Clever Marketing

[retired_member34]

Or sneaky marketing, depending upon how you look at it. Some others may have seen this already.

I received a small envelope in the post, smaller then normal business size in plain cheap looking paper. It had a second class stamp on it, and the envelope was apparently hand addressed.

Inside was apparently a folded piece torn from a newspaper, with a post it note that had an apparently hand written note, addressed to my first name, saying "I saw this and thought of you. This guy is brilliant. Have a look at his website" and it was signed as from "J". The piece from the newspaper was titled "The Rebel Business Owners Defying the Economy to Become Millionaires". On reading the article it was about a Six CD Set "Essential Profit Strategies" for sale at £295, with a link to a website.

I'm sure you've guessed it by now. The "handwritten" envelope and post it note were printed, but printed in a blue ink coloured script, that even bled a little around the text, so that it looked as if it was written using a fountain pen. The "newspaper" was an article written by the seller, printed so as to look exactly like a newspaper, on the right paper, actually torn down one edge to look as if it had been ripped out, and folded quite a few times to look as if it had been done by hand.

I've got to take my hat off to him, the attention to detail was very impressive. However, it still leaves a bit of a bad taste, so I won't give him a link to his website!

 

[rob]

Had similar several times, gets filed in the bin.

Junk mail is junk mail however its dressed up.

 

[retired_member34]

It seems the sender has already had an adjudication against him by the ASA for doing this, doesn't seem to have stopped him though.

 

[rob]

It seems the sender has already had an adjudication against him by the ASA for doing this, doesn't seem to have stopped him though.

class outfit

 

[retired_member12]

Had the same one this morning, obviously pulled my limited company details judging from the address details. Look closely at the torn edge, its a cut-perforation then pulled. As you say, very slick indeed. Binned already!

 

[bensd]

lol I get emails from this guy daily - not sure when i signed up

 

[retired_member12]

lol I get emails from this guy daily - not sure when i signed up

Know the feeling, i can't shake off Ashampoo emails for love nor money, annoying feckers!

 

[grantw]

Without looking I'm betting his website is one page, about 3 miles long and full of success stories with pictures of ferraris and palm trees

Grant

 

[Pred]

Without looking I'm betting his website is one page, about 3 miles long and full of success stories with pictures of ferraris and palm trees

Grant

and goatee beards and hawaii shirts

 

[retired_member34]

Without looking I'm betting his website is one page, about 3 miles long and full of success stories with pictures of ferraris and palm trees

Grant

Lol, not a bad guess but he's a little more sophisticated then that. When you first go to the site mentioned there is a very simple short page, lots of white space, it displays lots of newspapers logos that have supposedly featured him, and it states (I paraphrase) "This offer is only open to genuine UK companies, please confirm you represent one by entering the following" - it then asks for your name, business name, and email address before you can continue to the site proper. Bam, he's captured your details for a mailing list (though you do not agree to this). In my case [email protected] will be getting emails from him for a long time (sorry Bill ).

Only then do you get to the 3 mile long page....

 

[springer]

http://www.seo-creative.co.uk/blog/fun/chris-cardell-almost-fooled-by-clever-junk-mail/

 

[retired_member34]

Without looking I'm betting his website is one page, about 3 miles long and full of success stories with pictures of ferraris and palm trees

Grant

Talking of 3 mile long sales pages, I just clicked on a banner ad on Acorn for beyonddomaining.com. If you scroll down the typical rather long sales page, there is a photo of a rather attractive young lady in a bikini, with the caption "Beyonddomaining Girlfriend" -

 

[crabfoot]

Umm ... I prefer pics of sunny places where nobody owns a Ferrari because bicycles are the most practical means of transport.

 

[kendalcottages]

I got the exact same thing a few days ago. It had a very good finish but looked a spammy product so fell flat in my eyes. I'm sure something similar - with a better-suited product - could work very well.

I actually kept my copy as I thought it was otherwise very well done, just for future reference...