Home, Sweet Ow! My Head! Home
Wham! Ouch! *&%#!

You’re seeing birds and stars flying around your head. You’ve just been the victim of what I like to call “small housing”. Anyone over 6’8” who has tried to walk through a doorway without ducking – and missed – knows just what I mean. Fortunately, many advances have been made in the way of new home construction and remodeling that can be implemented to provide more comfort at home to those of us who have been vertically blessed.

Think it might be a bit vain to expect your home to be a better fit for your tallness? Nonsense, we all deserve to be as comfortable as can be especially in the confines of the place we call home. It has been reported that Shaquille O’Neal, 7’1”, who was recently traded from the Los Angeles Lakers to the Miami Heat, purchased the former home of ex-Heat center Rony Seikaly, 7’2”. I’m sure the fact that the house was ready to accommodate someone of great height was a key factor in his decision. Join me as I highlight several ways you can design your new home, or even remodel your current home to be more height friendly.

Doors Let’s start with the doors. Many homebuilders are already offering 8’ front doors as standard. If your builder isn’t, it shouldn’t be too expensive of a request. The next step is to upgrade all of your interior doors to 8’ as well. Again, some builders may be including this as standard. If not, this one may cost you a bit more to accomplish, depending on the amount of doors in your home.

Ceiling Space Ceiling height is also an important issue when designing your new palace. Shoot for at least a 10’ or 12’ volume ceiling or vaulted ceilings. A good rule of thumb is if you can touch the ceiling with your arm extended upwards standing on your tiptoes, your ceiling is too low. These changes are easiest applied in new construction. Changing the height of your current ceiling and doorways is not for the faint of heart. Just ask your contractor.

Room To Cook Depending on how well you cook, the kitchen may be the place you spend the most time in or the least amount of time in. Even if your culinary specialty is an open-faced grilled cheese in the toaster oven, these tips can make your time in the kitchen more palatable. The first item is the wall oven, a definite must. These are already pretty popular, but perhaps one appliance you don’t have yet is a raised dishwasher. These two appliances can save you from the repeated bending up-down motion when working in the kitchen. Raised outlets are becoming ever more popular to have in the kitchen and rollout pot and pan shelves are becoming a standard request. Of course if your building a new home these will be easy to implement, but kitchen remodels are very common these days and these changes can be applied fairly easily there too.

The Most Important Room Ah, the bathroom, our sanctuary from the outside world. The first item on the list for your bathroom should be a raised toilet, which also goes by the industry name, comfort commode. These are common in homes for the disabled or elderly, but they can make a world of difference in the way of comfort for tall people as well. These are typically anywhere from 3” to 6” higher than a normal commode and make getting on and off much easier. Raised vanities are also fantastic. Again the height difference is only about 6” between normal height and raised height, but that half-a-foot will put a smile on your face when brushing your pearly whites.

Showerheads We’ve all been in that hotel shower where you have to get on your knees to get your belly wet. Shouldn’t happen in your house. If yu are building a new house or remodeling an existing one, be sure the showerhead is at least six inches higher than you stand. Showerhead extension arms are also available at most home improvement stores and might save you the cost of raising the actual plumbing.

Once you implement the above design changes into your home, you’ll find you are well on your way to enjoying home life that much more. No more doorframe concussions or showerhead bruises for you. Also, keep in mind that several of the above mentioned changes are helpful to people with disabilities. So when you get ready to sell your home down the road you will be able to meet the needs of a whole other market, enhancing the resale value of your home. The final step to take will be to outfit your new tall friendly home with furniture designed with height in mind. You can find several furniture makers to accommodate your needs in this magazine.

Image credit: AndreaTX on Flickr

We were staying at Royal Pacific (gotta love the upgrade to the King Suite) and had dinner at The Palm which of course involved a couple cocktails, so we decided to take a cab to the concert. Getting a cab to the concert was no problem…after the concert not so easy.

So we ended up getting a ride in a van that had been rented by these two guys headed to Portofino, next door pretty much to Hard Rock where we were going back to. It was by far the funniest cab/van rides we’ve ever experienced. (Audio below)

“I referred like four people to you already. I’m networking for ya buddy. What’s that? Well they haven’t called you yet because they can never get ahold of you. Your a buuuusy man!”

Apparently they were flying out Monday to go to NYC for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. The one guy was on the phone with his ticket broker Michael (who was skiing in Aspen) trying to get some balcony seats, limo, etc. I wish I had caught more of the conversation because there were some other funny parts involving Madonna and private jets but this is still pretty funny:

Clapton Van Ride

But we do have to be careful of doing things strictly for the money. Doing a job just for the money can often have detrimental long term effects.

”I probably did it for the money.”

In a recent article in Entertainment Weekly, Chevy Chase is quoted as having done Fletch Lives just for the money. The outcome? What could have been a long lasting movie franchise met a swift end when Fletch Lives bombed.

Think twice about your motives when mulling over that new job offer or considering taking on additional projects. Taking the money now could cost you even more money down the line.

Sometimes it pays to hold off and put a couple things on the Underhill’s account until an opportunity you’re more passionate about comes along.

“A part of” vs. ” A target of”
You know that one of the most valuable assets you have is your relationship with your fans and supporters. But sometimes its hard to communicate to your fans that you feel this way about them.

One way you can let them know is by getting personal. It’s no longer as simple as greeting them by name in an email or a mail piece. You have to also acknowledge their past involvement and really let them know they are part of the family. This lets them feel like they are a “part of” rather than a “target of”.

Communicating in this manner is of utmost importance to FSU’s strategy this year, and we’re going to great lengths with them to get it done effectively.

Personalized Email - 1 of 16 different versions

16 Unique Communication Versions
Maybe the most interesting part of this campaign is the data driving it. When we looked at FSU’s data, we determined that there were 16 different dispositions that people could be classified as:

Tickets: Renewal, Reacquire, Reconnect and Thank You’s (those who already took action) and

Booster: Renewal, Reacquire, Reconnect and Thank You’s (those who already took action)

(4 x 4 = 16 unique combinations)

This essentially meant that we had 16 different versions of email text and website copy, depending on which bucket the recipient fell into based on their past ticket purchase and booster membership. This was all able to happen on the fly as people received their email and visited their personalized webpage.

Personalized Webpage and Video - Click image to see actual site

Laser Targeting and Cost Effectiveness
FSU did not limit their audience to ticket renewals or booster renewals. In order to hit their goals for this year they determined they would need to place an emphasis on reconnecting with past supporters and fans and reacquiring those who either let their tickets or booster membership lapse.

Not only is FSU reaching out to a larger audience while becoming even more targeted in their messaging, but their campaign is getting more cost effective with each additional record as the unit price drops when the volumes get higher. This will be especially key when we get into the direct mail portions of the campaign.

Reporting
We are able to report back to FSU the response rates of all 16 groups. It was interesting for us and for FSU to see which groups performed the best. There were a few surprises for sure.

The Power of the Database
Once sufficient time has passed after the signing day email, FSU will pass data back to us on who renewed or bought tickets, who renewed their booster pledge and at what level, and who took no action at all. This information goes into our database and will drive the content of the next communication, which will be a direct mail renewal package, later this month. Again, the content of the mail piece, just like the email and personalized website, will be different for each recipient based on which bucket they are in and what actions they have taken thus far.

Systematic Campaign Plan
This level of coordination and personalization may sound overwhelming and complicated. It is not easy, but it is essential if you want to reach your goals today. There is a solid plan in place that anyone can follow with the right amount of help. See a sample communication plan that anyone could use below:

Click to enlarge

If you’d like to learn more about how we could apply this system to what you’re doing this spring, I’d love to talk to you. Even if the wheels are already in motion for your 2010 renewal campaign efforts, it is never too late to incorporate some of these strategies to better your results.

You can get in touch with me here or just give me a call at 386-271-3082.

By printing and sending both the men’s and women’s direct marketing campaigns at the same time, LSU was able to save quite a bit of money on the per piece cost. As you know, the higher the quantity, the lower the cost is per piece. LSU actually used this savings to expand their reach and send to more buckets of people…people who had bought tickets previously but maybe not season tickets, people who were previously ticket holders but for whatever reason did not buy last year, and people who because of their proximity to campus might be interested in buying tickets.

To realize this cost savings, the only thing that had to be the same were the size/format of the piece. The print date also had to be the same, which did provide a small challenge in making sure all necessary copy and assets were delivered to us by their respective deadlines. Through constant communications with LSU we were able to make this happen.

Besides segmenting the overall campaign into two segments (Mens and Womens), we also segmented the Men’s campaign by location. Residents in Baton Rouge received a piece that was different than all other recipients. Both the messaging and the enclosed insert were different from what the other recipients (those residing outside of BR) received.

If this sounds like a lot of work to accomplish, its not really. These types of campaigns are our bread and butter. All thats required is good data, which LSU was able to provide to us.

The overall components of the campaign were email, direct mail, personalized videos and personalized web pages to track response and act as a jumping off point to reinforce the campaign message and direct fans to purchase tickets. As you can see, even though these campaigns ran simultaneously, they are unique unto themselves, allowing the proper branding and messaging to come through for their respective teams.

Fell free to check out the campaign websites for each. To get the full experience you’ll need to enter your name and email address:

Mens: http://CommitToLSUHoops.com

Womens: http://MyLadyTigers.com

LSU Mens Mail Piece - Outside

LSU Men's Mail Piece - Inside

Mens personalized webpage and video

LSU Women's Mail Piece - Outside

LSU Women's Mail Piece - Inside

Womens personalized webpage and video

Check out the example packages below. These can be customized to fit your needs, and we suggest adding additional communications such as email reminders. When incorporated into your direct mail campaign, these can be done at very low cost, but can have a big impact on your response and conversions.

We will design your emails to have the same rich personalization as your mail piece. Remember that multi-touch campaigns increase your chances of a response significantly.

If you have any questions about the campaigns below, including pricing and other specifics contact me here or give me a call at 386-271-3082.

Personalized Postcards -See postcards we did for UNC

Certainly the least expensive option, but with great imagery and rich personalization these can be effective in marketing tickets, especially as a reminder to those who have received their renewal information but have not yet bought their tickets.

8.5 x 11 and 8.5 x 13.75 Folded Letter Package -See examples we did for UCF and Wisconsin

These give you much more room to communicate with your fans and convince them that now is the time to renew. These packages include an optional 5 x 7 personalized photo, white 6 x 9 large window envelope (see why?), the outside of the folded letter has personalized image to show through window and a standard 1-color reply envelope for those who may want to renew their season tickets by mail.

8-page Booklet Renewal Package – See example we did for Duke Football

This package is the cream of the crop and gives you plenty of room to communicate everything you need to. You can have a personalized letter from Coach, stadium seating chart and parking diagram, schedule, hospitality and group ticket information, booster club message and more.

Perhaps the best feature about this package is the integrated ticket renewal form. Using your data, we will make this piece uniquely personalized for each of your fans by including their specific ticket information such as location, ticket quantity and pricing right on the form inside the mail piece.

Going Green
Everyone talks about the need/desire to go green and reduce their organization’s impact on the environment. We should use best practices such as emailing before sending out a direct mail piece for renewals. We should encourage people to renew or pay online. But perhaps the best green contribution college athletic and alumni organizations can make is through targeting. And many of you are already doing a great job at this.

Think about it. You’re probably not sending out ticket or membership renewals scatter shot…you’re sending them to people who were either ticketholders/members/donors last year, people who were previously ticketholders/members/donors who did not renew last year, and finally those who, based on prior relationship with your school (ie: graduates/alumni) might be highly likely to take action.

Contrast this with the pool care company that blankets a neighborhood with postcards sent to every home, instead of just homes with pools. I’m sure you can think of other examples of wasteful marketing, we see it everyday.

Pat yourself on the back, and think of ways that you can get even more targeted in your marketing and prospecting to 1) “go green” and 2) get even better results.

One possible strategy is profiling your current ticketholders/members/donors and finding out where they live, how many games they attend, what their annual giving habits are etc. Then go find other people that look just like them to target.

Localization
Alumni and Booster organizations are the best when it comes to practicing localization, defined for our uses here as using a member’s/donor’s current location as a connect point with your organization. You can see this in action with local chapters of alumni/booster organizations, usually in major metro areas.

But have you thought to use this in your marketing? Instead of a form letter or mailer that says the same exact thing to everyone, speak to each person individually. How about something like: “Join the other 2,419 Orlando area <School Name> alumni by becoming a member today”.

This type of appeal lets them know that 1) you care about and “know” them as an individual and 2) uses the power of social proof (ie: the other 2,419 area alumni) to help tie them back to your organization.

Sound like a lot of work? Perhaps if you are doing all of your marketing in house. But to direct marketing companies like Replay Marketing that do this everyday, its all just variable data communication. We do it everyday, and can help you accomplish this.

Your data holds untapped power. It’s time to put it to use in 2010.

Integration
Many college sports and alumni marketing organizations experienced better results this year by integrating their marketing campaigns across multiple channels from direct mail, to email, and even personalized websites. This trend will continue to build momentum in 2010 simply because it works.

In tests in just about every industry it has been found that sales can be as much as 50% higher among those who receive a mail piece and click through to a personalized website than those who just visit the site on their own. An email either before or after sending a direct mail piece has also been proven to boost response significantly.

Isn’t this more expensive? It can be, but with proper planning probably not by much. You probably already use direct mail, email, and web in your marketing, just maybe not together. Integrate them, and your campaigns could be dangerously successful.

When doing your 2010 marketing planning keep these 3 trends in mind and look for ways to apply them effectively within your budget.

The article focuses on how Tim McMurray from Northern Illinois uses a comprehensive donor communication plan to tell the story donors need to hear in order to loosen up their purse strings a little bit. Northern Illinois has experienced three straight years of growth in both number of donors and total donations under Tim’s watch.

The article notes that it’s not just about the donation you need from them. It’s about what that money buys, including extra recruiting trips to land a top prospect, or summer school books for a student-athlete trying to graduate on time.

There is no effective way to communicate that story with one or two touch points with donors throughout the year. It has to be an on-going, structured communication process that does not end until a donation, or a firm “no” is achieved. Tim said it best in the article:

“until we have 213,000 people who have said no, we have work to do.”

There is, of course, an investment that needs to be made in creating and executing a comprehensive communication plan such as this. That investment involves both time and resources (money and staff). But there’s no reason to go at it alone either. My company can help you plot that on-going communication strategy just as we have for other schools. There is a roadmap available for this, all you have to do is ask for it.

Executing this type of plan does not have to be expensive. Many of the communication points we advocate can be done internally by email or on the phone to keep costs low, and supported by other strategically planned direct marketing efforts.

Think through a couple of these questions. What is an average donor worth to you in their first year of giving? How many of them continue to give in years following? What if you could pick up another 500 or 1,000 donors just like that this year? What would you be willing to invest to make that happen?

My team and I are available to discuss this further with anyone who is open to having a conversation and exploring these questions. Contact me here. We’ll even come to you if that’s what it takes. In 2010 we are going to have several success stories to tell in the world of athletic development. Will your success story be one of them?

Taking your Site from One to One Million Users by Kevin Rose from Carsonified on Vimeo.

Good thoughts on stroking the ego of your users, using an invite system (like gmail in the early days), finding good advisors and more.

Stacking the cool is best described as offering so many “extras” in the way of bonuses and extra incentives that the perceived value of those far outweigh the cost of the product you actually sell.

In a recent interview I heard with Tony Robbins, marketer Frank Kern gives an over the top example of his concept of “Stacking the cool” that gets the point across (I’m paraphrasing here):

“You go down to the Honda dealership and for whatever reason you leave without buying, maybe you just weren’t ready, didn’t find what you were looking for…whatever. Next day the car salesman call you and says hey, thanks for coming in yesterday, just wanted to let you know we got a new sales manager and he’s trying to make a great impression his first day on the job so he’s going to give a Porsche 911 Turbo to anyone who comes down here today and buys a Honda. I know its crazy but just thought I’d let you know, if you’re interested come on down if not, no problem I’ll see you later. The next day he’s offering a Gulfstream jet in addition to the Porsche 911, and the next day a mansion in addition to both of those.”

An absurd example, I know, but you probably get the point…the cool has been sufficiently stacked in this case.

So how might a school use this approach to sell more tickets? Maybe its as simple as saying hey, the first 5000 people to renew their season tickets get a free upgraded parking pass, meet and great with the team and a $100 credit toward stadium concessions. Or maybe its a ball signed by the team or the chance to come out to a practice. Whatever it is you choose to do, make sure that the extras you offer are things you know your fans will love and want, even without the tickets.

Some schools are already employing the tactic of stacking the cool in selling tickets. I’d love to hear how you’re doing it at your school. Let me know what’s working for you in the comments.