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Hub You - Direct Mail – Not What it Used to Be
During the past 10 years I have had the good fortune to coach a number of good clients. About 17 percent of the individuals who have entrusted themselves to me have been Chief Executives or Main Board Directors of corporations with turnovers counted in the hundreds of millions.Coaching is like most other businesses in that the coach needs to keep learning and progressing in order to stay up with the game. One of the most valuable sources of knowledge is one’s clients.This is especially true when you are coaching people who are already very successful. You notice what they do and how they think and adopt some of their best traits into your coaching toolkit.There is one really noticeable difference between highly successful executives and those I would term “ordinary managers.” They are prepared to act and make changes in the way they behave. In other words they are not stuck in behavioural ruts.When you agree a plan of action, with clear, well defined goals with a good client, you can be sure that they will start to implement it straight away.And, importantly, they also go further than simply implementing their new strategy; they can also be relied upon to keep behaving in the new way until it becomes a new habit. In other words they make it an automatic reaction to a given situation.Their new habitual behaviour quickly replaces the old behaviour that was causing them problems.I recently had first hand experience of how effective it is w
You want continuous and consistent growth. So what do you do? Look at this scenario:
What if, You send out 5000 postcards one week and you have all that going on that I mentioned above.
You send out 5000 the next week and you have all that going on that I mentioned above.
You send out 5000 the next week and that dwindling flow chart is going on, on each one of those outflows.
What is going to happen? Eventually it is going to snowball – it’s coming in from all different places!
You are really putting your communication out there consistently in a big way.
And yes, it costs a lot of money to do it. (Once you have your list which you’ll use over and over – only paying for it once – postage is more then 55% of your costs) So, FIND THE MONEY. If you are going to borrow money to do a business, spend that borrowed money on marketing!
Start with a list and mail to one list one week, another list the next week and another list the following week. Then you rotate those lists – again. And again. And again.
Now you ask - what if you only have one list? You can still rotate one list. And it is always good to put it on a spreadsheet or a flow chart to track what you are doing and what you have already done.
For instance: You get one list of 6000 identities. You can mail to 2000 one week, 2000 the next week and 2000 the third week. Then you rotate. There are your three different lists!
A campaign is mailing to the same people over and over and over again. The point is you want to hit your prospe
Did you know:* 1% of all computer data loss is caused by acts of nature* 6% of all PCs will undergo an incident of data loss during the year* 30% of all data loss occurs through human error (accidental data deletion, damaging hardware by dropping a laptop, etc.)* 40% of all data loss is due to hard drive failures and power surges* Another computer just crashed while you were reading thisAre you backing up the data on your hard drive on a regular basis? If not, why not? It's emotionally devastating losing what we think is protected. And if, like most professionals, you depend on your computer like you depend on your next breath, it can literally shut your business down-at least temporarily. Having your computer out of commission for a few days due to a hardware malfunction can cause a loss of business and any momentum you have built up because of lost contacts, not to mention the decline in income from the shutdown.As much as 60% of corporate data now resides unprotected in PC desktops and laptops, while 60% of the companies that lose their data will be closed down within six months. Data loss can be avoided, yet statistics confirm that 40% of small businesses don't backup their data at all, and less than 1% perform daily backups. Less than 1%!!! Although most of us are quick to use the "save" icon to ensure our current work is stored, this only saves the work to the hard drive. It is not a backup, and it doesn't protect data from system
Years back the novelty of receiving an advertisement in your mailbox was such that any direct mail pieces were not only looked at but mulled over. Not so anymore. The term ‘junk mail’ was coined sometime since then and I’m sure you’ve thrown out your fair share of unread pieces enough to understand why. So, what can you do about it as a marketer? How can you ensure you get the biggest bang for your direct mail dollar? Now more than ever, you have to understand how to put together a direct mail piece. More than ever you have to really target your mailing to go to a specific market. And more than ever you need to be patient and learn how to campaign – because that is the key to success. Don’t get me wrong… direct mail is not dead – and I don’t see it dying any time soon. It is still the quintessential part of the largest company’s campaigns. Because it works.
In this article I will teach you some of these three topics:
• Designing a direct mail piece
• Targeting your specific market
• Campaigning
A Great Design
Many people think that the quality of any graphic design is determined by how aesthetically pleasing it is: Although making the card look good is important, this couldn't be further from the truth. The only true measure of any design, at least commercially, is "How well does it pull?". By pull we mean what type of response does it elicit? Does it pull in calls, or pull people into the store? In essence, does the design accomplish what it set out to do?
From this fact it is not a reach to come to the conclusion that the merit of a graphic designer is based on the performance of his or her designs. You may be able to put together the most beautiful ad that the world has ever seen, but if it doesn't make the phone ring it isn't worth the paper that it is printed on.
You need to make designs that are not only attractive but, more importantly, that get the response needed to turn a profit. You want to ensure people see your ad and want your services. In short, if the ad doesn't make you any money, it’s not a good ad.
To BE or Not To BE
Easy. Say there is a monkey loose in your office and you can't seem to get any work done. The only solution is to catch the little distraction and FedEx him back to the jungle that he came from. Question: How do you catch a monkey? You have to get into his head, think like him. You have to “BE” the monkey to find out what is going to bring him close enough for you to catch him.
Every potential customer is like the monkey. They are going to do whatever they want unless you can persuade them to listen to you. You have to get into their head, think like them, “BE” them. A monkey is a simple animal so you can probably get his attention with the stereotypical banana.
Human beings on the other hand are extremely complex. Then you add in the fact that the mailing list is targeted and it can get quite challenging. To help you answer the question of what you should say in your ad, you should use three things:
• Reasoning
• Experience
• Research
Take an unrelated subject to your own industry – sometimes it’s better learn that way. Pick something. Say you have an upscale Italian women’s shoe boutique. You want to appeal to women that like that sort of thing. Get in her head. What would make her want to buy from you? Remember, she gets bombarded with advertisements every day. What can you say that really draws her in? How about “Tired of Wearing the Same Styles as Everyone Else?” Have a graphic that supports the message - show a fantastic pair of shoes or better yet a good looking woman with a great pair of shoes on.
Now pretend you are a family man or woman with a household income of the $75k with revolving debt of $15K and you’ve got two kids! Kids can be pretty expensive. So, why would you like to refinance?
Find a Specialized Mailing List
If there is one thing I can’t say enough it is that the most important part of your mailing campaign is your mailing list. It is vital that you put the right amount of energy into learning about lists – who to mail to – so that your mailing efforts aren’t wasted. There are a few different ways that you can get an adequately targeted list.
As always the first step is to determine who your target market will be. Say you want to market to homeowners. Good, now we have narrowed it down to only 291,324 people in your area. As a minimum, your mailing campaign should send to the same names three times. So all you have to do is send out 873,972 postcards at $0.185 per piece & you get the point. We need to narrow it down some more.
So how do you accomplish the narrowing of your list? Many factors can be considered, including age, gender, zip code, annual salary, profession and number of children are some of the more common qualifiers. It may take a while to figure out what combination works for your specific product. Don’t worry about political correctness when considering whom you should mail to. It is perfectly acceptable to test certain lists that may be considered "stereotypical". Many times these lists will work well. But you never know until you test them.
No matter how great an idea you have about a certain market, ALWAYS DO A SMALLER TEST MAILING FIRST! Average test mailings run around 1000-1500 names. Once you see acceptable returns on the smaller mailing then you can jump in with the larger numbers. Test, test, test!
The purpose of special mailing lists is to target a specific type of customer for your specific type of business. The eventual end result is more customers and a better bottom line. And this is what we all want, right?
Repeating Your Message
cam•paign n.
1. A series of military operations undertaken to achieve a large-scale objective during a war: Grant's Vicksburg campaign secured the entire Mississippi for the Union.
2. An operation or series of operations energetically pursued to accomplish a purpose: an advertising campaign for a new product; a candidate's political campaign.
intr.v. cam•paigned, cam•paign•ing, cam•paigns
To engage in an operation planned to achieve a certain goal: campaigned through the jungles of Vietnam; campaigned for human rights.
[French campagne, from Italian campagna, field, military operation, from Late Latin camp nia, open country, battlefield, from Latin campus, field.]
Definition number 2 above is the one we’re using. But from studying the entire definition along with the derivation (the word origin) you can see how all the definitions tie together. Campaigns for marketing are, in a nutshell, a series of advertising steps including repeat mailings that are strategically planned so that there is maximum benefit (more new customers) for your business.
Nota bene (that means “take note” in Latin – and I do mean take note): If you are not doing repeat mailings then you are flushing money down toilet. Sorry, I know. The truth sometimes hurts.
Why is this true? One mailing of one postcard once is barely going to get anyone’s attention for more then the minute they see it. Think about it. How many times have you seen the same TV commercials over and over? A one shot in the dark postcard mailing is not going to change your business, your bottom line, your life or your anything.
So, if you are not up to confronting that you need to do a campaign then maybe you shouldn’t be in business. And that may sound harsh – it is harsh. It’s a harsh world. And I want you to succeed in it.
There is another reason. Credibility. In some cases people will hold onto your postcard for a while. They can hold onto your postcard for six months. They may even hold on to your card for three years. But in most cases they’ll think “Oh, I may need that some day” and then while tidying up they’ll throw it away. When you repeat your mailings to those same people and they see your image, logo, slogan, message over and over you become credible to them. Your chances of them responding just got greater. Repeat mailings cannot be repeated enough.
To give you an example, I call it the ‘Trickle Down Effect’:
Say you send out 5000 postcards.
Out of that 5000, 150 hang onto your postcard.
Out of that 5000, so many call the 1st week.
Out of that 5000, so many call the 2nd week.
Out of that 5000, so many call the next month.
Out of that 5000, so many call in 6 months.
Out of that 5000, so many never call…
There is a dwindling inflow from that first mailing and therefore can give a false impression of what occurs from one mailing. Someone sends out a postcard and says, “I only got four responses from my mailing!” But there is a whole dynamic that is going on that is continuing from that one mailing way after the person who sent the mailing expects things to happen. Think about it. Do you jump at every single advertisement that you get bombarded with that you think is a good idea? If you do, you are either a millionaire or broke. But most likely, you see some advertisement that catches your interest and say to yourself that you’d like to check that out some day. Then, you see it again and remember that you wanted to check that out one day. And then, you see it again and this time you decide to check it out.
You want continuous and consistent growth. So what do you do? Look at this scenario:
What if, You send out 5000 postcards one week and you have all that going on that I mentioned above.
You send out 5000 the next week and you have all that going on that I mentioned above.
You send out 5000 the next week and that dwindling flow chart is going on, on each one of those outflows.
What is going to happen? Eventually it is going to snowball – it’s coming in from all different places!
You are really putting your communication out there consistently in a big way.
And yes, it costs a lot of money to do it. (Once you have your list which you’ll use over and over – only paying for it once – postage is more then 55% of your costs) So, FIND THE MONEY. If you are going to borrow money to do a business, spend that borrowed money on marketing!
Start with a list and mail to one list one week, another list the next week and another list the following week. Then you rotate those lists – again. And again. And again.
Now you ask - what if you only have one list? You can still rotate one list. And it is always good to put it on a spreadsheet or a flow chart to track what you are doing and what you have already done.
For instance: You get one list of 6000 identities. You can mail to 2000 one week, 2000 the next week and 2000 the third week. Then you rotate. There are your three different lists!
A campaign is mailing to the same people over and over and over again. The point is you want to hit your prospe
Mortgage Lists, Mortgage Marketing That WorksSince the advent of printing technology, communication development has escalated to greater heights. Nowadays, printing technology had continuously proliferated in the world of communication through the mails.Consequently, the mailing system did not only serve its basic purpose but has, in some ways, diverted into a more lucrative function in the world of entrepreneurship and marketing. That is why most companies had engaged into the utilization of mortgage mailing lists.Hence, the mortgage industry followed the trend of this innovative marketing strategy. They, in turn, have come to use targeted mortgage lists as their top marketing technique in order to boost their productivity.Basically, the targeted mortgage list is a list of homeowners’s names and addresses that represents the target market as far as the mortgage lending business is concerned. In many instances, homeowners that are provided in a targeted mortgage list are those who have specific mortgage criteria, certain credit profiles, etc..For a company who is dependent to marketing and promotions as their way of promoting their product or services, a mortgage list is considered as a vital element in accomplishing an achievement. Therefore, most entrepreneurs believed that through the use of qualified mortgage list, the success of the company with its marketing promotion is to be expected. It also serves as a cost cutting technique in substitute t
To BE or Not To BE
Easy. Say there is a monkey loose in your office and you can't seem to get any work done. The only solution is to catch the little distraction and FedEx him back to the jungle that he came from. Question: How do you catch a monkey? You have to get into his head, think like him. You have to “BE” the monkey to find out what is going to bring him close enough for you to catch him.
Every potential customer is like the monkey. They are going to do whatever they want unless you can persuade them to listen to you. You have to get into their head, think like them, “BE” them. A monkey is a simple animal so you can probably get his attention with the stereotypical banana.
Human beings on the other hand are extremely complex. Then you add in the fact that the mailing list is targeted and it can get quite challenging. To help you answer the question of what you should say in your ad, you should use three things:
• Reasoning
• Experience
• Research
Take an unrelated subject to your own industry – sometimes it’s better learn that way. Pick something. Say you have an upscale Italian women’s shoe boutique. You want to appeal to women that like that sort of thing. Get in her head. What would make her want to buy from you? Remember, she gets bombarded with advertisements every day. What can you say that really draws her in? How about “Tired of Wearing the Same Styles as Everyone Else?” Have a graphic that supports the message - show a fantastic pair of shoes or better yet a good looking woman with a great pair of shoes on.
Now pretend you are a family man or woman with a household income of the $75k with revolving debt of $15K and you’ve got two kids! Kids can be pretty expensive. So, why would you like to refinance?
Find a Specialized Mailing List
If there is one thing I can’t say enough it is that the most important part of your mailing campaign is your mailing list. It is vital that you put the right amount of energy into learning about lists – who to mail to – so that your mailing efforts aren’t wasted. There are a few different ways that you can get an adequately targeted list.
As always the first step is to determine who your target market will be. Say you want to market to homeowners. Good, now we have narrowed it down to only 291,324 people in your area. As a minimum, your mailing campaign should send to the same names three times. So all you have to do is send out 873,972 postcards at $0.185 per piece & you get the point. We need to narrow it down some more.
So how do you accomplish the narrowing of your list? Many factors can be considered, including age, gender, zip code, annual salary, profession and number of children are some of the more common qualifiers. It may take a while to figure out what combination works for your specific product. Don’t worry about political correctness when considering whom you should mail to. It is perfectly acceptable to test certain lists that may be considered "stereotypical". Many times these lists will work well. But you never know until you test them.
No matter how great an idea you have about a certain market, ALWAYS DO A SMALLER TEST MAILING FIRST! Average test mailings run around 1000-1500 names. Once you see acceptable returns on the smaller mailing then you can jump in with the larger numbers. Test, test, test!
The purpose of special mailing lists is to target a specific type of customer for your specific type of business. The eventual end result is more customers and a better bottom line. And this is what we all want, right?
Repeating Your Message
cam•paign n.
1. A series of military operations undertaken to achieve a large-scale objective during a war: Grant's Vicksburg campaign secured the entire Mississippi for the Union.
2. An operation or series of operations energetically pursued to accomplish a purpose: an advertising campaign for a new product; a candidate's political campaign.
intr.v. cam•paigned, cam•paign•ing, cam•paigns
To engage in an operation planned to achieve a certain goal: campaigned through the jungles of Vietnam; campaigned for human rights.
[French campagne, from Italian campagna, field, military operation, from Late Latin camp nia, open country, battlefield, from Latin campus, field.]
Definition number 2 above is the one we’re using. But from studying the entire definition along with the derivation (the word origin) you can see how all the definitions tie together. Campaigns for marketing are, in a nutshell, a series of advertising steps including repeat mailings that are strategically planned so that there is maximum benefit (more new customers) for your business.
Nota bene (that means “take note” in Latin – and I do mean take note): If you are not doing repeat mailings then you are flushing money down toilet. Sorry, I know. The truth sometimes hurts.
Why is this true? One mailing of one postcard once is barely going to get anyone’s attention for more then the minute they see it. Think about it. How many times have you seen the same TV commercials over and over? A one shot in the dark postcard mailing is not going to change your business, your bottom line, your life or your anything.
So, if you are not up to confronting that you need to do a campaign then maybe you shouldn’t be in business. And that may sound harsh – it is harsh. It’s a harsh world. And I want you to succeed in it.
There is another reason. Credibility. In some cases people will hold onto your postcard for a while. They can hold onto your postcard for six months. They may even hold on to your card for three years. But in most cases they’ll think “Oh, I may need that some day” and then while tidying up they’ll throw it away. When you repeat your mailings to those same people and they see your image, logo, slogan, message over and over you become credible to them. Your chances of them responding just got greater. Repeat mailings cannot be repeated enough.
To give you an example, I call it the ‘Trickle Down Effect’:
Say you send out 5000 postcards.
Out of that 5000, 150 hang onto your postcard.
Out of that 5000, so many call the 1st week.
Out of that 5000, so many call the 2nd week.
Out of that 5000, so many call the next month.
Out of that 5000, so many call in 6 months.
Out of that 5000, so many never call…
There is a dwindling inflow from that first mailing and therefore can give a false impression of what occurs from one mailing. Someone sends out a postcard and says, “I only got four responses from my mailing!” But there is a whole dynamic that is going on that is continuing from that one mailing way after the person who sent the mailing expects things to happen. Think about it. Do you jump at every single advertisement that you get bombarded with that you think is a good idea? If you do, you are either a millionaire or broke. But most likely, you see some advertisement that catches your interest and say to yourself that you’d like to check that out some day. Then, you see it again and remember that you wanted to check that out one day. And then, you see it again and this time you decide to check it out.
You want continuous and consistent growth. So what do you do? Look at this scenario:
What if, You send out 5000 postcards one week and you have all that going on that I mentioned above.
You send out 5000 the next week and you have all that going on that I mentioned above.
You send out 5000 the next week and that dwindling flow chart is going on, on each one of those outflows.
What is going to happen? Eventually it is going to snowball – it’s coming in from all different places!
You are really putting your communication out there consistently in a big way.
And yes, it costs a lot of money to do it. (Once you have your list which you’ll use over and over – only paying for it once – postage is more then 55% of your costs) So, FIND THE MONEY. If you are going to borrow money to do a business, spend that borrowed money on marketing!
Start with a list and mail to one list one week, another list the next week and another list the following week. Then you rotate those lists – again. And again. And again.
Now you ask - what if you only have one list? You can still rotate one list. And it is always good to put it on a spreadsheet or a flow chart to track what you are doing and what you have already done.
For instance: You get one list of 6000 identities. You can mail to 2000 one week, 2000 the next week and 2000 the third week. Then you rotate. There are your three different lists!
A campaign is mailing to the same people over and over and over again. The point is you want to hit your prospe
A reverse vending machine is a device that accepts used (empty) beverage containers and returns money to the user (the reverse of the typical vending cycle). The machines are popular in places that have mandatory recycling laws or container deposit legislation in Europe.In some places, bottlers pay funds into a centralized pool to be dispersed to people who recycled the containers. Any excess funds were to be used for general environmental cleanup. In other places, such as Norway, the state mandated that a vendor pay for recycled bottles, but left the system in the hands of private industry. The dominant vendor of reverse vending machines in Europe (with 90% market share) is Tomra of Norway.Reverse vending equipment automates beverage container recycling by accepting containers directly from the consumer, accounting for each container processed, and refunding the deposit to the consumer.Reverse vending machines were first introduced in to reduce the supermarket retailers' burden of manually redeeming and accounting for empty beverage containers. Beverage industry studies have shown that reverse vending is less expensive compared to the cost of manual, primarily because of space and labor savings.Reverse vending alleviates the sanitation problems associated with storing empty containers in open storage bins. Empty containers do not have to be manually accepted and sorted by store personnel because they are sorted and accounted for automatically by machine.at you can get an adequately targeted list.
As always the first step is to determine who your target market will be. Say you want to market to homeowners. Good, now we have narrowed it down to only 291,324 people in your area. As a minimum, your mailing campaign should send to the same names three times. So all you have to do is send out 873,972 postcards at $0.185 per piece & you get the point. We need to narrow it down some more.
So how do you accomplish the narrowing of your list? Many factors can be considered, including age, gender, zip code, annual salary, profession and number of children are some of the more common qualifiers. It may take a while to figure out what combination works for your specific product. Don’t worry about political correctness when considering whom you should mail to. It is perfectly acceptable to test certain lists that may be considered "stereotypical". Many times these lists will work well. But you never know until you test them.
No matter how great an idea you have about a certain market, ALWAYS DO A SMALLER TEST MAILING FIRST! Average test mailings run around 1000-1500 names. Once you see acceptable returns on the smaller mailing then you can jump in with the larger numbers. Test, test, test!
The purpose of special mailing lists is to target a specific type of customer for your specific type of business. The eventual end result is more customers and a better bottom line. And this is what we all want, right?
Repeating Your Message
cam•paign n.
1. A series of military operations undertaken to achieve a large-scale objective during a war: Grant's Vicksburg campaign secured the entire Mississippi for the Union.
2. An operation or series of operations energetically pursued to accomplish a purpose: an advertising campaign for a new product; a candidate's political campaign.
intr.v. cam•paigned, cam•paign•ing, cam•paigns
To engage in an operation planned to achieve a certain goal: campaigned through the jungles of Vietnam; campaigned for human rights.
[French campagne, from Italian campagna, field, military operation, from Late Latin camp nia, open country, battlefield, from Latin campus, field.]
Definition number 2 above is the one we’re using. But from studying the entire definition along with the derivation (the word origin) you can see how all the definitions tie together. Campaigns for marketing are, in a nutshell, a series of advertising steps including repeat mailings that are strategically planned so that there is maximum benefit (more new customers) for your business.
Nota bene (that means “take note” in Latin – and I do mean take note): If you are not doing repeat mailings then you are flushing money down toilet. Sorry, I know. The truth sometimes hurts.
Why is this true? One mailing of one postcard once is barely going to get anyone’s attention for more then the minute they see it. Think about it. How many times have you seen the same TV commercials over and over? A one shot in the dark postcard mailing is not going to change your business, your bottom line, your life or your anything.
So, if you are not up to confronting that you need to do a campaign then maybe you shouldn’t be in business. And that may sound harsh – it is harsh. It’s a harsh world. And I want you to succeed in it.
There is another reason. Credibility. In some cases people will hold onto your postcard for a while. They can hold onto your postcard for six months. They may even hold on to your card for three years. But in most cases they’ll think “Oh, I may need that some day” and then while tidying up they’ll throw it away. When you repeat your mailings to those same people and they see your image, logo, slogan, message over and over you become credible to them. Your chances of them responding just got greater. Repeat mailings cannot be repeated enough.
To give you an example, I call it the ‘Trickle Down Effect’:
Say you send out 5000 postcards.
Out of that 5000, 150 hang onto your postcard.
Out of that 5000, so many call the 1st week.
Out of that 5000, so many call the 2nd week.
Out of that 5000, so many call the next month.
Out of that 5000, so many call in 6 months.
Out of that 5000, so many never call…
There is a dwindling inflow from that first mailing and therefore can give a false impression of what occurs from one mailing. Someone sends out a postcard and says, “I only got four responses from my mailing!” But there is a whole dynamic that is going on that is continuing from that one mailing way after the person who sent the mailing expects things to happen. Think about it. Do you jump at every single advertisement that you get bombarded with that you think is a good idea? If you do, you are either a millionaire or broke. But most likely, you see some advertisement that catches your interest and say to yourself that you’d like to check that out some day. Then, you see it again and remember that you wanted to check that out one day. And then, you see it again and this time you decide to check it out.
You want continuous and consistent growth. So what do you do? Look at this scenario:
What if, You send out 5000 postcards one week and you have all that going on that I mentioned above.
You send out 5000 the next week and you have all that going on that I mentioned above.
You send out 5000 the next week and that dwindling flow chart is going on, on each one of those outflows.
What is going to happen? Eventually it is going to snowball – it’s coming in from all different places!
You are really putting your communication out there consistently in a big way.
And yes, it costs a lot of money to do it. (Once you have your list which you’ll use over and over – only paying for it once – postage is more then 55% of your costs) So, FIND THE MONEY. If you are going to borrow money to do a business, spend that borrowed money on marketing!
Start with a list and mail to one list one week, another list the next week and another list the following week. Then you rotate those lists – again. And again. And again.
Now you ask - what if you only have one list? You can still rotate one list. And it is always good to put it on a spreadsheet or a flow chart to track what you are doing and what you have already done.
For instance: You get one list of 6000 identities. You can mail to 2000 one week, 2000 the next week and 2000 the third week. Then you rotate. There are your three different lists!
A campaign is mailing to the same people over and over and over again. The point is you want to hit your prospe
In our previous installment on medical billing, we covered the basics of enteral nutrition and billing and how it got to be such big business. In this installment we're going to review the GE0 record, fields 1 through 8, which is the CMN that has to be sent to the carrier with each enteral bill that is submitted for payment via electronic means using NSF 3.01 specifications.GE0 field 1, positions 1 - 3, is the record type. This field needs to be filled in with GE0. If it is not, the claim will be denied by the carrier. Also, this record must come after the F record in the claim file that is specifically for the enteral product being billed.GE0 field 2, positions 4 - 5, is the sequence number. Because there can be up to 99 CMN records in a claim file, the sequence number, or CMN number must be transmitted, such as GE0-01, GE0-02, etc. If these are out of sequence, the claim will be denied.GE0 field 3, positions 6 - 22, is the patient ID number. This is the same number that is transmitted in the CA0 record and all subsequent records. If this field is not filled in, the claim will be denied.GE0 field 4, position 23, is the certification type. This field is transmitted as either I, for initial or R for recertification. The carrier needs to know this because billing for each cert type is different.GE0 field 5, positions 24 - 31, is the date therapy began field. This is the date that enteral nutrition therapy for the patient began. The format f
Nota bene (that means “take note” in Latin – and I do mean take note): If you are not doing repeat mailings then you are flushing money down toilet. Sorry, I know. The truth sometimes hurts.
Why is this true? One mailing of one postcard once is barely going to get anyone’s attention for more then the minute they see it. Think about it. How many times have you seen the same TV commercials over and over? A one shot in the dark postcard mailing is not going to change your business, your bottom line, your life or your anything.
So, if you are not up to confronting that you need to do a campaign then maybe you shouldn’t be in business. And that may sound harsh – it is harsh. It’s a harsh world. And I want you to succeed in it.
There is another reason. Credibility. In some cases people will hold onto your postcard for a while. They can hold onto your postcard for six months. They may even hold on to your card for three years. But in most cases they’ll think “Oh, I may need that some day” and then while tidying up they’ll throw it away. When you repeat your mailings to those same people and they see your image, logo, slogan, message over and over you become credible to them. Your chances of them responding just got greater. Repeat mailings cannot be repeated enough.
To give you an example, I call it the ‘Trickle Down Effect’:
Say you send out 5000 postcards.
Out of that 5000, 150 hang onto your postcard.
Out of that 5000, so many call the 1st week.
Out of that 5000, so many call the 2nd week.
Out of that 5000, so many call the next month.
Out of that 5000, so many call in 6 months.
Out of that 5000, so many never call…
There is a dwindling inflow from that first mailing and therefore can give a false impression of what occurs from one mailing. Someone sends out a postcard and says, “I only got four responses from my mailing!” But there is a whole dynamic that is going on that is continuing from that one mailing way after the person who sent the mailing expects things to happen. Think about it. Do you jump at every single advertisement that you get bombarded with that you think is a good idea? If you do, you are either a millionaire or broke. But most likely, you see some advertisement that catches your interest and say to yourself that you’d like to check that out some day. Then, you see it again and remember that you wanted to check that out one day. And then, you see it again and this time you decide to check it out.
You want continuous and consistent growth. So what do you do? Look at this scenario:
What if, You send out 5000 postcards one week and you have all that going on that I mentioned above.
You send out 5000 the next week and you have all that going on that I mentioned above.
You send out 5000 the next week and that dwindling flow chart is going on, on each one of those outflows.
What is going to happen? Eventually it is going to snowball – it’s coming in from all different places!
You are really putting your communication out there consistently in a big way.
And yes, it costs a lot of money to do it. (Once you have your list which you’ll use over and over – only paying for it once – postage is more then 55% of your costs) So, FIND THE MONEY. If you are going to borrow money to do a business, spend that borrowed money on marketing!
Start with a list and mail to one list one week, another list the next week and another list the following week. Then you rotate those lists – again. And again. And again.
Now you ask - what if you only have one list? You can still rotate one list. And it is always good to put it on a spreadsheet or a flow chart to track what you are doing and what you have already done.
For instance: You get one list of 6000 identities. You can mail to 2000 one week, 2000 the next week and 2000 the third week. Then you rotate. There are your three different lists!
A campaign is mailing to the same people over and over and over again. The point is you want to hit your prospe
Employers can be liable for secretly placing a video camera in an employee‘s office, even if the employer does not view any of the video. An employer must control his watchful eye and use it in limited circumstances.A California employer, who operates a residential facility for abused children, placed a camera in an office to determine who was accessing pornographic websites at night. The camera was activated at all times in the office. The employer told a few employees about the camera, but not the female employees occupying the office, because the employer feared that these talkative employees may inform the perpetrators. While the camera was activated, a female employee who occupied the office, on occasion, closed the door, pulled down the shade to show her coworker how she was recovering from child birth. The employer was tagged with invasion of the employees' privacy. It did not matter if the employer viewed the videotapes or not. The fact that the employer had access to viewing was enough to invade the employees' invasion of privacy. The employees had an expectation of privacy that when the door to their office was closed, images of them in the office would not be transmitted.Employer video surveillance is permissible in widely accessible areas because there are little expectations of privacy. For example, a room in a janitor break room was found to be permissible because the room was readily accessible to others. Jails are another place where the expect
You want continuous and consistent growth. So what do you do? Look at this scenario:
What if, You send out 5000 postcards one week and you have all that going on that I mentioned above.
You send out 5000 the next week and you have all that going on that I mentioned above.
You send out 5000 the next week and that dwindling flow chart is going on, on each one of those outflows.
What is going to happen? Eventually it is going to snowball – it’s coming in from all different places!
You are really putting your communication out there consistently in a big way.
And yes, it costs a lot of money to do it. (Once you have your list which you’ll use over and over – only paying for it once – postage is more then 55% of your costs) So, FIND THE MONEY. If you are going to borrow money to do a business, spend that borrowed money on marketing!
Start with a list and mail to one list one week, another list the next week and another list the following week. Then you rotate those lists – again. And again. And again.
Now you ask - what if you only have one list? You can still rotate one list. And it is always good to put it on a spreadsheet or a flow chart to track what you are doing and what you have already done.
For instance: You get one list of 6000 identities. You can mail to 2000 one week, 2000 the next week and 2000 the third week. Then you rotate. There are your three different lists!
A campaign is mailing to the same people over and over and over again. The point is you want to hit your prospects with different communication about the same thing or hit them with different products with the same look and feel or both. The rest will come.
Because what you are building with a marketing campaign is credibility. You are building your business through communication. You are communicating consistently, so much that people will believe you (credibility) and they will respond; they will come, they will spend.
1744, Benjamin Franklin published and mailed the first direct marketing catalog which sold scientific and academic books. Direct Mail has come a long way since then, so DON’T let your piece get lost in the mail, so to speak, make it stand out by applying these three basics of successful marketing:
• Being
• Targeting and
• Repeating
Good luck!
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