Does It Make Sense?

So you’ve just finished planning a brand new direct mail (or e-mail, facebook, twitter) campaign. The files are on your desktop, ready to be shipped to the printer along with the carefully (or in most cases – not-so-carefully) crafted list of addresses. All you have to do is hit Send. But wait. Before you do that, take a last look at what’s been created. If you’re in a large company, chances are it went through the ringer more than once and changed more than a lot. “But Matt, everybody signed off on this. It took us a long time to get it approved. We need to get this done yesterday.”

For everybody out there that has ever received a piece of marketing collateral they didn’t need, want, or understand; for every marketing professional out there striving to build respected and dignified brands.  I beg you to take one last look at that campaign. Sure it (might still) make sense to you and your colleagues but does it speak to your audience? Does it make them thankful they took the time to pick it up? Can you fulfill the promises made? If not, maybe the most important thing isn’t getting it done. No, what’s really important is what you do right now. *Hint it doesn’t involve the Send button.