Direct Marketing

Writing Killer Business-to-Business Copy

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 23:49:00 GMT

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.

Testing Corner: Unlocking the Secrets of Digital Personalization

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 23:44:00 GMT

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.

Testing Corner: Your Prospect List—Lessons to Never Forget

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 23:45:00 GMT

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.

Direct Marketing Copy Tip of The Week: Little-Known First Paragraph Secrets

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 22:34:00 GMT

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.

Testing Corner: Email Subject Lines Make or Break Your Campaign

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:28:00 GMT

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.

Direct Marketing Copy Tip of the Week: The Call to Action

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:03:00 GMT

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.”

Why More Marketers Are Using Direct Response

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 23:56:00 GMT

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.

Navigation Nightmares: Avoiding Distractions, Diversions and Deletions on Your Website

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 23:39:00 GMT

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

Testing Corner: On Your Website Little Differences Mean Significant Results

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:03:00 GMT

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.

Is Your 800 Call Center Losing Business for You?

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:02:00 GMT

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.

Is Your Direct Mail Response Down?

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:34:00 GMT

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.

Direct Response Copy Tip of the Week: The Bucket Brigade

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 22:22:00 GMT

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.