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Marketing a foreign language program - Q & A

Dan calls from NYC to ask the Sloans how to better market and distribute his Spanish language program.

Rich Sloan:  And we've got Dan out of New York City.  Welcome to our show, Dan.

Dan:  Hi, Rich and Jeff.  I love the show.  I heard you guys on Bob Parsons' podcast, Go Daddy.

Rich Sloan:  Yeah, right on.

Dan:  I've been listening to you ever since.  It's great.

Jeff Sloan:   Bob is a wild man.

Dan:  Yeah.                     

Jeff Sloan:   He's a one of a kind.

Dan:   We have a product called Mucho Spanish.  It's a Spanish language course on three CD-ROMs.  And we're starting a direct mail campaign target and library.

Rich Sloan:  Now, hold on.  I have a question for you.

Dan:  Yes.

Rich Sloan:   Why does the world need more Spanish instruction?  I mean, there's a lot out there.  There's Barron's, there's this one, there's that one.

Dan:  Yes, I know.  But nobody learns  Spanish from it.  Everyone buys it and nobody learns the language. 

Rich Sloan:  I can personally be a testimonial on that.

Jeff Sloan:   I've got a thing on the shelf, too.  Now, so Dan, the point is, then, you have a way to make your -- your tool more user friendly.

Dan:   Right.  Our goal is to get people to develop an ear for Spanish so that they can go out on the street and start talking to people and understand them.

Jeff Sloan:    Okay.

Dan:  We try to get real people speaking on the show -- on the CD-ROM set.  It's all animated characters.  It's a lot of fun but it also gets you to understand it.

Jeff Sloan:   That sounds good to me.  So he has an answer to your question, Rich.  And you've got a question --

Rich Sloan:   That you're looking for an answer for.

Jeff Sloan:    -- that you're looking for an answer for.

Rich Sloan:   Yeah.

Jeff Sloan:   So I think it's our turn to answer questions.  Go ahead, Dan.

Dan:  We're starting a direct mail campaign and we're trying to target libraries.  We've got a lot of library addresses just online, just getting them from the Internet.  And we were wondering, since the library branches are kind of small, they'll probably land on the right desk, but should we really invest in a professional list of librarians?

Rich Sloan:  Well, I think any time you can get a list together of who you've identified to be your target market and do a mailing to that concentrated list -- is that what you're asking?

Dan:  Yes.

Rich Sloan:  Yeah, that's a good idea.

Jeff Sloan:   Generally speaking, that's a good idea.

Rich Sloan:  As long --

Jeff Sloan:   Plus there's always this cost-benefit issue.  I mean, you know, how -- you don't have to answer specifically but you obviously have to ask yourself, you understand what the benefit is and that is getting a better list.  And we definitely advocate that.  On the other hand, you have to weigh that against the costs.  Do you have the resources to pay for it?  Do you want to allocate those resources that way, and do you think it's worth it?

Dan:  Right.  That's what we were wondering about.

Jeff Sloan:   Well, I'll tell you, direct marketing, direct mail gets about a 2 percent response rate on average.  In order to get any kind of improved rate, you want -- one of the best things you can do -- there's really two ways you can influence a better response rate.  One is in the quality of the materials you present.

Dan:  Right.

Jeff Sloan:   And the messages, whether or not the message is compelling enough to get someone's interest.  And two, is the quality of the list.  You know, if you're getting 2 percent and out of 100 people, 98 are either old names and addresses or no good or etc., obviously that list is no good and that's why you're only getting 2 percent.

On the other hand, if you've got a list where you've got a majority of the people -- hopefully a majority, if not a major majority -- that is current, good, interested, qualified, good addresses, etc., that can enhance your opportunity for success greatly.

Dan:  Okay, great.  What about e-mail lists?  Do you think they're as good as the ones going from the post office?

Rich Sloan:  Well, e-mail absolutely can't be a good thing.  It basically follows the same principle as the direct mail.

Jeff Sloan:   It can be a good thing.

Rich Sloan:  Yeah.

Jeff Sloan:   Yeah.  I thought you said can't.

Rich Sloan:   Can.

Jeff Sloan:   Can be a good -- yes.

Rich Sloan:  It is all about the quality of the e-mail list.  Remember, you've got to make sure that you've got an e-mail list that's up to date, that is pre-screened and qualified as being appropriate target audience for this.  And then e-mail open rates are often very low when an e-mail is unsolicited.  So you have to just be very respectful of the fact that you're not going to get many people to open those.  And then there is the click-through rate that you have to get for people to actually click through to your site for oftentimes just single-digit numbers of people are actually clicking through on any such e-mail.

Dan:  Right.  Okay.  Fantastic.

Rich Sloan:  So it's a cost-benefit analysis and, Jeff, you know -- Dan, we don't have that much time because we've got another caller who we're going to go to.  But I think maybe a bigger question Dan needs to think about is why libraries.  Maybe there are other places where distribution of the product could occur where multiple sales of a given product could occur.

Jeff Sloan:   Sure.

Rich Sloan:  Something for him to think about.