[MLB-WIRELESS] Introduction Letter

[Abe Orchard]

Its good to see that this letter has turned up. The ensuring discussion
around what basically is a direct mail / flyer based marketing campaign.

It is interesting in that we've come to the conclusion that almost every
company has taken about 10 years to get to.  We need to target potential
users and work toward communicating with these people effectively.

Undertaking what is being discussed is basically a case of defining and
implementing processes.

Here's a very basic one, full of holes no doubt and likely to make any self
respected Marketing Exec roll over in their grave but then I am not one so
there.

1. Define the objectives of this marketing campaign. What is the outcome
that the organisation requires? - For companies this is usually x% revenue
using $y. Here it could be x people with y connections in place z1, z2 and
z3. Its really important to put measurements around these things.
2. Define the Target Audience - important as has already been mentioned
because it determines the most appropriate
3. Define the Offer - what do they want, what will we give, what will they
pay/give
4. Research Ideas and examples - we've done that already we got the example
letter, perhaps we should find out how many responses they got, the success,
problems they had.
5. Define the Delivery - What is actually going to be communicated? How
should be communicated. (ties together the information from steps 1 to 4)
6. Test It - better to find out that it doesn't work before you put all your
eggs in one basket.
7. Fix it - things never work right first time. How can it be altered to
better? Should it go ahead at all
8. Deploy it - Do the big push, planning makes this much more straight
forward and methodical less frustrating and confusing
9. Review it - Did we achieve the objective? What else did we achieve? What
did we not achieve? What things went wrong? What do we have to do now?


Items 1 and 2 are really important because otherwise you get confused when
you are doing the rest and end up wondering what the hell it was all for.
Melbourne wireless is actually in a very powerful position because it has a
lot of information about its members (although it would be good to see a few
more nodes fill out wiki pages). It also has strong connections with other
organisations (the PC User group) and very likely a have access to a wealth
of resources. It's already organised a couple of different channels of
communication (Website, email, presentations, media relations) and we have
some experience with Geospacial (is that how you spell it) information
systems which separates us from most of the commercial organisations I know
about.  We just need to get smick at collecting and processing the data we
have to act effectively. This is something that I wouldn't mind helping out
on.

Abe





__________________________________________
Abe Orchard - Business Analyst / Programmer
iadvance Pty Ltd
Level 40, 140 William Street
(GPO Box 4141NN) Melbourne VIC 3000
Ph: +61 3 9607 8426, Mob: +61 405 681 359
abe.orchard at iadvanceglobal.com
www.iadvance.com.au

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-melbwireless at wireless.org.au
[mailto:owner-melbwireless at wireless.org.au]On Behalf Of Alfred Shippen
Sent: Wednesday, 19 February 2003 8:47 p.m.
To: paul van den bergen; melbwireless
Subject: Re: [MLB-WIRELESS] Introduction Letter


> > I think a letter is a good idea, BUT, it would be better to target
similar
> > user groups, i.e LUV, MelbPC, underwater basketweavers (maybe not), etc,
> > rather than Joe down the street who had no idea how to log into Windows,
> > let alone setup a wireless link.
> >
>
> I take your point, but I do disagree somewhat... if done poorly, it would
be
> bad.  careful wording, careful targetting, etc. would be very valuable.

Yes, this is what I am trying to say. You need to target your prospects, and
you should get better results.

>
> for example, in areas where there is a need to increased connectivity, a
> letter drop would be ideal to catch the occasional vital interested party
> that would connect a missing link.  You'd only have to get a few to make
it
> worth while.

I dont know about that, to make it worth while you need the resources to
print material, someone or many people to letter box drop, and the return
will be minimal, if at all. This sort of marketting is akin to the very
thing most of us hate, spam.

Far better to, as you say, target groups such as the bush (people who would
benefit) , and the geek community (people who would tinker). There must be a
percieved benefit for the masses to get involved.



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