I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the effectiveness of direct mail. Each day when I come home from work, I dread going through the mail. It’s a chore. I might get lucky and find a Sports Illustrated or Wired, but most of the time it’s just bills and crap.

I have never bought a product or visited a business as a result of a direct mail piece.

Direct mail falls under the category of interruption marketing. Interruption marketing is the opposite of permission-based marketing. The consumer opts in to permission based marketing and gives the company permission to market to the consumer. This is usually done in the form of e-mail marketing.

I have bought a product as result of an e-mail.

The difference is that I asked to be sent the e-mail. The e-mail made reference to a prior purchase. The e-mail had a definitive call to action. It was turnkey marketing. It was easy.

So why do we continue to rely upon direct mail to get the job done? We don’t know any better. We’re creatures of habit and expect that if we knock our heads enough against the wall long enough, that something positive will come out. It’s not that the piece isn’t well designed or that it’s not eye catching. It’s the fact that the consumer doesn’t want to receive it. The piece falls into the crap category with all the other junk mail.

Do more e-mail marketing than direct mail in 2009. It will cost your company less money, be more effective, and help you connect with your consumers.

Katie and I returned home on Friday after being in the hospital since Wednesday morning. Katie, Landon, and myself are all doing well, and enjoying our time together as a family.

In the time leading up to Landon’s arrival, people told me that becoming a father would be an unimaginable feeling. They were definitely right. In an instant, my life changed forever. So far, it’s been awesome.

Born on December 3rd at 3:06 PM EST. 6 pounds, 10 ounces. 20.5 inches long.

Nothing will wake you up faster than your wife at 5:00 am telling you her water just broke.

I’m at the hospital now with Katie just waiting for our son to be born. We’re both excited and ready to be parents.

Leave it to my son to be born on the same day as an IU basketball game.

More to follow…

At some point in the next few weeks, I will no longer be Michael. I will be Dad. I will still maintain my full legal name, but it will always be shortened to Dad. My wife will call me Dad. My son will call me Dad. For a short time, I’m sure my co-workers will call me Dad.  I don’t think I’ll mind at all.

I realized that I hadn’t posted a picture yet, and found this on the computer. This was taken on our 2nd wedding anniversary at our old apartment. Soon, we’ll add a baby boy to our little family.

Thomas Friedman put it best in the NY Times yesterday.

Let the reconstruction begin.

Election Day is tomorrow, and it promises to be a historic day in our nation’s history no matter the outcome. I voted last Thursday in early voting. My wife Katie and I were in and out in about forty minutes, and we were grateful for the short wait. We will see voter turnout like never before – a testament to the passion that has been ignited in this country.

Senator Obama and Senator McCain are great Americans who each wish to return this country to a prosperous state. The last eight years have hurt our country dramatically. From a brutal terrorist attack, a financial meltdown, and two wars with no end in sight, our country is in need of repair. The next President of this country will acquire a nation demanding greatness from its leadership.

As a country, we want to be successful. We want to have affordable health care, we want a job to go to every day, we want to be respected across the world. Our country and our reputation has been tarnished in the last decade.

Vote on Tuesday to restore our country to what it is meant to be – a place of dreams fulfilled, a hub of entrepreneurial spirit and innovation, and a humanitarian on a global stage.

As a marketing manager, I’m always concerned about the ROA on each promotion. As I’ve been thinking over the marketing strategy our credit union will pursue in 2009, I’ve thought of another measurement.

ROM – Return On Membership

In credit unions, we like to tout the strong differences between banks and credit unions and the importance of being a member instead of a customer, but what is the member receiving that makes his experience different than if he was a customer at a bank?

I think that we rely on the fact too much that we are credit unions and that should be enough to get a potential member to switch from another financial institution. Instead, we should focus on the experience and what it means to be a member of a credit union.

Increase your ROM, and your ROA will follow.

If you’re a CU professional, I highly recommend going to FORUM and Trabian’s Partnership Symposium in Fishers, IN next year. It was a great experience and very informative.

I’ve added a few of the presenters’ blogs on my sidebar.