ED. 068 737-

AUTHOR Anderson, Glenn L.TITLE How ,Colleges, Universities, and Other Educational

Instit-utions Can Use Direct Mail More Effectively.PUB DATE .65NOTE 15p.; Series of articles which appeared in Cpllege

and University Business, January - June, 1965

DOCUMENT RESUME

AC 012 555

EDRS PRICE MF -$3.65 HC-$3.29DESCRIPTORS Audiences; *Colleges; Community Support; Concerts;

Cultural Activities; Cultural Enrichment;*Information Dissemination; Lecture; Periodicals;Publications; *Publicize; *Universities

IDENTIFIERS *Direct Mail Advertising

ABSTRACT -

This series of magazine articles stresses ways inwhich educational institutions can use direct mail advertising topromote lectures, conceits, and other programs to off-campusaudiences. The application of direct mail principles to sellinge'ducation is suggested, and the advantages and disadvantages ofdirect mailings by colleges and universities are discussed.Successful techniques for advertising are described, with emphasis ontheir use by educatiunal institutions. Ideas for compiling andevaluating mailing lists are given to ensure maximum communitysupport.. (RS)

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH.EDUCATION & WELFAREOFFICE OF EDUCATION

THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN PcfRO-OUCEO EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROMTHE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT. POINTS OF VIEW OR OPIN.IONS STATED 00 NOT NECESSARILYREPPESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY.

OW a af;7inberReths, ae

z4#4,7e,Dziectl(ale aka/4A;

to promote lectures, concerts andfine arts programsfor off-campus audiences

0PERMISSION FO REPROOL.CE THIS COPY

RiZHTE0 NIAIERIAL HAS r:EEN GRANIE0BY

IA.C. I S EIS 117. e

\MC. Gro-uJ- 4,10 ERIC AND ORGANIZA11010. OPERATINGUNDER AGREEMENTS WITH TI 4. US OFFICEOF EOUCATION FURTHER FtP1r)DUCtIONOUTSIOE THE ERIC SYSTEM Fl. OWNS PERMISSION Of THE COPYRIGHT 0.VNER

REPRINT OF A SERIES OF MAGAZINE ARTICLES WRITTEN BY GLENN. L. ANDERSON ,A4

Glenn L. Anderson has been indirect mail advertising since 1946and is currently Publications andPublicity Manager of University ofCalifornia Extension at theUC Irvine campus.Prior to the opening of the UCI campus,he held a similar position atUCLA Extension responsible forUniversity Extension promotion for allthe UC Extensions in Southern California.His promotion work covered' fine arts concerts,the UCLA Theatre Group(now at the Music Center, Los Angeles,)Extension classes and special programs.

A graduate of the University of Illinois,Mr. Anderson has been a trade magazinecirculation manager and editor,sales promotion manager,a&ertising agency executive, andindhstrial advertising manager.Hi activities include direct mail consultant,free-lance writer, photo journalist,and photographer. He is a member ofthe Direct Mail Advertising Associationand was the first President of theLos Angeles Direct Mail Marketing Club.

This; series of magazine articles has beenreprinted by the author.

A.ddress inquiries or comments to . . .

Glenn L. Anderson, 2140 Vista Dorado,

Newport Beach, California 92660

Reprinted from the magazine, COLLEGE & UNIVERSITY BUSINESSAppeared January through Jure, 1%5

F 2 Copyrighted by McGRAW-HILL, INC.

How Direct MailCan Build Public Support

for CollegeIf You' Know How To Use It

yDUBE in the direct mail businessbut you may not know it. Many con-

certs, plays, student performances,classes and other programs depend onattracting off -campus audiences. Themore your institution becomes part ofthe community, the greater the varietyof midi programs, the greater your de-pendence on direct mail to seek outyhr audiences.

Furthermore, as an educational in-stitution you have unique advantagesin the use of direct mail, includingunusually lower cost. Yet, most of theprinting pouring out of colleges anduniversities seems to reflect a "takeit or leave it" attitude. At the pricesyou're paying for today's -printing, whynot make it work better? If you don'tneed the income, you are unique.

If you dDn't 'need the com-munity support that can be builtthrough large audiences attend-ing campus events, you onlythink you're unique. You maysoon be extinct.

Too many college announcementssimply give the title of a lecture orname of a concert artist, dates, placeand ticket prices no mail order ticketform, no details of the unusual reasonswhy your faculty committee considersthis program stimulating or enjoyable."Take it or leave it"; "Show up at thebox office if you're interested," theseannouncements say, in effect.

But there's a good chance that forevery two persons who remember thedate and show up on the performancenight, there are at least two morepersons who were convinced about theprogram and would have ordered tick-ets by mail.

Some program planners who don'twant to be bothered say, "Anyonewho is really interested will come with-out much urging." But if you wantto make every event more successful,remember that at the moment of read-ing, the moment when interest, desireand conviction about the program havereadied the hottest point, that's theright moment to make it easy to actand get your prospects to commit them-selves to attendance. Better to believethat those who are "really. interested"will come no matter how much you saythan to say so little that you lose alarger segment of yourpotentialence. Use of a mail order coupon thatis made to look like everybody is clip-ping and mailing it should be standardprocedure.

Shortcomings of some collegeadvertising can be traced backto the time when such promo-tion started out as a part-timeactivity, then graelually ex-pandeil to full time but withoutprofessional personnel.

III the beginning someone probablysaid. "All it takes is a little commonsense to announce our public programs."lb it professionals in advertising, as wellas in other management practices, arenot paid for common sense but fortheir uncommon sense. Uncommonsense is the major ingredient whichsome management consultants applyto cut costs or impreve production byhundreds of thousand; of dollars in avariety of dissimilar companies andimhistries. They cuter a company, ana-lyze existing operations, and applyprinciples of efficient management.

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Applying uncommon sense to directmail selling of education call also bringmagical results. So-caNed common sensesays, "Colleges should not sell culturalor educational programs." Uncommonsense says, "Selling need not involveunethical advertising language or super-lative promises that create dissatisfac-tion in audiences. Instead, a straight-forward description of the content,meaning and value of an educationalor cultural program can sell more of theright audience, and guarantee satisfac-tion to that audience." (If your pro-graming does not reflect this quality,then the programing needs improve-ment.)

In the area of public lectures and ex-tension programs for off-campus audi-ences, uncommon sense says, "Educa-tion learning about any subjectcan be made exciting, dramatic andappealing to those who have an interestin the subject. Lots of specific infonna...tion will attract that specific' audience.An equal amount of general infers-nationcan never excite all of the pnblicii 1 soAnil try."

The-eptimum result you may wantfrom a program may be a small, sophis-ticated audience for a high-level pro;gram or, a full auditorium for others.Whether your objective is optimumaudience quality or optimum ticketsales, the application of the uncommonsense of professional direct mail ex-perience can improve your current pro-motiOnal efforts.

Column sense might say, "There'sno use mailing the same mailing pieceone semester after another we needa new approach for programs that arerivaled." Uncommon sense proyes notonly that you can use the same mailer(with date changed) but that youshoufd use it.

Common sense says, "Drop old namesfrom your mailing list." But uncommonsense may investigate deeper and provethat lir doing so von might have thrownaway as much as 25 per cent of yourbusiness.

Here are a few more samplesof the application of direct mailprinciples to selling education:

If you want to sell more. tell more..brag copy sells inure than short Copy.

A self-mailer may cost the least inprinting and mailing. but may not siec-e;saril ring up ticket sales at theeit cost per ticket sold.

If unit ticket price is too low to paythe costs of direct mail selling..you canincrease the unit of sale in several waysother than a reduction for quantitypurchases.

When your initial concert announce-ment has only partially sold out theaditthium,. then properly plannedemergency mailings can still converthalf-empty houses into a large suc-cessful attendatux.

Direct mail selling costs can be re-duced by selling series tickets even ondissimilar programs.

Your presort customers can help youincrease your mailing lists, and in turnincrease your audiences.

Improved readability of copy andlayout can increase read-through of yourmessage by 10 to 25 per cent.

Bizarre layouts and irrelevant art cancut returns to a fraction of your fullpotential.

In your theater programs and ex-tension catalog, proper warding miduse of display pages to announce specialprograms can replace part. of ydtirspecial mailings and attract: as muchas half your audience. This enables youto reduce the quantity of the specialannouncements printed and . mailed.

an forthcoming articles, theseuncommon principles and otherideas that make direct mail moreeffective will be discussed.

I hope to make clear the reasoningbehind the many elements that arecombined to make the mailings suc-cessful, and spell out exactly how thesame general principles can be appliedsuccessfully to your own promotions.You may be able to discover here andthere some of the errors that are turn-ing away audiences and income. Futurearticles will deal with such subjects ashow to utilize the unique advantages

and overcome some disadvantagesOf your direct mail as compared to

commercial direct mail. Later we willdiscuss copy that sells; emergency ac-tions that may double your audience:how to adapt a variety of formats to avariety of audiences; research to guar-antee continued success; how to keepyour prospect reading until he is con-vinced he should act; the care andfeeding of mailing lists, and any othermail advertising problem.; readers might

College Mailings Face Harder TaskThan Commercial,

But Have Own Advantages

M.OST onliyersities rely heavily onannotincematts for their

anthems% for lectures, concerts, filmsand other_ cultural events :dined at theoff-camptts public. Persuading one in-dividual to do something when youare talking face to face is a fairly diffi-cult job. But, it is easy compared topersuading many unseen individuals bymeans of a message printed out a pageor in a letter.

Your mailing asmounCentents are di-wet mail advertising and, comparedwith most other advertising, direct mailis different in that 'it must ask for anorder; it must lx' aimed at persuadingmany individuals and obtaining a de-cision to come to your campus boxoffice, or to order tickets by mail.

Successful direct mail therefore musttell a full story and answer all questionsand objections likely to arise in theminds of most readers. That's asking alot, particularly when university andcollege direct mail usually asks for thebig decision: Send money now in

.advatice.Othet- direct mail, you will find

by simply reviewing the last few piecesyou have received. emphases no de-cision now: just a tiny bit or favorableattti011 of .0 sort mmle easy for you todo, and of mirse, you "send nonumey."

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Let its compare the factors involvedwith commercial direct mail and ourown, the better then to overcome someof our disadvantages, and to exploit ourvery real advantages.

Tenn!: of the Offer and FormatCommercial Direct Mail: Send no mon-ey or a small deposit. Twenty years andmore of mail order records show thatif you can get 50 orders based on "sendno money pay later on approval"then you will get only 3.5 orders basedon "send no money now, just pay thepostman C.O.D." When you sell on thebasis of "cash in advance with the or-der," the number of orders hasdwindled to 25.Unicersity Direct Mail: Usually "cashin advance now with the order".Commercial: Mail the separatepostage-free reply card after you simplyput a check mark in the square. Lettermused with the most personal approach.in an envelope with a sepaiate folderand reply envelope.Univer.vity: Fill omit a complete couponwhich is part of a folder. Clip the cou-pon, find poi, fill in the information.write check, find envelope. address it,find ta ap. Sometimes enclose a self-addressed, staniped envelope for thereply. Usually economy demands aself-mailer. .1

Comrcial: Pav after vproval. Guar-anteeel money back if, tug "absolutelydelighted."University: Approve now based on theinformation furnished, aml send fullpayment now. Limited refund policy, if

Commercial: Nearly always a bargainor special price. Usually an additionalpremium if you act now.University: Not possible.

Commercial: Test many different for-mats and advertising appeals beforeproceeding with the full mailing.University: Time does not permit test-ing on the same scale.

Copywriting in Direct MailCemmercial: Headlines dramatizebenefits to the individual.UniVersity: Usually an academic title,although an interesting subtitle cansometimes be added.

Commercial: Direct emotional appealsto sex, romance, health, comfort, prof-it. self-advancement, social prestige.University: Limited in appeal to cul-ture, educational value, indirectly interms of self-advancement.

Commereial: Written person to per-

University: Sometimes addressed di-rectly to the reader to act arid benefit,but often must be addressed to acompany, training director, principal,student counselor, ur other person whythen must select or persuade the pro.-Peet vou are trying to reach there-fore 'difficult to .aim copy in readable

style.This comparison should convince you

that direct mail must have a lot of whatit takes to win fawrable action. Thecomparison demortg:t,tes how averagecommercial direct mail says: "Don't de-

eide now, don't worry about paying,you're not doing anything that commitsyou; just make that easy little checkmark next to where we have alreadyfilled in your name. Never mind astamp, we pay the postage. You're noteven buying anything because youcan return it so very easily withoutrisking a peiniy."

Don't despair. University and col-lege direct mail has certain other ad-vantages that many an advertiser wouldtake in trade for all the advantages heseems to have.

For example, the average advertisermust invest much more m getting at-tention. Then, having attention, theadvertiser must use devices and strat-agems in words, layout and art tomake sure prospects read his messagefrom beginning to end. Also, advertisersmust convince the reader that theadvertiser is worthy of the confidence ofthe prospect. And, all this he must doahead of and to the exclusion of manycompetitors.

In the realm of persuasion, in thelong tricky road from initial attentionthrough interest, desire and convictionto action, many a prospect drops off onthe way. In these abstract areas, col-lege direct mail has unique advantages.Here are some of them:

1. Our unique product is education,including cultural entertainment. If thereader has any knowledge of the sub-ject, we have a better chance of get-ting his very favorable attention.

2. Those who have asked to be puton you' mailing list have demon-strated a special interest in what youhave 'n say will hear you out, listen toyou full story, if you give them ball a.nance.3. What the university is doing is

news. One of the most important ele-ments in advertising is just that: thenews element.

4. Because you offer news from auniversity, your reader expects the newsitself will be educational. The readerexpects some worthwhile knowledgejust from reading !p.ur announcementregardless of tchether or not he attendsthe program you are Idling him about.

5. The other advertisers are obvious-ly out to "sell a bill of goods." Yourreaders think of the university as dis-interested, offering nonprofit educationor entertainment.

All of these qualities make it easierto achieve conviction in the mind of theprospect that your proposal is worth-while. The average advertiser pleads,begs, entreats the prospect to believein his product, and then become con-vinced that he must act. Your publicbelieves in you, he is convinced of thequality, reputation, honesty of you andyour offer.

Combine the unusual advantagesthat we enjoy with full considerathm ofthe other differences between our di-rect mail and commercial direct mail,and you have a combination of tech-nics that will seem to work magic inimproved results and income.

Direct mail can be an expensive,even a prohibitive, way of doingbusiness when it is not understood ant:not properly planned. Successful di-rect mail follows certain broad prin-ciples. In most cases, the measure ofsuccess is the number of tickets yousell, and this result will be most oftenmentioned in these articles. But thetest of effectiveness, and the reason formaking direct mail more effective, canbe -represented by other goals thanmoney and income. The objective maybe a small but highly qualified audi-ence. Once you have improved yourdirect mail, you may be able to up-grade the quality of your programsand of your audiences.

Tarticle is the third in our serieson the use of professional direct

mail advertising technics in the promo-tion of on-campus cultural programs,lectures and classes designed for off-campus audiences.

How can we talk about profes-sional direct mail and the pro-fessional approach?

We can do so if we have a backlogof successful experiments to show thatfavorable results have been proved.When you plan for results and tracethose results, you soon learn by experi-ence and intuition born of that experi-ence just what works and what doesnot work.

This is not to say that direct mailprofessionals can always predict thewinner in a test of several mailingpieces or letters; but, comparing a mail-ing piece that has none of the ingredi-ents of successful persuasion to thosethat do contain them, experienced ad-vertisers predict which is more likelyto succeed.

In the 1930s, years of very hardselling, two brothers Townsend electri-fied the advertising profession whenthey announced that they had discov-ered 30 ingredients that an ad mustpossess to be successful. Many adver-tising egencies scoffed, but they andqthers were forced by clients to submittheir ads for sci:ret analysis. In mosteases, the Townsend formula of suc-cess did improve ad results. The secretselling points leaked out in varied forms.The important lesson is that such for-mulas can be deduced from the teach-ings of many advertising geniuses.

So, when we come to a considera-tion of effective copy writing, w... couldreadily reprint the writings of ClaudeHopkins. Ernest Elmo Calkins, TamesWebb, ;Air Copies, GideDavid Ogilvy, and many others. Butfor the reader who is limited in time,I would suggest Clyde Betlell's "How ToWrite Advertising That Sells." His "34Proven Selling Stratagems" for com-mercial products can be applied to the

Tell More To Sell MoreIs Good Rule for Education's

Direct Mail Advertising

abstract area of education and, cultendentertainment.

The transference is not eav toachieve, but those who persist in com-paring our ,educational "product" andour technici of selling with others willbe rewarded with more and more pen=ple

.

comingtothe campus to experiencethe thrill of learning or the greater ap-predation of the arts.

In addition to needing more of thecopy elements that sell, most college an-nouncements can be improved in read-ability through an -application of theteachings of Rudolf Flesch.

Advertising textbooks can tell youwhat to .say and, this advice will helpyou sell many more people. But yourcopy can produce greater success if youfollow the advice of Rudolph Flesch on"how to say it." Simple words. humanreferences, shod sentences make up theFlesch formula for readability that ed-itors of newspapers and magazineshave applied with startling success.

Before we walk through ademonstration tif writing copy,here are a few other principlesto consider:

I. Long copy will sell more thanshort copy.

2. Don't talk generally to the generalpublic. Few programs have tint broadan appeal. Pick out who ;/.sir pros-pects are so you can talk to them inspecific language about specific fea-tures.

3. Every average subject, no matterhow dull it may seem to you, is excit-ing and interesting to its fans. Talk tothese fans with their enthusiasm, andyou will persuade them as well as oth-ers marginally interested.

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4. Start where y our prospect is. Be-gin with the fan-nar before describingthe new and unfamiliar aspects of thesubject.

5. Avoid "advertisingese." Windy al-perlatives, extreme claims, and exagger-ations only produce dissatisfied cus-tomers.

6. At the other extreme, avoid pre-tentioutness, fine writing, abstractionswhere the 'writer forgets he is a sales-man and tries to be. a perfonner. In-stead of sales, he seeks applauseand usually gets only his own and thatof a flattering friend or two.

7. Don't try to be cute There isplenty of entertainment in the funny

'papers and on TV.- If you want to sell,be straightforward, honest, serious.

8. Verify your basic assumptions.You have some surprises coming. Forexample, ask a kw people, "Have youever been to a concert on our campus?"Some will answer, "I thought they wereonly open to students and faculty."

. Ask others, "Have you ever taken ex-tension dresses?" And your next-doorneighbor may surprise you with, "Butdon't you have to be a college gradu-ate?"

This bit of research should teach youto future prominently such words as,"Opc,:i to the public," "Public lectures,"and to repeat this message by para-phrasing, "A lerture series for the lay-man and all those interested in under-standing today's scientific advances" or"1 concert for all lovers of string quAr-tets." This research should also startyou seeking out new lists of people totell them that they should not havethe mistaken cor.ceptions you have dis-covered in part of your public.

How do you adapt the princi-ples of good copy writing to talk-ing about concerts, lectures andother educatimud and culturalprograms?

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Hen are a few penteis;Your copy must be written hi terms

of benefits to the reader what thereader gets or experiences. First, yourtitle is your headline. It is the most im-portant element in an advertisement be-cause !.t forms the reader's decisionwhether to go on and read or stopthere. Now, in many situations you aregiven an academic title that you can'tchange. But you can supplement itwith a subtitle that arrests more at-tention, promises definite benetits in en-tertainment or education.

Then, immediately, go into de'aiisabout the progrun, details that carryforward the ideas given in the headline.Don't write literary essays. Talk to peo-r4e. In order to get interesting materialfor your body copy, question the per-forming artists or lecturers. They havean enthusiasm for their subject. Thatsame enthusiasm is shared by otherpeople who, so far, exist only "way outthere somewhere" and have not yet be-come an audience. But keep pumpingfor answers to the questions: "Whyshould pare o our public drop every-thing and rush to attend this perform-ance?'" 'What's so great about it?"

Most times, the enthusiasm ofthe performer or the lecturerfor his subject can be trans-formed into a description thattransmits the enthusiasm to thepublic, and you get a good at-tendance.

Most of the people who plan theseprograms have spent a half hour orMore with the person who will presentthe pregi am, and. often their reactionhas been, "He makes it sound so veryinteresting and fascinating, I am goingto be sure to attend myself. That's thekind of enthasiesm to pick up and puton paper to persuade more people toattend.

Will this copy approach work forconcerts, recitals and other campuscultural events designed to attract off-campus auchences? Try it. Use shortcopy in a test against longer copy. Prop-

erly written longer copy will usuallyoutsell brief "announcement" copy.

Remember the advantages you haveover other mail advertisers. Your pub-lic considers your announcements edu-cational and worthwhile news.

the case of musical performances.don't hesitate in the preliminary an-nouncement to give some detailsabout some of the compositions or com-posers in addition to material about theartists. Why save all the exciting andinteresting notes for the performanceprogram where half your audiencerives too late to read it? Take a new'NI at those notes.

In sang a product, there comes apoint in the persuasic,1 process whereyou picture to the prospect the enjoy-ment that canes from using the prod-uct. It is as if the prospect is nowin your audience and your words as-sume he is there starting to enjoy theprogram:

Try to meet the reader on hisown ground -- who are ourprospects end what do they al.ready know about the subject?

When a bookseller tries to sell you abook through the mail, the one bit ofcopy he always includes is the tableof contents. It may not look pretty inthe layout, and to those only mildly in-,.terested it may seem to take up toomuch space. But those who have anactive interest are not about to partwith their money without judgingwhether the contents promise morethan books already read on the samesubject.

Don't use the biography of the lec-turer as given in "Who's Who" with allthe dull details starting with where hegot his B.A. degree. Instead, rewritethe biography to answer this question:"What unique experiences and knowl-edge qualify this specific person totalk on this specific program?"

Emphasize how to enroll in a emrse,also that it is open to the public.

Since the series is for the layman,strongly infer that attendance by morethan one person is expected bringa friend, suggest a husband and wifeenroll together.

You get more multiple enrollmentswhen the enrollment blank suggests itby iimviding spaces to fill in the namesof "other persons covered by this en-rollment."

Besides copy, other lectors that makefor success or failure of your direct mailarc readability, format, lists and re-search, which will be discussed in fu-ture articles.

7tuff

Readability StudiesProvide Ground Rules

To Make Your AdvertisingMore Effective

THE more people who read yourannouncements of on-campus

events, the more your public followingwill increase.

The title of a lecture, or name of aperforming artist, may be all you needto bring in orders for tickets from afew enthusiasts. Stop there, if youwant to, but you haven't even startedgetting the most for your printingmoney. Each bit of good informationthat you add will attract a few more.

You will get optimum resultsif you can keep more peoplereading through to the end ofyour message.

Lawrence C. Chait, a counselor inmail advertising and selling, says of di-rect mail readership: "Marketing peo-ple who are exposed for the first timeto direct mail readership studies aregenerally shocked to find that a pieceof direct mail will be seen/identified bythe prospect group to an extent four orfive times greater than that accorded tothe same advertisement in a newspaperor Magazine representing a circulationaudience of equal size.

"In specific terms, direct mail reader-ship normally is in the 65 per cent to85 per cent range, as against the 10per cent to 20 per cent figure whichgenerally emerges for print media ad-vertising of other types."

This is not to play down the effec-tiveness of other media. Rather it is toanticipate the unscientific and subjec-tive reaction: "I never .read businasmail. I don't think anybody reads di-rect mail." The people who know howwrong you are, if you are addicted tothis fallacy, are laughing at you allthe way tc the bank.

Nevertheless, more attention can begiven profitably to getting more peopleto read through to the end of your mes-sage. The more who, do read all theway through, the more will buy.

A survey made years ago fo-cuses attention on the impor-tance of read-through.

A successful mail order finn maileda thousand pieces to a sample in10 states, then followed up with per-sonal interviews. Here's what theyfound:

Out of a thousand people inter-viewed, 384 did not remember the let-ter ( it was assumed they did: not openit), 616 remembered receiving it but393 of those 616 remembered nothingof the contents .(it was assumed theydid not read it). 'Phis totals 777, or 78per cent who did not open or did notread ally part. Two hundred and twen-ty-four did remember something in theletter (it was rimmed they wad it),and 34 of the 224 bought the productoffered. The mailing was very profit-able.

It doesn't matter whether the figureof 78 per cent nonreaders can be at-tributed accurately to other mailings.What does matter is the working as-sumption that a majority may not readour mail at all, unless we remember tomake them read. Add up nonreadersand readers who did not buy, and youhave 96.7 per cent of your list to workon for improved read-through.

We cannot hope to achieve 100 percent readership unless our list is com-posed of 100 per cent prospects.

Quantitative readership by use of awide general appeal is worthless, un-less in that readership group are thequalitative \group: he prospects. Tothe extent that advertising is directedspecifically to the prospects, the morelikely it is to pick up fringe prospects.

Readership studies of copy,layout, art and typography pro-vide ground rules to make mid-vertising more effective.

Ads that are already effective havebeen made 10 per cent to 25 per centmore effective in read-through by ap-

8

plying the results of research. An in-crease of read-through readership of 10per cent to 25 per cent in direct mailwould mean that a mailing of 5,000will have the effect of a mailing of5,500 to 6,250. Thus increased read-through can obtain a lxmats of 10 percent to 25 per cent for every dollar in-vested in advertising.

If you are serious about communicat-ing, you need to pay attention to howeasy, or difficult, it is to read and com-prehend your announcements. Themass media have applied readabilityformulas such as those of RudolfFlesdr and Robert Cunning to greatadvantage. Many publishers and edi-tors, who paid no attention to thesereadability formulas, have been run outof business fast.

Yet a great number of university an-nouncements are more difficult to readthan the Yale Review. The majority aremuch harder to read than AtlanticMonthly and IMrpers. Is this too higha reader level for the language of yourdirect mail? Remember, those who pickup Atlantic, Harpers, Yale Review havetheir own motive for doing so.

But, you cannot assume any suchmotive when the same people pick upyour advertisement.

Unless you make it easy to goon from sentence to sentence,you lose readers all along theway.

You lose readers with a word afancy polysyllable that you think makesyour writing erudite. The reader stops,puzzles, begins to lose interest. Also,you can lose readers at the end of eachcomplicated sentence, earh paragraph,at the bottom of a page, at every pointwhere you stop to take ri breath.

Most people think of the readinglevel of Atlantic itfonthly and Harpers,.for > example, as aimed at universitygraduates, intellectuals who will over-come any complications of long wordsand sentences..

You should take another look. Theeditors of these and other magazinesare fighting for complete read-through.Set their articles next to some of yourown copy. Compared to your expecta-tions, you may now discover that theirlanguage is almost primer-like. Not so.It is the current language of clear-cutcommunication putting an idea overwith the least possible strain on thereader.

Many books have been written onhow to make reading interesting. At thevery least, find out what Flesch andCunning . are talking about, and applysome of their suggestions. If you don't,you're wasting a lot of money on print-ing and communication that could bemore effective.

Here we are concerned notwith the readership formulas,but with physical aids in format,layout and typography, whichhelp keep people reading.

Start with the basic piece of mail aletter from me to you. The method ofreproduction of such a letter affects thedegree of readership. Find out aboutthe difference between letters repro-duced by automatic typing, printing butwith a matched fill-in of name and ad-dress, multigraph and straight printing.Also, leans from professional direct mailabout indenting some paragraphs,numbering items in a list, marginalmarks or underlines in a second color,signature in a second color, use of theP.S. (the first thing, not the lastthing, most people read).

Most college and u:Aiversity an-nouncements are printed folders orself-mailers, so let us look into gettingmaximum read-through of such printedmaterial.

With t egard to folders, self-mailers and boOklets, here tiresome ways to make readingmore attractive:

1. Use captions and subcaptions totelegraph the story for the reader whoskims over the copy first before readingdetails.

2. If your headline :is an academictitle you can't change, then back it.upwith a subtitle that has reader interest.

3. Copy on the cover or in the head-ings should include all those elementsthat may pick a prospect out of thecrowd and say: "Wait a minute, don'tthrow this away E- this is for you."These elements, my include title, sub.title, audience ( "open to the public"or "for lovers of classical music," and soforth), dates, place, time and specialfeatures. If a lecture series includesdemonstrations, slides and films, whynot say so?

4. Back cover copy must be consid-ered in exactly the same way as covercopy. You think you know which isyour front cover, but watch people pickup their mail and you'll discover thatboth covers are important. Look maga-zine discovered that 25 per cent ofmagazine readers thumbed throughfrom the back of the magazine, so theyput some feature articles there!

5. With respect to art and illustra-tion on the covers and inside, remeni-her that the primary.: purpose of thelayout is. to achieve complete read-through. A majority. ef people will notbuy until they have read all you haveto say; never forget that. Only as artand layout contribute relevantly to thisobjective are they effective. This rulesout most extraneous decoration, as itshould be ruled out. Generally. a photo-graph or an illustration approaching aphotograph is the most successful in at-tracting rem lers.

6. Photographs with accompanyingcaptions are almost co mpnlsoly read-ing for most people. In newspapers theyget two to three times more readershipthan text. For this reason, a photoshould scarcely ever be used withouta captivn under it, preferably empha-sizing a selling feature. With regard topictures, readership research furthertells us that in pictures used to tell aStory, unusual cropping, outlining ortilt should be avoided. Captions shouldbe placed right under the picture.Don't deface your photograph byprinting a headline over the picturearca itself. This can reduce attentionvalue by an average of 19 per cent.

Layout and typography de-serve as much attention as edi-tors of mass media give them.

The editor knows that his objectiveis communication, and he wants com-plete read-through.

Do you really want maximum read-through? Then learn from researchthat reports 5, 10, 25 per cent, and oth-er varying percentage drop-offs inreaders when any of these rules areviolated:

1. Type should be as large as thetext permits 10 point usually isused in books. You may be forced to setit smaller, but if so, try to put whitespaces between the lines. Find outwhich type faces are larger for theirsize. For example, 8 point Times RomanprObably appears .as large as 10 pointWeiss type face.

2. Typographic experts advise anaverage width of line &Inal to ewe andone-half alphabets or 39 characters. Ifyou exceed this by very much, consid-er putting white space between lines.

3. White space should be used tomake important headings and subheadsstand out. Large massive type does notemphasize a title or headline as well aslesser blacks with white .

4. Avoid long !main; of all-capital letters. They are 1Z1 per cent

harder to read than tipper and lowerease.

5. Emphasize key words in a longheadline by italics, lxildface, or letter-

spaced capitals.6. Do not use condensed type faces

for text or long copy. Condensed typefaces were generally designed to meetlimitations of newspaper columns;leave them there.

7. Where all caps are used in aheadline or subhead, they are general-ly made more readable by letter-spac-ing between the letters.

8. Set text in the kind of type wegrew up reading the kind of type weread most of every day. That type isserif type, not sans-serif.

This article is set in serif type.This line is set in sans-serif.9. If your type is being set on a lino-

type machine, the type face comes intwo varieties: sometimes Roman anditalic, sometimes Roman and boldface.Learn how to use the ether face judi-ciously to emphasize key words or tobreak up copy blocks.

10. Type can be used, when copypermits, to keep readers going by suchmethods as the following:

a. Subtitles following the heading.b. A subtitle preceding the heading,

providing the subtitle and heading areworded as a complete sentence orthought.

c. Boldface lead-in for text.d. Indenting some paragraphs right

and left in the middle of the text.e. Setting a sentence or short para -.

graph in italics if that italic face is easyto rid.

f. Numbering or lettering ideas in alist.

g. First paragraphs set in larger typoor with more spe:e between Dues.

h. Start the .text or new pak:.5.aphswith a two-line or three-line initial let-

ter. One study says that a large initialletter will increase readership an aver-age of 13 per cent.

i. Use decorative initials that arepart of the type face used.

j. Other decorative characters (calledprinter's flowers) that do not distract,e.g. an em quad, a dot or a star inplace of numerals in a listing..:

k. Run-over of copy from one col-umn or page to the next is desirable tokeep them reading. Newcomers oftenspace copy so that each column or pageends "neatly" with the end of a para-graph or sentence. The end of thethought makes it easy for your readerto stop thinking about what you aresaying altogether, and you lose yourreader.

1. Use normal book style of indent-ing first line of paragraphs. centeringlines.

Setting type with ragged (un-even) lines at right or left is anobstacle to readership.

Here are some don'ts they callmore 'attention to the type and layout.and forget that the purpose of type isto communicate ideas. These are someof the cliches that crop up in cycles.are imitated badly by amateurs, amlhave no place especially in direct mailwhere the objective is to obtain actionfrom the reader, not throw obstacles athis eyes.

Avoid: (a) unusual word-splitting:(b) excessive use of lower case onlywhere readers expect normal capitalletters; (c) heavy rules that attractmore attention to themselves ratherthan functioning as separators of copy;(d) large heavy numerals or dates thatdistract from emphasis on the copy;(e) excessive type sizes; (f) jumbles of

type faces; (g) text or long copyprinted on colored tint blocks, lengthyreverses of type or text type in red,orange or other bright colors.

10

Never set your copy in reverse, thatis, white type on a black .background.and newr set it over gray or, coloredtint they make reading virtually im-possible. Surveys report a 10 -per centto 42 per cent advantage in reading otblack on white versus white on blackor on tint blocks.

Use of color for headings andsubheads calls for a reconsidera-tion of the type face to be used.

Color should be used:judiciously. Inthe case of excessive use of displaytype, it is said, "All display is no dis-play." The same principle applies touse of color.

In some cases, where a heading orsubhead will appear in color, it is nec-essary to step up the type in size orboldness, otherwise the black text copyoverpowers it.

The next article will discuss fittingthe format to the task.

How To Choose a Format

That Fits Objectivesof Your Mail Campaign

WHEN we come to a considera-tion of formats to be used in

advertising (limpets concerts and cul-tural events, then we should reconsiderour objectives. If the objective for oneevent is to attract an ever larger pub-lic audience, one' kind of format orpackage, for example, a self-mailermight carry our message. But, if theobjective is to attract the social, poli-tical and economic leaders of the com-munity, you may find another formatbrings startling results, for example, aninvitation type of mailer.

The format by which youcommunicate to your prospec-tive audiences covers many pos-sibilities.

First there are the from-me-to-youpersonal communications: a single let-ter sent first class. Then there are let-ters personally addressed but sent inquantities. When the quantity is largeenough, you can use automaticallytypewritten letters. To retain some per-sonal touch to printed letters, you maymatch the typewriter type with amatched fill-in of the name and ad-dress of the prospect, or fill in thename ill a deliberately nomnatchedtype. Even with no fill-in, but startingthe letter "Dear Friend" or with a head-line, the printed letter still can lookmore personal when the signature isprinted in a second color,

Does it all sound too gimmicky and. 'corny? Try some new formats, take a

count of the improved ticket sales, andtake a good, critical look at the newcustomers. Neither the extra ticketsales nor the new customers will lookcorny.

But, this is not a suggestion to useblatant, irrelevant formats. The formatshould suit the objective, the type ofprogram, and the audience.

13:ear in mind that the cost ofinailing, whatever format isused, does not depend on howmuch you pay the printer, mail-ing department, and post office.

The mailer that costs most in dollarsmay bring in more orders and be themost economical per ticket sold. Themistaken idea about cost instea& ofsales per dollar spent keeps manypromoters from hying out more effec-tive formats.

Tests can, point to better results.For example, if you are mailing to lastyear's concert season subscribers,you'll get more renewals by enclosingan addressed reply envelope with a 5cent postage stamp affixed to the ea-velope. This will increase your cost ofmailing by $55 to $65 a thousand tocover the stamps, affixing stamps, en-velope, inserting. But try it on halfyour list when the _results are inyou'll probably wish you had done iton the entire list.

That's one example of an improve-ment in format to be tested at least onprime lists. Now let's get back to gen-eral considerations.

Generally, the most effectivemailing format is a letter, bro-chure, separate order card, andreply envelope.

The qualifying word generally is im-portant because many individual situa-tions contradict this principle. I willcontradict it too when I talk ,aboutthe invitation format a little later.

Often, letters and separate reply or-.ders are not available to you. You re-ceive heralds from the booking agent,and have little choice but to mailthem as self-mailers or use them asthrowaways. Most of these heraldsmade up by the booking agents andmanagers could stand considerableimprovement in copy and applicalionof other direct mail technics. Some,which you probably recognized, al-ready have that professional touchand fairly certain high return in ticketorders.

rNO.

Self-mailers can range informat according to the methodof reproduction.

'They can be mimeographed. multi-graphed and printed by offset or letter-press. Cenerally, if you are usingphotographs and you should usethem on main announcements thenyou will use a printing process. Theself-mailers should include a tear-offorder blank so that tickets can beordered by mail.

When you are using more than onelist for your mailings, you should ar-range your self-mailers so that repliesare automatically -coded. You can tellwhich lists are producing the mostbusinesk if your order blank is placedon the inside so that its reverse sidecontains the address space. Thus, byturning over each order blank, youread the addressee and identity of thelist so you can tabulate results. Whenother formats are used, order blankscan he coded in different ways which Iwill describe in a subsequent article.

Self-mailers can include compara-tively large Sheets folded down as wellas post cards and double post cards.As to the final folded size, the post of-five has some limitations, but anotherlimitation often overlooked is the sizeof the mailboxes you're sending to. Ifyour institution is surrounded byapartment houses, a large mailer willbe folded (or crushed) to go into anapartment house mail slot, or left out-side in a general pick-np box wheremuch of the mail is not always pickedup.

If ticket sales are not np to expecta-tions. and you are quite sure it is...notthe fault of the concert artist or theprognue,don't hesitate to use e boost.er mailer any 'way you can get it outin a hurry. If the printed advancepiece can't be reprinted. a mimeo-graphed self-mailer can do the job.Switch the copy emphasis to ticketsavailable at the box office on the nightof the concert.

Emergency mailings like these havedoubled the audience in more than oneof our programs, and research hasproved-that the second and emergency!mailing was mainly responsible for thataudience increase.

tinaliffinINMEIMMOMIMMIMMIMPINIIIMMEIMMIIMMIMMINNEMar..43i

Choice of format can do a lotin successfully attracting newaudiences, and audiences madeup of more of the leaders ofyour immediate community.

An irwitation-npe announcementmailed in invitation-size envelopes cando much to attract their favorable at.tention and attendalce.

The notside panel of the invitationcarries, the conventional message of in-vitation including artist, place. dates.At thebottoni of the panel, be sureto put the scale of ticket prices sothat thew is no mistake that the in-vitation is to buy tickets, not to comeas a guest.

Srune might criticize this formatbefore using it as perhaps de-

meaning or injuring the image of yourinstitution or program. Quite the ccu-trarv. More leaders of the communitywill respond to this than to other for-mats. if you want steadily to build thebest community support, you'll try thiscart soon. You'll find yourself in goaland dignified company: Harvard Busi-ness Review has used the invitationformat almost exchuively for years,as has the National Geographic So-ciety.

The mail you receive at your ownImmo will suggest to you the widevariety of formats. Make sung you geton direct mail lists for all types ofoffers, and ask yourself whether eachformic can be successfully adapted toyour use.

Don't limit your ideas to mailsamples alone.

(Ve unusual format we have usedsuceessfully was to mail the 12 pageconcert program. 1' primary' functionwas as a handout al: the concert it-self, Tart the concert notes were ex-citing and enticing enough to hi ing in;t record audience.

Test new formats with clew chje-fives in view, and use the test leioltsto improve future mailings.

The Care and Tending of Prospect ListsGarners Profit and

Community Support

VOU cannot expect to build steady-A- audiences for cultural events, you

cannot obtain optinium direct mail re-sults at minimum cost unless you build,refine and expand your mailing lists.Some experts say the quality of yourlist determittes 75 per cent of the suc-eess of your mailing. If von are notputting the names of all your patronson regular lists, you should start doing,so. If von are not adding more prospectnames front all possible sources, you.are letting audiences and revenue .slipaway. Before we discuss the specificsof college mailing lists for publicevents. there are two generalities that4serve mention: ZIP codes and ad-dressing systems.. This is a good time to ealu-ate your mailing lists and ad-dressing system.

This period, from the present to Jan.1, 1967., is a particolarly opportune timebeeanse of the impending requirementthat all lasts will have to be completelyZIP-eoded by Jan. 1, 1967, or paypt;:ialty postage. You must undertakethe .cost of extracting each addressHate from Four list file, adding thenow ZIP code (or making a completeuc w plate to accommodate the ZIPemir) and refiling the plates iiymmer-lead ZIP-code order. This cost may nmas high as the cost of installing a com-plete eew addressing systeni.

Now is the time to consider whetheryour present system does suit yourpresent and future requirements. Innormal mailing periods, the biggestobstacle to a change-over to a new,iniproved system of addressing is theinim% cost to convert from one typeneanother. But whether or not you planto change Your system, start now toZIP-code 1w adding ZIP codes witheach new addition or change.

Many systems are availablefor maintaining lists and ad-dressing mail.

A mailing list can be establishedsimply by typing names and addressesOtt index cards. then addressing inch-

12istoutramommairprismirsiormaermandmitniummilisiyirsilivrei

--

vidual pieces from'that list. Or, von canuse multiple lidrels and type as manyas six set:. of lathers at one time. Or, re.produce such labels on a copyingmaehine. From these elementary sys-tems rtit can progress, as lists becomelarger and more complicated, to paperand metal address Oates. on tip tousing a computer and nutiotaining listsno magnetic tape.

Somewhere between the two e.7:-

tremes you will find a mailing list sys-tem that suits year purposes. The. de-tails of each system, its advantages azyldisadvan:iges, arc too many to discuss t.here. t

The light system for you depends on:the weight you give factors like theskit! of lists, the number of categoriesor arks used, the frequency of use anddesirability of selecting small segmentsof the list. An axiont among =dingylist houses Is that if you are going to,tis4 a name more than six times a year,'then it pays to set up some kind of mel-t:hank:11 addressing system.

Pe;aps you have been required touse the' system already established bythe administration for record purposes.Such a system may be suitable for rec-ords but not for mailing, especiallysince complete ZIP- coding lies justahead. It is not impractical to install asecond address system if the systemoffers more advantages and economy in

operations.

Yoti can find complete dis-cussions on the mechanics ofmailing and mailing lists intextbooks on direct mail.

The most emnomical way ti changeeach addressing system to 2.W code isbriog covered in a series of articlesthat started in the April 1905 issue ofThe Iteporter of Direct Mali Adcer-

thing. In this series, each manufacturerof addressing equipment has beenasked to detail what steps to take first.second. third. and so on. to prepare thechangeover. and luny to avoid costlyerrors or unnecessary steps in markingthe complete change-over to 741) codes.

Within the limits of this article. let'scoi 'sir ler spedfii: aspects of building.refilliia; :111(1 f:xpatalitig cumpris lists.Reconsider r a moment your objec-tives: pr caning audiences and publicsupport for your institutions. Some dayyour administration n ; :y want to usethe lists to send cut pul.lic relationsmessages to persuade community lead-ON. If you build revonsive lists foryour 0110.1ral events, and attract goodaudiences. you can be that much moreconfident that other kinds ofcommunity support also will be therewhen you need it.

HoW do you establish such alist in the first place?

If You are still selling most ticketsover the counter or at the box office,then ask your audience to turn in theirnames and addresses for future an-nouncements. Be aggressive about this.If you merely set out curds in the lobbyto be picket.' np, youll get only a fewfilled in at intermission. Instead, haveushers pass out one card to each patronand have the ushers stand at the headof the aisle and circulate during inter-missions, asking each individual to turnin his curd.

You may even find it doubly usefulto get names by passing out question-naires so your public has a chanceto give opinions and suggestions for fu-ture programs. It usually takes somepermasion to convince ushers or boxoffice employes of the value of thesenames. You can easily demonstrate howfew names are turned in when youleave it to the initiative of the pwrons.compared to active collection by thefishers.

Another way to get addition.al names is by means of a re-quest and tear-off couponprinted in the program itself.

As you set up your list, start refiningit lw dating and coding each name ac-

cording to the specific interest shown.As your lists grow, you can select andmail to each segment instead of the en-tire list. All those who attend a seriesOf foreign films, for example. are notprospects for a dance recital. Nor willthe jazz fans necessarily respond to achamber music: program. After codingthe names and addresses. they _shouldstill he interfiled in one addressing um.You'll soon find that must patrons havemore than one interest.

If your list totals 2.000 to 5.0(X) youmay still find it profitable to send alltyiws of aunoun.:ements films, ji.17.7..

classical music.. dance recitals. and soon to all of the names anyway. .But.when that mailing is made and youhave a couple of hundred :murmur-melds left over. you can "second mail"these "owns- to the specific segmentof the list.

In order to refine your lists,you need to trace mail ordersback to their list source.

The best way to do this is to be surethat the order blank for tickets is onthe reverse side of the address panelin the case of self-mailers. After allreturns are in, tabulate your mail or-ders and see which parts of the listresponded best, whether some partsdid not respond at all, and perhapswould not be profitable the next time.Then use the returns to improve yourlist classifications.

Add the new codes to the old plateswhere patrons have expressed a newinterest. Those responsible for list workcan compare the order blank name: andaddress with the addressed side andpick up only the new names and infor-mation. If the address panel is . notthere to check, then all names and ad-dresses must be checked against pres-ent lists in order to pick up that per-centage that is new.

If it is possible to keep track of theorders you get from each addressee,then you can keep your list up to dateaccording to the amount of businessyou get from each name. Large mail-order houses do this based on how fre-quently, how recently, a person haspurchased, and how much he buys. Ifyou cunt undertake this amount ofbookkeeping or research, you should atleant know how much business eachsegment of your mailing list producesby tracing the coded orders.

13

When the plate address backs uporder blank. you can also use it to keepdown duplications. Your :nisi] may beaddressed to me as Glenn IL. Anderson;if the order blank is sent in and signedby my wife, Ruth, or my daughter,Joan. then a quick check of the addresspanel will warn you not to put the newname; on lists.

Order blanks that can easilybe traced to source lists give .

you an additional advantagewhen ticket sales are slow.

Daily sales records should tell youWhen you need more promotion to fillthe house. When you do, cheek tl or-%hers already receive I to find (nit whichsegments of your lists have respondilwell, and mail again to that segment.The selfsame itimoiliicement renuailedto a productive list will bring returnsranging from 60 to 100 per rent of theoriginal result.

Lists must also grow. People movingout of your area may decrease yourlists by 10 per cent and more in a year.How do you expand lists? One way toexpand lists and increase ticket salesis to mail announcements from tine tetime in envelopes with two vrfl:rblanks instead of one. In a recent sea-son subscription mailing for a theaterseries, an extra oral- blank incre usedsales of season subscriptions by III percent with an average sale of 2.8 ticketsamounting to $50.40 per order.

Another-way to get new names is toleave space on the ticket order blank

1Nith a message like, "Plealse send thisand future announcements to the fol-lowing friends:"

A direct appeal to your present istsfor recommended mes can increase

myour list totals as much as 10 to 20 percent. and these names are almost asgood as your customer list itself. To getthese, you can moil out a douhie nail-ing card to your present patrons. Themessage says in effect that you will bemailing announcements for the newseason, that you appreciate their pa-tronage and would like more pmple

like them in year audience. You ask,would they do you and their friendsa favor by sending in recommendednames and addresses.

The second half of the double mail-ing card, the reply half, should belarge enough to enter five or six namesand addresses. By leaving :pace forthis number, you will receive an aver-age of two to four names per card. Ifyou allow space for only hem) names.your average will hardly run over onename per reply. It is advisable to com-pare these recommended names withexisting lists before you! put them onthe prospect list because chiplicaticmsare bound to be submitted.

Certainly you want the leaders ofyour comuumit among your patrons.and one way to get them is to use out-side lists. Your local Chamber of Com-merce will Furnish you with lists ofsocial and fraternal groups. From theseyou might find it worthwhile to se-lect the names and addresses of the of-ficers of these groups as inflividualsand community leaders. not as officialsof clubs. Entire membership lists dotee seem to bring a gand rospthee. butmay Ix- worth trying ie eons owe town.

A compiled list of outtand-ing people in your communitycan be very valuable in terms ofticket sales and public relations.

Some specialized list compilers canfurnish hundreds or thousands of suchnames, depending on the sine of yourtown. Expert compilers can take yourpresent list of patrons. analyze thenames according to characteristics suchas income, home ownership. education-al level, occupation, and others. Thisresearch produces a profile of yonrideal customer. These list specialistscan then go back to the same sourcematerial and select hundreds and thou-sands of names to fit the same profile.As a further refinement, they can evenanalyze the results of the mailing tothe first compiled list, correct the pro-file, and produce still more refinedlists.

Your mailings may not yetwarrant the addirig,s oT tens ofthousands of new prospects, butyore can still prospect with asmaller number.

One way to test the value of newprospect names is to date them and putthem on a prospect list. Send them allyour announcements for a year, and asthey become customers, transfer thenames to your permanent lists. You canafford to do this aaith 500 or maybeeven 5,000 names.

If you want to test a larger number(5,000 to 10,000), then it might beworthwhile to mail them two or threeannouncements in which the orderblank also carries the alternate choiceof buying tickets or marking a box thatsays, "Please put my mune on yourmailing list for Future announcements.-You'll find many of cunr addressees arewell enough schooled in mail-ordermethods to lee this reply conpmel.

Another way to pull out the inter-ested minority from a large list is tomail two or three regular amenmecemetes. Then follow these anumemee-ments with a special :nailer. On it.picture the previous announcements sothe addressee recalls them. Your mes-sage would read to the effect that "wehave sent you announcements of someof our campus events that are open tothe public. If you wish us to contimmemailing these announcements to you.please chei.1- and return the reply cardattached." In one such prospectingcampaign, we picked up 10 per centof the names for our regular lists, andthe whale promotion was more thanpaid for by the additional ticket salesmade by the regular mailings.

Another source of new names is therespective departmental lists of yourown college. Find out whether the mu-sic department, theater, or other de-partments have lists and arrange fortheir use. Correspondence, phone callinquiries, and alumni lists should alsobe regular sources of new names.

Now that you are building datedand coded lists of patrons and pros-pects, how do you keep the lists up todate? If you are mailing second - classmatter, the postman automatically

14

sends your corrected addresses. Yourlist clerks should be instructed to makethe correction if the new address is inyour area, or to kill the plate entirelyif the addressee has moved too far

.away.

A frequent error in list main-tenance is the illusion of keep-ing a card file up to date asyour duplicate of the address-ing plates themselves.

Filing new cards and taking out oldcards is a task usually assigned to aclerk. And the job is put off day afterclay until at any particular time thecard file is data or weeks out of date.Keep in mind that there is only oneaccurate record of your address list.That record is the plates themselves.A card file kept next to them might beimp to date, but the further away thecard file gets from the only accuratesource. the more likely that the cardfile will be eeeleeted.

Since you should be entering newcxles or new dates on existing plates,some record may be essential. In manycases, you can accomplish this by hav-ing your list mn periodically cm galleysheets of 20 or more names per sheet.Galley sheets are easier to use thanindex cards for making new entries aswell as for entering the new codes onthe plates.

If your mailings are third class, vonwill not get postal returns unless vonask for them by printing "Return Re-quested" en the mailing piece itself.If you mail once a month or oftener.don't put "Rehm: Requested" nn everymailer; mill le paving double onyoAlr retiinis because as a ctirrectioemix»: in you'll already have addressedanother piece to the wrong address.Correcting plates takes time; you canavoid mailing out duplicate old ad-dresses by establishing a rule that. itS

corrections come back, the plateshould be pulled out at once. Theoeven if the correction takes a day or aweek, yoe avoid a second mailingto the wrong address.

"Cleaning" mailing lists,eliminating deadwood, soundsso desirable, but it can be over-done.

You can hold paved and inquirylists to reasonable siz? by putting thenames on a prospect list first and trans-

ferring them to yonr cli,torner list of&after they buy tithes. Sit:ce tbe pros-pect names will be dated. can takethem off the lists after six,tril

But the same approilih to vieaningyour customer list can be -4isasi-rms. Ayear ago we mailed to namesthat were dated 191 .a-41 Mi. Themessage wits to the effec t that we werepreparing new annowicements andcould thu acldressee confirmdrat he still wanted to br on the list byreturning the card. About 50 rr centdid not return the card. Lah-r, an-nouncements were sent to then'_: any-way and results compared. We madethe same profitable percentage HI salesto them as to the -active castomerlist. Needless to say, those names wentback cm the list. Customer names arctoo valuable to throw away. and anycleaning of customer lists should be ap-proached carefully.

Depending on your ohective.whether it is to keep as many as pos-sible on your lists, or to get a: many aspossible off yam- lists, you tan slant

your list-cleaning mailings either way.If you want to trim only a small num-ber from an active and profitable list.then your message might say that theaddiessee should recur the card onlyif he no longer wants to be on the HAor will be minable to attend any cam-pus event in the next year. Such amailer may bring a 10 percentand reduce that list 10 per cent.

On the other hand, if you tell theaddressee he must return the card ifhe wishes to stay cm the list and nameswill be dropped if the card is not re-tamed, then you'll still get somethinglike a 10 per cent or perhaps 20 percent return. But, vocal have to drnpSO to 90 per cent of your list and willmdoithtedly be dropping some poten-tay valuable customers. That's mailorder for von. Handled well, %Tam listis a gold mine.

15

ERIC Clearinghouse

MAY 2 4 1972

on Aduit Education