Direct Marketing Update for April 2, 2009

During this webinar, you’ll learn how to use the 40/40/20 Rule to your advantage…so you can get the 200%–300% response boost that comes from following the direct marketing rules.

Don't miss your opportunity to learn dozens of time-tested ways to improve your mailing list strategy…strengthen your offer…sharpen your creative execution…and position your business to stay ahead of competitors. (Even in this recession.)

Recession survival tip: How to get your boss to say “Yes!” to a marketing budget increase

If you’re like many marketers facing increased pressure to deliver sales and leads despite the economic crush, you need quantifiable results and you need them now. That’s where direct marketing comes to the rescue.

The very first thing you need to do is determine your:

Cost per lead
Cost per sale
Lifetime value of a customer

It’s the only way to know if your marketing is effective.

Also be sure you have a proper response analysis for each campaign so that you can analyze its profitability and identify winning lists. (Email me at craig@cdmginc.com if you need a sample.)

But that’s not all these figures do.

They also give you leverage to ask for more resources allocated for marketing, because you’ll have hard data to back up how much you need to produce maximum results.

We have a free, simple tool that allows you to calculate how many orders it will take to break even on your campaign. Click here to try the fast and easy break-even response calculator available on my website.

Stay tuned—I’ll share another recession survival tip in the next issue:

Web strategy: Give your page a response-boosting makeover (Part 1)

The appeal of paid search has grown as the economy falters. But it’s not the clicks that count—it’s conversions. In the next few issues of Direct Marketing Update, I’ll share the secrets to landing page success that will help you turn your site visitors into customers.

Landing Page Success Secret #1: A one-size-fits-all landing page is not going to cut it.

If your prospects can’t immediately find what you promised them in the ad, they’ll be gone in 2.5 seconds. Tailor your landing page so that prospects can quickly find what they were looking for.

For example, if prospects arrived at your site by searching for the keywords “stainless steel appliances,” don’t send them to a page with white refrigerators at the top. Customize your landing page with copy about the benefits of stainless steel appliances and show them the goods.

If you have 3 different themes for your paid search ads, then you need 3 different landing pages.

But don’t panic just yet: For many landing pages I create, the top copy and images change, but 90%–95% of the landing page uses the same copy and graphics. That 5%–10% change is all it takes.

Copy tip: 3 more secrets to a money-making headline

In a previous issue, I shared some easy-to-implement copywriting pointers for profitable headlines.

Here are 3 more guidelines to keep in mind:

Be direct. Convey a clear benefit so that you answer the first two questions that run through your readers’ minds: “What’s the deal?” and “What’s in it for me?” Don’t make them guess.
Long beats short. Longer headlines are more effective because they allow room to promise more specific benefits.
Include numbers. Statistics: If you’ve got them, flaunt them. Numbers help make your headline more compelling, more authoritative and more believable. Making specific claims helps your reader visualize exactly what he or she is going to get.

Here are a few examples of winning headlines:

Tonight serve this ready-mixed chocolate pudding—6 minutes to prepare
7 stunning medical breakthroughs that will change your life
The #1 secret to beating the market meltdown for a secure, worry-free financial future
Brighten up Christmas for 180,000 brave men and women serving overseas
The first hospital income plan specifically designed for 65-plus

Click here to read my recent copy tip on writing better subheads. Then email me at craig@cdmginc.com or call me at 310-212-5727 if you need help strengthening your copy.

Testing corner: Do floaters really work?

At first, it looks like a pop-up, but it’s not. The floater is true to its name—it’s a separate document floating on top of a web page. (It’s also sometimes called a pop-over.)

The look can be achieved right in your HTML code—and it can’t be blocked or banned like a pop-up ad can.

But do they work? They sure did for Digital-Photography-School.com. Here’s what the site looks like without the floater…

Here’s what the site looks like with the floater…

Before adding the floater, the site’s email newsletter averaged about 40 new subscribers daily (14,000 per year). But after adding the floater to collect email addresses, subscriptions shot up to 350 per day.

With roughly 192,000 unique visitors a month, that works out to a conversion rate of almost 18%.

Why do you think the floater was so successful? Share your thoughts by emailing me at craig@cdmginc.com.

Action Items

Email your thoughts about floaters. Check out the feature in this week’s testing corner and let me know what you think: craig@cdmginc.com.
Let’s do lunch this Tuesday, April 7: I’ll be presenting a webinar titled, The 40/40/20 Rule: 3 Keys to Direct Mail Success at 11:00 a.m., Pacific Time. (That’s 2:00 p.m. for East Coasters.) Mark your calendar and click here to sign up. Pull up a chair and a sandwich and get ready to boost your direct mail response rates.
Put my recession-beating strategies to work for you. If you need assistance implementing any of the economy-proof strategies featured in this issue, please don’t hesitate to call me at 310-212-5727. I’ve been helping marketers stay profitable and actually increase response rates through the last 5 recessions…and I can help you get through this one, too.

Yours for direct marketing success,

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

Click here to visit the Direct Response Library. You’ll find numerous articles from past issues of my Direct Response newsletters that provide even more valuable direct marketing help.

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This direct marketing newsletter has been prepared by and is the property of Creative Direct Marketing Group, Inc. The information contained herein has been carefully compiled from sources believed to be reliable, but its accuracy cannot be guaranteed. All photos and graphics are used by permission of their creators. Reproduction or electronic transmission of information contained in this report in whole or in part is strictly prohibited.

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