If you're selling a product or service through direct mail, one of the best ways to encourage a sale from a hesitant customer is a strong guarantee.

    In fact, you may be losing sales right now
if your guarantee is weak. A guarantee reassures your prospects and makes them feel secure about putting their hard-earned money on the line. A good rule of thumb is: The stronger your guarantee, the greater your response.

    There are 7 critical strategies you may want to consider to make your guarantee effective and powerful:

1. Make sure to use a dramatic, powerful headline. A good headline needs to be more than a simple Money-Back Guarantee in bold type. Include phrases like "personal guarantee," "risk-free" or "ironclad."



2. Personalize the guarantee with a signature. Show that it comes from an individual, not a corporation. This personal approach will reinforce the guarantee in the prospect's eyes. It's more believable and powerful.



3. Consider using a picture of the signer. This further personalizes the piece and gives the prospect a secure feeling of one-on-one contact.



4. Make the guarantee specific and detailed. Consider using a numbered list or bullet points to clearly and precisely articulate the guarantee.



5. Make the wording as bold and confident as you can. Use strong words and phrases like "unconditional," "for any reason at all," and "prompt refund."
6. Offer to let your prospects keep their premiums. If you offer a premium (and you should) make sure your prospects know they can keep their free gift, special report or any other premium you offer.

The above guarantee details how prospects can keep any Bonus Reports they received.
7. If you can, make your guarantee a "double" or "triple" guarantee. Telling your prospects they're protected in several different ways is another powerful method of strengthening your guarantee.
   
   Why? Because you increase your perceived value. For example, a triple guarantee might read: (1) Buyers get a 100% full refund before 90 days, (2) A partial refund after 90 days and (3) They get to keep all their bonus offers.

    Could your product or service benefit from a targeted, response-generating direct mail campaign?

    Give me a call at 310-212-5727. My team and I at Creative Direct Marketing Group have created award-winning campaigns that deliver impressive results. And we can do the same for your company.

    Direct Marketing Update Reader Alert: You should know about several significant issues that are arising that may raise your paper costs in 2008.

    First, paper mills have been slowly decreasing supply over the last 6 months, creating shortages and raising prices...and another price hike is rumored for January 2008.

    Second, industry mergers are changing the landscape of the paper business, giving more pricing power to supercompanies. For example, paper giant Verso may be acquiring Sappi, the top supplier of coasted freesheet. And NewPage may be acquiring Stora Enso North America.

    If both of these mergers happen (and they are expected to), these companies may wield more control over market prices.

    Both situations may lead to fewer choices and higher prices. Marketers should also be prepared for lengthening delivery dates and increased minimum paper buys.

Here are 3 things to keep in mind to keep your costs down:

1. Be sure to schedule your paper orders early. You'll need to allow plenty of time for your printer to find the exact paper you need at a price you're willing to pay.



2. You can also buy paper from a paper broker in advance...this is a great way to cut costs.



3. Make sure to get price quotes from a few different vendors to find the best price. This is what we do for our clients.

    The United States Postal Service reported a net loss of $5.4 billion for fiscal 2007 on revenue of $75 billion and expenses of $80.4 billion.

    The USPS has not made a decision about future prices but for fiscal 2008, revenue is projected to be $78.2 billion, while expenses are projected at $78.8 billion...resulting in a net loss of $600 million.

    These losses are yet one more reason the government needs to change outdated monopoly laws and allow private companies to enter the postal delivery market.

    As always, Direct Marketing Update will keep you up to date on the latest USPS news and rate increase information.

    I critique 6 to 10 websites on average every week, 95% of which violate direct response rules, killing valuable leads and sales.

    Effective direct response website design involves proper use of direct response art and graphics. One huge response killer in your art and design is your use of the sidebar.

    Your website sidebar is more than decoration and a nice way to frame your main body. It's an exciting way to augment your sales copy, reinforce your offer, boost your credibility and showcase your value-added materials.

    If you're a regular reader of Direct Marketing Update, you know that your direct marketing website should be as simple as possible with limited (or no) navigational options. Rather than steering your prospect to an "About Us" page (or other pages), a sidebar is a great place to help the sales process.

    Here are 3 things to keep in mind in designing your website sidebar:

1. Always place your sidebar on the right-hand side of the page. Since people read from left to right, your prospects' eyes will find it easier if your sidebar is on the right. When your sidebar is on the left, your prospects' eyes keep getting distracted by the sidebar, decreasing readability of your main body sales copy...thereby decreasing response.



2. Never use a three-column format. A three column format used to be the standard format for page design...but it's not conducive to the sales process. Three columns simply draws your prospects' eyes in too many directions instead of guiding them strategically through copy.



3. Start your sidebar below the headline. You don't want your sidebar to fight with your headline. Give your headline all the eye-grabbing space it needs, then start your sidebar next to the beginning of your body copy.

    Sidebars, used correctly, are one of your strongest web design tools. You can see an excellent example of sidebar usage by clicking here to see an award-winning site we created for an investment newsletter writer.

    If you're looking for website design tips, check out my article Your Website Must Be a Direct Response Marketing Website by clicking here. It will take you to the Direct Response archive where you'll find dozens of helpful articles and strategies.

    Many times I'll read online and print copy from novice copywriters that's 80% of the way there...but is destined to have lackluster results because the copywriter didn't take the time to ask the tough questions.

    What are the tough questions? They're the questions your prospects are asking the moment they see your piece!

    As soon as your prospect sees your campaign, he or she will instantly come up with several reasons not to buy...not to respond...not to sign up.

    Before you write a word of online or offline copy, take a look at your product—and your offer—and come up with a list of 5 possible questions or hesitations your prospects might have...then make sure your copy addresses them.

    Here is one of the toughest questions and its solution:

    Is your campaign creating a compelling perceived need for your product or service?

    If your prospect isn't reading your campaign and thinking "I need this!" your copy isn't doing its job...plain and simple. Your copy needs to convey the thought that this one product or service will dramatically improve your prospects' lives.

    To battle this tough question, your copy should present a universal problem in the opening paragraphs, then explain how your product or service will remedy this problem.

    If you're simply detailing how wonderful your product or service is, you'll lose the sale. Step inside your prospect's shoes and ask that tough question: Why would I have to have this product or service? Then make sure your copy has an answer for that question.

     Answering the tough questions about your campaign isn't always easy. You have to be tough on your own campaign. Tear it apart. You have to find the weaknesses in your campaign.

    The key is to know your audience, get inside their heads, and come up with their top 5 tough questions.

     Even the best marketers need help looking at their current marketing efforts from an objective point of view. Give me a call at 310-212-5727 or email me at craig@cdmginc.com and ask for a FREE evaluation of your current marketing materials (a $1,000 value).

    My team of professionals and I can show you specific areas where you could have doubled response on your last campaign. And we can help you prepare a new campaign that will vastly improve on it.

    This week we're going to take a look at whether viral videos increase traffic...and whether that traffic leads to conversions.

    In previous issues, we've talked about the power of viral video to drive traffic to your site. Click here to read our articles on viral video, or click here to see a recent viral video we created for a newsletter client.

TEST: A test was designed to test 28 videos that varied in length from 15 seconds to 8 minutes. The videos were placed on Google Video and YouTube and contained an unidentified URL tag at the end (which drove them to a landing page, then asked them to sign up for a subscription).

    The videos were amateurish enough to give a "home-grown" feel to them. The total cost for all the videos was about $20,000. They tracked the number of times the videos were viewed, as well as the amount of subscriptions generated.

     What percentage of video viewers do you think took the next step and visited the website?

    A: 0.74%

    B: 0.97%

    C: 1.28%

    RESULT: The results may surprise you. If you said C, 1.28%, you're right! Within 60 days, the videos were viewed over 324,000 times and drove over 4,100 viewers to the landing page.

    Here's a table of how they performed over the 60 days:

60-Day Viral Traffic Test
	Month 1	Month 2	60 Day Total
Video views	88,589	235,601	324,190
Clicks to site	732	3,430	4,162
Clickthrough rate	0.88%	1.46%	1.28%
Conversion to subscribers	—	—	1.49%

    Best of all, these were only the figures from the first 60 days. Since viral video can be passed on again and again, the continual promotional cost to drive traffic and subscriptions was zero.

    You may still be wondering how your company fits into the viral video revolution. Call me at 310-212-5727 and tell me a little bit about your company and what your goals are.

    I can show you ways we can effectively market your company on the Internet with a dynamic, targeted viral video. Or if it's easier, email me now at craig@cdmginc.com

ACTION ITEMS

1. Are you up to date on the newest trends in direct marketing such as podcasts, viral video, pay-per-click ads and exciting mailing formats?

Subscribe to the industry-leading digest Direct Response and keep current. Call
310-212-5727 now and tell our representative you'd like to subscribe to Direct Response.

2. Examine the results of your last direct mail campaign. Are you experiencing a loss of leads or sales? I can help. Contact me at craig@cdmginc.com.

3. Click here to read the insightful article on the proven, tested, V.I.V.A.™ direct marketing system. It's a must-read article for every direct marketer and business owner looking to boost their response rates.

4. Click the Forward to a Friend button in the upper-right corner to pass on this Direct Marketing Update to interested friends and business associates.

    That's it for this week's edition of Direct Marketing Update. I hope that you'll keep an eye open for my next issue, as I have so much more exciting direct marketing information to share with you.



Craig A. Huey
President
Creative Direct Marketing Group
email: craig@cdmginc.com
phone: 310-212-5727
www.cdmginc.com