Tips & Techniques for Direct Response Marketing

Tips & Techniques

Does your copy answer the question, "What's in it for me?

Are you shouting at your website visitors?

Does teaser copy really increase response?

A provocative way to sell technical products without looking like a catalog.

Increase response with personalized business reply cards.

Does your copy answer the question, "What's in it for me?"

Increase readability and response by understanding your audience and making certain the copy addresses their concerns. Put your copy to the test. Read through your website or a sales brochure from your audience's perspective. Then, ask yourself, "What's in it for me?"

If you clearly understand the benefits, then you've passed the "What's in it for me?" test. If not, you could be losing website visitors and wasting direct mail or sales brochure dollars.

Are you shouting at your website visitors?

Use large fonts sparingly (18+ point size - i.e. wow!). Highlighting one or two words is an effective way to get visitors' attention. However, when overused, they can be perceived as Shouting.

Click here to download my latest publication, "Seven Deadly Sins of Website Copy" (.pdf file - If you don't have Adobe Acrobat, click here for a free download)

Does teaser copy really increase response?

Teaser copy is a strong offer or statement placed on the outer envelope of a direct mailer -- i.e. "Free Gift Enclosed" or
"Open Now... dated material." The purpose is to arouse curiosity and entice the prospect to read further. It's difficult to predict the outcome. In his book, Business to Business Direct Marketing (NTC Business Books, 1998), Bob Bly, a leading business-to-business direct marketing consultant, suggests testing a portion of the mail list to determine if the teaser copy influences response.

When in doubt... don't.

It's o.k. to leave off the teaser -- it may even increase your response.

Keep the following tips in mind:

Test a portion of your mail list before rolling out
to the entire list.

In business-to-business direct response marketing,
teaser copy can indicate "junk mail" and may be
trashed before it leaves the mail room.

Teaser copy can be more effective in one-to-one
selling such as consumer or small business where
mail is less likely to be filtered.

Try copy that is less sales-oriented such as
"important account information enclosed."

Use a first class live stamp instead of bulk or
metered mail. Studies show that first class live
stamps outperform metered and first class bulk mail
in eliciting response.

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A provocative way to sell technical products without looking like a catalog.

The magalog is a cross between a magazine and a catalog. It's an engaging way to provide informative technical articles while "soft-selling" related products and services. Other benefits include: cross-selling, up-selling, and strengthening brand affinity.

Increase response with personalized business reply cards.

Sending business reply cards with the prospect's name and address already complete can increase your response by as much as 30%. In a recently conducted test, even those who wished to be removed from the mail list responded with written comments as to why they weren't interested. "Cleansing" your database is an added benefit of personalized business reply cards. Several word processing and page layout programs such as Publisher 2000 and Word offer mail merge capabilities. Talk to your mail house about personalizing your business reply cards.

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