It’s rare to get an interesting direct mail piece, but I just got one that is certainly memorable.
The letter is from elixiter, a company that creates add-on solutions to the Marketo platform, and congratulates me for being inducted into Marketo’s “Champions” program (a customer recognition program). It then says:
We wish you all the best for your future work and we offer you our congratulations on this prestigious accomplishment.
As a token of your hard work, we would like to donate $10 to one of (the) charities listed on the enclosed form.
We will gladly send you an email to confirm your donation.
A few notes on the letter:
1. The first paragraph plays to the prospect’s ego, congratulating them on being a leading member of a community. It makes sense that a person who belongs to a community is motivated by recognition as an expert.
2. The second paragraph is a soft-touch introduction to the company sending the letter. It’s purposefully vague, as a hard sell at this point in the letter would be a turn-off. It answers the question “who is sending me this congratulatory letter?”
3. Another congratulations as a transition.
4. This is interesting. They want to donate $10 to a charity in my behalf.
5. If I confirm my email address, they’ll send me a confirmation of the donation.
Clever
After reading this, my initial impression was: “Whoa. That’s clever.” It’s a win-win-win for all:
- I get a good feeling knowing that I just gave to charity
- A charity gets a $10 donation
- elixiter gets a confirmed email address from a prospect
There’s no way I’m going to throw this out, as it’s equivalent to taking $10 from a charity. And I have an immediate, positive association with elixiter as a company that recognizes my brilliance (that’s sarcasm), and a company that is charitable, donating to good causes.
….But
Sketchy
I knew that others would see it differently, so I started to ask around. Though most people I asked agreed that the campaign was clever and memorable, a few people had an overwhelmingly negative association. Some examples:
- These guys are exploiting charities to add email addresses to their databases.
- So they’re making people feel bad for throwing away junk mail just to get your contact info?
What Do You Think?
While I can certainly see both sides of the argument, I’m firmly on the “clever” side. But I’d like to hear what others have to say. What do you think?
