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January 10, 2011
 Most Common Direct Mail Mistakes - Ignoring the most important factor in direct mail success.
- Not testing.
- Not using a letter in your mailing package.
- Features vs. Benefits.
- Not having an offer.
- Superficial copy
- Saving the best for last.
- Poor follow-up.
- The magic words.
- Starting with the product—not the prospect.
- Failing to appeal to all five senses.
- Creating and reviewing direct mail by committee.
Mistake No. 10: Starting with the product-not the prospect.
You and your products are not important to the prospect. The reader opening your sales letter only wants to know, “What’s in it for me? How will I come out ahead by doing business with you vs. someone else?”
Successful direct mail focuses on the prospect, not the product. The most useful background research you can do is to ask your typical prospect, “What’s the biggest problem you have right now?” The sales letter should talk about that problem, then promise a solution.
Do not guess what is going on in industries about which you have limited knowledge. Instead, talk to customers and prospects to find out their needs. Read the same publications and attend the same seminars they do. Try to learn their problems and concerns.
Too many companies and ad agencies don’t do that. Too many copywriters operate in a black box, and doom themselves merely to recycling data already found in existing brochures.
For example, let’s say you have the assignment of writing a direct-mail package selling weed control chemicals to farmers. Do you know what farmers look for in weed control, or why they choose one supplier over another? Unless you are a farmer, you probably don’t. Wouldn’t it help to speak to some farmers and learn more about their situation? Read, talk, and listen to find out what’s going on with your customers.
In his book “Or Your Money Back,” Alvin Eicoff, one of the deans of latenight television commercials, tells the story of a radio commercial he wrote selling rat poison. It worked well in the consumer market. But when it was aimed at the farm market, sales turned up zero.
Mr. Eicoff drove out to the country to talk with farmers. His finding? Farmers didn’t order because they were embarrassed about having a rat problem, and feared their neighbors would learn about it when the poison was delivered by mail.
He added a single sentence to the radio script, which said that the rat poison was mailed in a plain brown wrapper. After that, sales soared.
Talk to your customers. Good direct mail—or any ad copy—should tell them what they want to hear. Not what you think is important.
Check back or subscribe to the RSS feed for “Mistake No. 11: Failing to appeal to all five senses.”
December 23, 2010
- Ignoring the most important factor in direct mail success.
- Not testing.
- Not using a letter in your mailing package.
- Features vs. Benefits.
- Not having an offer.
- Superficial copy
- Saving the best for last.
- Poor follow-up.
- The magic words.
- Starting with the product—not the prospect.
- Failing to appeal to all five senses.
- Creating and reviewing direct mail by committee.
Mistake No. 9: The magic words.
This mistake is not using the magic words that can dramatically increase the response to your mailing.
General advertisers, operating under the mistaken notion that the mission of the copywriter is to be creative, avoid the magic words of direct mail, because they think those magic phrases are cliches.
But just because a word or phrase is used frequently doesn’t mean that it has lost its power to achieve your communications objective. In conversation, for example, “please” and “thank you” never go out of style.
What are the magic words of direct mail?
Free. Say free brochure. Not brochure. Say free consultation. Not initial consultation. Say free gift. Not gift.
If the English teacher in you objects that “free gift” is redundant, let me tell you a story. A mail-order firm tested two packages. The only difference was that package “A” offered a gift while package “B” offered a free gift. The result? You guessed it. The free gift order in package “B” significantly out pulled package “A”. What’s more, many people who received package “A” wrote in and asked whether the gift was free!
No Obligation. Important when you are offering anything free. If prospects aren’t obligated to use your firm’s wastewater treatment services after you analyze their water sample for free, say so. People want to be reassured that there are no strings attached.
No salesperson will call. If true, a fantastic phrase that can increase response by 10% or more. Most people, including genuine prospects, hate being called by salespeople over the phone. Warning: Don’t say “no salesperson will call” if you do plan to follow up by phone. People won’t buy from liars.
Details inside/See inside. One of those should follow any teaser copy on the outer envelope. You need a phrase that directs the reader to the inside.
Limited time only. People who put your mailing aside for later reading or file it will probably never respond. The trick is to generate a response now. One way to do it is with a time-limited offer, either generic (“This offer is for a limited time only.”), or specific (“This offer expires 9/20/01.”). Try it!
Announcing/At last. People like to think they are getting in on the ground floor of a new thing. Making your mailing an announcement increases its attention-getting powers.
New. “New” is sheer magic in consumer mailings. But it’s a double-edged sword in industrial mailings. On the one hand, business and technical buyers want something new. On the other hand, they demand products with proven performance. The solution? Explain that your product is new or available to them for the first time, but proven elsewhere—either in another country, another application, or another industry. For example, when we introduced a diagnostic display system, we advertised it as “new” to U.S. hospitals but explained it had been used successfully for five years in leading hospitals throughout Europe.
Check back or subscribe to the RSS feed for “Mistake No. 10: Starting with the product-not the prospect.”
December 17, 2010
Most Common Direct Mail Mistake Recently a company phoned to ask whether I was interested in buying its product, which was promoted in a mailing I’d answered. The caller became indignant when I confessed that I didn’t remember the company’s copy, its product, its mailing, or whether it sent me a brochure.
“When did I request the brochure?” I asked. The caller checked her records. “About 14 weeks ago,” she replied.
Hot leads rapidly turn ice cold when not followed up quickly. Slow fulfillment, poor marketing literature, and inept telemarketing can destroy the initial interest that you worked so hard to build.
Here are some questions you should ask yourself about your current inquiry fulfillment procedures:
- Am I filling orders or requests for information with 48 hours?
- Am I using telephone follow-up or mail questionnaires to qualify prospects? By my definition, an inquiry is a response to your mailing. A lead is a qualified inquirer— someone who fits the descriptive profile of a potential customer for your product. You are after leads, not just inquiries.
- Am I sending additional mailings to people who did not respond to my first mailing? Test that. Many people who did not respond to mailing No. 1 may send back the reply card from mailing No. 2, or even No. 3.
- Am I using telemarketing to turn nonresponders into responders? Direct mail followed by telemarketing generates two to 10 times more response than direct mail with no telephone follow-up, according to Dwight Reichard, telemarketing director of Federated Investors Inc., Pittsburgh, Penn.
- Does my inquiry fulfillment package include a strong sales letter telling the prospect what to do next? Every package should.
- Does my inquiry fulfillment package include a reply element, such as an order form or spec sheet?
- Does my sales brochure give the reader the information he needs to make an intelligent decision about taking the next step in the buying process? The most common complaints I hear from prospects is that the brochures they receive do not contain enough technical and price information.
Don’t put 100% of your time and effort into lead-generating mailing and 0% into the follow-up, as so many mailers do. You have to keep selling, every step of the way.
Check back or subscribe to the RSS feed for “Mistake No. 9: The magic words.”
December 10, 2010
 Some copywriters save their strongest sales pitch for last, starting slow in their sales letters and hoping to build to a climactic conclusion.
A mistake. Leo Bott, Jr., a Chicago-based mail-order writer, says that the typical prospect reads for five seconds before he decides whether to continue reading or throw your mailing in the trash. The letter must grab his attention immediately. So start your letter with your strongest sales point.
Some time-tested opening gambits for sales letters include:
- asking a provocative question; going straight to the heart of the reader’s most pressing problem or concern;
- arousing curiosity;
- leading off with a fascinating fact or incredible statistic;
- and stating the offer up-front, especially if it involves money; saving it, getting something for an incredibly low price, or making a free offer.
Know the “hot spots” of your direct mail package — the places that get the most readership. Those include:
- the first paragraphs of the letter,
- its subheads,
- its last paragraph and the post-script (80% of readers look at the PS);
- the brochure cover, its subheads and the headline of its inside spread; picture captions;
- and the headline and copy on the order form or reply card. Put your strongest selling copy in those spots.
November 24, 2010
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 Superficial Copy Ignoring the most important factor in direct mail success.
- Not testing.
- Not using a letter in your mailing package.
- Features vs. Benefits.
- Not having an offer.
- Superficial copy
- Saving the best for last.
- Poor follow-up.
- The magic words.
- Starting with the product—not the prospect.
- Failing to appeal to all five senses.
- Creating and reviewing direct mail by committee.
Mistake No. 6: Superficial copy.
Nothing kills the selling power of a business-to-business mailing faster than lack of content.
The equivalent in industrial literature is what I call the “art director’s brochure.” You’ve seen them: showcase pieces destined to win awards for graphic excellence. Brochures so gorgeous that everybody falls in love with them—until they wake up and realize that people send for information, not pretty pictures. Which is why typewritten, unillustrated sales brochures can often pull double the response of expensive, four-color work.
In the same way, direct mail is not meant to be pretty. Its goal is not to be remembered or create an image or make an impact, but to generate a response now.
One of the quickest ways to kill that response is to be superficial. To talk in vague generalities, rather than specifics. To ramble without authority on a subject, rather than show customers that you understand their problems, their industries, and their needs.
To write strong copy—specific, factual copy—you must dig for facts.
You must study the product, the prospect, and the marketing problem. There is no way around this. Without facts, you cannot write good copy. But with the facts at their fingertips, even mediocre copywriters can do a decent job.
Don Hauptman, author of the famous mail-order ad, “Speak Spanish Like a Diplomat!,” says that when he writes a direct-mail package, more than 50% of the work involved is in the reading, research, and preparation. Less than half his time is spent writing, rewriting, editing, and revising.
Check back or subscribe to the RSS feed for “Mistake No. 7: Saving the best for last.”
November 9, 2010
 Ignoring the most important factor in direct mail success.- Not testing.
- Not using a letter in your mailing package.
- Features vs. Benefits.
- Not having an offer.
- Superficial copy.
- Saving the best for last.
- Poor follow-up.
- The magic words.
- Starting with the product—not the prospect.
- Failing to appeal to all five senses.
- Creating and reviewing direct mail by committee.
Mistake No. 5: Not having an offer.
An offer is what the reader gets when he responds to your mailing. To be successful, a direct-mail package should sell the offer, not the product itself. For example, if I mail a letter describing a new mainframe computer, my letter is not going to do the whole job of convincing people to buy my computer. But the letter is capable of swaying some people to at least show interest by requesting a free brochure about the computer.
Make sure you have a well-thought-out offer in every mailing. If you think the offer and the way you describe it are unimportant, you are wrong.
A free-lance copywriter friend of mine ran an ad in the Wall Street Journal that offered a free portfolio of article reprints about direct mail. He received dozens of replies. Then he ran an identical ad, but charged $3 for the portfolio instead of giving it away. Number of responses that time? Only three.
Here are some effective offers for industrial direct mail: free brochure, free technical information, free analysis, free consultation, free demonstration, free trial use, free product sample, free catalog.
Your copy should state the offer in such a way as to increase the reader’s desire to send for whatever it is you offer. For example, a catalog becomes a product guide. A collection of brochures becomes a free information kit. A checklist becomes a convention planner’s guide. An article reprinted in pamphlet form becomes “our new, informative booklet—‘How to Prevent Computer Failures.’”
From now on, design your fulfillment literature with titles and information that will make them work well as offers in direct mail.
Check back or subscribe to the RSS feed for “Mistake No. 6: Superficial copy.”
November 5, 2010
 Ignoring the most important factor in direct mail success.- Not testing.
- Not using a letter in your mailing package.
- Features vs. Benefits.
- Not having an offer.
- Superficial copy.
- Saving the best for last.
- Poor follow-up.
- The magic words.
- Starting with the product—not the prospect.
- Failing to appeal to all five senses.
- Creating and reviewing direct mail by committee.
Mistake No. 4: Features vs. benefits.
Perhaps the oldest and most widely embraced rule for writing direct-mail copy is, “Stress benefits, not features.” But in business-to-business marketing, that doesn’t always hold true. In certain situations, features must be given equal (if not top) billing over benefits.
For example, if you’ve ever advertised semiconductors, you know that design engineers are hungry for specs. They want hard data on drain-source, voltage, power dissipation, input capacitance, and rise-and-fall time…not broad advertising claims about how the product helps save time and money or improves performance.
“I’ve tested many mailings selling engineering components and products to OEMs (original equipment manufacturers),” says Don Jay Smith, president of the Chatham, NJ-based ad agency The Wordsmith. “I’ve found that features and specs outpull benefits almost every time.”
Vivian Sudhalter, Director of Marketing for New York-based Macmillan Software Co., agrees. “Despite what tradition tells you,” says Ms. Sudhalter, “the engineering and scientific marketplace does not respond to promise—or benefit—oriented copy. They respond to features. Your copy must tell them exactly what they are getting and what your product can do. Scientists and engineers are put off by copy that sounds like advertising jargon.”
In the same way, I suspect that doctors are swayed more by hard medical data than by advertising claims, and that industrial chemists are eager to learn about complex formulations that the average advertising writer might reject as “too technical.”
In short, the copywriter’s real challenge is to find out what the customer wants to know about your product—and then tell him in your mailing.
Check back or subscribe to the RSS feed for “Mistake No. 5: Not having an offer.”
October 29, 2010
Most Common Direct Mail Mistakes - Ignoring the most important factor in direct mail success.
- Not testing.
- Not using a letter in your mailing package.
- Features vs. Benefits.
- Not having an offer.
- Superficial copy
- Saving the best for last.
- Poor follow-up.
- The magic words.
- Starting with the product—not the prospect.
- Failing to appeal to all five senses.
- Creating and reviewing direct mail by committee.
Mistake No. 3: Not using a letter in your mailing package.
The sales letter — not the outer envelope, the brochure, or even the reply form— is the most important part of your direct-mail package. A package with a letter will nearly always outpull a postcard, a self-mailer, or a brochure or ad reprint mailed without a letter.
Recently, a company tested two packages offering, for $1, a copy of its mail-order tool catalog. Package “A” consisted of a sales letter and reply form. Package “B” was a double post-card. The result? “A” out pulled “B” by a 3-to-1 ratio.
Why do letters pull so well? Because a letter creates the illusion of personal communication. We are trained to view letters as “real” mail, brochures as “advertising.” Which is more important to you? One recommendation I often give clients is to try an old-fashioned sales letter first. Go to a fancier package once you start making some money.
Check back or subscribe to the RSS feed for “Mistake No. 4: Features vs. Benefits.”
October 18, 2010
- Ignoring the most important factor in direct mail success.
 Direct Mail Mistakes
- Not testing.
- Not using a letter in your mailing package.
- Features vs. Benefits.
- Not having an offer.
- Superficial copy
- Saving the best for last.
- Poor follow-up.
- The magic words.
- Starting with the product—not the prospect.
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- Failing to appeal to all five senses.
- Creating and reviewing direct mail by committee.
Mistake No. 2: Not testing
Big consumer mailers test all the time. Publisher’s Clearinghouse tests just about everything…even (I hear) the slant of the indicia on the outer envelope.
Business-to-business marketers, on the other hand, seldom track response or test one mailing piece or list against another.
As a result, they repeat their failures and have no idea of what works in direct mail— and what doesn’t. A mistake. In direct mail, you should not assume you know what will work. You should test to find out.
For example, copywriter Milt Pierce wrote a subscription package for Good Housekeeping magazine. His mailing became the “control” package for 25 years. That is, no package tested against it brought back as many subscriptions.
The envelope teaser and theme of that successful mailing was “32 Ways to Save Time and Money.” Yet, Mr. Pierce says that when he applied the same theme to subscription mailings for other magazines—Science Digest, Popular Mechanics, House Beautiful—it failed miserably.
“There are no answers in direct mail except test answers,” says Eugene Schwartz, author of the book, Break-through Advertising. “You don’t know whether something will work until you test it. And you cannot predict test results based on past experience.”
Check back or subscribe to the RSS feed for “Mistake No. 3: Not using a letter in your mailing package.”
October 15, 2010
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Most Common Direct Mail Mistakes Ignoring the most important factor in direct mail success.
- Not testing.
- Not using a letter in your mailing package.
- Features vs. Benefits.
- Not having an offer.
- Superficial copy
- Saving the best for last.
- Poor follow-up.
- The magic words.
- Starting with the product—not the prospect.
- Failing to appeal to all five senses.
- Creating and reviewing direct mail by committee.
Mistake No. 1: Ignoring the most important factor in direct mail success.
Do you know what the most important part of your direct mail campaign is? It’s not the copy. It’s not the art work. It’s not even the format or when you mail. It is the mailing list.
A great mailing package, with superior copy and scintillating design, might pull double the response of a poorly conceived mailing. But the best list can pull a response 10 times more than the worst list for the identical mailing piece.
The most common direct-mail mistake is not spending enough time and effort up-front, when you select—and then test—the right lists. Remember: In direct marketing, a mailing list is not just a way of reaching your market. It is the market.
The best list available to you is your “house” list—a list of customers and prospects who previously bought from you or responded to your ads, public relations campaign, or other mailings.
When renting outside lists, get your list broker involved in the early stages. The mailing piece should not be written and designed until after the right lists have been identified and selected.
Check back or subscribe to the RSS feed for “Mistake No. 2: Not testing.”
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