In previous issues I've told you the importance of giving your prospects the benefits of your product or service instead of the features. But sometimes copywriters have trouble finding the benefits. So over the years we've deveoped some easy ways to help you find the benefits in the features...
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Several issues ago I raised what has turned out to be a fairly controversial issue. That of dishonesty in our industry. I have had a number of comments from readers about whether my concern over letter shops and other vendors is justified. There was a theme in the comments that we should only be working with vendors that “we trust.” My response to that is that I started out trusting my vendors...but have learned the hard way that I must take precautions to ensure that my trust is warranted.
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The fact is an average of 35% of nonprofit original contributors give a second gift. So what about those other customers? How to keep them coming backCreating an ongoing relationship with your existing customers can be key to your company's bottom line. Customers need to be reminded of your product and your service. And you should aggressively up-sell and cross-sell your database working to increase your profits. Truth be told, resoliciting existing donors is nearly 10 times more profitable than acquiring the same number of equally generous first- time donors.
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I’m really excited about a new trend in direct marketing you should look at. It involves all the new technology breakthroughs with video. Google is now looking at pay-per-click video direct marketing ads. If you’re using pay-per-click, this is a new tactic you should consider. Outlets for Direct Marketing Internet Video
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Finding the optimal price for your product or service can be a challenge. If you price too high, you scare consumers away; if you price too low, they don’t trust your product. Let’s admit it—how many times have you found yourself hesitating when it comes to purchasing a shirt for $9.99 but not thinking twice when buying a pair of sunglasses for $99.99? Your customers have the same kind of feelings. This week’s test takes a look at consumer response to different price points. Test: MarketingExperiments.com recently reported two price tests that were conducted. In both cases three price points were tested. The tables below show the data collected in the tests.
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When writing to business prospects, remember that business decisions are often made by groups rather than individuals.
Therefore, your product must be positioned in a way that it will appeal to several different people who make decisions based on separate and distinct criteria.
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With the new world of digital printing, your ability to personalize your mailings has increased exponentially.
You can change text and images to match the preferences of each recipient on your segmented list. But does this kind of personalization make a huge difference in results?
This week’s test takes a look at digital personalization.
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There is an adage in the sales and marketing world that your best customer is a customer that you already have.
And for this reason you are likely to do well when you send a mailing to people who have purchased from you before.
But what about the almost-ran.
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After reading last week’s story on making sure your mailings got mailed, Mike, one of my readers, told me that he always wrote his postage checks directly to the post office—never to the lettershop.
He does this to ensure that the money is used only for postage for his jobs.
Mike got it half right...
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The first paragraph of your letter, email, website, brochure or other DR piece is one of the most critical elements of your mailing.
Grab your reader’s attention immediately
In one or two lines you must create suspense or drama or introduce something unexpected. More important, it must persuade your reader that it is in his or her best interest to keep reading.
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The subject line you put on your email is one of the two most important aspects of whether your email gets opened or instantly deleted.
As I talked about last issue, over 60% of your prospects are going to use the “from” line to weed out a lot of emails. But the second indicator that will be looked at to see if your email is worthy of a deeper look is the subject line.
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Earlier today, I was talking with my staff about another case where a lettershop, with the help of a postal worker, falsified 3602 forms to show a larger quantity of mail had mailed than actually went out.
In my experience a lettershop or printer, with or without the help of a postal worker, will often mail only 1/4 or 1/2 of a mailing and pocket the rest of the postage money.
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One major problem with most “image” advertising is that when prospects are done looking at it, they are not sure what to do with their new-found knowledge.
The reason is, the copywriter did not tell them what to do. The ads are missing what direct response copywriters know as a “call to action.”
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You may be interested to know that if you are using more direct response in your marketing, you are not alone. According to the marketing research firm The Winterberry Group, there has been a shift in marketing expenditures toward more direct response.
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In my speeches at conferences and in-house seminars, I talk about 12 common blunders on marketing websites.
Each and every one of them can impact the effectiveness of your website. One of these blunders is in the use of the navigation bar and navigational choices.
The cause of distractions that will greatly depress your results
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The fact is that the Web offers an easy and fairly inexpensive venue to try out everything—from a bold new concept, to comparing headlines, to very subtle little changes to see how they will affect response.
We know of many marketers who routinely use their Web sites as a way to test new ideas before they try them in the mail or in print.
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When you send emails to your clients and prospects, always remember that you are building a relationship with each communication you send.
So make sure every email counts
Make sure that every email offers your prospects something valuable they can take away from the email and put to use.
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How long are callers waiting to talk to a live person about your product? Do you know?
If it's more than 25 seconds, it is too long. Actually the industry-wide objective is that 80% of calls should be answered by a live person within 25 seconds—an objective that’s seldom actually met.
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Since the advent of the Web, an interesting phenomenon has occurred: It has become more difficult for marketers to accurately track the response from their mailings.
Many multichannel marketers have as many as 50% of their orders untracked (I have one client who's untracked orders looks to be up to 70%). Most marketers will be in the 30% to 40% range.
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In direct response you want your copy to move your prospect right along. The "Bucket Brigade" are transitional words and phrases used to keep your prospect reading and moving easily through your piece.
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