26th March 2009

Hello Sir/Madam, welcome to this weeks newsletter.

I want to go over a recent successful campaign we have just done that highlights a lot of the principles we have discussed.

We sent out about 21,000 faxes for a paintball company on Tuesday and so far they have had over 400 positive reaches for their product. This could equate to over $50,000 in the short term plus 10 times that over the life time spend of the clients.

Here is the fax in question: Shoot Your Mates

I think you'll agree it’s a simple and clean image.

Here is my analysis of why it worked so well:

a) The tag line “Shoot your mates” works very well to hook you in, it’s fun, relevant and has a resonance with a large affluent demographic. As a test we purposely left the fax sitting on a desk and within minutes it was in the tea room and it created a “buzz” of excitement in the staff.

b) Excellent, relevant and funky graphics, that cause interest and add to the impact of the copy.

c) It had a pressing and urgent “Call to Action”; "The first 50 people to call or e-mail…with free entry and a Bonus Bag worth $280”.

d) Then there was some nice copy about the skirmish options and locations that in the mind of the reader create some exciting ideas and an anticipation of a great day out with office colleagues or mates.

e) Then it had clear and simple instructions of how to take the next step, with the website, local phone number and e-mail address.

It flows like treacle out of a barrel, the sightlines are great, no complex words or issues, nothing to scare the reader or cause him to reject the message, in short a fax masterpiece.

I emailed the client to get some more data and you might be interested in Paul's response.

Q. "What was the e-mail to phone response ratio?"

A. About 50:50, we are getting a lot of people e-mail all their friends about the offer (which is great with us), emails are also flooding in after hours. We prefer emails as they are easier to deal with i.e. we can't answer all the phones and get all the details when 10 people ring at once but we can when people e-mail.

Q. "Were the responses corporate (meaning booking for companies) or for individuals?"

A. Mainly from companies i.e. at work for either an organised company event, group of friends or social group from work. We like hitting companies by faxes as the fax will generally land in the lap of one of the decision makers/organisers within the company.

"We have had an overwhelming response from their marketing services. We are finding traditional print media is working less and less. Last year we tried a huge direct mail out of flyers and had a very poor response. This year we have been battling to take all the phone calls and respond to all the emails as a direct result of our campaign through Prospect Marketing.

The campaign was also considerably cheaper and a lot less work than doing it ourselves. This translated very well into bookings and paying customers and has helped us in a very competitive marketplace"

Paul Mavour, Paintball Skirmish Australia

Brendan Warren
Sales Manager