I received this self-mailer from Cetera Investors.
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Outside of Self-mailer |
It looks like one of the typical acquisition lead generation mailers for an independent financial services firm. The offer is typical: nice dinner, lessons on making the most of one's wealth, presentation about services the firm can provide. There would likely be some selling, maybe soft sell, maybe hard sell -- that depends on the firm. Nothing out of the ordinary here.
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Dinner Event in Bellmore, NY |
But the dinner was located in Bellmore, NY. From my home in Forest Hills, that's 28 miles as the crow flies and 45 - 100 minutes in weekday afternoon traffic. One cannot reasonably expect a potential customer to travel that far and long for a dinner presentation, which is why I consider this a Fail for Targeting.
My first thought when I read through this was a song from The Music Man, "You Gotta Know the Territory." Maybe the wealth managers were from out of the area? But no, they work in the Westbury office so they should know that New Yorkers hate to shlep and we love location convenience. If they want business from people in Queens, they need to feed people in Queens. We have plenty of great Italian restaurants here that would gladly host an event.
Mr. Roth, the wealth manager from the mailing, likely worked with a third party to obtain the mailing list and send the mailer. I hope he selects a tighter geographic radius next time so he can preserve his wealth.
Also, of concern: The self-mailer is addressed to "Mr. Marc Davis Jr." I'm not a junior and I don't have a son. Minor Fail for Targeting.
Lessons:
- Geographic targeting should be tightly aligned to your location and how far people are willing to travel.
- Name hygiene is important. Don't use name suffixes unless you're sure they are accurate.