Using Direct Mail to Promote Online Activities
Posted by 
on Wednesday, August 25, 2010 
at 8:16 AM 
in The Mailing and Fulfillment Service Association (MFSA) has been around for more than 88 years. As you can tell from their name, their primary objective is “working to improve the business environment for mailing and fulfillment companies”. (Full disclosure: interlinkONE is a Gold Partner in the MFSA Vendor Program)
Yes, traditional mail and fulfillment has been their focus for a long time. However, they are not shying away from using online tools to help them accomplish their objective.
I received a direct mail piece from MFSA this week. It contained an invitation to their New England Chapter meeting in September. The mailer listed costs, registration options, an overview of the agenda, and I also believe a choice of chicken or prime rib (Okay, I made that last one up).
However, one of my favorite pieces of content on the mailer was a line that said “Join the New England Chapter Group on LinkedIn“. The familiar LinkedIn logo was placed next to this line of text.
I am quite familiar with MFSA — I’ve attended conferences, I receive most of their email newsletters, I’ve been to chapter meetings, and I visit their website. However, I was not yet aware that there was a LinkedIn group for the New England Chapter. It is certainly possible that I have completely overlooked advertisements about it on those other channels.
However, for some reason, seeing the note about it on the direct mail piece caught my attention. I joined the group that day.
People see, hear, touch, and smell more marketing messages than ever before. We are all competing to find ways to get our message noticed.
In a multi-channel world, I think MFSA just did a great job of that.
The Direct Mail piece
The Promotion of the LinkedIn Group
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