Tuesday, July 28, 2020

#103 A 3-Word Deal Killer: "Batteries Not Included"

#103 Blog Post – Tuesday, July 28, 2020


Posted by Denny Hatch


A Three-Word Deal Killer:


"*Batteries not included" always appear as a mouse-type footnote with an asterisk at the bottom of an ad, order card or so deep in digital copy that it hopefully goes unnoticed. 


When a package arrives in the mail, or via UPS or FedEx, It’s Exciting. Something You’ve Been Looking Forward to.


It’s like a present. You want to tear off the wrapping and start enjoying it immediately! 


You want to instantly… read it… wear it… taste it… cook with it… hang it on the wall… plug it in and watch it… vacuum the rug with it… print out a letter on it.


If it requires batteries, you want to listen to it… call your mother on it… tickle it… use it to take great photographs… or fly it (at no more than 400-feet altitude in accordance with FAA regulations).


If you don’t happen to have the right batteries and can’t immediately start using the purchase, it’s a downer. The longer it sits around unused, the more depressing it becomes.


What do batteries cost when bought in huge quantities? 20¢ each? 40¢ each for a total of 80¢ or $1.60? This could be buried in the price of the product or added to the shipping cost.


Put it this way. The promotion worked like gangbusters. You are blitzed with orders. You are really, really happy and celebrated with Champagne. Now is the time to make your customers really, really happy—and keep them buying for a long time!


A copywriter would never write “*Batteries not included.” It’s a concept added afterwards by sphincter-tight lawyers or bean counters.


As direct marketers we're not here primarily to make a sale; we're here to get a customer. Sales are important, of course. (Where would marketers be without them?) But the name of this game is repeat sales rather than one-shots. And to have that, you need a customer. —Joan Throckmorton


This Post is Really About CREATIVE BACK-END MARKETING: A Boring Title and the Absolute Key to Your Future Success!


For years, the direct marketing industry used as shorthand CRM: “Customer Retention Marketing”—a totally cold, impersonal phrase no doubt dreamed up by some MBA in a white paper or PhD’s business treatise.


Later it was softened CRM: “Customer Relationship Marketing. ”Still academic and stiff.


Along came Denny Hatch with a cranky newsletter, WHO’S MAILING WHAT! He came up with the term, “Customer Relationship Magic.” This never caught on. But then I was always a minnow in an ocean of giant sharks and orcas. Alas.


In the May 1987 issue of my newsletter I wrote:


One of the absolute worst, dumbest things a mailer can do is spend a bundle of money on acquiring a customer — bringing a new member into the family — and then turning the care and feeding of that precious new name over to the customer service department to be batched and butchered by a number cruncher or fulfillment clerk who fills in as a copywriter to save time and money.


This is not the exception; this is the norm.


Let me share with you a story: In 1984 I saw an ad for a half-price offer for Southern Living magazine and subscribed. Here is the acknowledgment:



Translation:

Dear Pain-in-the-Ass,

You nitwit! You didn’t read the small print that said this offer was limited to people who actually live in the South. Blah… blah… blah.


If I were circ manager of Southern Living, here’s how I would deal with this:


Obviously S.L. Hatch as someone who loves the South, has money and who sent us $8.98 for a subscription.


• I would TEST sending Hatch a welcome letter in an envelope with this teaser:


    THANK YOU AND WELCOME TO SOUTHERN LIVING!


• Enclose an effusive, personalized letter saying I was delighted to hear from S.L Hatch and to thank him for subscribing.


• Apologize for not making it clear the Special Introductory Offer was for residents who live in the South.


• Make the following offer:


   1. Apply the $8.98 to a six-month subscription. After 6 months. if S.L. Hatch liked the publication, he would be invited to subscribe for a full year. If unhappy at any point, write and receive a full refund of the $8.98 no questions asked.


   2. Southern Living is a major publisher of beautifully illustrated Southern Cookbooks and Garden Books. S.L. Hatch is invited to receive one of these two titles for the $8.98 he sent in:


   3. Refund in full S.L. Hatch’s $8.99


Offer #1 (6-month trial subscription) or offer #2 (buy a book at a big discount) would enable Southern Living to keep the $8.99.


The net effect: the conversion of S.L. Hatch into paying customer who might be receptive to future offers for books, magazines or other goodies. If Hatch wanted a refund, it would be sent immediately.


The entire premise of Back-end Marketing: Creating Customer Relationship Magic!


  • Welcome Letters

 

  • Upsells


   • Special Deals and Sales

 

  • Renewals and Billing Efforts

 

  • Digital Communications—emails, website design and easy navigation

 

  • Surveys


  • Telephone Sales

 

• Shipping

 

• Returns


   • Customer Complaints, Questions, Correspondence

 

  • Instructions on how to use the product or service.


In short, without superb back-end marketing—world-class writers and designers—you don’t have a business.


Takeaway to Consider


   ###

Word count: 857


 You Are Invited to Meet Denny Hatch: http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2020/03/87-geezer-fast-yoga.html

At age 15, Denny Hatch—as a lowly apprentice—wrote his first news release for a Connecticut summer theater. To his astonishment it ran verbatim in The Middletown Press. He was instantly hooked on writing. After a two-year stint in the U.S. Army (1958-60), Denny had nine jobs in his first 12 years in business. He was fired from five of them and went on to save two businesses and start three others. One of his businesses—WHO’S MAILING WHAT! newsletter and archive service founded in 1984—revolutionized the science of how to measure the success of competitors’ direct mail. In the past 55 years he has been a book club director, magazine publisher, advertising copywriter/designer, editor, journalist and marketing consultant. He is the author of four published novels and seven books on business and marketing.

CONTACT

dennyhatch@yahoo.com

Note to Readers:  
May I send you an alert when each new blog is posted? If so, kindly give me the okay by sending your First Name, Last Name and e-mail to dennyhatch@yahoo.com. I guarantee your personal information will not be shared with anyone at any time for any reason. The blog is a free service. No cost. No risk. No obligation. Cancel any time. I look forward to being in touch!

IF YOU HAVE TROUBLE POSTING A COMMENT… Email Me!
Google owns Blogspot.com and this Comment Section. If you do not have a Google account — or if find it too damn complicated — contact me directly and I will happily post your comment with a note that this is per your request. Thank you and do keep in touch. dennyhatch@yahoo.com

Invitation to Marketers and Direct Marketers: 
Guest Blog Posts Are Welcome. 
If you have a marketing story to tell, case history, concept to propose or a memoir, give a shout. I’ll get right back to you. I am: dennyhatch@yahoo.com

You Are Invited to Join the Discussion!

Tuesday, July 21, 2020

#102 The Farkas Sloan Kettering Fracas

#102 Blogpost - Tuesday, July 21, 2020


The Farkas Chain Letter Fracas:
Fundraising at Its Most Elegant


In April, 1997 came the following letter from our friend Jon Saunders, creative director at Bozell Worldwide, Inc., on Bozell letterhead:

Mr. & Mrs. Dennison Hatch
310 Gaskill Street
Philadelphia, PA 19147

Dear Peggy & Denny,

I have been asked to help raise at least $500,000 to assist the Home Care Program/Memorial Sloan Kettering Center in completing its endowment.

The Home Care Program cares for homebound people living with catastrophic illness.  It offers psychological symptom control, without charge to them and their families/significant others. Care is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.  The interest from this endowment will enable the Program to secure the services of a home care nurse.  The more money raised, the greater the number of people whose needs will be met in a compassionate and professional manner.

In order to help reach this goal, we ask that you kindly do the following:

1.  Please forward a check for $10 (no more) made payable to “The Home Care Program, MSKC”, c/o (Physician in Charge), MD, 1275 York Avenue, New York, NY 10021.

2.  Please, retype this letter on your letterhead and send it to ten friends or individuals in your company or organization whom you know personally and know will be able to help.  With your letter, please send the names of those who received it along with the enclosed list of recipients to date.

All contributions are fully tax deductible.  No goods or services have been offered or received by you in consideration of your gift.  Thanks for joining me in supporting this worthwhile endeavor.

Best regards,

/s/   Jon

Enc.

It started small. 
Carol Garner Farkas (1945-2019) was not your professional fundraiser. A practicing Psychiatric Nurse Clinician for over 20 years in New York City and Westchester County and a 19-year volunteer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, she was married to the former president of Alexander’s Department Stores.

With no fanfare she sent the simple one-page letter above to 24 couples—friends on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. “I didn’t ask permission,” she told Elizabeth Bumiller of The New York Times. “I just did it.”

According to Bumiller’s April 3, 1997, story in The New York Times, the letters crisscrossed the top echelons of business, law and entertainment nationwide; contributions came in from the likes of Elizabeth Taylor, Carrie Fisher, Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall.  Not only did Lauren Bacall send in $10, but also she sent the letter off to the Sidney Lumets, the Arthur Schlesingers, the Tony Waltons (a top Broadway set designer who was formerly married to Julie Andrews), Betty Comden and Adolph Green and the Mike Nichols (she is Diane Sawyer).

Mike Nichols, in turn, sent the letter to Elaine May, Steve Martin, Whoopi Goldberg and Frank Langella, Pete Peterson (investment banker), Joan Ganz Cooney (founder of Sesame Workshop), Nora Ephron and Nick Pileggi (author of Goodfellas). 

And so it went.

Never mind that the mailing brought in over 14,000 checks for a total of $251,000 for Sloan Kettering. According to the Times, the folks at Memorial Sloan Kettering treated Mrs. Farkas (wife of the former chairman of Alexander's department stores) like a pariah.

The Times headline:
PUSHING THE ENVELOPE OF FUND-RAISING  
Volunteer's Chain Letter Embarrasses a Hospital.

From the Times Story:

Indeed, Sloan-Kettering is treating Mrs. Farkas, the wife of Robin L. Farkas, the former Alexander's chairman, as if she deserved quarantine.

“The hospital has asked her not to speak to the press and has distanced itself from a chain letter that officials said privately they considered tasteless and unbecoming to Sloan-Kettering's reputation (although the hospital is keeping the money the letter has raised).

'This is not a letter that was started by or sanctioned by the institution,'' said Avice A. Meehan, the hospital's spokeswoman. ''I think chain letters in general raise questions on the part of the U.S. Postal Service.

“Sloan-Kettering officials said that they had been inundated so far with 14,539 checks from the chain letter. In December and January, the checks arrived at a rate of 200 a week, and 50 to 100 a week continue to arrive. Hospital officials estimated the processing cost at $2 to $2.50 per check, and said each contributor receives a thank-you note as part of hospital policy.”

While neither Sloan-Kettering’s president nor director of fund raising, Alexander H. Chute, would comment to The Times on the promotion, a hospital spokeswoman said: “I think chain letters in general raise questions on the part of the U.S. Postal Service.”

I spoke by phone to Alexander Chute, who reported that this letter “has been investigated by everybody and has been found to be totally clean. We have done nothing to encourage a thing; at the same time we couldn’t stop it.”

It is emphatically not a chain letter, because it doesn't promise the sender a jackpot, nor does it require a fee. Yet Cheryl Bell of the Metropolitan New York Better Business Bureau pompously proclaimed: "This could damage the reputation of the charity because most chain letters are scams."

        
Carol Farkas

What poppycock! Look at what has happened:

1. A well-meaning amateur—with no fund-raising experience—sent a letter out to 24 couples asking for a small donation to be sent directly to a cause she believed in. Clearly, she was an intuitive Method Marketer, having gotten into the heads and under the skin of her friends with her absolute honesty. What’s more she only asked for ten dollars; it’s probably safe to assume not one of these stars and nabobs had been asked for so paltry a sum since they were in college.

2. The friends were obviously in the upper education and income strata, because they had the wherewithal to get ten personal letters out along with photocopies of the list.

3. These ten, in turn, sent it to ten others in this upper league of power, money and influence.

4. The United States Postal Service should be thrilled.  Instead of going out at the brutally low Non-Profit Rate, all these letters were mailed with highly profitable First Class postage.

5. The mailings cost Memorial Sloan-Kettering nothing. Zip. Nada. No creative. No production. No postage. No postage for reply mail. All revenue was pure profit!

6. No fund raising agencies got their greedy hooks into this promotion to claim their pound of flesh. Again, all revenue was pure profit!

In short, this is fund raising perfection. 
As of July 1997, according to Chute, the promotion had brought in 24,000 new donors whose average give of $17 made for a total of $408,000.

The headline of a story by David Segal, The Florida Times Union: 
Letters Cough Up $800,000 $10 Gifts Swamp Miffed Hospital

Dunno where Segal got the $800,000 number. With an exponentially expanding list of contributors all things are possible.

Imagine! Twenty-four thousand brand new donors whose combined net worth was in the tens of billions—people Sloan-Kettering would never have been able to reach under ordinary circumstances with ordinary pleas for money!
        
What’s more, the scheme is self-perpetuating. “Checks will probably be coming in long after I’m dead,” Chute confided.

When I first covered this effort for Target Marketing, I pompously wrote: “Be advised that this entire caper is an aberration; any fund raiser who tried to build a marketing plan and a business using this technique by itself would be positively nuts.” 

I wish I could take that back.

As Carol Farkas said to the Times: ''We need the money,'' she said. ''If it goes on forever, great.''


Takeaways to Consider: 
• This promotion is textbook magnificent direct mail. Here’s why:

• Let’s start with email: 
The first thing I look at when I see an email in my in-box is the “FROM” line. If it is from…

… someone I know well and like and respect…

… and know that person will not be wasting my time…

… I absolutely will click-to-open it. It’s a 100% click rate.

• Conversely, if the FROM line is someone I don’t know, and I’m busy or in a foul mood, chances are I will delete without reading.

• On the computer you are a mouse click away from oblivion. 

• Let’s talk about the Carol Farkas effort: 
… It came via direct mail. An envelope that had to be physically handled.

… The cornercard (upper left) said Jon Saunders (a dear friend) at Bozell.

… Our names were neatly typed. Not on a label. This was the real deal.

… In the upper right was a USPS First Class Stamp. Not a metered indicia, not a printed indicia (indicating this was NOT about Bozell business, but rather something personal from Jon Saunders who obviously paid for the stamp rather than send it to the Bozell mail room and cheat his company.).

… Ergo, I opened it, natch.

"All mail is sorted over a wastebasket."
—Leah Pierce, Freelancer

• The late Gary Halbert (1945-2020) was a flamboyant, hugely successful direct mail entrepreneur and copywriter. Throughout his career he proclaimed:

• "People have two piles of incoming mail: the 'A' pile and “B” pile.

• "The 'A' pile is personal stuff—bills, personal letters, business letters or a scrawled note from the kid in college asking for emergency money.

• "The 'B' pile is everything else. For example, it has a printed BULK MAIL postage indicia in the upper right corner and blazing teaser copy that announces this is advertising mail.

• "Halbert loved to amuse his audiences with a riff. 'Imagine an envelope from your lawyer with a huge teaser: 'HERE’S HOT NEWS ABOUT YOUR NEW LAWSUIT!'

• "Everybody opens all of their 'A' pile mail. If people don’t know what’s in an envelope, they’ll open it.

• "The object for direct mailers: Get your 'B' offer into the prospect’s 'A' pile.

• "Ergo: never use Bulk Rate and never use teasers or indicia on an envelope you absolutely want opened."

• Ain’t no “A” pile or “B” pile in email. If it’s in your in-box, it all looks the same.

• “Short words! Short sentences! Short paragraphs!”

— Andrew J. Byrne, Freelancer

“Success in direct mail is 40% lists, 40% offer, 20% everything else.” 
—Ed Mayer 

• Carol Farkas followed this dictum slavishly… 
… The List: Anybody that received this letter was on the sender’s “A” list.

… The Offer: “Please forward a check for $10 (no more) to…” 

Foolproof instructions. Carol tells you precisely what to do.
1.  Please forward a check for $10 (no more) made payable to “The Home Care Program, MSKC”, c/o (Physician in Charge), MD, 1275 York Avenue, New York, NY 10021.

2.  Please, retype this letter on your letterhead and send it to ten friends or individuals in your company or organization whom you know personally and know will be able to help.  With your letter, please send the names of those who received it along with the enclosed list of recipients to date.

All contributions are fully tax deductible.  No goods or services have been offered or received by you in consideration of your gift.  Thanks for joining me in supporting this worthwhile endeavor.

• Asking someone to “retype this letter on your letterhead and send it to ten friends”… is a big ask, but…
… all these folks are “A” listees with plenty of money and office help. They can simply hand off the task to a secretary to type 10 letters and envelopes, get the sender’s signature, make 10 Xerox copies of the list of donors, insert the elements in the envelopes, affix the First Class Stamps and mail them.

• A Collateral Bonus: Farkas gave the glitterati something fun to talk about at cocktails and dinner parties.

• Ya gotta love it!


Tuesday, July 14, 2020

#101 Make it Easy to Order

#101 Blog Post - Tuesday, July 14, 2020
http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2020/07/101-make-it-easy-to-order.html  

 Posted by Denny Hatch



MAKE IT EASY TO ORDER... OR ELSE!     
Denny Hatch's Ultimate 19-Point Checklist
Above Are Folks Suffering from No Orders
We love Broadway theater—especially musicals.  When Hamilton opened, it was sold out for months. Eventually it was not sold out, because ticket prices were raised to $849.

If Peggy and I were to see Hamilton live, the ticket cost—plus round-trip Amtrak from Philly to New York, dinner at Sardi’s and a hotel room—would take the cost up to $2000+. As pensioners, we opted out.
Hamilton Comes to the Home Screen 
When Coronavirus-19 took over the planet, Broadway shut down. The entire cast of Hamilton was thrown outta work.  Lin-Manuel Miranda — who wrote, composed and starred in Hamilton—cut a deal with Disney to market the film and TV rights. On two consecutive nights performances had been filmed in the Richard Rogers Theater, à la the Metropolitan Opera “Met Live in HD.”

Our Set-up at Home 
When we downsized from a 5-story row house to a two-bedroom rental apartment, we splurged and bought a flat-screen LG smart TV and signed up for Xfininty/Comcast service with its array of 200+ channels, thousands of movies plus thousands more videos on YouTube.

In addition, we acquired one of the first voice-activated remotes.  Press the “talk” button, ask for a show, movie or specific channel, and up it pops. If scheduled in the future, press the red “Record” button and it’s captured for our viewing pleasure whenever we care to see it.

Most of the stuff is free as part of the Comcast subscription. Sometimes movies and specials cost extra (e.g. rent for $3.99). We click okay and the charge shows up on our next bill. Easy peasy.

Buying Additional Services 
When we ask to see programs not in the Xfinity/Comcast repertoire, they pop up onscreen. If a subscription to a new distributor is required, the price and terms are posted. Peggy goes into the computer, does her quick magic and we’re in. The cost appears in our next Xfinity bill.

Not So with Hamilton 
With lotsa hype, the debut of Hamilton was announced for July 3rd. I clicked on it and we were allowed to see the trailer. But in order to see the actual show, we had to sign up for Disney+.

The deal killer: we bought and paid for a subscription to Disney+ and were told we could see Hamilton streaming on our computer (or laptop or iPhone).
Hamilton on my dinky computer? WTF?
We Googled Hamilton Xfinity-Disney and here’s what came up:

To start watching Hamilton, you can subscribe to Disney+ today for $6.99 a month or $69.99 per year. Or you can get the service as a part of a special value bundle with ESPN+ and Hulu for $12.99 a month in total. Disney+ is available to watch through the following
devices:
   • Roku streaming devices
   • TVs with built-in Roku
   • Apple TV iPhones, iPads, and iPod touch models
   • Android phones
   • Android TV devices
   • Google Chromecast
   • Xbox One
   • PlayStation 4
   • Sony TVs with built-in Android
   • See our list of the best streaming devices


Peggy—who is very technically savvy—spent 1-1/2 hours going all over the Internet trying to discover how to get Hamilton onto our LG flat-screen TV. No dice.

Our guess is Disney and Xfinity/Comcast are at war. Normally I would dive into the Internet and find what's going and report it. But it doesn't matter. I'm not going to get inside a corporate pissing match and choose sides. We want to see Hamilton

Finally Peggy’s sister told us we could buy something called Fire TV Stick for $49.99 from Amazon and could get Hamilton up on our LG TV.
The Fire TV Stick arrived. We’re not quite sure what to do with it. Normally we’d put in a call to Jay Hummel, our computer whiz to come over and set us up. Alas, he is on Coronavirus-19 lockdown—as are we.
I am writing this on Bastille Day, July 14, 2020. Hamilton is still a gleam in our eye.  Meanwhile, we’re out $57.98. 

Disney has our money. Amazon's Fire TV Stick has our money. We have no idea how to see Hamilton. Xfinity/Comcast hornswoggled us.

NEVER EVER do this to your prospects and customers! 


Denny’s 19-Point Checklist for
A Flawless Ordering Process
1.  “Always make it easy to order.” —Elsworth S. Howell, CEO Grolier Enterprises

2. The order mechanism stands between you and the sale (or donation).

3. Always ask for an order, donation or a response of some kind. Otherwise the recipient will have no reason to reply. If you receive no replies, you’ll never know whether the message or mailing ever went out or if the ad appeared in print.

Malcolm Decker on the Order Form 
4. “The order form should be so simple an idiot can understand it.”

5.  “Whether digital or print, give the order mechanism more time and effort per square inch than any other element of the promotion. It’s time well spent. It’s the net that secures the trout, so it can’t have any holes in it.”

6. Create the order form in conjunction with the people who do your online order processing, telephone sales, white mail and print response as well as your customer service team.
 
7. Give them the final vote. It must be simple, clear, direct and—if you can possibly imagine it—foolproof. Use the combined talents of your most clever people to write it, but make sure even a fool can understand it.
        
8. The order form should also sell.

9. But basically it has a particular job to do: It should reprise the essence of the entire sales effort in the reader’s voice. That is, the writer (salesperson) has had his say, and now the prospect (customer) responds in the first person. (“Yes, send me . . . I understand that I will receive. . . “)

9. The order form should contain absolutely nothing new. It should stand on its own feet and crystallize everything that’s gone before it. Its purpose is to speed the action and close the deal.

10. Beware of lawyers and bean counters mucking up your offer and order form with a barrage of disclaimers and footnotes in gray sans serif mouse-type causing your customers to say, “The hell with it!”  
11. When asking for credit card information never use a reply postcard. Always include a BRE (pre-paid Business Reply Envelope). Credit card information on the back of a postcard can be stolen and sold all over the world within minutes.

12. Make it easy to respond and order by mail, by phone, by click-thru online or by fax—whichever is most convenient for the customer.

13. Every step of the ordering process must be checked out. For example, dial the 800 phone number in your print and online ads to make sure it’s correct everywhere it appears.
14. People hate waiting for a phone to be answered and/or an automated voice saying, “Your call is important to us. All our representatives are busy with other customers. Please stay on the line... blah, blah, blah." Make sure your phones are answered by a live, trained representative no later than the second ring. 

15. If you are running a TV commercial, expect a huge spike in orders at that moment in time. Sign up a back-up inbound telemarketing company to handle the overflow. Always alert all telemarketers to the precise date and time of your schedule so telephone sales reps are standing by to handle the overflow.
16. All your telephone sales reps (TSRs) must be knowledgeable about your product or service and be able to answer all questions. It is imperative to provide customer service (or order intake) personnel with copies of sales material (brochures, print ads, infomercial, etc.), so they know what specific offer/product the caller is talking about—as well as immediate access to actual product samples — so they can answer questions knowledgably.
17. The people who represent you on the phone and online can enhance—or destroy—your reputation. Have “secret shoppers” call your 800-number and or chat lines to test the training of your reps regarding patience, knowledge and tact. 

18. When you feature a web address for a reply, do not use your general home page. Instead, set up a special satellite landing page that directly relates to the specific offer.
19. If you supply the general home page, it forces the prospect to rattle around searching for the specific offer and order mechanism. At which point you’ve probably lost the order.


Takeaway to Consider
• Let me share with you a story. By the time he was 18, Curt Strohacker had owned 18 automobiles. In 1978 he invested $500 to form The Eastwood Company, a mail order catalog offering more than 2,000 tools, paints and parts for amateur and professional restorers of beloved antique cars—hundreds of models going back 50 years and more.

In the early years, Strohacker would get 30 orders a day. A decade later he was generating 1000+ orders a day. His inbound telemarketers were wildly overworked. What’s more, his telephone reps became de facto experts and consultants giving advice on every aspect of car restoration and suggesting precisely what was needed. When inbound orders spiked — say as the result of a TV commercial — bells rang throughout the building and knowledgeable executives, warehouse workers and buyers beetled down to the telephones and became TSRs. He had to do something, or customers and prospects would desert like rats and go elsewhere!

The story of Curt Strohacker creating a powerful in-house technically oriented telephone sales and fulfillment operation is fascinating. You’re invited to check it out. 


###

Word Count: #1594


You Are Invited to Meet Denny Hatch.


At age 15, Denny Hatch—as a lowly apprentice—wrote his first news release for a Connecticut summer theater. To his astonishment it ran verbatim in The Middletown Press. He was instantly hooked on writing. After a two-year stint in the U.S. Army (1958-60), Denny had nine jobs in his first 12 years in business. He was fired from five of them and went on to save two businesses and start three others. One of his businesses—WHO’S MAILING WHAT! newsletter and archive service founded in 1984—revolutionized the science of how to measure the success of competitors’ direct mail. In the past 55 years he has been a book club director, magazine publisher, advertising copywriter/designer, editor, journalist and marketing consultant. He is the author of four published novels and seven books on business and marketing.

CONTACT

dennyhatch@yahoo.com

Note to Readers:  
May I send you an alert when each new blog is posted? If so, kindly give me the okay by sending your First Name, Last Name and e-mail to dennyhatch@yahoo.com. I guarantee your personal information will not be shared with anyone at any time for any reason. The blog is a free service. No cost. No risk. No obligation. Cancel any time. I look forward to being in touch!


IF YOU HAVE TROUBLE POSTING A COMMENT… Email Me!
Google owns Blogspot.com and this Comment Section. If you do not have a Google account — or if find it too damn complicated — contact me directly and I will happily post your comment with a note that this is per your request. Thank you and do keep in touch. dennyhatch@yahoo.com

Invitation to Marketers and Direct Marketers: 
Guest Blog Posts Are Welcome. 
If you have a marketing story to tell, case history, concept to propose or a memoir, give a shout. I’ll get right back to you. I am: dennyhatch@yahoo.com

You Are Invited to Join the Discussion!