The joys of an advanced renewal campaign. (Promotion).In our January January: see month. 15, 2002 issue Fred Goss Fred Arlo Goss (born March 25, 1961, Orchard Lake, Michigan), an American TV actor, writer, and comedian. Personal Goss and wife Arlene live together with their three children in the San Fernando Valley community of Sherman Oaks in Los Angeles, California. devoted his DM Notebook column to "Getting funding for the Advance Renewal National Bank"--inspired, he told me, by my mentioning that The Newsletter on Newsletters was going to undertake a blanket advanced renewal campaign. I'm I'm Contraction of I am. Our Living Language Speakers of some scattered varieties of American English sometimes use I'm instead of I've or I have in present perfect constructions, as in now here to report the results, along with those of a friend who did the same thing at about the same time for his $400/year b-to-b newsletter. We, in fact, even exchanged copy to help each other hone our final products. The offer Neither of us offered a premium but instead used the tack of, in Fred (Friendly Rollabout Engineered for Doctors) A mobile medical conferencing unit. See videoconferencing. 1. FRED - Robert Carr. Language used by Framework, Ashton-Tate. 2. Goss's words, "Guarantee your savings by locking in the current low price." NL/NL's was, "Now you can 'price freeze' your subscription at last year's prices. Heck heck interj. Used as a mild oath. n. Slang Used as an intensive: had a heck of a lot of money; was crowded as heck. [Alteration of hell. , It's it's 1. Contraction of it is. 2. Contraction of it has. See Usage Note at its. it's it is or it has it's be ~have the last chance to renew at last CENTURY'S prices!"--after noting that the last price increase was in 1999. In my first draft of the sales letter, I wrote some boilerplate A phrase or body of text used verbatim in different documents such as a signature at the end of a letter. Boilerplate is widely used in the legal profession as many paragraphs are used over and over in agreements with little modification or no modification. about how important the newsletter is to publishers, what features are planned, etc. My DM consultant (whom I like to call a genius in this area) struck out all of that and said to just keep to the offer-"'Price freeze' your subscription at last year's prices." "It's the offer, stupid," he might have put it--the offer on the carrier, in the sales letter, and on what we called "Price-Freeze Offer--Renewal Form. My friend and I both sent our offers out twice, his in separate mailings and mine included with the newsletter. We both mailed our second efforts about six weeks after the first one. The NL/NL second mailing was identical to the first except for an added note, printed in blue ink at the bottom of the (one-page, black-on-white) sales letter, "Oops! I didn't give people enough time to respond earlier. Deadline is April 30th.--P.S." That date gave subscribers about three weeks to renew. The results Experts say one can reasonably expect a response rate of 6 to 8 percent in an advanced renewal campaign. My friend pulled in a 10 percent response, and I'm happy to say that subscribers to NL/NL posted an 11.5 percent response rate. We each had our surprises. He said that, unexpectedly, 40 percent of his overall response came from the second mailing. I was equally surprised by 'the number who renewed for two years--one third. The least I can do in gratitude Gratitude agrimony traditional symbol for gratitude. [Flower Symbolism: Flora Symbolica, 172] Androcles because he had once extracted a thorn from its paw, the lion refrained from attacking Androcles in the arena. [Rom. Lit. to you who renewed is to share the results--and to share my enthusiasm for the advanced renewal method for raising quick cash. |
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