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The Response Rules, Part I

Best practices from leading direct mail experts for boosting response through strategy, psychology, testing, tricks and tactics

2 BONUSCase Studies!

STRATEGY &TACTICS FORBoosting

DIRECT MAILResponse

II ©2012 DIRECTMARKETINGIQ | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED STRATEGY & TACTICS FOR BOOSTING DIRECT MAIL RESPONSE

Strategy & Tactics for Boosting Direct Mail ResponseBest practices from leading direct mail experts for boosting response through strategy, psychology, testing, tricks and tactics

(The Response Rules, Part I)

Copyright © 2012

ISBN: 978-1-931068-59-8

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It’s sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting or other professional services. If expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

No parts of this work covered by the copyright hereon may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means — graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, Web distribution, or information storage and retrieval systems, or in any other manner — without the written permission of the publisher/author.

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To arrange bulk purchases of this book for educational purposes, please contact the publisher.

III ©2012 DIRECTMARKETINGIQ | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED STRATEGY & TACTICS FOR BOOSTING DIRECT MAIL RESPONSE

VI INTRODUCTION

SECTION I: STRATEGY & PSYCHOLOGY

2 CHAPTER 1 The Creative Brief (The Missing Link) BY TED GRIGG

10 CHAPTER 2 11 Questions that Make Direct Mail Pay for Itself BY KEITH GOODMAN

14 CHAPTER 3 Psychology of the Mailer — How to Get Inside the Head of the Prospect BY ETHAN BOLDT

21 CHAPER 4 New Tricks for Old Rules BY MAL DECKER

30 CHAPTER 5 A Question of Strategy BY ALAN ROSENSPAN

35 CHAPTER 6 Think Like a Direct Marketer BY ALAN ROSENSPAN

39 CHAPTER 7 3 Directives for Increasing Response BY LEE MARC STEIN

43 CHAPTER 8 How Often Should You Mail Prospects? BY IVAN LEVISON

Table of Contents

Introduction

IV ©2012 DIRECTMARKETINGIQ | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED STRATEGY & TACTICS FOR BOOSTING DIRECT MAIL RESPONSE

Table of Contents46 CHAPTER 9 7 Tips to Boost Response in this Crazy Economy BY DEAN RIECK

49 CHAPTER 10 3 Ways to Reactivate the Customer BY ETHAN BOLDT

51 CHAPTER 11 When You Need to Generate Sales Fast BY GARY HENNERBERG

SECTION II: TESTING

54 CHAPTER 12 How to Test BY MAL DECKER

59 CHAPTER 13 7 Rules to Testing in a Down Economy BY GRANT JOHNSON

63 CHAPTER 14 7 Copywriting Tips That Should Be Put to the Test BY ETHAN BOLDT

SECTION III: TACTICS

67 CHAPTER 15 Handle With Care: Personalization Power BY ETHAN BOLDT

73 CHAPTER 16 Creative Strategies for VDP BY CINDY KILGORE

78 CHAPTER 17 Pitting the Premium vs. the Freemium BY ETHAN BOLDT

Introduction

V ©2012 DIRECTMARKETINGIQ | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED STRATEGY & TACTICS FOR BOOSTING DIRECT MAIL RESPONSE

Table of Contents81 CHAPTER 18 A Premium-Powered Personalization Campaign BY JOE BOLAND

83 CHAPTER 19 Energize Your Offer … and Fire Up Response BY DEAN RIECK

88 CHAPTER 20 7 Ways to Win at Sweepstakes BY ALAN ROSENSPAN

94 CHAPTER 21 5 Rules to Draw Attention with Personalized Cartoons BY STU HEINECKE

96 CHAPTER 22 The Testimonial: 6 Keys to Making Them Work BY BRITT BROUSE

99 CHAPTER 23 The Power of the Newsletter (or Enewsletter) BY DEBRA JASON

105 CHAPTER 24 30 Ways to Amp Up a Renewal Series BY ROBERT LEROSE

BONUS: 2 CASE STUDIES

111 VDP CASE STUDY: Restaurant Promotes Re-opening with a Cross-Media Campaign and a PURL

113 DONOR ACQUISITION CASE STUDY: The World Wildlife Fund Uses involvement Devices and Premiums to Win Over Donors

VI ©2012 DIRECTMARKETINGIQ | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED STRATEGY & TACTICS FOR BOOSTING DIRECT MAIL RESPONSE

W hile no longer king of the direct marketing castle, direct mail re-mains another power player — alongside email, mobile, search, social, etc. — in the integrated, multichannel marketing arsenal that bombards prospects, customers and donors with over 5,000

marketing messages a day (or many more, according to some marketing experts).

Of course, it’s very difficult to stand out in that sea of marketing. With marketing budgets now spread out over many channels, often because of integrated cam-paigns, and prospects still feeling the economic sting of the last few lean years, it’s suddenly more challenging than ever before for marketers to make the sale, generate the lead, get the donation.

Where does that leave direct mail?

Against this chaotic and competitive backdrop, marketing success in any channel is often determined by three key marketing questions: Is the prospect the right target audience? (List.) Does the deal offered tempt the prospect? (Offer.) Does the mar-keting copy and design make a good impression and prompt action? (Creative.)

In all phases, direct mail continues to have a distinct advantage compared to other channels. Not only do direct mailers have more data at their disposal to drill down and make the right kind of offer, but they also have the marketing material that can truly impact the prospect (at their mailbox, in their office or inside their home) in ways that digital marketing simply cannot.

So what are the best ways to create a great impression with today’s direct mail? For example, what kind of format? How much personalization? What kind of teaser copy? What type of design makes the offer stand out?

To be more direct, what are the keys to boosting response? What kind of strategy works? Which tests should be run? Which kind of letter copy helps? What type of tactics are worth trying? Are personalized URLs and QR codes useful?

You’re about to find out in this exhaustive series — called “The Response Rules” — that leaves no response-boosting stone unturned. In part I, you’ll hear from leading copywriters, marketers and industry experts about the crucial creative brief, how to get inside the head of the prospect, new tricks for old rules, how often to mail prospects, rules for testing in a down economy, personalization best practices, using the premium, the testimonial, and much more.

Introduction

VII ©2012 DIRECTMARKETINGIQ | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED STRATEGY & TACTICS FOR BOOSTING DIRECT MAIL RESPONSE

You’ll also get an in-depth look into two case studies about successful direct mail campaigns, along with many examples of response-boosting mail from our Who’s Mailing What! Archive, the most complete library of direct mail in the world.

There’s no way your direct mail campaigns won’t see a major bump in response if you incorporate some of these state-of-the-practice as well as state-of-the-art methods. Let the learning begin!

Cheers,

Ethan BoldtChief Content OfficerDirect Marketing [email protected]

Section I

STRATEGY & PSYCHOLOGY

2 ©2012 DIRECTMARKETINGIQ | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED STRATEGY & TACTICS FOR BOOSTING DIRECT MAIL RESPONSE

CHAPTER 1

by: Ted Grigg Nothing causes the creative team more stress than clients who never seem happy with the creative work. If you’ve worked in this business for a while, you know the story only too well.

In spite of brilliant execution and access to top creative talent, multiple revisions serve only to raise the temperature of the project. In the end, the creative process destroys trust and respect on both sides of the aisle.

Creative teams believe they have great ideas to resolve the problem, while other key players (such as the client) have their own ideas about what the problem is and their own vision on how to solve it.

How did things get to this point?

Without advance agreement on a well-prepared Creative Brief by both the crea-tive group and the client, the creative team must work in a vacuum. This sets up the creative project for failure.

How can you avoid this nightmare? Prepare a written Creative Brief — the missing link for successful creative development.

The Missing Link to Successful Direct Mail: the Creative Brief


Whose job is it to make sure there is a consensus on the assignment and that all parties have reasonable expectations of each other?

I believe that job falls primarily on the marketer and not the creative director.

Of course, both the marketer and the creative team should collaborate on the written document.

But getting the client’s approval and documenting the creative approach requires a holistic perspective combining the knowledge of the customer, the market environment and the offer itself into a unified creative implementation plan. The marketer or account manager enjoys a unique position for developing such a document.

Some creative people take exception to this disciplined approach in favor of rely-ing 100 percent on their intuitive skills while spending little time learning more about the client, their customers and other seemingly extraneous information. But undisciplined creative brilliance often depends upon anecdotal assumptions that are often wrong.

It’s like paying a skilled bricklayer to build a house without an architectural plan or an architect to design an office building without detailed input on how the customer intends to use it.

The creative team should have the facts that relate to the customer’s target market, competitive envi-ronment as well as other knowledge that may not appear to relate directly to the problem at hand.

I have found that it is out of the abundance of such knowledge that creative teams are able to generate the highest possible response rates from their creative work.

As such, the marketer does the homework needed to write the creative strategy and the creative team spends at least 50 percent of its time learning about the client’s product, customers and past creative efforts based primarily on the Crea-tive Brief.

I see the Creative Brief as a melding of the marketing plan with the creative strategy.

Let’s look at the characteristics of strong direct response Creative Briefs.

I see the Creative Brief as a melding of the marketing plan with the creative strategy.“ ”


Strong briefs:• Quantify the objective• Organize the information accurately• Reveal emotional insights that might lift response• Respect the overall brand • Summarize information about the client, the client’s customer and the com-

petitive environment• Include samples of past winners and losers • Supplies any available competitive samples

Weak briefs:• Lack an offer or guidance for developing a strong offer• Focus on the client’s needs rather than those of the target audience• Do not provide essential information as needed for the project • Omit concrete and factual support for the claimed product benefits• Disregard basic target market information such as mailing list descriptions,

demographics and any other pertinent customer information

How about the organization of the final document?

Creative Briefs can take on many different and useful formats. But here are the seven essentials of the effective Direct Marketing Creative Brief.

I. State the objectivesII. Describe the customer benefitsIII. Define the target audienceIV. Discuss the offerV. Summarize the customer’s perceptions about the advertiser’s productVI. Provide the “givens” and brand requirementsVII. Reveal the relevant budgets

Let’s review a few of these to clarify what each section contains.

I. State the objective(s) and what we have to do to win? For example …• Generate actual appointments for the sales team• Beat an existing control• Enroll new members• Convert existing leads to buy the product “off-the-page”• Generate completed applications• Remind lapsed members of a deadline for an existing offer


• Share any known response rates generated by past efforts telling the creative team what success looks like

• Quantify the objectives

II. Describe the product or service benefits.• What are the benefits offered by this product?• Provide support for each purported product benefit • What is the primary benefit?• Is there a unique selling proposition or a key differentiation point?• Provide any relevant testimonials• What do third parties who are respected by the audience say about this product?• What research supports the benefits?• Particularly important to B-to-B lead generation, what is the product’s value

proposition?• How does your product compare with competing products or services?• Provide copies of the controls regardless of channel• Compile printed and electronic literature that may already exist about the product.

III. Define the target audience.• Describe the client’s typical customer in demographic and psychographic terms.• Are we communicating with present customers or prospects? If customers,

what did they buy and when?• For direct mail, what data can we use from the mailing list to personalize the

direct mail package to increase response rates?• Are these prospects? If so, how was the media selected and why this selec-

tion? The media plan reveals insights into the customers that can help the creative team better understand the customers the client seeks.

• What is the size of the selected target audience? Geographic distribution? Can we use local terminology or other local characteristics to make the message more pertinent?

• Go into any available research or client input of why people buy and do not buy the offered product.

• Review the emotional motivators of why the audience might buy or not buy the product.

• Summarize key research information about the customer or prospect audience.

IV. Discuss the offer.• What offers have worked in the past?• What offers have not worked in the past?• What other offers are worthy of a test?• What offers have worked for competitors or in other industries directed to the

target audience?


• When creating new offers, how much can we afford to spend on it based on the allowables for this product or service?

• Share the test grid and testing ideas such as offer, format or multichannel testing.

V. Summarize the customer’s perceptions about the advertiser’s product • How does the target audience view the offered product in the competitive

environment? • What can our target audience turn to instead of to us?• If possible, give the creative team a comparison chart pitting the offered product

against the competition (a SWOT — strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats — analysis).

• Based on the competition and how it relates to the brand, what tone should the creative take on?

VI. Provide the “givens” and brand requirements.• Include any regulatory or legal copy requirements.• Provide any graphic guidelines, logos and other graphic support as required

for the creative execution.• Review any verbiage or language that must not be used in the copy.

VII. Reveal the relevant budgets. • What is the executional budget for this creative effort?• Provide production limits that take into account the allowable cost per lead or

cost per sale. • In direct mail, the Creative Brief describes the proposed format and Cost Per

Thousand (both test costs and rollout costs) already agreed to by the client. For other channels, the media plan describes the advertising vehicles such as a two-minute spot, print advertisement size or an email series and so forth.

The typical Creative Brief takes about two to four pages to complete not counting backup materials such as controls, tests that did not work and other documentation.

Many projects proceed without the benefit of a Creative Brief. Sometimes tal-ented and dedicated creative teams gather the needed information on their own while others just do the work and cross their fingers hoping that the program will work. But this approach invariably causes missed deadlines and needless stress on the client and others involved in the project.

A well-done Creative Brief is the Missing Link that will improve response rates. It also saves time by reducing the amount of revisions and assures prompt client approvals. And lastly, such well-prepared creative projects improve the chances


of meeting, or even exceeding tight production deadlines. But most of all, you have done all you can to create work that has the best chance of achieving the project’s marketing objectives.

As the owner of DMCG, a direct marketing consultancy based in Dallas, Texas, Ted brings deep and broad direct marketing experience to his cli-ents across the country. In the last 25 years, he has spent several hundred million dollars for direct marketing clients in all available direct response media. Think of Ted as a personal “think-tank” for your direct market-ing planning and strategy development. He can be reached at [email protected]

Creative Brief Outline For Direct Mail

I. State the objectives A. What do we want the recipients to do? 1. Are we looking for product trial, repeat business, product

upgrade, new donor acquisition, new members etc. B. Quantify the objectives 1. What is the typical response rate directed to this offer? 2. What is the break even response rate required based on the

allowable cost per sale or cost per lead? (This provides the creative team for the budget limitations and how increased costs must be made up with increased response)

3. What response rate is required to displace the control based on the proposed direct mail budget?

II. Describe the customer benefits A. Why should the recipients care about our products, services and

offer? B. What would our customers say to their friends about our products

or services to get them to respond to our offer? C. What problems does our service or product solve? For example... 1. Saves money 2. Makes money 3. Reduces stress D. What is the most important product benefit? E. How do we substantiate the product benefits?


1. Provide proof points 2. Provide any third party research 3. Show before and after photographs F. How does our product or service compare with the competition? 1. Provide samples from our strongest competitors 2. List any unique benefit and other strengths offered by our

product or service G. How would the typical customer react if this product no longer ex-

isted? H. What belief or present perception does the target market have

about our products or the category as a whole? 1. Substantiate with any available primary or pertinent

secondary research 2. Provide customer testimonials

III. Define the target audience A. Are these past customers or qualified prospects? B. Describe the list selection criteria. C. What data can we use from the mailing list that could help us

make the direct mail package more personal and effective?

IV. Discuss the offer A. Describe the barriers to getting our prospects or customers

to respond B. What can we do to reduce or eliminate these response barriers 1. Why should they respond to the offers we want to test? 2. What is most likely to get our recipients to respond? C. What offer worked best based on past testing? D. What offers were tested and did not work? E. What direct or indirect cost are we allowed to spend on the offer?

V. Summarize the customer’s perceptions about the advertiser’s product A. What can they turn to instead of to us? B. What positioning does the product presently hold in the target audi-

ence’s mind when compared to their other options? C. Provide a simplified version of a SWOT analysis D. What tone should we take based on our competitive positioning

and the brand’s personality?


VI. Provide the “givens” and brand requirements A. What can we say and what can we not say? B. What can we show and not show? C. What creative executions cannot be used because they might

weaken the brand? D. Is there legal copy? Where must it go? E. Are there graphics standards available from the client and other

brand identity guidelines?

VII. Reveal the relevant budgets A. The creative development budget. B. The direct mail production budget.

(Use only the allowed rollout costs). C. Secure approvals from relevant parties before proceeding with the

creative development.


by Keith Goodman Just like any aspect of your business — whether it’s financial, marketing, developing a new product or hiring a sales staff — your direct mail needs to have a plan. This especially holds true in marketing: You are investing your hard earned money (or the owner of your company’s money), and

you need to get a return on this investment.

Here are some of the things you need to look at to have the highest potential for success.

1. What do you want to accomplish?2. What is a customer worth?3. What is your budget?4. Who are you targeting?5. How will you follow up?6. How will you track the results?7. What basis will you use to determine success?8. What is your offer?9. What format will you use?

10. How will you communicate the program to your staff?11. What is the time frame for your program?

CHAPTER 2

11 Questions That Make Direct Mail Pay for Itself


Let’s look at each of these individually.

1. What Do You Want To Accomplish?This is your strategy! You might be trying to set up appointments to demonstrate a new software program or trying to get your existing customers to come back to your store for a special new product preview. Each approach would have its own unique messaging, offers and, most importantly, financial models.

2. What Is a Customer Worth?What are you willing to pay for a new customer? Before you spend any more money on advertising, you need to know this number.

Let’s look at an example: If I were to bring a busload of customers to your busi-ness, how much would you be willing to give me for each one of those custom-ers? The bus is fully loaded with 64 passengers, and every one of them was pre-qualified, ready to buy your product or service with cash, checks and credit cards in their pockets. How much would you be willing to pay me for each of those customers? $10, $100, $1,000? Or how about $10,000? Any one of those answers would be right depending on your business model. You need to know your num-ber.

3. What Is Your Budget?How many new customers do you need get this year and what are you willing to invest to get them? Not only do you have to get new customers to increase your revenues and grow your business, but you are going to lose customers that you are going to have to replace. No matter how good you are at running your busi-ness and how much people love working with you, you are going to lose cus-tomers that must be replaced. They are going to go to your competitors, they are going to relocate, and some will pass away.

With that said, now you need to determine how many new customers you need and how much you will invest on a monthly or quarterly basis to keep generating a steady flow of new customers while simultaneously keeping you old customers coming back and, if done correctly, keep generating referral business.

4. Who Are You Targeting?In order to understand who your target market will be, it is important to under-stand who your best customers are. Do you have a strong understanding of who you customers are?

If you are a local business, how far do try travel to do business? If you are national,


are there specific geographies that larger percentages of your customers are located in?

Are there specific demographics — such as age, income, family status or home ownership — that play a major role in whether prospects do business with you?

5. How Will You Follow Up?What is the process that needs to take place for your company? Who will take the initial call? Can the sale be made on the first call or visit, or is it a complex sale that requires one or more sales calls and, like the contractor, estimate, plans and contracts?

It is important to have these processes established as part of your pre-campaign plan so you do not have to create these processes on the fly when your program is in mid-stream.

6. How Will You Track the Results?If you don’t track the results, there is no way to know if the campaigns are profit-able and if you are wisely investing your hard-earned money. This process needs to be established and in place before a campaign is launched so you make sure all

of the leads are properly tracked and can be easily accessed and integrated into your reporting.

This can be as simple as entering them into a spreadsheet or even keeping the different coupons

in a box or envelope; or as complex as creating offer codes and response fields in a CRM system that provides real-time reporting and integration into commerce and ROI reporting systems.

7. What Basis Will You Use To Determine Success?Most campaigns will be based on the number of customers that are acquired and the revenues associated with those customers. With those numbers, you can easily calculate what it cost you to acquire a new customer, how much revenue was associated with those customers and ultimately the ROI that you derived as a result of the campaign.

8. What Is Your Offer?In the society we live in, we are constantly bombarded by advertising with one offer after another. You will need to construct an offer that has what I call the “get them off the couch” appeal. How many times have you seen a mail piece come across your kitchen table or desk with no offer or incentive to call? I see them all of the time, and for the most part they prove to be highly ineffective.9. What Format Will You Use?

You will need to construct an offer that has what I call the ‘get them off the couch’ appeal.


The selection of the format is something that actually comes further into the plan-ning process than many people realize. I have been asked countless times, “What is more effective, a letter or a postcard?” My answer is, “Yes!”

They are both effective, it just depends on what you are trying to do, who you are targeting, what is your product or service, what is your budget, what needs to go in the mail piece, and how complex the message is. Once you have made the above decisions, the choice between formats will be much easier.

10. How Will You Communicate the Program To Your Staff?Make sure you have communicated all aspects of the program to anybody that will have a chance of communicating with an incoming prospect as a result of the campaign. This includes not only the salespeople, but customer service and re-ceptionists as well. Make sure they have a copy of each version of the mail piece, they know what the offer is, any associated discount codes, how they are entered into the system and the location of any associated documents such as reports or white papers that are offered.

11. What Is the Time Frame for Your Program?When you mail will be determined by what you are trying to accomplish. They key determining factor is: How soon do you need to start generating sales?

There are several things that need to be done correctly in order for your cam-paign to be successful, and each one of them takes time. If you cut corners and try to unreasonably accelerate the process, two things are going to happen. One, you will significantly increase the chance of a serious error by yourself or your direct mail provider. The other is that you will pay additional rush fees that can considerably increase the cost of the program, thereby decreasing the ROI.

Start your plan now.

Don’t wait until the last minute to plan out your next campaign. Start working on it early. Get feedback from your employees or business associates and use the plan when working with your direct mail vendor to make sure you are all on the same page.

To download a business plan template you can go to www.modernpostcard.com/marketingkit. Keith Goodman is vice president, corporate solutions, at Modern Postcard. You can reach him at [email protected].


CHAPTER 3

Some marketers are in a pickle. The dual go-to components of a direct mail campaign — the list and the offer — may not (and often cannot) change much, as lists are better targeted and cleaner than ever before, and many companies, are giving potential customers “best offers” already. Yet for many mailers, response is down because of tough economic times that many prospects are facing.

One way out of this trap? A “head trip,” of course. I’m referring to the so-called psychology of the mailer, and the key part of the creative. If we accept famed direct marketer Ed Mayer’s 40-40-20 rule (40 percent lists, 40 percent offer, 20 percent everything else), we’re only talking a portion of that 20 percent — but the emotions that the mail piece is able to stir in the prospect (and cooked up in advance by the copywriter) may determine whether he responds or not, or if that package lives or dies.

I spoke with several renowned and successful direct mail copywriters to get a sense of the history of the mail piece’s “psychology” and how it can be better leveraged in the future. After all, to elicit emotions in the prospect that end up sooner than later in a response, the copywriter must understand the ‘psychology of the mailer.’

It’s Time to Reapply ‘Psychology’With so many stressed-out and stretched-thin prospects, the careful psychological design of the mail piece becomes even more important. “I think in this economy, marketers have to work harder at getting it right,” says Bob Martel, principal consultant at JMB Marketing Group, located in Marlborough, Mass. “They have to understand the per-ceived value and give

by Ethan Boldt

Psychology of the Mailer — How to Get Inside the Head of the Prospect


people a compelling reason to part with their hard-earned money — whether it’s B-to-B or consumer — because you are competing for their shrinking, expendable revenue right now. So a smart marketer knows how to do that with good copy and an offer that doesn’t give away the store, but uses the psychology of marketing to get the points across.”

One of the big (40 percent) parts of the package — the offer — relies on such psy-chology to convince prospects, often quickly and forcefully, to take it. That doesn’t necessitate an overhaul of the package, which is good news to budget-conscious mailers. Indeed, it can mean a shift in copy rather than design. Accordingly, Grant Johnson, president/CEO of Johnson Direct in Brookfield, Wis. and author of “Fair-ytale Marketing,” mentions that design tests are far more expensive than copy plat-form tests, and that the latter is the perfect kind of test to run in a down economy.

Copy king Herschell Gordon Lewis, author of “Creative Rules for the 21st Cen-tury — the Richest Resource of Copywriting Secrets for Today’s Market” and president of Lewis Enterprises in Pompano Beach, Fla., agrees, but for a slightly different reason. “In a struggling economy, attention to design can be counterpro-ductive. Design, used as a recognizable major element, cancels both immediacy and verisimilitude ... and immediacy and verisimilitude are key factors in mount-ing an effective ‘tough times’ campaign,” he shares.

Of course, applying psychology of the mailer to today’s economic times is not always appropriate. “There is no cookie cutter approach to this stuff,” states Josh Manheimer, copywriter and president of J.C. Manheimer & Co. in Norwich, Vt. “We live in rocky economic times right now, and if you’re selling, say, Consumer Reports magazine, it would be foolhardy not to try and connect with the reader by acknowledging the hardships we all face these days. However, if you’re work-ing on the launch for Yacht & Hound, and your prospects have not been affected by the financial crisis, nor are even aware there is one, then why go there?”

Driving Your Copy HomeIn that above answer, Manheimer indicates that copy must go somewhere in the prospect’s brain, and to get all the way “home,” straight to the head, heart or even the gut, the primary copy drivers must be utilized. Acclaimed direct marketing entrepre-neur Axel Andersson, who compiled the original list of Who’s Mailing What! Grand Controls (mailings circulating in the mailstream for three years or more), said most successful packages appealed to greed or flattery. Direct marketing guru Bob Hacker has mentioned six copy drivers: fear, guilt, anger, greed, exclusivity and salvation.

Denny Hatch, direct marketing consultant and author of the Business Common


Sense enewsletter, listed 28 copy drivers in his book “2,239 Tested Secrets for Di-rect Marketing Success.” He agrees that Hacker’s six, plus Andersson’s “flattery,” are the top seven. “Since 9/11, patriotism might be added to the list, making eight,” he emailed to me recently.

One of the leading experts on copy drivers, Lewis adds a few other crucial motivators. “As far back as the late 1970s, my books listed as the principal motivators exclusivity, greed, fear, guilt and need for approval ... plus two ‘soft’ motivators: convenience and pleasure. Then and now, greed is the safest weapon and the one that in head-to-head tests tends to win,” he relates. Changing up these copy drivers make for smart, inex-pensive tests, says Johnson. “If you normally lead with greed, maybe you would test fear or exclusivity as a copy platform,” he suggests. Martel mentions two other effec-tive copy tests: “You could use scarcity or a gift to try and stimulate reciprocity.”

Manheimer says copywriters still must be keenly aware of their audiences before wielding these motivators. “It depends on what you’re selling, the lists you’re mailing to and the approach you’ve chosen — or has been chosen for you. I mean, revenge is a pretty powerful emotion, but it’s not the first place I’d go to if I were selling a Christmas cookbook,” he states.

Put These Drivers in the Right SeatsThe “driver’s seat” is clearly the letter, say experts. Hacker’s famous quote is, “If your letter isn’t dripping with one or more of the above, tear it up and try again.” But should copy drivers be confined to the letter, or do they belong in other ele-ments as well? And should they begin on the outer husk? Hatch says copy drivers work “anywhere and everywhere.” Manheimer offers a useful paradigm, “Usu-ally, you want to start on the outer, repeat in the letter, touch on it in the brochure and hammer away again at it on the order card. This is not a subtle business, for the most part. You want to bang them over the head.”

Lewis reveals what the most recent tests with his copy show. “They show the overline to be the most powerful driver, with the postscript next. Careful with envelope copy. If the recipient concludes, ‘I’ve seen this before,’ your brilliant message winds up in the circular file. Consider using, in a font such as American Typewriter, the opening of the letter as envelope copy. Be sure to leave the words hanging — no complete thoughts or sentences. And, of course, start the actual letter, after the overline, with those words.”

Get in Their Heads ... and Stay There Until They RespondMethod Marketing. It’s a term that our group president, Peggy Hatch, came up with in the 1990s, and it was the title of direct marketing guru (and her husband) Denny


Hatch’s 1999 book. Its subhead-”How to make a fortune by getting inside the heads of your customers”-said it all. In “Method Marketing,” he tells the stories of several method marketers who “got inside the heads and under the skin of the target audi-ence and created such persuasive messages that people sent in their money, and businesses were created. “What businesses? We’re talking such significant ones as Covenant House, Boardroom, J. Peterman Co. and Agora Publishing.

As a result, Denny Hatch encourages copywriters to read “An Actor Prepares” by Constantin Stanislavski, the famed theater director, who believed that “only by thoroughly understanding how the human mind works-what causes the emotions of exclusivity, flattery, fear, greed, guilt, anger, salvation-can an actor actually get inside the head of the character in a play and become that person ... in the case of the theater, you want them to believe you; in the case of marketing, you want them not only to believe you, but to go one step further and take action.”

Of course, the one major difference between theatergoers watching a stage play and prospects opening a direct mail package is that the latter is a far less captive audience. The actor has time to prove himself, and often the audience member WANTS to like the performance. In direct mail, the situation is almost reversed: There is limited time to prove the worthiness of the package, and most prospects would rather find a reason to recycle it rather than read it. So it falls on you to give them a reason, or several reasons, to read it and then act upon it-and, at the very least, set it aside for later.

“It is imperative to keep the reader’s eye moving with all the design and copy arrows in your quiver,” recommends Denny Hatch. That doesn’t mean putting together a slick design that appears museum-worthy. Rather, sometimes the opposite is required. “Neat-ness rejects involvement,” said copywriter

Lew Smith, former Wunderman creative director. “Ugly works,” proclaimed renowned direct marketer Bob Hacker.

“You have to keep the reader interested, all the while moving the eye around the various pieces and onto the next piece and, ultimately, to the order mechanism,” advises Denny Hatch. “Nothing moves the football farther down field than great creative,” agrees Josh Manheimer, copywriter and president of J.C. Manheimer & Co, in Norwich, Vt.

Indeed, to go further with that analogy, the sole goal of the copywriter with the

Should copy drivers be confined to the letter, or do they belong in other elements as well? Hatch says copy drivers work ‘anywhere and everywhere.’


mail piece is “to keep the drive alive,” rather than see the prospect punt that mail-ing into the recycle bin. But because the prospect does not sit around waiting for mail to arrive, but rather is usually “interrupted” by its arrival, a more accurate way to describe the reading of the mail piece is “sustaining the interruption.”

As quoted in Denny Hatch’s “2,239 Tested Secrets for Direct Marketing Suc-cess,” Smith expounds on the interruption theory: “Your effort must interrupt and keep on interrupting until some definite action is taken. Psychologists have found that we-all of us-walk around carrying on endless conversations with ourselves ... if the marketing effort is dull-if it does not interrupt and keep on interrupting-the interruption is interrupted and we resume the conversation with ourselves. The marketer has lost money. Once the proposition is laid aside, chances are very high that no action will be taken.”

The obvious question that arises from the interruption theory is: Are not emotion-al appeals the greatest way to interrupt a prospect and perhaps sustain that inter-ruption? Denny Hatch responded to that question with one of Malcolm Decker’s great quotes: “As a sometime angler, I remember a fishing trip to Maine when we used dry flies with barbless hooks. Unless you kept up the tension all the way to the net, you lost the trout. Try it. You should feel the same sort of tension when you write and when you read a letter. If not ... reel in the slack.”

Cue Up Some Great CopyCreating such effective tension depends on the quality of your copy, and the copy “arrows” may include the following “most powerful words in the English language,” according to Goodman Ace-one of the most respected American hu-morists in the 20th century, mostly as a radio and TV writer-and listed in “2,239 Tested Secrets for Direct Marketing Success”: “you- save- money- easy- guaran-tee- health- results- new- love- discovery- proven- safety.”

“These words may help you gain access to those treasured minds of the prospects-and make those copy drivers come to life. Speaking of words that truly give you access to prospects and make them sit up and pay attention, Denny Hatch quotes famed copy-writer Richard Armstrong: “The most important word in direct mail copy (aside from ‘free,’ of course) is not ‘you,’ as many of the textbooks would have it, but ‘I.’

“What makes a letter seem personal is not seeing your own name printed dozens of times across the page or even being battered to death with a never-ending at-tack of yous. It is, rather, the sense you get of being in the presence of the writer-that a real person sat down and wrote you a real letter. A heavily computerized letter, by contrast, seems less personal.


“Ironically, it is sometimes more difficult for professional copywriters to write this kind of copy than it is for our clients ... Often, it is the entrepreneurs and activists themselves ... who have the gift for putting their persuasive personalities on the printed page,” describes Armstrong.

Of course, no matter how much personality is exposed on the page, there is a question that all prospects will ask, and there better be a good answer. As Hacker says, “The prospect doesn’t give a damn about you, your company or your prod-uct. All that matters is, ‘What will it do for me?’”

In other words, no matter how worthy the product or cause that you’re writing about, and no matter how well you’re doing in showing how worthy it is to pros-pects, you also must give them an answer to what their participation will mean. And not just any answer, a great one that the prospect wants to hear-an answer

that even charms the prospect.

Keeping that in mind, legendary ad man David Ogilvy paid attention to research that showed that people don’t buy from bad-mannered advertise-ments. Denny Hatch, in “2,239 Tested Secrets for

Direct Marketing Success,” mentions Ogilvy’s recommendation to try to charm the consumer into buying your product, but without your advertisements becoming overly cute or comic. “People don’t buy from clowns,” he famously said.

Satisfy Their Deep Psychological NeedsTo charm without becoming the clown, you must tell the truth. That is what pros-pects are looking for, and they can smell it when you don’t.

“Just as a method actor has to discover the ‘psychological truth’ of the scene and make it come alive for the audience, the copywriter has to discover the core ‘truth’ of the selling proposition and make it shine in the letter, email, web copy, whatever,” declares Ivan Levison, a direct response copywriter based in Green-brae, Calif. and author of our monthly Online Article Exclusive.

Levison admits that sometimes it can be a struggle for the copywriter to figure out what this truth is exactly. He gives an example of a direct mail package for the Atlanta Golf Classic that he wrote years ago. “I kept writing glowing prose about the great golf that the reader would see at the Classic, but I just didn’t feel that I was connecting. I hadn’t found the ‘hot button,’ the psychological truth that would get big companies to buy a lot of tickets.”

Your effort must interrupt and keep on interrupting until some definite action is taken.


Then he realized that the Atlanta Golf Classic was offering corporate attendees a lot more than golf. It was giving companies the chance to build relationships with valued clients by inviting them out for the day. “This was a chance for executives to kick back and get away from the office, have a few drinks and make some deals. This human dimension, not merely the golf, is what had to be massaged in the let-ter. The light bulb lit up, and I knew I was onto something,” recalls Levison.

He ended the long letter in the package, designed to sell tickets to the event, with this:

On a personal note, let me add that the BellSouth Atlanta Classic is a truly mag-nificent sporting event that I know you, your clients, and customers will enjoy tremendously.

If you want to have a fabulous time, while you create or strengthen important business relationships, I urge you to pick up tickets while they’re still available.The dogwood will be in bloom. The weather will be beautiful. These are the days you always said you owed yourself!

Indeed, provoking a productive emotional response is key. “2,239 Test Secrets for Direct Marketing Success” mentions the well-known copywriter Jack Max-son’s tenet, “We make buying decisions on the basis of reason-fire extinguishers, vacuum cleaners, smoke alarms, toothbrushes. But a very large percentage of our choices (probably well over half) are based on our emotions. We can buy quality cars for $13,000 or less, but a sizable number of us pop for models at $25,000 and more. Why? Emotion over reason. Almost everything we use or own makes some kind of statement about us.”

Think about that: The magazine you read, where you travel, what charity you give to, even what insurance company you are with may have, at their essence, been emotional decisions. To that end, Levison concludes that “enumerating ben-efits is a big part of the copywriter’s job. But we must always remember that the satisfaction of deeper psychological needs is what often really makes the sale!”

Ethan Boldt is the Chief Content Officer for Direct Marketing IQ, the home for direct marketing research. He can be reached at [email protected]


Every professional manager in direct marketing knows there are only two sacrosanct rules: Rule No. 1, test everything; Rule No. 2, see Rule No. 1. The raw data from these crucial tests are closely guarded by the managers who plan and conduct them, pay the costs, and analyze the results.

However, the general direction of the results frequently is shared with copywrit-ers and designers, both freelance and in-house, as dos and don’ts to guide them in creating test packages. Inevitably, these guides show up out of context on the vast direct mail grapevine as “rules.”

But the grapevine is not a reliable source, even if it includes hard numbers. Because someone else’s rules for creating, testing and evaluating successful direct mail are not your rules unless you validate them through testing and, thereby, make them your own. Buttoned-up managers also retest their rules periodically to make certain they’re still valid.

The results of your tests, both positive and negative, are right up there with your customer list as the two most valuable assets of your business. (Significantly, many businesses call their book of test results “The Bible.”) Testing everything deemed to be “test-worthy,” therefore, may be the most important work in direct marketing.

I started out on the management side some 40 years ago at Famous Schools and got acquainted with the bricks and mortar of testing before the advent of chi-square analysis: A “reliable” winner in tests of 10,000 or more pieces of mail, or A/B splits of national magazines, had to pull more orders than double the square root of the “loser.” Thus, 121 was deemed to be a reliable winner over 100 in an A/B split of 10,000 pieces. As consistency was found in winning performances, “rules” sprang up. We shared our rules with Wunderman, Rapp & Collins, and our other agencies, and they shared theirs with us.

When I switched to the creative side, I met Dick Benson. He was a consultant to many top publishers and, at the same time, a direct marketing entrepreneur. He had a lot of the gruff, but also kindly old-fashioned schoolteacher in him, the kind who sets rules. He ultimately would become publisher of the largest circula-tion newsletter in America.

Every direct marketing entrepreneur, manager, copywriter and consultant — even before the days of Claude Hopkins, J.K. Lasser, John Caples and Max Sackheim

by Mal Decker

New Tricks for Old Rules

CHAPTER 4


— had their own rules, “secrets” or “discovered truths.” Benson tested, modified and codified those rules that applied specifically to direct mail, especially in pub-lishing, making them his own, and added others that came out of his client work and newsletter business. The result is Benson’s “Rules of Thumb,” which he published in “Secrets of Successful Direct Mail” (NTC Business Books, 1987). He cautioned, “Nothing works all the time, but ignore any of these rules at your own peril.”

The question before us is, are Benson’s rules still valid today? Here are 14 basic rules I selected from Benson’s 31 and presented to 10 managers, copywriters and consultants to evaluate based on their experience. You may want to test those you haven’t already tested. Or, if you haven’t done so in the last 10 years, you may find it highly prudent to retest them.

RULE 1. A credit or bill-me offer will improve results by 50 percent or more.The 50-percent improvement assumes that the control offer is cash with order. Prescott Kelly, publisher of the Children’s Writer newsletter and self-improve-ment books, says 50 percent is within reach in a preexisting relationship. Copy-writer Peggy Greenawalt sees bill-me and credit card packages as important, “but [publication] clients now insist on higher net response and up-front cash using voucher packages.”

Consultant Kurt Medina says, “Any one-step offer that doesn’t include a credit offer will reduce results by 50 percent.” And Bryan Judge, president of a home-study school, says that “50 percent is probably modest for high-priced products or services on a payment plan, and the higher the price, the more margin it gener-ates.” Brian Kurtz, executive vice president of publisher Boardroom Inc., adds, “The longer the payment plan, the more the dollars.”

Decker’s Take: “Bill me” may apply more specifically to a low-cost, multiple-unit impulse sale, such as a periodical subscription, but it also appears likely that the particular form of credit, debit or deferred payment that tests strongest against cash, especially in this economic climate, will validate Benson’s rule.

RULE 2. Tokens and stickers always improve results.Mark E. Johnson surveyed his 26 years of copywriting and found, “as a rule of thumb, they’re worth about a 10 percent lift.” When copywriter Jay van Wa-genen’s token package for a book offer won by 26 percent, it made her “a true believer in stickers and touch-me doodads — the glitzier, the better.” Peel-off stickers also work for Kelly in subscription and book offers, and they increased


inquiries for one of Judge’s home-study programs by 22 percent. He says, “Involvement devices also increase the quality of our inquiries.”

Medina generally reserves these devices for “less important” items. But copy-writer Ken Schneider says “99 percent of my controls use stickers. Every other truck in Texas sports a B.A.S.S. decal because B.A.S.S. never mails without one. I can’t think of an instance where tokens, stickers, decals or surveys have de-pressed results.”

Greenawalt may represent many other publication copywriters when she says she uses devices but doesn’t know any publisher who actually tests them. But consultant Grant Johnson, whose clients actually do test devices, has found few winners in the last three years.

Decker’s Take: My experience with tokens and stickers has been almost entirely positive, so my advice is, follow the rule but keep on innovating and testing.

Wielding the pow-erful sticker trick,

here a prospect has two options and stickers to match

her choice for AAA auto insurance.


RULE 3. You can never sell two things at once.“Never” is a long time, maybe longer than “always,” but I have never even seen a top-drawer package selling two different, unrelated items that beat a top-drawer package selling only one. No one on my “panel” has, either.

Decker’s Take: There are many better things to test.

RULE 4. Self-mailers almost never work.“That may have been true in 1987,” says copywriter Tom Gillett, “but it’s cer-tainly not true today if you include magalogs, double and triple postcards, and everything else not mailed in an envelope.” Mark E. Johnson agrees, and adds, “A well-executed self-mailer is one of the highest percentage tests any mailer can undertake.”

Self-mailers in every format have burgeoned, according to research by the Who’s Mailing What! Archive, to a staggering 47 percent of all mail in 2011.

Grant Johnson says that while self-mailers don’t work for him in one-step pro-grams, they nearly double response in two-step propositions, beating #10, #12 and 6˝ x 9˝ formats. Schneider says self-mailers, except for double postcards, have never worked for him.

But Medina finds that self-mailers almost always produce better cost per re-sponse than envelope mailings because improved formats since 1987 make them look more like letters.

Decker’s Take: Self-mailers, in various formats, represent essential testing.

RULE 5. Installment payments for a $15-and-up item increases results by 15 percent.While $15 might be upped to recognize today’s depreciated dollar, Kurtz’s tests and retests support the principle that multiple small payments beat one big pay-ment — and produce more profit to boot. Another way the consumer can reduce the size of payments, notes Medina, is through the virtual infinity of credit card installment arrangements.

Johnson says three payments of $8.97 outpulls a flat $24.95 option and produces more profit. He adds, “Price should be tested more often than any other single element.” Judge, whose least expensive program is $395, says he’d be out of business without installments. He also has found that the longer the stretch-out, especially with higher priced products, and the larger the number of credit and


debit options, the better the results. Kelly says installments are the key to his survival as a publisher.

Decker’s Take: This is still a solid rule, in principle, and worth testing and retesting.

RULE 6. Adding to a package is more likely to pay out than cutting.Benson preferred to test whole packages to make a breakthrough, rather than test-ing increments; and he generally tested the packages exactly as written. Follow-ing a successful package test, he tested additions to strengthen results.

Judge has had notable successes in adding full color, inserts, testimonials and other elements in Standard mail; he also has made successful additions to First Class packages while staying within the “winning” postage level, or lightening the package to get it under the next level. Every other panelist, including Kelly, would add rather than subtract, although he cites two winning jumbos, one con-sumer and one business, that lost to 6˝ x 9˝ versions.

Decker’s Take: Benson’s rule still holds. Test additions before you test subtractions.

RULE 7. Yes/No option will increase orders.Mark E. Johnson says it works because some people feel obliged to RSVP. But Gillett finds that it doesn’t, or doesn’t always, increase orders. “Still true for im-pulse orders,” says Medina, “not for offers of value.” While everyone agrees that Yes/No (and Yes/No/Maybe) has worked in the past, no one on this panel is using it today.

Kurtz says, “We’ve tested it, and while it worked in the glory days of sweep-stakes when ‘Noss’ were useful names, it’s irrelevant today. On the other hand, I can clearly hear Benson the contrarian saying, ‘If it worked once and nobody’s using it now, test it.’” Greenawalt agrees: “It got overdone and tired, but it’s worth testing again.”

Decker’s Take: This rule is at least of questionable validity today, but if you test — and you’re paying the return postage — be sure to include the BRE cost of the No’s.


To help increase subscriptions, DogWatch covers all of its bases with three effective reply stickers on the reply device.

Rule 8. Dollar for dollar, premiums work far better than cash discounts.Everyone on my panel has a preference for premiums over cash discounts. Copy-writer Peggy Greenawalt says “cash discounts cheapen perceived value”; fellow copywriter Mark E. Johnson points out that “a $5 cash discount always costs you $5,” while a premium with a perceived value well above $5 often can be pro-duced for $1.

Bryan Judge, president of a home-study school, likes premiums because “you can sell harder against them.” Consultant Grant Johnson says premiums work because “people prefer tangibles.”

Decker’s Take: Keep on looking for and testing new premiums.

Rule 9. Two premiums are frequently better than one. All 11 of us agree with the “frequently” conditional, although Greenawalt is hesitant because “premiums can be distracting,” and consultant Kurt Medina finds two or more premiums work better with impulse and low-price offers than they do at the higher end. But Judge uses two premiums in his high-priced, home-study course offers, and Mark E. Johnson says three are better than two, five are better than three, and 10 are better than five. Speigel catalog, in its heyday, kept on testing and adding premiums of inexpensive merchandise until it reached five.

Brian Kurtz, executive vice president of publisher Boardroom Inc., is a flat-out premium fan. One of his all-time favorites is 50 premiums (50 special one-page reports) bound to-gether as a 50-page volume. Incidentally, Benson’s tests proved, “Desirability is the key element of a premium. The relationship of the premium to the product isn’t important.” Two of his favorites were calculators and watches for unrelated publishing offers.


Kurtz has had success with an offer of free gasoline for Boardroom, yet editorial premiums seem to work best for him, as they do for copywriter Ken Schneider and Judge. And Mark E. Johnson, unlike Benson, his late mentor, emphasizes “the need to maintain a logical connection between the premiums and the product if you want a good, long-term customer.”

Decker’s Take: The discipline of testing premiums, in number as well as variety, can pay off handsomely.

Rule 10. Long copy is better than short copy.Everyone agrees with this rule, at least under some conditions. Medina finds that long copy can hurt response in generating inquiries for two-step mailings but helps in one-step selling. Copywriter Tom Gillett says long copy isn’t always bet-ter, although he recognizes that longer magalogs seem to work better than shorter ones, and the long-copy Economist package, among other classics, is a perennial winner.

Otherwise, if Benson had said that long copy in letters is better than short copy, there might be full agreement. Kurtz says the rule should be rewritten as “Great long copy beats great short copy.” Mark E. Johnson agrees with Benson, “pro-vided the copy is packed with compelling benefits.” Judge has achieved dramatic increases in inquiries for his three-step proposition by turning a four-page letter plus brochure into a six-page, full-color letter with no brochure: longer letter but fewer words in the total package. However, every test he’s made of adding in-structors with 100-word biographies to his fulfillment brochure (step two, now 32 pages and 15,000 words) has been successful.

I’ve written and tested hundreds of letters, maybe more than 1,000, and long let-ter copy always beats shorter copy on response, but not always on cost. I remem-ber one six-page letter that beat a four-pager on pull but lost narrowly on cost. Two sides of one page beats one side of one page, slam dunk. Copy on all four pages of a booklet letter format beats three unless you can get all the sell you need on three, in reasonable comfort. Then you have magalogs, double and triple postcards, and other formats.

Decker’s Take: My overall experience is that longer copy within any given format works better than shorter copy — except vouchers and order cards, which should be lean, pithy and crystal clear. My four-page booklet letter for The Wall Street Journal beat the 29-year, one-page, two-side control by 24 percent, despite the added costs of paper, printing and full color. As David Ogilvy said, “the more you tell, the more you sell” — as long as you know how to sell. Test it!


Rule 11. Personalized letters work better to house lists than to cold lists.Invariably, a personalized letter to someone with whom you’ve had a relationship of any kind — including a response to an inquiry — works better, costs more, but pays out. That prior relationship gives you the “right” to address him/her by name. A personalized letter to a stranger is actually impersonal (How did they get my name?) Everyone was in the boat on this rule with the exception of Grant Johnson, who agrees, in general, but has tested and insists “the opposite is true with nonprofit membership mailings.”

Decker’s Take: If there’s any truth in the old saw, that’s the exception that proves the rule. Use personalization if you’ve had any prior relationship, but don’t expect it to work wonders with those who don’t know your client from Adam.

Rule 12. Lists are the most important factor in the success of direct mail.Total agreement, yet Benson said, “Lists are the most overlooked area of direct mail. You can never spend too much time on lists.”

Decker’s Take: True then, true now. All that work on the front end gathering great lists will garner better response on the back end.

Rule 13. The offer is the second most important ingredient of direct mail.Again, total agreement. But no one offered a method for testing either this dictate or the prior one.

Decker’s Take: Also true then, true now. A carefully crafted and positioned offer can make or break your direct mail.

Rule 14. The jury is in: FREE is a magic word.Everyone accepts this pronouncement as a truism. Only Prescott Kelly, publisher of the Children’s Writer newsletter and self-improvement books, has actually tested it against other alternatives, including “complimentary,” to solve the “free” conflict when offering a 12-month subscription. (The comp copy is free if you decide not to subscribe — otherwise, you pay for it as one of 12 issues.) He now offers 13 issues, you pay for 12, and the comp is free either way because, as he expected, “free” won handily.

Decker’s Take: Still holds true. Use the word “free” and get a prospect’s atten-tion, immediately.

All in all, Benson comes out looking very good after 25 years of dramatic change in the direct marketing business. My panel of colleagues — all of us with at least


25 years in the business — totally or largely agreed with 12 of his 14 rules, and only disagreed with two.

Malcolm Decker is an award-winning copywriter/designer/creative consultant in Greenwich, Conn., and vice president and creative director of Writer’s Insti-tute Inc., a publisher of home-study courses and related publications. He can be reached at (203) 622-1211.


Several years ago, I agreed to interview for the job of creative director with a major New York direct marketing agency. I didn’t want the job for a variety of reasons, but my friend and mentor, Jerry Reitman, asked me to go through with the interview. So I flew into New York for lunch with

the president of the company. He began his conversations with a provocative question: “What’s your philosophy about direct marketing?”

The question was a little too broad for an intelligent answer, so I gently lobbed the ball back over the net to him. “That’s a great question,” I responded. “But before I answer, I’d love to know what your philosophy is.” He spoke eloquently for 40 minutes, then glanced at his watch, shook my hand and told me he had an important meeting back at the office.

He later got back to Jerry, who got back to me with the following comment: “You made quite an impression! He loved talking direct marketing with you, and he thinks you’re one of the few people who really understands it. The job is yours, if you want it.” As I recall, my only contribution to the conversation was, “Uh huh,” and, “Can you please pass the rolls?”

Questions are not only a powerful conversational tool, but also an essential part of any direct marketing program. And that’s what I want to share with you in this article.

Whenever people get your direct mail package, or an email from you, chances are they are going to have some questions. They may not know how your benefits will apply to their specific situations. They may be confused about how to put your product to use. They may not fully understand your offer.

Why Would They Have Questions?1. Your message wasn’t clear. Things that are obvious to you may not be to your prospects. You know more about your product and its benefits than anyone-so you may have neglected to fully explain it.

2. You simply didn’t communicate it fast enough. Your copywriters spend hours fine-tuning every paragraph of your letter or email, with nuanced meanings that only you and they can fully appreciate. But your prospects usually don’t have the time to study your message, and they may miss

by Alan Rosenspan

A Question of Strategy

CHAPTER 5


it completely. Adding a Q-and-A gives you an easy way to highlight your benefits and make sure prospects read them.

3. You may have forgotten something. Or you may not have space for it. When you are doing email, it’s absolutely essential to keep things short and sim-ple. You may not be able to fully explain your benefits or offer.

Directing people to a Q-and-A page is an excellent way to keep your emails short yet give interested prospects a way to learn more.

The best way to address these issues is to have a Q-and-A as part of your direct mail package-just the way most websites have a FAQ section, with frequently asked questions and answers.

The insurance company California Casualty tackles some common questions from prospective customers in a tidy brochure in their current control package.

Include a Q-and-A in Every Direct Mail Package You WriteWhy? It’s simple: I’ve found it always increases response. And my last question is always the same-whether I’m writing about health insurance, collectible coins, coffee makers, travel or anything else. (I’ll share it with you in a moment.)

So let me answer a few questions that you might have about this technique:

Q: Why are Q-and-A’s so effective?A: They force you to put yourself in the minds of prospects and address any pos-

sible objections they may have. They also allow you to present your informa-tion in little, easy-to-digest “nuggets”-rather than long paragraphs of prose. (Ever wonder why USA Today is so popular?)


Q: How do I know what questions to use?A: One way is to ask your telemarketers or salespeople. They can tell you what

questions people ask when they call in-and which are the most important ones to answer.

Q: Where should I put the Q-and-A in the package?A: I usually recommend putting it on the back of the letter, which some direct

marketers still leave blank (what a waste of space!). For an email, I recom-mend having the prospect click to a Q-and-A page.

Q: What kinds of questions work best?A: The questions that have worked well for me include: “What are the key ben-

efits of this product?”; “Why is it important for me to respond now?”; and “What do I get when I respond?”

Q: What kinds of questions to avoid?A: The questions I would avoid are those that create more questions. Remember

that the goal of the Q-and-A is not to fully inform your prospects-it’s to get them to respond, which is why the sequence of the questions is so important. The order in which you present them can have an important impact on re-sponse.

Q: Should the questions be arranged in any particular way?A: Absolutely, and that brings me to my next point.

The Psychology of the Q-and-AIdeally, you want to use the Q-and-A to mirror the decision-making or buying process. You start out with questions and answers that get people interested in your product and service and the benefits. You continue with questions and an-swers that may address some of their objections-the last one of which could be:

Q: What if I’m not 100 percent satisfied?A: This, of course, is a great way to highlight your guarantee and make every

assurance that prospects have nothing to lose by responding. Your last ques-tion should be what I call “The Q-and-A Segue,” which is the most important question of all-and the one that I always use in every package.

Q: Sounds great. What do I do now?A: This question does two things: It plants a positive notion in the prospect’s

mind-”let’s do this!”-and it sets up my last answer, which tells prospects ex-actly what I want them


to do. For example: “Simply call 1-800-000-0000 or send in the reply card before March 1, 2009. Or visit www.yourproduct.com.”

The Strategic Use of QuestionsMoving on from the Q-and-A, questions play another important role in direct marketing. They help your prospects identify their needs, so they will be inter-ested in your solution. Let me give you an example:

A few years ago, we relaunched the American Express Attorney Access Plan. This was an innovative service that enabled you to consult with a licensed attor-ney for a small monthly fee.

But it’s a tough sell-unless you happen to need an attorney when you receive the package. So I used questions in three different ways.

First, I put a question on the outer envelope. It read, “Do you have a legal ques-tion?” I always have found that provocative questions make for great outer enve-lope teasers.

Next, I used questions on the first three panels of the brochure. They were:• “You have a big problem with a small contractor. What can you do?”• “You’d like a simple will to protect you and your family. Where can you turn?”• “ You want to talk to a licensed attorney, but you don’t want to spend a

fortune. Who can you call?”

Once you opened the panels, the product was revealed. The reason I asked the questions first is I wanted prospects to nod their heads and say, “Yes, that’s my question,” before I introduced the product to them.

Finally, I realized that most people probably wouldn’t have an immediate use for the product. So I included a lift note that asked this question: “Don’t think you need an attorney?” Inside I wrote, “You may be right. However, with the increas-ing cost of legal services and the rising number of lawsuits, it makes sense to protect you and your family with this plan.”

This package crushed the previous control. And I applied the same principle to my own promotional materials. I ask three questions:

1. “Are your response rates going down, and you know you could be doing better?”2. “ Did your agency show you only two or three ideas, and you think you’ve

seen one of them before?”3. “Is your next direct mail project important to you, as well as your company?”


Only then — once you’ve identified your needs — do I talk about my company and what it can do for you.

Alan Rosenspan is president of Alan Rosenspan & Associates, a direct market-ing creative and consulting firm based in Newton, Mass. He and his teams have won more than 100 awards for creativity and results, including 20 DMA ECHO Awards. He can be reached at [email protected].


Coca-Cola has kept its soft-drink recipe a secret for more than 100 years. It was originally a public relations strategy, which helped Coca-Cola stand out of the pack of dozens of cola drinks and eventually dominate the market. Today, with revenues greater than many of the countries it

markets in, Coca-Cola sells more than $46 billion worth of beverages every year.

According to Wikipedia, the few employees who know the recipe must fly on separate planes when traveling and cannot be left alone with strangers while they are together. As recently as 2006, three people were arrested who were trying to sell the secret recipe for Coca-Cola to the company’s arch-rival, Pepsi, for $2 million. Pepsi was decent enough to decline and called in the FBI.

KFC also has kept its recipe a secret since the 1930s. The Colonel-Harland Sanders-carried the secret formula for Kentucky Fried Chicken in his head and the mixture of 11 herbs and spices in his car. Today, the recipe is locked away in a safe in Louisville, Ky. Only a handful of people know that multi-million dollar recipe, and each is obligated to strict confidentiality by contract.

Now at this point, you may be wondering: What the heck does direct marketing have to do with soft drinks and fried chicken?

There are few secrets in direct marketing. And I have always been amazed at how much information the great direct marketing professionals were willing to share with others-what worked, what didn’t work and why.

While the secret recipe for Coca-Cola remains unknown, there are few secrets in direct marketing. Rather, the trick is to think like a great direct marketer.

by Alan Rosenspan

Think Like a Direct Marketer

CHAPTER 6


Many years ago, when I was first hired at Ogilvy & Mather, the executive crea-tive director said, “We’re offering you a job as a junior copywriter ... but you can’t write well.”

I was astonished. “If I can’t write,” I stammered, “why hire me as a writer?”

“Because you can think,” she answered. “We can always teach you to write.”

Now whether or not they succeeded is still an open issue, but one of the things I’m going to attempt to do in this chapter is not just share my ideas or techniques with you, but also the thinking behind them. When something worked, I’ll share it with you. But so you won’t make the same mistakes that I have, I’ll also share when I fell flat on my face.

My intention is to get you thinking like a direct marketer, which is not as easy as it sounds.

Let me give you three examples.

The Scatological Self-MailerI recently spent a day with a leading company that helps students prepare for their college and graduate school tests. It used a self-mailer with a photograph of a No. 2 pencil on it. The headline read, “Does the SAT or ACT Scare the No. 2 Out of You?”

It’s admittedly a funny and creative headline, and the firm markets to college kids, but there’s a problem. Many people feel these are the most important tests of their lives!

Think back to the days when you were taking these tests. It may have been the SATs, the LSATs for law school or even the MCATs for medical school. You may have been trying to get into a specific school. You were competing with hun-dreds, if not thousands, of other students. Your SAT or ACT scores were vitally important to you. And so, this headline was remarkably off the mark.

Our new creative wasn’t as creative, but it was much more appropriate to the mar-ket. It read, “What’s the most important test you’ll take in the next four years?”

It’s so easy to be seduced by funny headlines and clever approaches. But you have to ask yourself: How do my prospects and customers feel about it? What message would resonate most with them?


That’s thinking like a direct marketer.

The Guide That Got You NowhereI do a lot of direct marketing for financial services companies these days, but I cut my teeth on Invesco Funds. When I started working with Invesco, I was asked to do a lead generation piece on sector funds, which are mutual funds that concentrate on only one area of the economy-for example, telecommunications companies.

I knew nothing about sector funds at the time, but I welcomed the opportunity to learn more about them. I did about a month of research in five days and wrote a comprehensive six-panel brochure on sector funds. It included the history of sec-tor funds, their growth, our philosophy about choosing sector funds and every-thing else I had learned. The brochure answered every question you could possi-bly have and provided a wealth of specific information.

It failed miserably.

Why? Remember I said it was a lead generation piece?

After someone waded through all my copy about sector funds, he knew just about all there was to know. He could choose to invest or not. But the very last thing he needed was our offer: a free “Guide to Sector Funds.”

Lead generation, whether in direct mail; email; or even radio, print and TV, must give people just enough information to get them to move forward ... but not enough to allow them to make a decision. I guess I just hadn’t thought it out.

The Survey StrategyOne of the most successful techniques in direct marketing is a survey. It regularly pulls 10 percent to 20 percent response and sometimes much higher. When sent to customers, it gives them the feeling that you truly care about their opinions and improves retention. When sent to prospects, it involves them-and may help them understand that they really do have a need for your product or service.

Let me give you two examples:

1. I spent time with Derek Glass, who does fundraising work in Australia and New Zealand. He showed me a recent package for a nonprofit called See-ing Eye Dogs of Australia. He added a short survey to the donation card, with each question reinforcing the need to donate. He included relationship-


building questions, such as, “Do you own a dog?” and, “If yes, what is his or her name?”

The package performed five times better than the previous control.

2. I used the survey technique with one of my for-profit clients last year. The SCOOTER Store is a Texas-based company that sells power chairs and scooters for people with mobility problems. We did a mailing for it that of-fered a “Free Mobility Test.” Inside the package was an insert with seven questions to determine whether or not you might benefit from a power chair or scooter.

I used this technique because some people are reluctant to admit they actually need assistance-and these questions made them realize that they did.

It’s a good example of thinking like a direct marketer and putting yourself into the mind-set of your prospects and customers. The questions described some of the problems you may encounter with limited mobility, such as ,”Are you usually exhausted at the end of the day?”

And the copy said, “If you answered, ‘yes’ to more than three of these questions, please call us immediately.”

The final question was designed to plant a positive action in their minds. It was, “Would you like to have more energy to spend time with family and friends?” The package lifted response dramatically over the long-standing control and was entered into the 2008 ECHO Awards.

Thinking like a direct marketer makes me think of the best way to teach children:

“Tell me, and I’ll forget.Show me, and I’ll remember.Involve me, and I’ll understand.And I’ll respond.”

Alan Rosenspan is president of Alan Rosenspan & Associates, a direct market-ing creative and consulting firm based in Newton, Mass. He and his teams have won more than 100 awards for creativity and results, including 20 DMA ECHO Awards. He can be reached at [email protected].


What makes direct mail work? Some argue that the answers lie entirely with tactics — that one killer word on an envelope will make it pull response, while a variation on that word may cause failure. Perhaps, but after 40 years of working with and learning

from an army of smart professionals, I know there are theories that explain direct mail success, too.

1. Understand That It’s All About ConnectingDirect response works when there’s an unfettered connection with the prospect. By “unfettered,” I mean that no big idea (based on the marketer’s conception of the product), or small, hackneyed direct mail tactic, blocks the synapses.

The creative team, and especially the copywriter, must get directly inside the head of the prospect, not the head of the agency’s account supervisor or even the head of the client. Guru Denny Hatch calls it method marketing (after method acting, of course). The problem is that most of us think actors get inside the part intuitively — without any work. Not true, just watch the TV program “Inside the Actor’s Studio.”

by Lee Marc Stein

Three Directives for Increasing Response

CHAPTER 7

Become a method copywriter, in which you get

inside the head of the prospect and try to understand

their character.


Whether you’re an actor or copywriter, connecting effectively requires a lot of work. Sure, some of it is thinking it through from the prospect’s point of view: “What’s my motivation for responding or not responding? What do I believe and what can’t I believe about what’s being said? How much do I need to read before I make up my mind?” But there are times when you can’t think it through, be-cause you don’t really understand the character.

In direct marketing, age, income, education and other demographics increasingly are becoming poor proxies for understanding the prospect. Behavior (previous responsive-ness patterns) is a better proxy; attitudes are even better for understanding character.

Let’s get back to those “birds of a fetter” with an example.

Case: A nationally known company markets its own branded credit card to its base of buyers. An agency is brought in to create a package to go against the control.

The agency spots something from the get-go: The control package touts — and, in fact, devotes most of the brochure to — the travel reward component of the card’s benefits. The problems are two-fold: One, this reward program is actually inferior to most of the other card programs out there; and, two, by pushing the travel rewards, the true and unique benefits of this card are subjugated. The client urges the agency to put more emphasis on the travel rewards, but the agency wins out.

Result: Despite the fact that most of the agency’s original copy about other ben-efits of the card was rewritten in committee, the package still topples the control because the agency removed the fetters and connected with the prospect. The connection: The prospect’s reason for responding was the affinity with the credit card issuer, not the second-rate travel reward program.

2. Get Heads Nodding ImmediatelyThere’s a marvelous, but unheralded volume by Siegfried Vogele called “Hand-book of Direct Mail.” Published in 1969 and no longer in print, it is based on research with direct mail recipients. The subtitle — “The Dialogue Method of Written Sales Communication” — sums up the essential message of the book: “You must engage the reader immediately in a dialogue, and at every possible turn, get the prospect to say ‘yes’ or at least nod approval.”

Vogele says: “We came across silent dialogue during our research. This is where someone ‘speaks’ to the printed paper. Recipients in all target groups conduct


silent dialogue with letters, reply cards, inserts and partly, too, with the envelope. Some of these dialogues last only a few seconds, others much longer.”

It would seem that you want the dialogue to continue until the prospect has not only made a decision to respond, but actually goes through with it.

All this makes sense, but there’s a problem. In a world in which attention spans are measured in nanoseconds, can you trust readers to engage in dialogue on their own? I think not; I think that in many market segments and for many products, customers and prospects need help.

How can you get readers engaged and saying or nodding “yes”? It starts with getting the prospect/customer to say, “Hey, that’s me!” or, “I’m in that very situa-tion!” You can do that in a number of different ways in the package.

Lift letters are ideal for this purpose; it’s easy to do the outside panel in the pros-pect’s voice. But also consider starting the dialogue on the carrier with handwrit-ten glosses in the prospect’s voice. In other words, use a strong teaser in your voice, then have the prospect comment on the teaser. You also can put a sticky note on the letter. The sticky is personalized with the prospect’s name, so the handwriting reflects his/her thinking.

Recommendation: Actually voice prospects’ questions, concerns and objec-tions. This is not a strategy for the squeamish. It could backfire terribly if you are wrong about the prospect’s major concerns, or off-base about how the prospect poses questions or doubts. Focus groups with both buyers and non-buyers can be of immense help, and so can listening in on phone calls from prospects to your client’s customer service team. Before you begin the creative, try to construct a prospect “mind map.” This shows what decisions the prospect makes about par-ticular product/service categories, what factors influence those decisions and how the mind jumps from one branch of the decision tree to another.

3. Accentuate the Positive, But Don’t Forego the NegativeThere are almost as many direct response marketers against using negative appeals and copy as there are against using humor. It wasn’t always that way. In the ‘70s and ‘80s, you’d see a pretty fair number of headlines, envelope teasers and Johnson boxes with lines like:

Don’t be a victim of _____ Stop paying through the nose for _____ Is your career over at age 45?


Essentially, a negative approach involves posing a problem for the prospect and then solving it via the product/service. A positive approach suppresses the prob-lem and starts with the solution.

What should you do? It’s my theory that most of the people who respond to di-rect marketing efforts are optimists — they truly believe that whatever they buy holds the potential of making their personal or business lives better. Advertising to them must be upbeat, without negatives.

However, you may be missing part of your market with this approach. First, many optimists are not going to understand that they need your product/service viscerally until they feel the pain. A negative approach can do that. Second, pes-simists may respond to direct marketing efforts as well. To get them to respond, you have to show them that you buy into their gloom-and-doom scenarios. They may respond just to validate that nothing can solve their problems.

In print, you have no way of knowing whether the ad is being read by an optimist or pessimist, so you alternate and monitor results. In direct mail, with attitudinal segmentation available, you can mail the positive approach to optimists and the doom-and-gloom approach to pessimists.

Lee Marc Stein is an internationally known direct marketing consultant and copywriter. He has extensive experience in circulation, insurance and financial services, high tech, and B2B marketing.


One of my favorite quotes comes from John D. Rockefeller. It’s on my wall and reminds me to keep planning my work and working my plan. Rockefeller wrote: “I do not think there is any quality so es-sential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It over-

comes almost anything, even nature.”

Over the years, successful direct mailers have learned this lesson well. They know that they can’t mail just once and pray for great results. They have to create multiplemailings that make money over time.

A perfect example: magazine subscription campaigns. As you know from per-sonal experience, these folks just never quit.

It seems as if the day you subscribe, the subscription renewal campaign begins.

Never mind that they’re seemingly decimating forests in the process ... they go on and on, begging, hounding, cajoling, until the 86th letter that says, “OK We give up. You’ll never hear from us again.” (At which point, of course, a lot of the renewals flow in!)

Now, I’m not suggesting that you go to extremes (the way the magazine publish-ers do), but for goodness sakes, don’t throw in the towel after you mail just once!

Why don’t companies keep those cards and letters coming? Because printing costs are high and postage these days is murder. But that shouldn’t stop you from mailing aggressively if you’ve got a well-targeted list and a compelling offer.

If you’re happy with your list, offer and creative, take that mail piece and press repeat!

by Ivan Levison

How Often Should You Mail Prospects?

CHAPTER 8


OK. So you’ve bought into the idea of mailing prospects or customers more than once. How should you go about handling your remailing efforts? Here are four ideas for you to consider:

1. Remail the original package to the same target audience. There’s no reason why you can’t do this. Timing is everything. You never know when your mailing will catch prospects just when they need your product or ser-vice. A simple, cost-effective remailing is well worth trying.

2. If you have the time energy, and resources, you can send a cam-paign of new letters to non-responders.Each letter can stress a unique product or service benefit. The theory is, if one approach doesn’t work, you go back to the prospect with a different pitch. Again, this is a very reasonable way to go.

3. If your offer is good for a limited time only, be sure to play that up. In your final letter you can say things like:

“We will not contact you again about this special offer.”“You must act immediately since this offer will not be extended under any condi-tions.”“Your eligibility for this final offer expires on December 31, 2011.”“This is the last time you will hear from us concerning this special offer. Call 800-123-1234 while you are still eligible!”

4. The last contact with the prospect can be a postcard. It is inexpensive and your “Last Chance!” message is instantly visible. Show a clock ticking. Say: “Time Is Running Out!” Corny? Of course ... but it works!

Ivan Levison is a freelance direct response copywriter who works for companies like Bank of America, Fireman’s Fund, Intel and Microsoft. Levison writes direct mail, emails, and Web copy. For a free subscription to his monthly email newslet-ter for marketers, and a free copy of his report, “101 Ways to Double Your Re-sponse Rates!,” visit www.levison.com.


Alan Rosenspan’s Tips for Mail Frequency

Remail quickly. If you’re planning to do a follow-up mailing, don’t wait longer than three to five days. Otherwise, people will completely forget what they received before. And don’t worry about people who have responded in the meantime. Simply include a sentence that says, “If you have already responded, thank you. If not, here’s another opportunity … ”

Test frequency. Some clients say, “I can’t mail again — I just sent a mailing last month!” Do you remember what you received in the mail last month? Last week? Yesterday? As David Ogilvy said, “You’re not advertising to a standing army. You’re advertis-ing to a passing parade.” People who don’t need you one week might need you the next.


If you rely on direct mail to bring in business, you’ve probably had a bumpy ride the last couple of years. There are signs the economy is starting to re-bound, but it’s still a little scary out there.

I don’t recommend you run and hide as some businesses are doing now, but I do recommend a little caution when mailing.

Just as customers are more prone to avoid risk in these uncertain times, you should try to avoid unnecessary risk in your marketing efforts. This is the perfect time to remind yourself of a few basic principles that drive direct mail marketing.

1. Sell Things People Want In general, direct marketing is not about creating markets but locating existing markets. It’s a business-to-buyer avenue of selling that is streamlined, efficient and profitable — but only when a market wants what you are offering.For example, a few decades ago only hard-core geeks would buy a computer by mail. Computers were neither understood nor wanted by the general public. Now, such purchases are common because a wide market exists.

2. Sell Solutions to Problems, Not Products No one cares about your widgets. What they care about are their own needs and wants. Bob doesn’t want a drill, he wants a hole. Mary doesn’t want a dress, she wants to look thin at the party this Friday. Alice doesn’t want an investment newsletter, she wants to find a great investment that will let her retire at 45. Ted doesn’t want a recipe book, he wants new ways to impress his friends at dinner parties and generate the compliments he thrives on.

3. Appeal to Emotion First, Reason Second Most direct marketers are number-crunch-ing, logical people. It’s easy for us to fall into a cold, left brain, bullet-pointed, 714-reasons-why type of sales pitch. However, people make decisions in the right brain based on emotion. Then they justify that decision with logic. To set up a sale, appeal to emotion first. Then, to close and confirm the sale, use logic.

by Dean Rieck

7 Tips to Boost Response in Today’s Crazy Economy

CHAPTER 9


4. Use Proven Techniques While there is no set of universal techniques for all circumstances, there are a few that are nearly universal. According to Bob Stone, the guru of gurus in direct marketing:

• A yes/no offer usually out-pulls offers without a no option.• A negative-option offer usually out-pulls a positive option offer.• An offer with a time limit usually out-pulls an offer with no time limit.• An offer with a free gift usually out-pulls discount offers, especially when the

gift closely matches your prospect’s self-interest.• Sweepstakes usually increase order volume, especially for impulse items

(though sweepstakes customers will not be loyal).• Benefits out-pull features.• The more involved you can get people, and the more they read, the greater

your chance for success.• Envelope packages usually outpull self-mailers.

5. Value Content Over Form One of the primary reasons advertising fails is that ad creators often get caught up in a creative vision without having anything to say.

One agency has repeatedly sent me mockups of mailers and brochures with tiny blank spaces it wants me to fill in with copy. When I ask about the purpose of the piece or point out that the design should be based on what needs to be communicated, I am gently told to just write something the right length and everything will work out fine.

This is nonsense. Don’t start with a “look,” start with content. Allow your design to develop naturally from your copy.

6. Make Sure You’re Doing Direct Marketing Every direct marketing message includes three basic elements:

1. an offer;2. enough information for immediate acceptance of the offer; and3. a mechanism for responding to the offer.

Without each of these, you are not doing direct marketing but merely using a medium associated with direct marketing.

7. Consider Two-step Sales There are two basic ways to make a sale in direct marketing:

1. the single shot, where you get an immediate order; or2. the two-step, where you generate inquiries and attempt to convert those

inquiries into sales.


If your product is expensive, complex, new, hard-to-understand, or requires a major commitment of some kind, two-step sales may net you more profit in the long run than single shots.

I don’t know if we’ll ever again see the glory of direct mail days gone, but maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe the market forces at work right now will encourage all of us to get back to direct mail basics and remind ourselves how to be more effective and efficient.

Dean Rieck is one of today’s top direct mail copywriters. For a free copy of his white paper, “Getting Response in a Down Economy: 4 Key Principles to Boost Your Di-rect Mail Profits in Today’s Difficult Market,” visit www.DirectCreative.com.


You’ve invested money. You’ve given them a lot of your time. You’ve even shown them love. And you’re just going to let them walk away?I’m talking about lapsed customers, who remain the best prospecting source no matter how many new leads your company may have or

how successful your new acquisition campaign is about to become.

In general, lapsed customer programs are any organized effort by a marketer contacting customers who have not made a purchase or donation within a certain period of time — and most direct mailers should consider them to be a key part of their business.

“I love to reactivate lapsed customers. They’re like low-hanging fruit. If you’re not doing that, then you’re missing a great opportunity,” describes Pat Friesen, copywriter and owner of Pat Friesen & Co. According to Friesen, if you actually test reactivation of customers or donors, and track it over time and look at the numbers, you’ll find they are far less expensive to reactivate than going out and prospecting for new customers.

Here are three ways to reactivate:

1. A Customer Was a Customer, No Matter How Old“If they were a customer once, assuming the customer experience was a positive one, they are more likely to respond than new prospects,” says Gary Hennerberg,

by Ethan Boldt

3 Ways to Reactivate the Customer

CHAPTER 10


a direct marketing consultant and owner of Hennerberg Group.

He references a food-by-mail client that goes back to past purchasers even when it’s been over five years since they last purchased. Why? Probably because in this situa-tion-a food gift-there are customers who like to vary the gifts they give each year.

“As long as the response rate justifies the marketing cost, there is no such thing as too old. For an insurance client, we’re able to go back to people who were policyholders six and seven years ago, and they still respond well,” reveals Hennerberg.

2. Test Your Most Recent Inactives“You have to look at [lapsed customers] by segment to find out which ones are going to be most cost-effective because not all of them will reactivate at the same rates,” explains Friesen.

Therefore, when you’re testing, she urges that you test your most recent inac-tives. “Every company defines them differently. For some, it may be six months, a year, two years, depending on whether its consumer or B-to-B and what the bind cycle is. So if it’s a 12-month bind cycle, they’re probably not inactive for two to three years,” says Friesen.

3. Change the Approach for the Lapsed Customer vs. the Regular Customer — Slightly“In my experience, about the only different approach is to somehow identify in the copy that they were a past customer,” states Hennerberg, who favors copy on the outer envelope like “We want you back,” and in the letter salutation, copy like “Dear Customer” or “Dear Former Customer.”

Friesen, too, likes to acknowledge the former customer. Something along the lines of, “We haven’t heard from you. We wonder if something with your situa-tion has changed. We wanted to keep you abreast of the newest things happening with us ... if something has changed with your needs, let us know.”

Since you’re paying for the postage anyway, Friesen recommends that you test the line, “Do you want to be taken off the list?”

“Sometimes when you give people that option, it’s like a kick in the pants and they say, ‘No, I like getting that catalog!’ And it may jump-start orders,” she concludes.



W ith the economy far from full recovery, it’s a challenging time to generate sales. So if you’re looking for a reliable way to bring in revenue, the best place to start is by contacting your best cus-tomers. Here are a few ideas and approaches.

1. Segment your customer fileNot all customers are equal, and when you need sales fast, your best customers are the most likely to come through for you. So it’s vital that you stratify your customers by a key metric. Usually, it’s most effective to segment by sales or average order size. Rather than roughly categorize customers in one group or another, an analysis of your customers will better pinpoint a strategic breaking point between groups.

For a food marketer, for example, we looked at the average price point paid, and then fine-tuned our segments so we would know the sales values within each stratified segment. By doing this, we could identify offers for each segment to encourage them to buy, and stretch them to the next higher customer segment with an offer that could yield a higher purchase.

When you sort your customer’s sales activity, from highest to lowest and cumulate sales and calculate percentage of total sales, your eyes will be opened. You may see, for example, that your top 10 percent or 20 percent of customers do indeed produce a disproportionately higher volume of sales. It’s those top customers who will reliably respond to your offers, even outside your prime selling season.

2. Clear out unsold productChances are that you have unsold non-perishable products just waiting to be moved. You probably offer them on your website since it’s easy to offer close-out items there. But sometimes a simple, yet well-crafted direct mail letter is all it takes to get the sales flowing.

For a business-to-business client, we created an inex-pensive personalized direct mail package to clear out blemished inventory that couldn’t be sold in the retail sales channel. It was mailed to about 500 of their best original equipment manufacturers, and produced $65,000 in sales in a few days.

by Gary Hennerberg

When You Need to Generate Sales Fast

CHAPTER 11


3. Get future sales commitments earlyEveryone knows the economy is rough, so rather than wait until the sales season has arrived, get out there now with a rock-bottom offer for future commitments and lock-in the sale now, before your competitors are in the mix. Depending upon your business, you might even be able to ask and receive a deposit for the future sale now in exchange for a not-to-be-repeated offer when the normal sales season cycle returns.

4. “We want you back” offersJust because someone cancelled a few weeks or months ago, doesn’t mean the sale is gone forever. Mail a “We want you back” offer. It will produce more sales than cold prospecting letters.

For an insurance client, we mail these letters every month and remind the lapsed policyholder why they bought the product in the first place. It produces a consist-ent flow of revitalized business.

5. Adjust Your USPIn these times, you need to have an edge over your competition. Step back and re-evaluate your direct mail creative. Your successes of 2008 and earlier may not work in 2010. Is your unique selling proposition buried? My mailbox suggests that most are. Your marketing staff and copywriter may need to breathe fresh new life into your creative and adjust your USP for today’s financially bruised customer.

Gary Hennerberg is a creative strategist and analytic consultant for direct mail, websites, email, and other direct marketing media. You can contact Gary at 817-318-8100 or at www.hennerberg.com.

Section II

TESTS


Every once in a while, an intrepid mailer will throw caution to the wind and attempt to encapsulate, in a set of rules, his experience in product, list, price, offer, seasonality and creative testing.

An even more daring exercise is to interpret the rules and the data that give rise to them in mathematical terms: a formula. A notable example is the formula at-tributed to the late Ed Mayer:

”Success in direct [mailing] is dependent on the following ratios: 40 percent lists, 40 percent offer, 20 percent everything else.”

My first problem with the “40-40-20” formula is the absence of the product as a basic component. The desirability of a product relative to its closest competitor(s) is nothing less than pivotal to a mailing’s success.

And as a successful product matures and begins to face increased competition, the degree to which it is successfully enhanced, redesigned, or “restaged” is key to its existence.

There is also the question of whether the factors that contributed to the initial test will continue to contribute in the same degree to the success of each mailing over a period of years. It is my experience that the relative importance of key factors continues to change, and the change is especially clear at three different stages in the life of a product: Start-up/new product test.

After several rounds of successful experience without any major change in the marketplace. In maturity, with new or stronger competition.

by: Mal Decker

How to Test

CHAPTER 12


The successful test of a new product should prove that you do or do not have:• A desirable product;• A responsive audience;• An attractive price, with convenient terms;• An intriguing inducement such as a premium (optional);• An intriguing and persuasive presentation.

In contemplating a new product test we explore the downside more thoroughly than the upside. We try to minimize risk through research. But finally, if the data is sufficiently positive, we face up to the decision of a dry test versus a wet test.

Stage 1: Start UpIn order to get this discussion a framework, I’m making several assumptions based on an ideal test:• This is a well-researched new product, but this is the first time it has been

offered for sale;• The (wet) test mailing totals 120,000 names;• The house list provides less than 20 percent of the names mailed; and• The test includes at least 15 different lists, three different prices/offers and

three different packages.

In assigning a proportionate amount of risk to each of the main components of the test, I’m basing my comments on the successes as well as the failures we experienced in testing and marketing seven different but related continuity prod-ucts, in two groupings, in a wholly new enterprise, over a period of six years.

Product. The first new product that is tested in a company diversification with few, if any, house names available, must be a superior product, and all of the other components must perform at an above average or superior level for the test to succeed. If we look at Ford’s Edsel on the one hand, and the Mustang on the other, there’s a huge spread between them. The major difference was not in the marketing, but in the product itself. I’ve tested both “Edsels” and “Mustangs”, and I’d give even a well-researched product a plus or minus 30 percent.

Lists. If the product is not offered to potential buyers, you’re doomed. However, you’re working with two or three professional list houses, and between them you have an enormous amount of data available to you. The more time and analysis you invest in list selection, the more you enhance your opportunity for success.

While all of the data support the selection of close-in lists as least risky and promising the highest rate of return, we must also test the biggest lists. The big-


ger the list, the greater are the odds that it won’t work unless you use it very selectively. I’d give lists a plus or minus 30 percent factor.

Price/Offer. I combine price and offer as a single component because each con-ditions the perception of value. (Ist $19.95 the same perceived value as $24.95 with a free digital calendar? If it is, Paul Goldberg asks, “is it always the same?”)

Ideally, you test a range of price/offers in this critical first test. If you’re limited, you test three prices. The critical component is also worth plus or minus 30 percent.

Timing. Let’s assume that everyone studies the late Rose Harper’s seasonality tables and the Who’s Mailing What! date-stamped archive and drops the critical first test at the peak season. (The difference between the peak and the trough for most propositions is 40 percent.) So the factor is zero.

Creative. All of the creativity you can lav-ish on your three initial test packages is probably a factor of only plus or minus 10 percent. But your downside risk is substan-tially greater if you test only one package. In the critical first step, I recommend three.

Stage 2: After Several RoundsWithin two years of your initial test, you’ve acquired a good deal of knowledge about your product and its markets through the series of tests and rollouts you’ve conducted. (I’m maintaining the assumption that no new or stronger competition has yet come into the market.)

You’ve confirmed the strength of your product; you’ve already probed the outer limits of your list universe, although there are many lists left to explore; you know how elastic or inelastic your price can be, and you’re still exploring the relation-ship, if any, between price and premiums, contests, sweepstakes, and other offers.

The 30-30-30-10 relationship of the original test has changed. The original prod-uct can’t add to its marketing contribution unless it’s restaged.

The medium of lists can contribute more only to the extent that new, productive lists (in addition to the 100 or more you’ve already tested) can be found, or more productive ways of buying, exchanging, or enhancing lists can be developed. This potential is plus or minus 10 percent.

All of the creativity you can lavish on your three initial test packages is probably a factor of only plus or minus 10 percent. But your downside risk is substantially greater if you test only one package.


New offers can continue to make a major impact on results as more ingenuity is invested in this area. The range is plus or minus 40 percent. The other great potential for increased growth is the area of copy and design, if these tools are used to execute new creative strategies and product repositioning. The potential for add-on performance is plus or minus 50 percent.

Stage 3: MaturityThe third phase of a product’s existence is maturity. By this time your successful product has encountered new competition, and you have responded in a variety of ways, including restaging of your product to give it advantages and to widen your market. This effort can pay off with a plus or minus 20 percent.

Your universe of lists is fully explored and mapped by now, but a restaged prod-uct can increase results among known lists and make marginal lists work better. Factor plus or minus 20 percent.

A restaged product demands new price/offer tests. Depending on how success-fully the product is restaged and how skillfully the tests exploit it, a new price/offer can add plus or minus 30 percent.

Creative also has a good opportunity to make a significant additional contribu-tion to the success of a restaged product. It is working with new benefits and new images in executing a new creative strategy for a product that has not only been restaged but repositioned as well. The potential here is plus or minus 30 percent.

Now let’s explore some of the severe limitations of formulas.

The range of experience is extreme. The strongest list among 15 can easily pro-duce 20 times more revenue than the weakest list. We all know about stunning new product successes as well as miserable flops. Premiums can bump sales up by 20 percent, and the wrong price can depress results by more than that – although, as the late Dick Benson pointed out, the revenues are often equivalent. I’ve written copy that beat controls by more than 100 percent.

The late Cecil Hoge questioned the applicability of any one formula to a wide range of products. Computer-related products may arrive (and depart) like sky-rockets, while a 24-volume set of encyclopedias may be with us forever.

The reality of variables bothers Paul Goldberg, too; although he feels that the discipline idea of tracking and formulating one’s own testing experience with a


specific product has value.

A “formula” weighing the relative importance of key factors at critical stages in a product’s life is probably most useful as a guide to where to focus your efforts for maximum return.

Malcolm Decker is an award-winning copywriter/designer/creative consultant in Greenwich, Conn., and vice president and creative director of Writer’s Insti-tute Inc., a publisher of home-study courses and related publications. He can be reached at (203) 622-1211.


During rough economic times, it’s easy for those who control the budget to say that if response rates are down, they don’t want to invest in testing — “You can’t spend money if you’re not making money.” To certain executives, this actually makes sense. But others, the wise ones,

know that the time to spend more marketing dollars is when sales are down.

It’s true that there is a risk involved in testing new ideas in an effort to “beat the con-trol” and increase response rates. Testing takes an investment in time and resources, often including additional funds. However, the outcome is often worth the risk.

You want to test, not only to increase your ROI, but also to learn. The more you know about what works the best, the better you can market to segments that emerge as your marketing programs evolve.

1. Start With the BasicsIt’s imperative to go back to the basics. Think about your business and market-ing objectives and what you need to learn to improve. What variables will make the most difference in your results? Create a plan for your testing that will lead to methodical improvements.

Test only one element at a time, and use appropriate quantities to provide statisti-cal significance. Or, if you are testing multiple elements, add separate test cells to your testing matrix. While this seems obvious to direct mail veterans, time and again we have clients who are confused about this. For example, if you test lists and offers at the same time within the same test cells, you will never know which element provided a lift.

Recognize the importance of your lists, offers/positioning, creative and the tim-ing of your touches, in that order. No matter what the current economic condi-tions are like, lists still make up the majority of your marketing success — 40 percent to 50 percent. Understanding this, along with the power of relevant offers (30 percent to 35 percent of your success) is critical to jump-start your response rates and lift your ROI.

Don’t be lured into testing a new format or design unless you have done a better than average job of testing lists (both house and prospect files), offers and mes-sage positioning/copy platform. Then, it will be prudent to develop some new creative tests to try to move the sales needle north.

by Grant Johnson

7 Rules to Testing in a Down Economy

CHAPTER 13


2. House Databases Need Top PriorityIn an economic downturn, data and its hygiene become even more critical to your ROI success. Understanding key segments and relying on your best customers will get you further ahead than almost anything else. Know who the buyer is and who the decision makers are. If you have a great understanding of your segments, test a referral program to your top customers and watch the results pour in. Com-bining segments with offers is also a wise idea.

Focus on customer service and retention FIRST in economic downturns. To cre-ate raving fans, you need to prove that you care about your customers. If you do that, when you go to them and ask for additional business, referrals and testimo-nials, they will be more than happy to help. Far too many companies, even in this economy, assume that their customers will stick with them. Don’t assume. Actions speak volumes over words. Customer service and retention are areas that are quite testable, yet few firms test enough here.

Segment and rank your customers in importance. All customers are NOT cre-ated equal. Considering channel preferences, offer motivators, RFM and other key factors like geography and the aforementioned timing will help your testing efforts. When you hone in on a specific market or audience, you can specialize

When campaigns are struggling to

bring in adequate response, data and its hygiene

becomes critical to ROI success.


your offer, messaging and tactics to specifically appeal to its wants and needs. You just may find your loyal regulars ready to spend extra for the something more you suddenly have to offer them.

3. Go Prospecting!An old database adage seems to be oft-forgotten these days: Garbage in equals garbage out. Now, more than ever, analytics need to be employed to better parse your data into silos, so you can market smarter. Start by learning as much as you can about your current customers by profiling and modeling, and then using that data to find like prospects and, of course, test.

“No, we can’t afford to make that offer!” (Or, worse yet, “We can’t make any offers.”)

When testing offers, think creatively. An innovative, affordable offer can sub-stantially contribute to growth. For example, in gourmet food — an area where you’d think spending would be coming to a grinding halt — testing discovered how simple offers earned generous orders. Looking back at 12 months of email promotions for a gourmet client uncovered the fact that the top 10 campaigns featured free available product or savings that could be offered without slicing into profits on specific, popular products. The response rates for these campaigns were double or triple compared to the typical tightfisted campaigns.

4. Sell Value and Change PositioningPeople are looking for deals today. The way you position them will have a ma-jor impact on results. You need to sell VALUE to succeed in these tough times. Complement your emotional appeal with facts — more of them — and watch what happens to results.

While emotion typically outsells logic in marketing, that’s not the case in a downturn. With increased economic pressure comes anxiety. People feel the need to justify and examine their choices, now more than ever. So, rely less on emo-tional creative/copy approaches and more on facts and figures. Use more num-bers, data and the like to appeal to the left brain.

A copy test NOW, or better yet, several copy tests now would be money wisely invested. Remember, what changes the offer/messaging is positioning. That’s redefined through compelling, direct response prose.

5. What’s the Big Idea?When it comes to creative concepts, look for ways to test big ideas. Is there a way to reposition the product or service so people think about its value differ-


ently? You might glean ideas from how your competitors are marketing, or even better yet, look at other industries to see how folks are marketing.

In addition to the creative concept, format also can make a big difference — from both an impact and cost perspective. While letter packages continue to be top performers for many programs, we devised a self-mailer for an insurance client that beat the control and saved the company thousands of dollars in production and mailing costs. You’ll be a hero if you devise a more streamlined approach that beats the control.

Also consider testing the look and feel. Will a promotional approach or more official approach work better?

6. Timing Could Be Everything An often overlooked element is timing. Be flexible, and stay on top of current events, trends, seasonal issues, etc., and how they affect your target audience.

For example, if you are trying to reach landscape professionals and offer them a demonstration, it’s better not to mail to them during their peak spring/summer work period — or after a disaster or other surprising current event. Instead, be flexible enough to change your strategy or postpone your mailing.

7. Test, Test and Test Some More Testing will get you to relevancy faster than anything else. In bad economic times, focus more heavily on your current customers, and test smart upsell/cross-sell tactics in direct mail. But now is when you can truly gain market share, good will and sales.

It’s no mistake that two of the companies who are doing well now test a ton: Amazon and Netflix. This should be a lesson to all who think that testing is too expensive, don’t have the time or think that their marketing is doing fine without it. Testing is an investment in your future success.

Grant A. Johnson is a 25-year marketing maverick and founder and CEO of Brookfield, WI-based Johnson Direct. Grant is passionate about measurability and messaging relevance in an over-communicated, multi-channel marketing world. He can be reached at [email protected]


Copywriting is the backbone of direct mail — just as screenwriting is the same for the movie business — but in this increasingly high-tech indus-try, that’s been forgotten. With more multichannel campaigns, upgraded database marketing techniques and splashy self-mailers than ever be-

fore, the written word becomes an afterthought, literally … and this is not good, for any direct marketer.

Meanwhile, mailers grappling with squeezed marketing budgets are hesitant to test efforts, especially the bigger tests that involve format changes, rebranding or significant design overhauls.

However, a simple copy test is one of the cheaper and smarter moves to make, and it can pay dividends in the ROI department. For example, making the copy more relevant to today’s prospect who will only buy the “essentials” or give to the “truly needy” can more significantly affect the response rate than any change in color or format switch.

After speaking with a handful of top copywriters, here are seven ways for you and your business to take another crack at your direct mail copy.

1. Make the Prospect the Star of the MailerIt’s why direct mail can work so well. The prospect, after a lousy day at the of-fice, gets home and sees mail just for her. It has her name on it, it’s engagingly written and the product being offered even makes sense in her life.

“Make the piece look and read as if it were created just for that one recipient,” recommends Nancy Harhut, chief creative officer, Wilde Agency. “Write as if you were talking to one member of your target market, with a voice and person-ality to your words.”

While the prospect is the star of the show, the product you are selling needs to become the hero. “Make your selling message fit what your prospect wants and needs — turn your product into that hero,” encourages Peggy Greenawalt, presi-dent/creative director of direct marketing agency Tomarkin/Greenawalt.

Mark Everett Johnson, freelance copywriter and consultant, agrees with this tac-tic. “Don’t just tell them about your product; tell them exactly how it’s going to make their lives better.”

by Ethan Boldt

7 Copywriting Tips That Should Be Put to the Test

CHAPTER 14


2. Make Them an Offer They Can’t RefuseIn “The Godfather,” Mr. Studio Exec Woltz was a fairly hostile prospect and Johnny Fontane was a pretty bad offer made by Tom Hagen: “Johnny Fontane will never get that movie!” As you know, it was nothing that a horse head in Woltz’s bed couldn’t solve. Hopefully, there’s a better way for you to provide prospects with an offer they might accept.

In fact, Johnson considers this the top copywriting tip: “No. 1, as stated by Inside Direct Mail founder Denny Hatch, the best way to improve your response is to improve your offer. That is, and will always be, my mantra.”

3. Make Them EmotionalAs with screenwriting, if you don’t emotionally engage your audience, your product is dead in the water (and nobody wants to watch that). So while appeal-ing to your prospect’s rational side with a hard-to-resist offer is sound marketing, it’s often not enough to get the sale. “You’ve got to engage both the rational and emotional sides of the brain — don’t forget the emotional,” reminds Harhut.

“State your main benefit right away, or the customer is never going to get to it — they are just bombarded with so much information,” agrees Johnson. “You’ve got to fire your big guns first.”

As Denny Hatch has said, “the best

way to improve your response is to

improve your offer.”


4. Provide SubstanceTo get people to respond in an emotional way to your mail, you’re more likely to succeed — especially if you’re a nonprofit — if your copy provides real mean-ing. “Remember to think about what matters to your reader, not what matters to you as a writer — and then put that into the copy,” recommends Merritt Engel, vice president of fundraising agency Merrigan & Co.

Don’t forget, your prospects are getting bombarded with information through the Internet, where they have the ability to choose and exit that information as quickly as a click of a mouse. So you have to get their attention with substantial information rather than trickery and thin material. “As technology changes and consumers get more con-trol over what they read, providing relevant content is king,” says Engel.

5. Stay in CharacterBut while it’s important to give your prospect what he or she really wants, copywrit-ing experts also urge that you “stay in character,” including not getting thrown off your game by whoever hired you to do the job. “Don’t be cowed by loudmouths and cock-sure prophets,” says veteran copywriter Herschell Gordon Lewis, in character.

Too often, copy in the letter tries to be too many different things for the prospect. “It’s key to find your central focus and stay there,” advises Greenawalt. “Don’t scatter-shoot, hoping something you say will stick.” Sometimes it’s as easy as keeping it simple, especially if you aren’t targeting too tightly. “If you’re too hip, too brainy, too chic, too cool or too funny, you will miss most of the market. For most products, Anytown, USA, is the right address for the greatest numbers of sales,” she reminds.

6. Test Screen That BabyWhen asked what process produces the best copy, Steve Cuno, chairman of Re-sponse Agency, doesn’t hesitate. “There are but two. The first is, thou shalt test. The second is like unto it: Thou shalt set aside thy personal preferences and roll out only that which succeedeth,” he states.

7. Keep CoolThe writer spends more time alone than most other professionals, often doesn’t get the credit he or she deserves, will likely hear more about what’s wrong than what’s right with the copy, and may grow increasingly thin-skinned and paranoid. Lewis urges that you go in the opposite direction with two simple words: “Keep cool.”


Section III

TACTICS


Handle With Care: Personalization Power

CHAPTER 15

While personalization — the utilization of a person’s name or relevant information, including images, on a communication — is moving along at warp speed, the goal behind this technol-ogy is relatively simple. “Capture the attention of the reader and

hold that attention long enough to get the message delivered,” says Bart Fore-man, president of Group 3 Marketing, a relationship marketing company based in Wayzata, Minn.

But like any technology, significant hurdles linger in the distance, including those that may be erected by the prospects themselves. Like knowing too much about your date before you go on that date, when poorly handled, personalization can be a big turn off. Here’s how to wield this powerful tool carefully.

Improved Technology Should Improve RelevancyPersonalization has dramatically grown in two ways, according to Foreman. First, far more sophisticated analytical tools exist today, and direct marketers know how to use them better. “I call that creative analytics. Segmentation has led us to be able to target and personalize relevant messages and offers,” he explains.

Second, variable digital printing (VDP) is now a more refined technology. “The data-base support for VDP and the actual printing technology supporting the process have made personalization really personal because the personalization can be integrated into the piece,” says Foreman.

by Ethan Boldt


Together, the database technology and the new software that VDP delivery systems use create an increasingly relevant mail piece. Of course, gaining more relevant data as privacy issues crop up is the ongoing challenge. “You’re working with your customers to maintain better internal databases, and you have to be creative in terms of where you get that information,” suggests Mike Walther, president of DME, a personalized relationship marketing agency based in Daytona Beach, Fla. He reminds that, first and foremost, it’s always about the list.

Indeed, getting such accurate, useful data is difficult in many sectors, agrees Keith Goodman, vice president of corporate solutions for Modern Postcard, based in Carlsbad, Calif. “One of the key factors regarding the utilization of VDP is having the data to support the different data elements,” relates Goodman, who explains that only in such industries as finance, insurance and real estate is data readily available, unlike in retail or hospitality.

With such obstacles, mailers must understand the symbiotic relationship between personalization and database marketing, which covers transactional information (such as prior purchase history, modeled information from demographic data, etc.) and can predict the relevance of the communication.

In the end, Walther says that personalization should capture the prospect’s atten-tion, and today that message needs to be very relevant. “The more relevant that communication, the better the response rate,” he states.

Image Is Everything?Well, of course, image is not everything. Copy remains king for many mailers, but imagery is increasingly useful in the mail piece because of personalization — it can be tailored to the prospect. “Imagery is just as critical to the personalization process as the copy and the offer. In fact, it may be the most critical part of the process because we have become a visual society,” opines Foreman, who gives a personal example of having recently bought a Nissan Maxima, yet the dealer sent him a thank-you card showing an Xterra.

Image is important with cars, says Walther, because most of us associate our per-sonality with the car we drive. With financial products, however, he believes that copy usually works better than imagery. “It’s kind of hard to show a picture of a financial product, although you can show a picture of an attitude, an emotion, a family in front of a house with pride … pictures can depict emotion better than words sometimes,” he explains.

And effectively depicted or described emotion often gets a response, hence the need


to build relevance with the chosen images. “You have such a short period of time to make an impact when [that mail piece] is either on the kitchen table or desk,” says Goodman, who intones the three R’s (relevance, read and respond). Obviously, the lat-ter two actions don’t occur if the first, being relevant, doesn’t hit home.

If the prospect golfs, for example, then the image of a happy man golfing on a beautiful course could work for a package that had nothing to do with golf, such as a mortgage refinance or credit card offering. “Adding an element of personal interest to a piece, whether [the offer] has much to do with that personal interest or not, will make it more relevant to the prospect,” remarks Goodman, who says that

financial service companies will often use im-ages of parents with kids because family status is one of the data elements, and they use that as a successful driver.

Yet images are not always the right tools for the job. “Depending on the message, a picture may or may not be important,” says Walther. For example, a mailing for a new watch model must have an image in order to boost excitement and drive traffic. “But if we’re talking about the economic advantage of getting a [car] lease right now because interest rates and prices are low, a picture may not be relevant at all,” he describes.

Personalization in the Privacy EraWith today’s less patient and more harried prospects, who also carry heightened privacy concerns, mailers must be careful to not get too personal too early in the game — and, once the personalization process begins, to not go over the line.

“In a mass prospecting mailing, especially when you do not have a relationship with the prospect receiving the mailing, I believe minimal personalization should be employed. As a prospect, I do not have a relationship with you and there is nothing personal until I (the prospect) make contact with you (the brand),” states Foreman. “We do everything possible not to let the prospect know that we know a lot about them.”

The database of customers is a mailer’s most prized asset, agrees Walther, so it must be treated in kind. “Abuse will destroy the asset. We fight with that all the time. Every day we’re having these kinds of conversations. What is the purpose? What are we trying to accomplish with this communication? What information do we know about the potential customer to make sure that the group that we mail to and the conversa-tion we have [are] as relevant as possible? And are we going to get too relevant, so they think that we’re Big Brother or a breach of trust occurs?” he asks.

Mailers must be careful to not get too personal too early in the game — and, once the personalization process begins, to not go over the line.


Not too long ago, the mortgage industry was guilty of such breaches of trust, when they’d put the precise amount of your debt right on the outer, says Good-man. “‘You owe $512,000 on your mortgage. You have $67,000 in credit card debt. You have a $28,000 car loan. Your monthly payments are X; we can lower that to Y.’ Well, you already know you’re in debt, you don’t want somebody tell-ing you!” he laughs, adding that mortgage mailings are far more skillful today, using numbers that are rounded off and close to the mark, but not too close for comfort. “You’re accomplishing the same thing without being in your face about, ‘We know this about you!’” remarks Goodman.

Experts report that the average prospect is very worried about his privacy today. “So you don’t want to blatantly say, ‘I know you golf,” or ‘I know you have kids between the ages of 4 and 6.’ If you put a picture of a golfer, or a family with young kids, you’ve established the relevancy without really blatantly letting them know you have the information,” explains Goodman.

Foreman goes farther, saying, “If there is no relationship previously established, any personalization beyond your name is excessive UNLESS you play dumb about the message. ‘Ethan, if you like tennis, we’ve got a resort you might be interested in.’ Of course, we know you like tennis, but you don’t have to know [we] know. When there is a relationship, continue to be cautious. When you say, ‘We haven’t seen you and we miss you,’ you sound like Big Brother. Another way to say this is, ‘Try to stop in and see all the new items we’ve added since your last visit.’”

It’s still taking advantage of this very useful information, but learning how to be subtle in its execution. “There are times when you want to let them know that you are keeping track, especially with a customer,” comments Goodman, who gives the example of a patron who gets a mailing that mentions he’s visited its restaurant 16 times this year and, because he’s been such a good customer, he gets a free meal with his family.

In other words, it’s deciding when it’s appropriate to get very personal and when being more vague is the better strategy. It’s different degrees of relevancy. Good-man agrees that it can go either way, “Many times relevancy can have a very nega-tive long-term effect on the success of that piece or the retention of that client.”

Lastly, there may be opportunities to use privacy fear even to drive the package, such as what Reason magazine did with its recent acquisition package. Using satellite pho-tos from Google maps, it printed custom mail pieces for each person with his house encircled in red and declared, “You live here.” “Because it’s a libertarian magazine and that’s one of their big things — Big Brother and all that — it’s like showing them


we know exactly who you are and where you live,” describes Greg Wolfe, circulation director for Ballantine Corporation in Wayne, N.J.

The Impact on the Copywriter“OK, cut the chase, chap: How is personalization going to affect my job?!” Well, if you’re a copywriter asking that question, it already has — but it’s only the begin-ning. Some of those changes are good, such as gaining more freedom. “It’s given copywriters the ability to address certain market segments where they couldn’t do this before, when you had to try to create copy that had a universal appeal. Now you can create copy specific to certain market segments,” explains Goodman.

Goodman gives the example of writing for financial companies. “Previously, the copy may have been, ‘It’s always important to invest in your future, and today is the best day to start.’ Now you’re able to say that 14 different ways to make it more relevant to the recipients, such as, ‘As parents of young children, it’s im-portant for you to start building your nest egg now,’” illustrates Goodman, who adds that you also don’t need to simply slip in their names a few times anymore.

Foreman agrees and sees both positive and negative impacts on copywriting. “The good is when you are not obvious to the reader. The bad is when it is over-done. I do believe that good copywriting requires a more casual, personal ap-proach rather than pieces that are really an advertisement with the reader’s name dropped in,” he says.

Meanwhile, the copywriter must understand this technology and embrace it. “Instead of talking in generalities, she must write copy that is adaptable based on different ele-ments. You’re basically making the copy a decision tree. The copywriter has to under-stand all the variables and be able to write copy for those different groups, and do it in a way that doesn’t cause formatting changes,” asserts Walther.

As relevancy increases, good copy becomes more important, concludes Walther. “One of the struggles on a continued basis is having that copywriter who can think almost three-dimensionally. The demand on skill sets is constantly increasing.”



Alan Rosenspan on Personalization

Dale Carnegie said it best, “Nothing is sweeter to anyone than the sound of their own name.”

When personalization first came along, direct marketers understood its power and used it ad infinitum and perhaps even ad nauseam. But do I really need to see my name in every other paragraph? Somewhere along the way, we forgot just how powerful it is.

Today, with digital printing and dynamic online personalization, it has be-come both an effective and cost-effective tool.

PURLs: Personalized URLs pull at a fantastic rate. Who can resist clicking on their names? (Just make sure the landing page they arrive at starts with a big “Welcome <Name!>”) And you can be creative about using PURLs. For e-marketing company BeNOW, we wanted to do something dramatic to cre-ate awareness and generate leads.

Our big idea was to mail marketing directors a box. The outside of the box read, “We’d like to have a word with you.” Inside the box was a dictionary with a yellow Post-it note on top. The note said, “Look up ‘visionary.’”

When prospects turned to that page, they found their names listed in the defi-nition plus a URL that directed them to BeNOW’s website.

Personalization in direct mail: It may seem old-fashioned or corny, but it still works very well.

In a mailing for Modern Postcard’s annual conference, it used the prospect’s name six times — including printing it on a director’s chair “reserved in their name.” It pulled very well.

If you’re not using the prospect’s or customer’s name on your printed pieces, you’re missing an important opportunity. And the bigger the name appears, the more successful your piece will be.


Data segmentation is the key to effective variable data printing and imaging — and VDP is the key to getting your customers’ attention. Chances are you’ve got all the data you need for an effective campaign, but let’s talk specifics.

Suppose you’ve got a conference to promote and the goal is to increase participa-tion (come to think of it, isn’t that always the goal?). And suppose you’d like to test a new direct mail package against the control. I’m thinking you need a way to introduce more engaging, relevant, personalized content into the control. I’m thinking color variable data printing. Challenge is: Where’s the list?

Audience Targeting and Creative StrategyLet’s say your audience consists of professionals in various industry sectors who have attended your conference in the past. As we devise the creative strategy for a VDP campaign, we begin by thinking about list segments. Variable data printing enables us to grab attention by reflecting such specifics as each prospective attendee’s organization or professional background-in other words, geographic and attendee sector data. These details can help us create variable images, personalized salutations, copy, captions and prefilled forms with contact information.

If you think you don’t have data, consider segmenting your list by information that is almost certainly in your database:

by Cindy Kilgore

Creative Strategies for VDP

CHAPTER 16


1. Geographic location• Fill the invitation with references to workshops that relate directly to the

attendee’s interest area.• If it’s a local event, consider a map showing how the prospective attendee

can get to the meeting.

2. Membership segment or donor contribution history • Feature testimonials about the conference from previous conference attendees

in the same membership sector, or feature workshop sessions designed for that subgroup.

• Consider personalizing images and copy according to a participant’s experi-ence in the industry, number of years in business or position in the manage-ment hierarchy.

• If you know the sessions a recipient attended in a previous conference, in-clude a reference to that interest in the copy.

3. Name• Even the simplest piece of information-a name-can help you select an eye-

catching graphic that features the hottest new trend: variable imaging. • With this technology, a person’s name (or some other variable text) becomes

a convincing part of a photograph or vector illustration. • For example, how about featuring the member’s name prominently on a

building sign at a convention center?

4. Purchase history• If your database contains even one piece of information about a previous purchase

your prospect has made, you’ve got data for a convincing, relevant offer or copy. • Make it as simple as recognizing that person as someone familiar with the

organization, or develop a set of rules to drive a targeted offer.

5. Social media participation• Is your prospect active on your organization’s Listserv, or is he/she signed up

to get Twitter, LinkedIn or group updates from your organization? • If so, this is a great cross-promotion opportunity and one to consider featuring

in your VDP campaign.

The two case studies below demonstrate more detail on how an alumni founda-tion and a retailer both used data in their files to drive the creative in their VDP campaigns. As these case studies show, data segments are “in there.” When we think creatively about how to talk to each segment in our database, this commu-nication gets more personal, and from there, we can expect better returns.


Case Study One: Virginia TechTo personalize its annual appeal, the alumni foundation at Virginia Tech used four data points. It was looking for an innovative fall appeal campaign and decided to build the campaign around a reunion event. The idea was to use graduating class data to target alumni who were celebrating milestone anniversaries-including alumni who were previous donors and alumni who had never given to the univer-sity. EU Services helped the foundation devise a direct mail campaign that featured a yearbook-themed VDP piece, coupled with versioned landing pages.

The 9˝ x 12˝ direct mail package showcased a yearbook-themed VDP brochure. The recipient’s name and class year appeared on the yearbook cover-a provoca-tive personal image that was revealed before opening through a full-size picture window on the envelope.

The interior of the piece featured many creative elements tied to the individual’s name, giving history, year of graduation from Virginia Tech and specific school. For example, the graduation year triggered such “remember when” information as class officers, top five movies and yearbook-style imagery. Other variable copy and photos were driven by past gift designations and based on the school of interest ( science, arts or business). A personalized appeal reflected each recipi-ent’s giving history and invited the recipient to join his or her graduating class in making a donation to the school. A traditional letter, reply device and reply envelope were included with the brochure.

To boost the potential donor’s giving choices, the campaign merged direct mail with online options. The reply card in the direct mail featured a link that directed the recipient to a distinct landing page on Virginia Tech’s website. The landing page carried the yearbook and graduating class theme and made it easy for alum-ni to click through to the school’s online giving form.

Each data point was treated differently in the package:• Graduating class data: The year of graduation guided the yearbook crea-

tive theme with imagery, headings and text relevant to the graduating class. Knowing the year of graduation gave the school an opportunity to position the appeal based on the different concerns and desires of recent vs. older graduates.

• Gift designation data: For those who had given before, the most recent gift des-ignation determined which fundraising update they received in the brochure.

• Donor history data: Messaging was different for those who had given before and those who had not.

• Recipient’s name data: The personal nature of yearbooks invited the use of re-


cipients’ names wherever possible within the themed brochure, further evok-ing a connection to the university and inspiring gifts.

Case Study Two: Big Dee’sBig Dee’s, an online vendor with a catalog of equine and canine items, wanted to launch a monthly mail campaign to generate subsequent purchases from current customers. So it decided to use purchase history to shape the VDP message.

Big Dee’s hadn’t previously used direct mail but decided on a direct mail solution that would both thank customers for recent orders and offer similar merchandise at a discount. Big Dee’s partnered with a direct marketing consultant to develop the business logic for the effort. Guided by data that identified “people who bought this item also bought this,” the consultant used software to match individual purchase histories with a forecast of what else that individual might purchase.

Big Dee’s decided on a simple, oversized postcard for the first cross-sell. The front of the postcard featured six products and their prices. The back of the card showed three more products and prices, and offered a discount for placing another order. A promo code on the postcard was required to get the discount-a process that also allowed Big Dee’s to track sales resulting directly from the postcard offer.

After just one mailing, tentative results produced $40,000 in additional sales.

Here’s what each data point powered in the creative package:• Name data: The customer’s name was used prominently in the “thank you”

on the front of the postcard and to lead off the message on the back.• Previous purchase data: The product purchased previously and its price point

was used to drive the other featured products, making the upsell attempt more powerful and effective.

The results of this case study exemplify how a well run VDP campaign can add plenty of oomph to a company’s CRM strategy, including for an online merchandiser.

Cindy Kilgore is manager of creative development at EU Services, a full-service direct marketing production facility in Rockville, Md. She can be reached at (800) 230-3362 or [email protected].


Sophisticated software. Computer databases leveraged to their full extent. Clever per-sonalization with text and images. Digital print devices producing gorgeous four-color images.

Instead of mass producing a single document using offset lithography, variable data print-ing (VDP) produces a mass of customized documents via digital print technology. So, rather than getting 10,000 mail pieces with the same message, VDP enables you to print 10,000 mail pieces with the right message for each prospect.

I’m re-introducing today’s direct mail to you, powered by VDP in the most effective ways. Here are four of those secrets:

1. Proper Targeting + Proper Personaliza-tion = Better ResponseWith the average prospect hit by thousands of marketing messages per day, targeted and personalized print communications can seri-ously improve response rates and improve the overall fulfillment of business goals.

2. “Advanced” VDP gets Better ResultsCurrent technology is tearing down barri-ers to the adoption of variable data strate-gies. Barriers have historically included cost, complex implementation and risk. For example, print service providers who are already comfortable with entry-level VDP can now take advantage of the growing market demand by implementing advanced VDP solutions, which are easier to use than

ever before. Advanced VDP solutions enable marketers to leverage one or more informa-tion databases to develop relevant commu-nications that improve the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

Specifically, you can see a major increase in these four key business metrics: overall revenue, repeat order rates, order size and response rates.

3. Set Your Company ApartVDP allows marketers to bring added value to its messages, enjoy market differentiation and create longer-term relationships. All of that leads to more loyal customers, who will be less likely to remove their business based on a cost difference of a few pennies per printed page. VDP services tend to drive re-curring revenue streams as customers come back for more based on the improved and measurable business results they are able to achieve and demonstrate.

4. Tap Into the Number One Reason for Response: EmotionVDP can transform a ho-hum campaign into a powerful one by using effective person-alization and customized imagery to evoke emotional triggers that can lead prospects to responding to a specific call to action. Also, with the ability to place unique bar codes and coupon identification numbers on these communications, it is easy to track response rates and measure specific results.

— Ethan Boldt

4 Secrets of Advanced Variable Data Printing


by Ethan Boldt

Pitting the Premium vs. the Freemium

CHAPTER 17

What have you done for your prospects lately? Using gifts to light the spark of interest in a mail piece is one of the oldest practices in the direct mail world, but this approach may need a little updating in your next planned campaign to get the results you’re looking for.

Here are three tests worth doing before pushing out the next campaign.

Premium vs. FreemiumOK, it’s not the Bears against the Packers, but there are some similarities. The rivalry goes back a long way, both sides deserve a lot of respect and many peo-ple are split on which one will get the job done better. (I’m a Bears and premium guy, personally.)

The freemium, of course, is what’s given up front, in the package, such as a bookmark, address labels, calendar, etc. The premium is usually given on the back end, and usually is more high-end. Items like a fleece jacket, an umbrella, a book or clock are just a few examples.

St. Joseph’s Indian School

is well known for their lumpy oversize

packages stuffed with freemiums,

even in the age of higher postage costs.


Testing one against the other opens the door to various questions, such as how can a mailer know it’s not simply a great gift that’s attracting response rather than when it’s sent? And do freemiums cheapen an organization’s image in the mail and create the “keep gift, toss mailer” kind of prospect?

Bottom line: in this test situation aim to determine if ROI is best achieved with a free gift physically in the mailing, or whether you’re getting enough orders to offset the extra costs of a premium and its postage. Save the “But which gift is the best?” for later.

Matching to Offer vs. Matching to ProspectOur industry has bandied on this subject for years, but there never seems to be one conclusive answer to the eternal query. According to Judy Mann, president of Providence, R.I.-based freemium supplier Capital Designs, what seems to be happening now is a hybrid born out of branding. “I think your premium can be creative and maybe a little different, but still tie into the organization or the mar-keting strategy,” she says.

However, “creative” can mean different things to different people, and mailers run the risk of striking a discordant note in their packages. Freelance copywriter Bob Bly asserts that not only must the gift be desirable to the customer, but it also must be relevant to the product or proposition at the same time. Adding further to the debate, some marketers eschew matching a premium to the offer in favor of useful, more generic items like flashlights and calculators.

Bottom line: Let your industry be your guide. Offer-driven, utilitarian gifts (whitepapers, bookmarks) could work well in the B-to-B or financial sectors, but nonprofits and publishing have a little more leeway.

Switching It Up vs. Dropping It If a package starts losing steam, there are a number of choices to make as far as an update goes. And with creative change in the wind, says Bly, a mailer often requires a new premium to deliver on what the new copy promises. This could be something as simple as a new freemium design, says Mann, or even cycling dif-ferent gifts throughout the year.

Yet, this also is a time to ask yourself, “Is there ever a time when you should phase out freemiums and premiums?” says Mann. “If a customer isn’t respond-ing to the gifts or [is] telling you they don’t want them, a mailer should always listen,” she concludes.


Bottom line: If your ROI is still hitting the skids, ditching the gift could be a good option. However, before taking such drastic measures, consider the whole of the package — no element works independently of itself. Try promoting the premium more prominently, using a freemium instead or simply try a different gift altogether.



Much like comedians tend to find the humorous side to any situa-tion, creatives look for inspiration at every turn. Take, for instance, Carolyn Goodman, managing partner for San Rafael, Calif.-based direct marketing company Goodman Marketing Partners, who

came up with an idea for a personalized T-shirt premium for her client, greater San Francisco/Bay area jazz radio station KCSM-FM, at her children’s swim meet.

“I was at a swim meet last summer, and there was a vendor selling T-shirts about the event. And he had taken every kid’s name and created a piece of artwork on the back and was selling them,” Goodman rehashes. “All the kids wanted them because, of course, their name was on the back of the shirt, and I was standing there looking at all these kids clutching their $20 in their hand line up around the block ... It struck me as a marketer, ‘Oh my God, people love having their name on things!’”

With that, KCSM-FM’s jazz T-shirt premium test package was born. To get past donors to give to the station again, Goodman Marketing Partners wanted to engage them further, so it took its cue from PBS, which typically offers donors something in return for their donations. Last year, Goodman Marketing Partners and

KCSM-FM did a small test campaign offering a jazz mouse pad as an incentive to respond and saw a small uptick. To see even better results, Goodman and company wanted to find the most fitting premium for the station’s donor base-no small task. KC-SM-FM’s donors do not fit into any simple, defined demographics other than being jazz lovers who mostly reside in the San Francisco Bay area.

KCSM-FM successfully used a T-shirt premium to spark donations.

by Joe Boland

A Premium-Powered Personalization Campaign

CHAPTER 18


“There are no income requirements to love jazz, and there’s certainly no age re-quirement ...” points out Goodman. “So we said to ourselves, ‘Look, a T-shirt is that one common element that everybody can appreciate and wear.’ From there, we said, ‘Yeah, but a plain, old T-shirt, you know, what’s the big deal? How do we make this sort of sexy and fun and different?’”

That’s when Goodman thought back to her children’s swim meet, and everything came together. KCSM-FM offered donors a chance to have their names inter-spersed with the names of jazz legends to create the image of a man sitting on a stool playing the saxophone, straying from the station’s control with nothing but a straightforward ask-no offer.

Mailed to approximately 8,700 past donors to the station, the #10 yellow enve-lope contains the teaser, “You’re already one of our jazz greats. Now get the rec-ognition you deserve.” Next to that is an image of the T-shirt along with the text, “FREE jazz t-shirt personalized with your name. See inside for details,” under-neath. Inside is a brief 8½˝ x 14˝ letter with a reply card perfed to the bottom.

To make up for the additional costs of the personalized T-shirt, KCSM-FM asked donors to contribute $80, twice the amount of the normal $40 ask, to receive the T-shirt. However, the reply still offered donors the $40 basic membership dona-tion as an option. The results were astounding. The campaign netted an overall 6.5 percent response rate, and of those that did respond, 35 percent gave $80 or more to receive T-shirts. In fact, more than a third of the donations were at least $109 — nearly three times the normal contribution — and the campaign’s overall ROI was 204 percent.

While wildly successful, Goodman Marketing Partners and KCSM-FM have plans to tweak the package for other premium tests, specifically to target those past donors who didn’t respond to the T-shirt premium. Goodman says next up is a personalized tote bag premium with two different versions: one with the same image as the T-shirt, and another with slightly different artwork made up of women jazz legends.

Joe Boland is the managing editor of Fundraising Success, a sister publication to Direct Marketing IQ. He can be reached at [email protected]


If you want to improve results for your promotions, your offer is one of the first places you should look to make changes. Offers are central to direct mar-keting. Strip away the techniques, formats and tactics, and you’re left with people accepting or rejecting offers.

“Offer” is one of the three key elements that define direct response advertising: 1. Make an offer.2. Provide sufficient information for acceptance of the offer.3. Provide a means of easy response to act on the offer.

A Quick Definition of OfferWhen people call me for advice on improving their direct mail and ads, I always ask, “What is your offer?” Frequently, the answer is, “Oh, we really don’t have an offer.” This is their way of saying, “We don’t have a discount or promotion.”

However, an offer is much more than a discount. An offer is the combination of all the elements that make up the deal you are presenting, such as the product or service itself, price, guarantee, etc.

Offer can be defined simply as the terms of the deal. It’s the entirety of what people get when they become paying customers. When you make an offer, you’re saying, “When you pay us, here’s what you get in exchange.”

by Dean Rieck

Energize Your Offer … and Fire Up Response

CHAPTER 19

Take a good look under the hood of your campaign to

figure the best elements that can

create the perfect offer.


Have a Look Under the HoodAn offer is like a car. If you want to improve performance, you pop the hood, take stock of the various parts and start tinkering with each to rev up the power. Here are a few elements that compose a typical offer:

• The product or service• Optional features• Price• Presentation of price• Unit of sale• Trial period• Terms• Incentives• Guarantee• Time or quantity limit• Shipping and handling• Future obligations

List the elements of your offer, and ask questions about each. Is your price optimal? Testing a range of prices may reveal that a lower, or sometimes even a higher, price could net more revenue overall. What about the presentation of your price? If the price is $50, would it make your offer more attractive to present it as $49.98? What about terms? Do you ask for $49.98, or could you offer three pay-ments of $16.66?

Can you add optional features? Free shipping? Additional incentives? By strengthening the parts, you can energize the whole.

Keep a few things in mind: • Making a simple offer helps people understand your offer.• Adding something free is usually better than reducing your price.• Building perceived product value improves the overall perception of your offer.• Reducing perceived risk makes your offer easier to accept.• Testing new offers is always a good idea. Don’t get married to one offer.

Consider the World’s Greatest OfferHarry Aldrich loved cedar plank-cooked salmon in fine restaurants. He and his partner wanted to sell a home version consisting of small cedar planks sold in gro-cery stores. So when Aldrich met with the seafood buyer for the Fred Meyer stores in Portland, Ore., he simply gave the buyer a piece of cedar plank-cooked fish and a fork. Within a week, he had lucrative orders from more than 100 stores.


The lesson? One of the best ways to sell is to let people sell themselves. In direct marketing, you can do this with a free trial.

The free trial is hands down the world’s greatest direct response offer because it allows people to sample what you’re selling. It comes in many flavors but is usu-ally tied to a time period: 30 days, 90 days or more. The free trial also can be tied to a negative option, as in this example:

Try 3 free issues of Entertainment Weekly. If you like it, you’ll get a full year for just $38.95. If you don’t, just write “cancel” on the bill. But keep the first 3 free issues as our gift to you

A negative option is not necessary to make a free trial work. A good example of the “posi-tive option” free trial is Carbonite, the online computer backup service. Carbonite offers a 15-day free trial during which you can back

up an unlimited amount of data at no cost, without providing a credit card num-ber. It certainly sold me on the service.

The free trial is popular as a magazine offer, but you can configure it for just about anything: electronics, clubs, Web sites, books, software, office equipment, insurance, financial services, you name it. I have even tied it to a guarantee for a child sponsorship charity.

Take a Hard Look at Your GuaranteeIn direct marketing, people usually cannot see, hear, touch, taste or smell your product or service before they buy it. This creates perceived risk, which can lead to inertia. A guarantee helps lower this perceived risk.

To craft a strong guarantee, include these four elements: 1. Assure your customer of the quality of your product.2. Spell out your terms and conditions clearly. 3. Specify a generous time period for evaluation.4. State what you will do if the customer is dissatisfied.

For example:

We provide the finest widgets in the world. If you are not fully satisfied for any rea-son, just return your widget within 60 days for a full refund of your purchase price.

The free trial is popular as a magazine offer, but you can configure it for just about anything.


Here’s a classic guarantee from the Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalog back in 1902:

We accept your order and your money, guaranteeing the goods to reach you in due time and in perfect condition, and if they are not perfectly satisfactory to you when received, you can return them to us at our expense of freight or express charges both ways and we will immediately return your money.

Test Into New Offers CarefullyThe rules for testing offers are the same as the rules for testing anything else. First, you should do proper control testing. Change only your offer, and test your direct mail piece or ad head-to-head with the control. Then back-test to confirm the results.

Also, consider the big picture. A new offer may create more response action up front, but what about your ROI? What is your cost per customer? How about life-time value? The better offer is not the one that generates the most response, but the one that generates the best customers.

Do you have to stick to just one offer? No. Just as you can have different controls for different lists, you can have different offers for different lists, channels and seasons. For example, you may find that while a free shipment offer works best online, a premium works best in the mail.

Finally, test sweepstakes cautiously, and think about the consequences. Many busi-nesses have turned to sweepstakes to boost response, only to regret the move years later when they find themselves locked into a cycle of contests and giveaways.

Never forget that while retail marketing is about building a brand to aid buying decisions later, direct marketing is about making an offer to generate buying decisions now. Offers are the heart and soul of the direct marketing process. The stronger your offer, the better your results.

Dean Rieck is a top direct response copywriter, who has worked with more than 200 direct marketing companies to create offer-driven direct mail, print ads, email, online marketing, sales materials and radio ads for both direct sales and lead generation. Contact him by phone at (614) 882-8823 or via email at [email protected].


Alan Rosenspan on Popular Offers

We’re all naturally competitive — we have to be as direct marketers. And two of the best ways to get people to want something is to tell them: They can’t have it, or everyone else has one.

For companies like The MathWorks, we’ve taken their most popular offers in the past-and used them again. We make sure we tell people that this was “our most popular offer ever,” and we get a great response.

Has it worked well before? It probably will work well again. The corollary to this is to tell people whenever you’ve done something special. We’ve used phrases like:

• Our most popular tour ever• Our most valuable offer ever• Our best value

You can’t expect people to know how many people have responded to your offer in the past, or whether or not it’s been successful — so you have to tell them.

The New York Times Best Sellers list has been using the same principle for years. Ironically, once your book gets on the list, it sells better than ever before. I guess it has to be a best-seller to become a best-seller.


I probably shouldn’t be sharing this — but I’ve become extremely wealthy. Or at least, I will be in the very near future. Apparently, my email address was entered, without my knowledge, in the (you pick one) U.K. Lottery Sweep-stakes, the Netherlands Lottery and the Sierra Leone Grand Lottery.

Amazing and against all odds — I’ve won all of them.

Of course, there are still some technical details that have to be arranged, and it may require a small investment on my part. But that’s the problem with sweep-stakes these days-even the legitimate ones feel like scams.

Yet they remain an extremely powerful marketing tool — if they are used cor-rectly. Let me give you some examples:

What Would You Do With $10,000?Edgars is one of the largest department store chains in South Africa, with more than 3 million store card holders that it mails to every month.

Back when I worked with Edgars for Ogilvy & Mather, my challenge was to come up with a fresh sweepstakes (or sometimes two) each time the store mailed.

But there were a few challenges:

1. The prize had to be very modest (about $10,000 in those days). We just couldn’t afford to give away too much every single month.

Sweepstakes are especially challenging these days. When you see lottery prizes of $100, $200 or even $300 million, it’s much harder to get anyone excited about the dollar value of your prize.

2. The prize had to be flexible. It’s no good giving away an all-expense paid, three-week vacation if the winner simply can’t be away from work or her family that long.

Plus, we didn’t want to have to actually book you on a trip — which would have required a lot more work than we were prepared to do. Also, we might incur liability. If we sent you to snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, and you were stung by

by Alan Rosenspan

7 Ways to Win at Sweepstakes

CHAPTER 20


a sea wasp (the deadliest jellyfish in the world), we may be legally responsible.

3. The prize had to combine both fantasy and reality. This was an important point. If you won $10,000 in a sweepstakes, what would you do with it?

You would probably love to take a fabulous vacation, or redo your entire wardrobe, or buy a state-of-the-art 72-inch TV with DVR and a home-theater sound system.

But you’d probably end up doing the responsible, boring and grown-up thing — and pay off your credit cards, your mortgage or replace an old appliance.

Pottern Barn ran a very effective

sweepstakes on its catalog, with great imagery, copy and

a QR code.


However, “Announcing the $10,000 Pay Your Bills Sweepstakes” probably won’t get a lot of response.

4. Finally, we had to come up with a new sweepstakes, with a fresh approach and fresh prizes, month after month.

How Would You Solve It?Our solution was simple — but very effective. Every month, I came up with a new fantasy theme.

For example, my favorite one was “The $10,000 Great Adventures Sweep-stakes.” I sold the fantasy of the sweeps (which is very important), including the most exciting stock art I could find and copy that read something like this:

There are only a few Great Adventures left in today’s civilized world. And now you can choose any one of them.

• You can snorkel at the Great Barrier Reef, and watch exotic fish of incredible colors and sizes swim right next to you.

• You can travel to the Galapagos Islands — and experience amazing animal life including giant tortoises, swarms of iguanas, and sea lions and their ba-bies.

• You can spend a week on Broadway in New York City, enjoy the best seats at all the latest shows, stay in a magnificent hotel and dine in fabulous restau-rants every night.

However, we didn’t actually have to book any of these trips.

The winner simply received a $10,000 check from Edgars. We wished him “good luck with your great adventure!” and that was it. What he actually chose to do with the money was his business.

It was a formula that worked month after month for more than three years.

However, we also took advantage of special opportunities that came our way and turned them into sweepstakes, too.

The Leather CouchThere was a time that one of Edgars’ fashion photographers purchased an exqui-site Italian leather couch for one of our shoots.

Edgars didn’t sell couches, and it didn’t know what to do with it afterward. So


Edgars asked me to include it in one of our sweepstakes: “How Would You Like To Win ... A Couch?”

“Win a couch” didn’t seem very exciting to me-unless you needed one and had very specific tastes, so the challenge was to make it more interesting.

I trimmed the photograph, so it only showed a small, hard-to-identify section of the couch and called the sweepstakes “You Tell Us.”

The copy read something like:Edgars’ top photographer took a photograph of our top prize-but he may have been too close. You tell us what he was shooting at-and you could be a winner.

I also included a few obscure clues in the copy. It was a tremendously successful promotion, and I learned an important lesson that I’ll share with you at the end of this article.

Our Most Successful SweepstakesOne holiday season, we came up with the idea of “Edgars Will Wipe Your Ac-count Clean.” We promised to take 100 card holders and simply cancel all the outstanding charges on their bills if they won.

Besides being a highly popular sweepstakes — it had an unintended effect that none of us could have predicted.

In the weeks while the sweepstakes ran, people spent more on their Edgars store cards than they ever had in the past-boosting store revenues by millions of dollars.

The reason: Imagine how you’d feel if you won the sweepstakes, and you only owed Edgars $17.25?

So people spent more, with the hope of winning more. This became our most successful sweepstakes and one of the only ones we repeated (by popular de-mand) year after year. Some credit card companies have copied this, but I don’t think it’s ever worked well for them. I think it’s because we were working in a smaller market, and people really thought they had a good chance to win.

7 Ways to Win at SweepstakesThe examples I’ve used were all business-to-consumer, but we’ve had good suc-cess with business-to-business sweepstakes, too. My sweepstakes experience also includes being a actual prize.


When I did a series of seminars for Australia Post in 2008, registrants could win “Alan Rosenspan in your Boardroom for 2 hours.”

I assume second prize was four hours.

Here’s what I’ve learned about sweepstakes and how to make them work as ef-fectively as possible.

1. Sweepstakes are all about fantasy. The prizes have to be above and beyond the ordinary, preferably something that money can’t buy.

When we did a sweepstakes for Quaker, the grand prize was a free trip to Holly-wood. But that’s something anyone can get on her own.

So we included a few extras you couldn’t get — including having breakfast on the set of the most popular TV show at the time, and meeting the ac-tors and crew. We called it “The Best Seats in the House” sweepstakes.

2. Sweepstakes need an exciting theme. One of the sweepstakes I did that failed was for Scotts LawnService. It was called “The Great Outdoors Sweepstakes,” and we offered $10,000 to spend on anything for outside your home.

I guess the idea of new lawn furniture or a great grill just didn’t excite people.

3. Sweepstakes need to seem “winnable.” That’s why modest prizes often work better than more expensive prizes — peo-ple have to feel they really have a chance to win in order for them to take part.

For the same reason, multiple winners always outpull just one winner.

4. Sweepstakes benefit from involvement devices. If all I have to do is enter, then I assume everyone will. If I have to solve a simple problem, guess at a prize, or even remove a sticker and see if I’ve won, I will be more intrigued.

By the way, there are also legal benefits to doing this. Making people actually do some-thing turns a sweepstakes into a “competition,” which is usually easier to get approved.

That’s why modest prizes often work better than more expensive prizes — people have to feel they really have a chance to win in order for them to take part.


5. Sweepstakes are all about credibility. I have to believe that I can win, that others have already won and that all prizes will be awarded.

If you’re doing more than one sweepstakes, it always helps to list previous win-ners on your website, or even in your promotion.

6. Sweepstakes prizes need to be personal. I have never seen a business-to-business sweepstakes succeed, unless the win-ning prize was personal rather than for the business.

The only exception is for small businesses, where the owner benefited.

7. Don’t forget your customers. Many companies use sweepstakes to attract new customers. There’s nothing wrong with that.

However, I would strongly recommend that you include your existing custom-ers, and let them know about it. So instead of (A) not being able to enter, which they’ll resent, or (B) having to enter just like everyone else, why not make them feel special and enter them automatically?

The Hidden Benefit of SweepstakesFinally, there’s a hidden benefit of sweepstakes that make them even more appeal-ing — especially in this economy.

They are a great way to control your fulfillment costs. No matter how many people respond, your costs are about the same. If you are giving away the latest Apple laptop, and 50 people enter, you are giving away an Apple laptop.

If 5,000 people enter, you are still just giving away an Apple laptop.

On the other hand, if you are offering a premium, your costs can go up quite dra-matically, if responses go up. That may be fine with you-but it’s worth consider-ing. I hope this article has been helpful to you, but I really have to get back to my email. I have a really good feeling about my chances.

Alan Rosenspan is president of Alan Rosenspan & Associates, a direct marketing consulting and creative firm. For additional articles and a free newsletter, please visit www.alanrosenspan.com.


For decades, we’ve been told by “experts” that “Humor doesn’t work” in direct marketing. Boy, were they wrong. When I talk about using humor in direct marketing, I’m talking specifically about cartoons with personalization.

Editorial readership surveys have long shown cartoons are the best-read and remem-bered part of magazines and newspapers. That’s good to know when designing a campaign, because you only get a precious split second of your prospects’ time to influence whether they’ll open your letter or email, or toss it.

Cartoons do a lot more than just getting people to open your campaign piece. Humor is about truth and truth creates agreement, but cartoons offer truth in such an immediate and disarming way that they are an ideal involvement, engagement and persuasion device for direct marketers.

If you don’t know what you’re doing, humor can be hazardous to your campaign. But by following a few rules, it’s actually quite easy to put humor on the right track.

Rule 1: Focus on the Recipient’s Identity, Not YoursWhenever I speak to clients for the first time, they always want to change the cartoon to focus on their identities, brands or offers. Marketers have been trained

by Stu Heinecke

5 Rules to Draw Attention with Personalized Cartoons

CHAPTER 21


to inject their talking points into everything they do, so it’s an understandable mistake. However, if you make this mistake, it’s likely to kill the response to your campaign.

Rule 2: The Recipient Always WinsThe humor of the cartoon must pay a compliment to the recipient without fawn-ing, and it must pay that compliment in a backhanded, almost accidental way. The cartoon must also be relevant to the recipients’ lives.

One winning campaign for Outdoor Life featured a cartoon with two fishermen on a dock. One’s holding an enormous bass in his arms. The other comments, “That looks like the one <Firstname> threw back.” It was obviously sent to people who loved fishing, it never mentioned the magazine or offer, and it nearly doubled control.

Rule 3: It’s Got to be FunnyIf you’re going to use a cartoon, you’ve got to cover the basics: Cartoons are popular because they’re funny. If your cartoon isn’t, you will disappoint your audience and taint your brand. Make sure the art matches the caption — I once saw a cartoon come through the mail with a spoken caption, but none of the characters in the drawing were shown speaking. Overall, it helps to use the work of an experienced cartoonist.

Rule 4: Steer based on the underlying truthHumor is nothing more than a nugget of truth revealed in a surprising way. What does the cartoon you’ve selected for your campaign say? Does it reinforce your reason for contacting the recipient? Does it support the value proposition of your product, service or offer? Even though Rule 1 is to focus on the recipient, if the overall cartoon doesn’t reinforce your message, choose another cartoon.

Rule 5: Use the Refrigerator Door TestOnce you’ve chosen a cartoon, ask yourself, “If I received this at my home, would I stick it on my fridge?” If not, choose another cartoon. This is a very real test. Recipients may keep cartoon postcards on refrigerator doors for months or longer, greatly extending the life of the campaign.

Follow these rules, and you’ll find your campaign drawing a whole lot of the right kind of attention — perhaps even record response.

Stu Heinecke is author of “Drawing Attention,” a book about how to use car-toons in various missions. Reach him through CartoonLink.com


The rise of social media and prevalence of online ratings and customer reviews on e-commerce sites tells us that today’s consumer values the opinion of her peers over that of the marketer or company. This online phenomenon translates into direct mail in the form of customer testimoni-

als, a direct mail fundamental.

“What the testimonial is, and this is the same thing that we’re seeing online, it’s that the consumers are turning to each other to get confidence in who to trust,” says Russell Kern, founder and president of The Kern Organization, located in Woodland Hills, Calif. The customer testimonial takes the product endorsement out of the marketer’s hands and puts it into the consumers’ hands, adds Ken Schneider, direct mail copywriter and president of Ken Schneider & Associates, based in Houston.

In order to successfully implement testimonials in direct mail, marketers may need to dig to find the best comments to match with their selling points or mail package, and do some testing. Below are some tips from Kern and Schneider to get the most out of your testimonials.

1. Solicit Customer TestimonialsKern says that sending an email to customers is a quick and easy way to conjure up content for your mailing. “You can actually do an active testimonial solicita-tion process and do it online for offline applications,” he says. For example, it could be a three-question survey asking, “Are you currently satisfied?” “What do you like about the product?” and “Is there a positive comment that you’d be will-ing to share with other customers like yourself?” he illustrates.

2. Find Testimonials in the Media and OnlineOne of the first places Schneider looks for testimonial copy is within the com-pany’s existing marketing collateral. In the case of a publication mailing, Schneider advises checking the media kit and past issues for any positive letters to the editor.

Another bit of market research that mailers can tap into are existing conversa-tions about their product or service on blogs, Twitter and in references on social networks. “Look at the conversations that are happening about your products to see what quotes are out there,” Kern advises.

by Britt Brouse

The Testimonial: 6 Keys to Making Them Work

CHAPTER 22


Schneider adds that testimonials don’t always have to come from the customers; he frequently uses reviews or endorsements in major newspapers and publica-tions as testimonial content.

3. Keep the Content FocusedIt’s about quality, not quantity. “We’d rather go with one good testimonial than five or six that don’t say that much,” says Schneider, who recommends that each testimonial be as specific as possible to a particular selling point in the mailing. “Each testimonial should be small and short and focus on a single [selling] point, but the sum of testimonials should be the entire sales message,” Kern explains.

4. Include Names and LocationsIncluding a customer’s name, title and location along with the testimonial paints a picture of a real person and adds further credibility to her comments, Kern says. In some instances, including a location is crucial; Schneider gives an example of a mailing for a Southern cookbook. “You could have testimonials from locations

Travel insurance provider Chartis

used some strong testimonials on a colorful brochure

inside a recent mail piece.


throughout the South to drive home the point that the users are from the South, and if the Southern customers like this book, then it must really be a true South-ern cookbook,” he describes. If you cannot use a person’s full name, Kern recom-mends using her initials instead.

5. Test PlacementIf he had an unlimited testing budget just for testimonials, Schneider says he would test the placement of testimonials before the content. For example, he would do an A/B test of one package with testimonials only on the outer enve-lope versus one with testimonials only in the letter, or two packages: one with a testimonial-devoted lift note and one without. “I don’t have a golden rule of when to put them where. It has more to do with the overall flow of the package and where it needs testimonials,” Schneider says.

For example, a cookbook mailing may show images of each recipe, and if you had a testimonial that matched an image, then it’d be best to place them together on the same page, while a general testimonial could work anywhere in the package.

6. Don’t Drop the BallKern illustrates a big misuse of customer testimonials in a leading insurer’s direct mail package. The front of the outer envelope is splashed with quotes about how much customers love working with its agents, yet the quotes are not attributed to anyone in particular. So the testimony is questionable from the beginning. Then inside the package, there is no mention of the testimonials teasers from the outer. “By the time you get inside the package, there is a total disconnect of what this was supposed to be about-people loving their insurance agents-and then they just drop you into a hard sell,” he laments.

When you’re using testimonials, Kern concludes, be sure you deliver comments that feel honest because in today’s marketplace, consumers know when they’re being manipulated.

Britt Brouse is a former associate editor at Inside Direct Mail and now contrib-utes to Direct Marketing IQ. A writer and marketer with 8+ years of experience, she is constantly experimenting with online marketing, social media and content strategies for businesses.


W hen you think of direct marketing promotions, a newsletter probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. A lot of words (and money) are spent on brand, but few companies put out newsletters today.

However, a newsletter can be a great direct marketing tool for promoting your product or service. It allows you to define your image, boost your business and maybe even do some selling. By combining a little public relations, reputation building and selling, newsletters provide useful information. And, information is the key word here.

Creative consultant Don Hauptman explains, “As has been observed more than once, we live in an Age of Information. In this world, there exists a species we call ‘information seekers.’ These people need specialized data ...”

A good promotional newsletter offers mostly valuable, worthwhile information to its readers. Depending on which newsletter specialist you talk to, he’ll advise you that anywhere from one-tenth to one-third of it may be geared toward promotion.

As far as direct mail goes, newsletters are not as aggressive at selling as other forms of the medium. Yes, they may promote your business, but they’re not hard-core sales tools. I, for one, make it a point to pack my newsletters with informa-tion my readers can use and keep my “sales pitch” on the DL.

Consider the words of consultant Herman Holtz. In his book, “Great Promo Piec-es” (John Wiley & Sons Inc.), he says, “Of course, your newsletter is promotional literature. You created it to help market your company’s products or services, and the content is therefore necessarily advertising, even if low key or soft sell.

“At the same time, since you characterize and publish it as a newsletter, it cannot be 100 percent unabashed advertising matter. That would immediately destroy its usefulness. You must publish some material that is worthy of appearance in a newsletter and is definitely slanted to the reader’s probable direct interest ... It cannot be a pure sales letter, brochure or advertising circular.”

But let’s take one step back. Before you begin producing your newsletter, you must be clear on its purpose. First of all, who is it going to?

by Debra Jason

The Power of the Newsletter (or Enewsletter)

CHAPTER 23


1. Your customers and prospects.2. Your sales force.3. Your employees.

In her book, “Creating and Producing the Perfect Newsletter” (Scott, Foresman and Co.), Patricia Williams reiterates the importance of identifying your audience. She

To maintain loyalty, Lourdes Health

Center uses a very effective newsletter

for its patients.


asks, “Who are your readers? Identify each group of readers that you want to reach with your newsletter ... you need an accurate profile of your readers, which will help you zero in on content and on the image your newsletter should project for your organization.” Small business advertising specialist Cynthia Smith said, “... newslet-ters build up a relationship with customers and prospects that is invaluable.”

Here are some reasons for developing a newsletter to this particular market:

1. Stay in TouchNewsletters can help you follow up on potential customers. Let’s say you have the world’s best widget to sell. However, experience has shown that usually six months to a year may pass between the time of a prospect’s first inquiry and the time she actually buys. Do you just sit back and wait? No.

Stay in touch with your potential customers, and determine if they are indeed se-rious buyers. How? Put them on your mailing list, and begin sending them your newsletter. If you have permission, you can even send the newsletter via email.

2. Increased Perceived Value of a MembershipWhen I lived in Colorado, The Denver Advertising Federation, Rocky Mountain Direct Marketing Association (RMDMA) and Boulder Chamber of Commerce-to name a few-all offered newsletters to their members. A free subscription was seen as an added value of membership, especially when the newsletter was well-written and informative.

Newsletters are also beneficial in influencing the opinions and attitudes of their readers. Look in your mailbox and you may find a newsletter from your local humane society, hospice or another local nonprofit. In these “high technology” days, many organizations (i.e., the Kauai Chamber of Commerce, RMDMA, Boulder Chamber of Commerce, etc.) now email their newsletters to members.

3. Establish a Positive, Long-Term RelationshipA newsletter can emphasize how you value your customers’ patronage, and it will stimulate repeat sales.

As freelance copywriter Lila Freilicher points out, “The newsletter maintains a steady flow of communications with customers throughout the years. It shows all customers-even those who have strayed-how valuable they are and that they haven’t been forgotten.” Last year, a former client needed assistance and called me, saying, “I am always reminded of you when I get your newsletter, and this last one came at a time when I really needed your help.”


Newsletters also encourage repeat sales by giving you the opportunity to recom-mend accessories that enhance the performance of the products your customers bought or introducing new products available since they last did business with you.

4. Uncover New LeadsIf you’re a member of an organization or association, you already may receive newsletters from various companies, whether you requested them or not. These companies rent the organization’s mailing list to prospect for new business and generate leads.

Chances are if you are the least bit interested in the topic of the newsletter, if it’s information that you find valuable, you’ll hold on to it. And, when you finally need the services of that company, you may actually call it. The company has

proven itself knowledgeable through its newsletter, so you’ve already developed a sense of trust in it.

When finding new prospects is your goal, pro-mote response by offering free literature, special discounts or other incentives. And don’t forget to

include your phone number — especially if it’s toll-free-your website address and/or email.

Keep the Customer in Front of MindRemember, you’re talking to customers and prospects. Keep their needs and interests in mind at all times. They want new information that helps them on a daily basis. So, consider providing them with:

1. Product information/application stories: Share success stories about an old or new product. Simply tell your readers about other people’s positive experi-ences with that product.

2. Company information: Stories that acknowledge your achievements lend credibility to your business. Customers/prospects read about how others respect you and therefore, begin to look at you as an expert in your field.

3. People stories: People like reading about people, especially if it’s people they know personally (such as their sales or customer service representatives).

4. Related interest stories: Is there something happening in current events that relates to your business (i.e., the economy, sustainability, solar energy, recycling, etc.)?

When finding new prospects is your goal, promote response by offering free literature, special discounts or other incentives.


5. “How-to” features: 10 steps to better health, 14 guidelines to turn $1 into a thousand, four ways to get great results from a writer, etc.When choosing a story, keep your schedule and deadlines in mind. Remember that it takes time to research a story, interview people, write the story, take photos if needed, etc. It’s important to leave enough time for each step to be completed efficiently, not rushed.

Here Are 9 Tips for Writing Headlines:1. Include the word “you.”2. Write the article first, and then go through it. Many times you’ll find a good

headline hidden inside the body copy.3. Doing a book review? The title of the book is often the best headline.4. Use numbers. They assure readers that they’re going to get some valuable informa-

tion (i.e., 7 Steps to Success, 5 Tips for Collecting Your Unpaid Invoices).5. Use a question: “Who Wouldn’t Like to Be $10,000 Richer?”6. Make the strongest benefit of your product/service into a headline (i.e., “Lose

10 lbs. in 10 Days!”).7. Use headlines with news value. For example: “Amazing Breakthrough ...”

“New Way to ...” “Introducing ...” “For the First Time ...” “Finally ...”8. Use the credibility of your publication in the headline (i.e., “Good News for

Readers of [your newsletter name],” or “Of Special Interest to the Readers of ...”).9. Use the writer’s vocabulary of eye-catchers. According to ad man David

Ogilvy, the “two most powerful words you can use in a headline are FREE and NEW.”

A Yale Study Revealed That the 12 Most Persuasive Words Are:• easy• more• discovery• you• love• proven• guarantee• money• safety• results • save• new

Write copy that’s easy to read. And once you have your story ideas, KEEP IT SIMPLE!


The difference between conversation and writing is that during conversation, we give the other person time to understand what we’ve said. We pause between sentences, repeat ourselves and space our ideas. The secret of writing is to leave space-create these pauses. Using some steps outlined by Rudolf Flesch in “The Art of Plain Talk,” this means:

• Write short sentences. Two short sentences are easier to read than one long one.• Be personal. Use “you.” Let your readers know you’re talking directly to them.• Whenever possible, talk about people-tests show that we enjoy, and are better

readers when, reading about other people more than about anything else.• Use active verb forms that have life in them (i.e., dance, sing, add, run, etc.),

and make your sentences “move.”• Punctuation makes reading easier-it gets pauses down on paper and stresses

important points. Use hyphens, dashes and ellipses to achieve this effect.

“Give the reader helpful advice, or service,” says Ogilvy. “It hooks about 75 per-cent more readers than copy which deals entirely with the product.”

Whether you already publish a newsletter or you’re putting one together for the first time, keep these helpful writing hints in mind. With these creative building blocks, you’ll be better prepared to start developing the newsletter that best meets your company’s needs.

Debra Jason is a seasoned copywriter with more than 20 years of experience in the field of direct marketing. She started her business, The Write Direction, in Boulder, Colo. in 1989. Now based out of Kauai, Hawaii, she continues to spe-cialize in writing web and direct marketing communications. She may be reached by phone at (888) 449-0815, via email at [email protected] or visit her at www.writedirection.com.


Renewal series add regular cash to your coffers and build loyal, long-term relationships. Yet many publishers ignore them or consider them an afterthought, lavishing money and creative capital on new acquisition packages instead. They leave easy money on the table, since it costs less

to renew a subscriber than acquire one.

Here are 30 established ways to turn your series into an efficient revenue generator.

1. There’s no ideal number of efforts in a renewal series. Each series is different, just as each publication is. Whether it takes seven or 17 efforts to achieve maximum profit-ability, you’ll discover the right number for your publication over time.

2. Many publishers don’t send enough efforts before expiration. This contradicts subscriber complaints, but testing seems to confirm it.

3. If the last letter in your series makes money, add another effort. If that letter makes money, add yet another effort. Continue to add efforts until you reach a break-even point.

4. Put the most favorable terms in the first effort, and emphasize it won’t get bet-ter than this down the road. Subscribers are smart. They often postpone renew-ing in the hope of snagging a better deal toward the end. By sweetening the pot in a later effort, you reward them for procrastinating. Also, it increases your mailing costs, and it’s unfair to early renewers.

5. Position a strong effort up front. If a later effort pulls well, move it up in the series.

The Humane Society is testing two very different renewal campaigns in 2012: A thick yellow envelope with a “membership kit” vs. a #7 white envelope with a simple teaser.

by Robert LeRose

30 Ways to Amp Up a Renewal Series

CHAPTER 24


6. Don’t assume that subscribers are inclined to renew. Even loyal readers need to be courted and reminded of the benefits of your publication, early and vigor-ously. In addition to reselling the benefits, you can leverage the existing rela-tionship between subscriber and publication.

7. Highlight any new, improved or updated content to demonstrate the indispen-sability of your publication in these changing times.

8. Try to duplicate or play off the tone of the acquisition package. Prospects reacted to it, so it’s reasonable to assume that some reiteration will strike a similarly responsive chord.

9. The urgency of your tone should dramatically increase as you get closer to expiration. Fear, guilt and exclusivity work particularly well: Show what the subscriber will lose, how his world will change for the worse without your publication, that others have renewed and are enjoying benefits he’s relinquish-ing, the pain of saying good-bye, etc.

10. Focus on things coming up in the publication. Talking about what’s ahead-articles, interviews, stories, features, departments, solutions-exerts a powerful pull on readers. No one wants to be left behind. Turn this to your advantage by enticing readers with things they have not seen yet.

11. Alternate the look of each effort. Cheap but effective ways to distinguish renewal reminders include changing the envelope size, font, color and design. Omitting the name of your publication in the corner card on some efforts can be effective.

12. Instead of mailing all the efforts from the same person (such as the circulation director), vary the sender. A reminder signed and sent by the editor or pub-lisher lets you talk to the subscriber from a new perspective. Further, it rein-forces the bond between subscriber and publication by demonstrating that his renewal concerns everybody, not just the circulation department.

13. Human beings have an almost compulsive need for completion. Harness that psychic energy in the post-expire period by sending the table of contents, an article or something of genuine value from the publication-torn in half or blacked out selectively! The missing parts may drive them to renew to pos-sess the whole piece.

14. Expires make the best prospects. Store them in your prospect file, and include them in a future campaign.


15. An advance renewal needs an offer that differs from the best offer in your regular renewal series. Why? To reward subscribers for renewing in advance; otherwise there’s little incentive to act earlier rather than later.

16. Use a deadline in your advance renewal, for many simply need that deadline nudge to get them to respond.

17. By their very nature, advance renewals are one-time offers and can’t be mailed again. Or can they? Happily, you can resend a successful effort more than once.

Here’s the strategy: Midway before the deadline, mail it again with a note warn-ing that this limited-time deal is about to expire and you must act now to take advantage. Or send it with an eyebrow in script that says you were concerned the subscriber missed this offer in the mail, and you felt responsible for alerting him to this extraordinary deal.

Or, perhaps most simple of all, send it in an outside carrier envelope that differs in size, shape or color from the original. It’s not unusual for the repeat mailings to do exceptionally well.

18. Use “reason why” copy to explain and justify special offers. It’s not enough to say something is special, urgent or important. Prove it.

19. Add extra value by sending an unexpected goodwill or love gift between is-sues. Strive to deliver more than you promise and you may win greater loy-alty without much added expense.

20. Some publishers have found success with automatic or multiyear renewals. Offer a special discount or other free bonus as an incentive.

21. Use a mix of renewal efforts: issue wraps, telemarketing, online messages.

22. Before the first issue, send a welcome letter or package. This good will strengthens the bond between you and your new subscriber.

This effort also presents you with an opportunity to inform her of other publications or products that you produce. It gives her advance notice of the advantages she’ll derive from your publication. Plus it affirms her sound judgment in subscribing in the first place.

Midway before the deadline, mail it again with a note warning that this limited-time deal is about to expire and you must act now to take advantage


23. A potent but underused tool in renewal strategy is humor. It’s an unexpected, disarming way to build on your relationship, but it must be wielded carefully. I’ve found that light, self-deprecating humor works best.

I wrote an advance renewal where the editor poked gentle fun at himself for mak-ing an early appeal. It beat the control 2-to-1. Use humor early in the series. It would be out of place as the efforts progress and turn increasingly urgent.

24. Milestones or anniversaries in your publication’s history give you an oppor-tunities to send special, one-of-a-kind renewals to your entire list and prime the renewal pump. To give the effort added power, include a separate remem-brance letter.

You can put your publication into historical context by describing how it always has been there for readers in good times and bad. Or have the founding editor or publisher write sincere, heartfelt words that lift the veil between publication and reader. When I did this for a publication celebrating its 35th anniversary, response skyrocketed.

25. Once or twice a year, send a blanket renewal to your entire list. Offer a unique incentive or special premium not part of your regular series as a reward.

26. If your renewal rates are sinking, the answer could be traced to your acquisi-tion package. Are you delivering what you promised? Does your editorial content have genuine value that your readers want or need? If you find a disconnect, change the package to accurately reflect what your publication provides or change the content of the publication. A brief survey of disgrun-tled subscribers may provide some insights.

27. Should you create a whole new series at one time or piecemeal? All other things being equal, developing a complete series at one time offers you strong advantages: It lets you think out the different appeals/action devices/order forms in totality, figure out where they fit most effectively in the series and do rough dummies to visualize the entire series in front of you to ensure that each effort maximizes its potential.

28. Showing a subscriber what he’ll lose by not renewing can be more powerful than piling on the benefits. Paint a vivid picture of how vulnerable he’ll be without your publication.

29. Be cautious about stating your guarantee, and even consider omitting it from


the sales copy. Why? Because subscribers’ attention should be focused on the experience your publication provides and future benefits, not on dissatisfac-tion and getting their money back.

30. Sometimes you can “guilt-trip” subscribers into renewing. At the end of the series, simply ask them why they didn’t respond. Explain how you can’t come up with a logical reason for their silence; then request their help. Put another way: Cause them to feel obligated to answer, and obligation is what finally can trigger a response. For those who can’t think of sound reasons, they may find it easier to give in and renew.

Robert Lerose has studied and lectured on renewal series for 15 years. As a freelance copywriter, he uses that knowledge to write money-making efforts for magazine and newsletter publishers. He can be reached at (516) 486-0472 or at [email protected].

Bonus

CASE STUDIES


For more than 30 years, DaVinci’s Restaurant and Gourmet Pizzeria in Chestnut Ridge, N.Y. has been serving fine Italian cuisine in its main dining room and more casual fare in its attached pizzeria. The restaurant recently relaunched with a new menu, chef and renovated dining room.

When the management of DaVinci’s restaurant was finished renovating their din-ing space and had secured a new chef from New York who would cook from a completely new menu, they needed to make a strong marketing push to re-open their business. The goal was to welcome back returning clientele and also to at-tract trendier, more affluent diners from within the region.

After DaVinci’s management met Mann & Co. printing company, they decided to use a cross media variable data campaign to promote the newly renovated restaurant.

Obstacles: One of the biggest challenges in sending out the cross-media campaign was that DaVinci’s did not keep a regularly updated customer list. This meant the restaurant had to start from scratch and purchase regional lists for the neighbor-hoods surrounding its Chestnut Ridge location. The restaurant purchased the lists through Mann & Co.’s affiliated list supplier, with a plan to send out two drops. After the first drop, the printer would analyze response and purchase a second round of saturated lists in the highest-performing neighborhoods.

Not only had the business been closed for four months, but the grand re-opening fell during a difficult economic time. Therefore, it was critical to garner a healthy response from the cross-media campaign and generate some ROI to offset the restaurant’s closure and renovation costs.

Key Solutions: Ultimately DaVinci’s settled on a variable data 5˝ x 7˝ postcard that used the pros-pect’s name in the copy and offered $10 off on fine dining and $5 off in the pizzeria. To receive the discount coupon, the prospect had to enter a URL personalized with his name, for example, www.DavincisCode.com/JoeSmith, and also enter a four digit code printed on the mailing.

Restaurant Promotes Re-opening with a Cross-Media Campaign and a PURL

VDP CASE STUDY


The PURL contained a quick three question survey and asked for contact informa-tion. When a customer filled out the survey, he would receive a trigger email with an HTML coupon inside. There was also a general URL, www.davinciscode.com, to capture response from word of mouth, print, TV and social media ads.

The printer used an XMPie platform to produce the postcard, email and PURL design, and had the postcards printed within its network of vendors. To make the customer experience seamless, it was important for the PURL and email to have the same same look and feel as the printed piece.

The first round of postcards dropped in November 2009 to 5,000 recipients resid-ing in ZIP codes near the restaurant. With real-time campaign reporting and vari-able data printing, the printer was able to make adjustments to the campaign lists and creative after before doing a second mail drop.

The printer analyzed response data, identified the areas with the highest response and then purchased a second list of 8,500 names in those high-performing areas. Because it now had a sense of the highest performing neighborhoods, it elimi-nated the original survey question “How far would you travel for good Italian food?” The printer added a new question, “Have you ever experienced our Gour-met Pizzeria?” to identify any repeat customers.

Final Results: For both the first and second mailings, more than 5 percent of recipients respond-ed through the PURL to activate the coupon. Business at the restaurant increased by more than 45 percent over the previous year.

The campaign also helped DaVinci’s build a database of nearly 1,000 qualified customers and prospects, ensuring that future communications would be targeted and effective.

In future campaigns, the printer hopes to work with clients like DaVinci’s to pro-vide 360 degree tracking. By capturing information from restaurant receipts, the printer can provide reporting on how many coupons were used and each coupon-holders total purchase amount.

By tracking repeat visitors and rewarding them with special offers, this full-circle reporting can help improve the offer if necessary, provide measurable ROI and even become the start of a business’ loyalty program.


Nothing speaks to a prospective donor or customer like an involvement device. Most people seem to find surveys, quizzes and free gift choic-es advertised both online and in direct mail irresistible.

Involvement devices work because they make consumers and constituents feel important, as if their choices or opinions matter and will make an impact on the company or organization they’re responding to. World Wildlife Fund (WWF) capitalizes on the involvement technique in its long-standing calendar control mailing.

Sent to prospective and previous members, the 9˝ x 12˝ package gets recipients involved from the beginning, with an offer to vote for next year’s calendar cover on the front of the outer. On the back of the outer, headline copy and photographs advertise the prospect’s choice between three WWF branded premiums — three lunch totes, two water bottles or a golf umbrella. “The more involvement you

give your donor, the better your mailing will do,” says Antoinette Dack, director of membership marketing for the Washington, D.C.-based organization.

WWF has been mailing a calendar control package for more than 17 years, but the current incarnation, with multiple premium choices and a vote for the cover, has been mailing for four years and has improved response.

Both the premium and cal-endar cover choices operate with sticker involvement de-vices, which donors can peel and place on the reply form to indicate their preferences. Donors can find the premium

The World Wildlife Fund Uses involvement Devices and Premiums to Win Over Donors

DONOR ACQUISITION CASE STUDY


stickers attached to the top right-hand side of the two-page letter. Stickers for the 2011 calendar cover image are located on one of the package’s buckslips.

An oversized reply form, perforated to the bottom edge of the letter, has enough room for all the donor’s gift information, plus stickers for the premium and cal-endar cover choices. WWF began testing the larger reply form about four years ago. “We needed more room for the placement of the stickers … and we tend to notice that the more white space there is and the bigger [donors] can write, the better,” Dack details.

Of the two buckslips enclosed in the mailing, one advertises the three premium choices and offers 10 environmental tips on the back, and a second slip features the stickers to vote for the 2011 calendar cover animal and statistics about how WWF allocates its funds on the reverse. Also enclosed are a BRE and the high-light of the package, a colorful 16-month calendar with the theme of wildlife babies. “We’ve tested various themes over the years, such as families, friends, together in nature and portraits, but our most successful one is the wildlife ba-bies,” Dack says.

The first drop was sent in July to both acquisition and house names. There was a second drop sent to acquisitions in early September, and a final drop to remain-ing house names, including lapsed members, in October. Altogether WWF sent out more than 3 million calendar control packages. Dack says the organization chooses to send its calendar mailings beginning in July, to keep up with market trends. “You want to be in people’s mailboxes at the same time as all of the other nonprofit organizations send their calendars,” she explains. The calendar offers 16 months so members have the opportunity to use it as early as September.

During the rollout, there were several test panels at play. WWF tested a full-bleed image of the baby tiger on the front outer instead of an image of the calendar itself. It also tested sending two calendars to previous members and tested its typical plush stuffed animal premium choices against newer, more eco-friendly alternatives, such as the totes, umbrella and water bottles offered in this package.

In response to the flagging economy, WWF performed an interesting ask string test for previous donors. Dack says most nonprofits try to upgrade donors every year, with ask strings of 1, 1.25, 1.5 and 2 times above their previous gifts, but last spring, WWF began testing ask strings of .75, 1, 1.25 and 1.5. By making the first ask amount lower than last year’s gift, Dack says the average gift has low-ered slightly, but response has increased and overall revenue has increased. She repeated the test again this year and got the same great results.


A bookend email campaign adds to the success of the mailing. Email messages featuring similar creative, a letter written from Dack, and images of the free calendar and premium choices were sent to about 40 percent of the direct mail re-cipients both before and after the calendar package hit. Dack says the email mes-sages raised about $12,000 in gifts, but more importantly, direct mail response increased among those segments who received both mail and email messages.

She thinks the email messages give donors pause when they receive the direct mailing. “When [donors] get the mailing in their mailbox, they hold on to it and think, ‘Oh, I saw something about this,’” Dack illustrates. Sending emails in addition to direct mail, she says, also teaches donors to think multichannel and interact with the organization both in the mail and online.

WWF mails to about 1 million prospective, current and lapsed members each month. Those who become members are typically around 60 years old, 72 per-cent are female and most are highly educated. Mailings sent throughout the year, to both house and acquisition names, can range in format from more traditional #10s, to big packages with up-front premiums such as calendars, cards, gift wrap or notepads. This control mailing happens to be the first of the fiscal year and re-ceives an average gift of $23 for house names and $18 for acquisition. Dack says this campaign is WWF’s strongest, due to its high response rate, and she says she’ll definitely be mailing the calendar package next year.

To keep the control strong, Dack plans to continue testing creative and lists. She is considering bumping the double calendar up from a test to a control feature. One thing is certain, that WWF members will be waiting for next year’s calen-dar, to see if their votes for the cover image won! “I think we give them a great product, with beautiful photos ... I think it’s something people wait for in the mail every year,” Dack concludes.

Control FactsPackage name: World Wildlife Fund Calendar MailingFormat: 9” x 12”, letter, two buckslips, two sticker involvement devicesNumber of Years as Control: four yearsAverage Drop: 3 millionCopy & Design: In-housePremiums: Choice of threeFreemiums: 16-month calendar, 10 eco-friendly tipsMultichannel: email messaging, microsite

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