attributed. Neither helps today.
“I don’t know any other form of advertising which doesn’t have some sort of pre-planning involved with it and gestation periods. You put down a bit of trade press which will be published at the end of the month. It doesn’t help now and today.”
And when it does run, he can tell whether it worked.
“The results are absolutely measurable. You know if it’s worked or not. It’s not that it’s created goodwill and all this below the line marketing activity.”
| Metric | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Control | Advertising with lead times and gestation periods | On and off on request |
| Time to first lead | — | Within the hour of switching on |
| Measurability | Brand activity, no attribution | Measurable, per campaign |
“I can turn you on and off as I wish. Every company has bandwidth. You can say, ‘We’re quiet. Send me emails. Get some business going here.’ Within an hour, you’ve got leads coming in.”
Next