Direct Marketing Creative Generator

Should You Use Surveys in Your Direct Marketing Research?

2009-12-27T12:47:00.005-05:00

Should You Use Surveys in Your Direct Marketing Research?
By
Marty Gross

How can you make more effective and timely decisions in direct marketing…decisions that will allow you to understand what the market is asking for? You need marketing research.

Marketing research allows you to capitalize on opportunities you may not have been aware of. In addition, you’ll be able to actually forecast perils and problems before a major disaster swamps you.

However, already armed with the ability to test and change plans quickly, direct marketers may question why they need put any money into marketing research at all. After all, direct marketing is its own research vehicle, isn’t it?

Unlike other marketers, direct marketers can measure the results of their advertising spending at once. There’s no waiting as the sales numbers trickle in from the field over weeks, even months and quarters, and reports are slowly analyzed.

You learn immediately if a campaign is not working. If your test package outpulls your control, you can take advantage of it right away.
Where then does formal marketing research fit in to a direct marketing program?

Uses of Marketing Research for Direct Marketers

As useful as the research side of direct marketing can be as an information-gathering tool, there comes a time when only formal market research can gather the right kind of information. Formal marketing research may be thought of as the process of collecting information relevant to a specific marketing problem faced by the company. This requires defining the problem and setting the research objectives … developing a research plan ...implementing the marketing research plan … and interpreting and reporting the findings.

There are at least six ways formal marketing research can work for the direct marketer.

1. Learn which new product ideas to develop first. How viable is the product or service? What kind of success will you have if you launch it? Before putting any money or energy in a new venture, you can determine the degree of its acceptance in the market.

2. Learn just which product features you should stress. What are the features, advantages and, most importantly, the benefits that the market is looking for? When you find out what product benefits to emphasize, you don’t have to spend a lot of time looking for the right benefits to emphasize and those to ignore. You can more into high gear immediately and get the jump on competitors, who may still be experimenting with trial offers.

3. Learn if your creative strategy makes sense — before you test.
How can you save money on testing and your initial investment without jeopardizing a test? Usually, if the test doesn’t work, your costs and time have to be chalked up to experience. Even a small scale test, the kind direct marketing specializes in, calls for an investment in time and money. Wouldn’t it be great if you were able to save even more money …by putting your dollars precisely where they would do the most good, instead of paying production, postage, creative and mailing list costs that have to be swallowed if the promotion is discarded? Due diligence research early in the game can help you avoid many of the small losses associated with testing, failed tests that do add up over the course of time. By getting feedback from a random sample of your target market, you can adjust your sights properly for any size of a test.

4. Learn more about your customers.
Are you taking your customers for granted? Once you have captured a customer base, there is a high probability that these customers will give you a good ROI (Return on Investment) year in and year out. It’s like owning a deep well that never runs dry. However, to guarantee the retention of your best customers, you must keep abreast with their changing needs. Did you live up to your customer's expectations? Has your competitor's product improved so that it has become better suited to your customer's needs? If so, what is lacking in your product? All these questions, and more, can be answered through properly implemented marketing research. Research can provide you with valuable information on the changing demographics and psychographics of your customers. You can never stand pat: what last year’s customers were buying may not be their choice this year. Why have sales been falling in certain critical areas. Why have sales picked up in otherwise slow-moving regions?

Reasons and answers are what marketing research can provide. Research will tell you how your company how a company is viewed today by present and potential customers.. Information like this can help you shape a marketing plan for the future.

5. Analyze shifts in the marketplace.
What’s happening in the marketplace, now and tomorrow? By keeping tabs on the market through formal marketing research, a company can forecast changes and plan accordingly Unprofitable areas can be dropped before becoming critical, and new exploitable possibilities can be explored carefully and discreetly, without letting competition know your future plans.

6. Replace or precede costly and chancy dry-testing.

Dry-testing is promoting a product that may still be on the drawing board in order to test response before incurring production and shipping costs. To avoid customer complaints, it's usualy done on a small scale. Naturally, any cash orders must be refunded, and postal and FTC regulations require that respondents be notified if there is any delay in shipping, with the opportunity for them to cancel.

Marketing research can obtain the same information for a marketer without running the risk of violating FTC regulations. Formal market research can eliminate, or at least back up the classic dry test: mailing to a amorphous prospect base a promotion piece for a yet-to-be-determined product. There’s less chance of possible violation of FTC rules. And there’s also less chance of an alert competitor getting hold of the promotion and getting a good idea of your marketing plans.

©Copyright Martin Gross 2009

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Tune In to These Sound Radio Ideas

2009-12-05T16:32:00.003-05:00

Tune in to These Sound Radio Ideas
By
Marty Gross

Heard any good mail lately? Here are 3 effective techniques borrowed from radio that you can adapt to direct mail.

The medium of radio is becoming popular again as an advertising vehicle for direct response. While direct mail writers enjoy writing radio commercials, it’s really a two-way street.

Broadcast writers can bring their special skills to direct mail, giving it an exciting flavor.

Here are three devices from radio that can be used in direct mail.

1. Brevity. The first is the necessity to be brief. You just can’t run on in radio. If the commercial is 30 seconds long, you can’t write 32 seconds’ worth of copy.

A copywriter therefore learns that you don’t have to repeat anything to make a point.. that you can use inference, tone and pacing to sell ... that simple words work better than convoluted ones ... and that brief sentences are easily understood, whereas long, involved sentences can baffle the listener.

Transferring these lessons to direct mail can transmute a dull package into a golden money-maker. For instance, very long copy is sometimes necessary to sell something. But if the length of the copy is only the result of repetition and reiteration of the same points, you’re wasting your time and insulting your reader.

Writing broadcast copy can teach you how to sell gracefully and quickly. In this impatient era, when most people just can’t find the time to read a lot of words, stylish brevity can win you friends and customers.

2. Contiguity. Another selling idea you might want to borrow from radio is contiguity. This describes two programs next to each other in time and sequence that are not interrupted for commercials or announcements.

A mailing who has two products might want to make two mailings to the same household at the same time. For instance, a magazine publisher offering a photography magazine and a travel magazine might want to send separate but equal packages to the same list. Each package would identify the publisher, but would not refer to the other offer, so as not to detract from the subject of the mailing.

Assuming the one list has customers for the two magazines, synergy might create a harder-selling environment, with both publications benefiting from the double exposure.

Some observers will quietly point out that two different mailings from the same publisher to the same list at the same time might confuse the recipient and make him decide to accept no offer at all. That’s why testing is important.

3. Hitchhiking. The third radio device is hitchhiking — using a short commercial near the end of a sponsored program to push a product not previously mentioned. This “by-the-way-folks” reminder is a way of giving exposure to a small-budget product and taking advantage of any “halo effect” by the heavily advertised item.

In a mail package, some other product can hitch a ride with a postscript, buck slip, flyer, or a box on the order form to be checked off. This will serve to introduce a product cheaply or get rid of extra inventory. Because direct mail can be more finely tuned than radio, only a portion of a mailing need receive this hitchhiker.

So you can test it without totally committing yourself or you can send it to only those prospects you judge to have the greatest interest in the offer. It’s a way of getting the hitchhiker to pay the tolls.

Direct marketers have found that it is essential to be able to move in and out of different media to take advantage of different windows of opportunity. The successful copywriter doesn’t have to put on another hat to work in a different medium, though. The lessons learned on one platform can be applied at another time in another place, often with gratifying results.

©Copyright Martin Gross 2009

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Really Cheap Direct Mail Testing Ideas

2009-11-27T18:09:00.004-05:00

Really Cheap Direct Mail Testing Ideas
by
Marty Gross

Add a survey in the form of a one-page questionnaire.

Change the outer envelope.

Create a single package to test multiple offers and copy platforms.

Create test packages with elements that can be changed at minimal cost.

Ignore lists with low total counts.

Test meaningful differences only. Ignore minutiae and the insignificant.

Print mailing pieces in no more than two-colors.

Test a BRE versus a CRE, especially in fund-raising.

Test a single element or a completely different approach.

Test black white vs. color.

Test bonus.

Test during off-season months.

Test editorial self-mailer format.

Test envelope teaser.

Test free gift.

Test free trial offer
.

Test headlines vs. no headlines in sales letters.

Test inexpensive involvement devices like sticker tokens.

Test long vs. short headlines.

Test major benefits against one another
.

Test media choices.

Test minimal production against a more lavish mailing.

Test no graphics vs text and graphics.

Test only one thing at a time.

Test outer envelope copy.

Test positioning alternatives.

Test short letter vs long.

Test short term intro offer.

Test simple ideas, not complicated concepts.

Test sampling.

Test simple inserts.

Test small brochure vs large brochure.

Test special pricing.

Test the product or service itself.

Test giveaway offers, such as: Free catalog…booklet…demonstration…survey and estimate.

Test timing.

Test volume discount.

Test new lists with oversize postcards, not packages.

Try for radically different approaches.

Try phone or e-mail interviews to test new offers.

Try print ads to test proposition.

Test buckslips or inserts in one or two colors.

Test no more than 10,000 pieces.

©Copyright Martin Gross 2009

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Harnessing Wordless Appeal in Direct Mail

2009-11-11T18:34:00.004-05:00

Harnessing Wordless Appeal in Direct Mail
By
Marty Gross

What are you trying to say? And are you sending the right message? Your direct mail may be saying too much or too little — and the graphics may be fighting the copy! Here’s how to get everything back in sync with “The Single Perception Precept.”

Direct mail promotions usually carry two sets of signals — the verbal message told by the text and an unstated one, which is conveyed by graphics. In a well-thought-out campaign, these signals will ordinarily augment each other. But sometimes the messages can get confused.

For instance, a spectacular mailing may tie the reader up in knots because it is made up of a colorful large outer envelope with a long-winded “legend” or teaser, a 4-page letter with heavily personalized text and marginal annotations in imitation handwriting, an order form (also personalized) with an involvement device and a complicated offer, a hard-breathing lift-letter urging the recipient to ACT NOW!, a premium flyer plus an intricately folded brochure.

There’s a marketing idea called The Howard-Sheth Theory of Buyer Behavior that says an over-burdened stimulus such as this may upset the prospect, causing an unwanted purchase behavior pattern to emerge... one creating tension and even refusal in the all-important predecision evaluation.
(Howard, J. A. and Sheth, J. N. The Theory of Buyer Behavior. NY: Wiley, 1969)

On the other hand, an understated self-mailer or email — the sort of off-hand announcement that’s more like a business card than a sales piece — might depress results. This is not only because of its failure to convey enthusiasm or even share information but also because of its indifferent “take it or leave it” attitude.

This sometimes happens when advertising people have no real say in the advertising process. It’s an incongruous state of affairs not infrequently encountered in technocratic enterprises like software companies, universities, professional associations and scientific book publishers. (Exception: On some occasions, it’s been known to happen that the very same unenlightening format may improve response through the “mystery” approach, where the sheer lack of information may sometimes prompt inquiries, proving that fortune sometimes favors the fatuous. )

The confusion rising from the written message fighting the graphic one can be eliminated through the application of the Single Perception Precept. This recently developed formula states that prospect behavior can be improved when the marketing message isn’t befuddling. It identifies four message mixes, each with its own verbal and graphic phases. Which ones to use? It all depends on whether you are conversing ... cooperating ... co-acting ... or coercing!

Intimate Message. Verbal phase — this is a warm, very personal tone. It can be used to sell insurance, health and self-help products. There is a heavier than usual reliance on the first person, contrary to the usual direct mail rule that says you should use the “you.” The equivalent speaking level would be a semi-whisper.

Intimate Message. Graphic phase — personal stationery, or executive-size 8” x 10” sheets, printing with only the product name or the name of the sender. Rather than hard-edged computer typefaces, a typewriter font is preferred for the letter. There are some marketers who haven’t been above the occasional “typo” or misspelling. Imitation script, while too hard to read in a long letter, can be used for the lift letter — which should look like a message dashed off at the last minute. The signature may be just a first name, and the PS might even be handwritten.

The brochure might use photos of people in friendly poses. Novel or intricate folds can be a bother here. Type should be a “friendly” serif face, rather than a hard, machine-like contemporary san-serif. Outer envelope, which should be personal rather than institutional in size, should be closed-face, perhaps with a typed corner card, and with stamps, or meter rather than printed indicia. Any teaser copy on the envelope must carry the feeling of a personal note.

Personal Message. Verbal phase — a conversational tone used among acquaintances. Excellent for renewal series, customer promotions, travel promotion, sales reminders. The sales message should emphasize reason-why, which, of course, is a good idea for any mailing! Gentle, self-deprecating humor would not be out of place. The equivalent speaking level might be a soft voice at a dinner table or a moderate volume outdoors or in a car.

Personal Message. Graphic phase — more spirited than the intimate message. You can use 8-½” x 11” company letterheads here with impunity, as well as unconventional formats. Choppy sentences and single sentence paragraphs should not be dismissed. They can really work for this audience. Both personalized or printed letters have their place.

Brochures can be colorful exciting sales pieces. Post cards, self-mailers, gadgets and involvement devices can work here. Outer envelopes can be 6” x 9” , Number 10, monarch, baronial, or even 6-¾. Teaser copy here can be playful.

Impersonal Message. Verbal phase — strictly business. For banks, large corporations, financial products and services, expensive merchandise, real estate investment offers, business-to-business. The sales message should be straightforward and consistent, though well-reasoned. This is full-voiced selling, or telling — a superior talking to a subordinate, for instance.

Impersonal Message. Graphic phase — rich paper, unless budget items are being sold, business stationery, block paragraphing, bold signature in blue. Neat, bulleted paragraphing works here.

Brochures should have call-outs, technical illustrations, products in use. Sales literature should be the kind that executives might send along to colleagues, or used to persuade others in the organization, or to justify the expenditure.

The outer envelope must be able to get around the mailroom and secretary minefields. They should look businesslike, rather than frivolous or cheap.

Public message. Verbal phase — preferred by fund-raisers, religious groups, institutions and politicians. Words are carefully thought out, and, at times, the tone may even be a trifle demanding, thought not full-volume.

Public message. Graphic phase — importance and sincerity must be evoked, and, in the case of fund raising, an awareness of costs should be apparent. Letters may be on 8” x 10” letterheads. Elaborate promotions really send the wrong message here.

Brochures should be simple folders, folders in letter format, or easy to read booklets, without ostentatious printing devices such as holograms. Return envelopes may ask for a stamp to save money. Simple outer envelopes may be a little message; in the case of charities, just short of a begging appeal.

©Copyright Martin Gross 2009
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Developing a Recruiting Program for New Sales Blood That Delivers Prime Candidates.

2009-11-03T17:44:00.005-05:00

Developing a Recruiting Program for New Sales Blood That Delivers Prime Candidates.
By
Marty Gross

· Reduce the Expense of Shotgun Advertising
· Tap New Audiences to Expand Potential Recruiting
· Take Advantage of a Multi-Media Marketing Plan to Reach all Potential Candidates
· ...With a Well-Planned and Tailored Direct Marketing Campaign that Can Improve Recruiting Many Times.

To better accomplish your sales recruitment goals, consider direct marketing as a cost-effective method that can help you successfully find the candidates you’re after efficiently and effectively.

With a well-planned direct marketing recruiting campaign, you can control how many potential candidates you will hear from, when you will hear from them, and how qualified they are. Through direct marketing you can also survey the field to identify changing perceptions about selling, your firm, and salary requirement. In addition you will reduce the uncertainty associated with building a sales force because you’ll generate a controlled flow of qualified leads, reducing the need for and expense of wasteful “shotgun” advertising.

To increase the effectiveness of your direct marketing recruitment campaign you’ll need to develop a direct marketing package that complements your firm’s overall marketing strategies. You’ll also need to compile a mailing list that targets an audience with the ability, experience and desire to respond to your direct marketing campaign.

What Should Your Direct Marketing Campaign Include?
To be successful, a direct marketing package must evoke response. To do this, the package needs a strong offer. This is the promise of the transaction.
There are a number of elements to the offer which must be carefully balanced. These include:

1. Salary/Compensation. This should be the central focus of your direct marketing proposition. If you undersell this benefit, you may severely lower your response potential. If you purposely oversell the salary/compensation offer, you can expect a great number of underqualified responses.

2. Growth and Advancement Potential. This includes not only what you believe the potential should be, but what the prospective new salesman perceives its value to be. By copy-testing different objectives and goals you may learn that the new salesman will pay more attention to a minor objective you hadn’t really considered important, or that the increase in response to a career objective substantially offsets a lower compensation package.

3. Terms of Compensation. To increase the effectiveness of your direct marketing campaign, you’ll need to determine the methods of compensation your company is best structured to offer. Should it be straight salary? Or a draw against commissions? Or deferred commissions?

4. Incentives and Bonuses. These can be useful in evoking response to your offer. They can be in the form of cash premiums paid instantly upon hiring, third party gifts for recommendations, or other inducements to apply. But premiums must be used carefully. The more you give away, the better response you can expect. This can come at the expense of sales force quality.

5. Guarantee. When applying for a job through a blind box number, for instance, a salesperson doesn’t know to whom he or she is speaking. Confidentiality should be guaranteed. One way to reduce this uneasiness is with a strong guarantee.

The individual elements of the direct marketing package should be consistent with your overall recruiting objectives. If you want the maximum number of responses, use a blatantly big salary offer plus an incentive. If you want the best career-minded candidates, then use goal/objectives. If all you want are exploratory candidates, then a brief trial or free-lance offer is best. But you must always be conscious of the effect that changing elements of the offer can have on results. And you must test wherever possible.

Testing your direct marketing can help determine the potential response to your campaign. This testing can also help you identify problems with your message and adapt your program to meet your recruiting needs.

Different variables should be tested one at a time to help establish or fine-tune a program. For instance, if you choose to test mailing lists, then your design, offer, etc. must remain the same. Likewise, when testing the creative aspects of your program, your mailing lists must remain the same. If not, your results will not be useful. Also when testing, you must use statistically reliable sample sizes. Most direct marketers use probability tables to establish appropriate sample sizes. These tables can be found in many books on direct marketing.

Planning Your Program
As with other promotional media, the key to success with direct marketing is planning. To make sure your campaign achieves your recruiting strategies, you need to develop and adhere to a working plan that meets these objectives.

The Situational Analysis
The first step in planning your program is to review the company’s current situation. This should include both internal and external factors affecting the company, and the program that is planned. For instance, you may want to use direct mail to open up a new area not currently served by your sales force.

Identifying The Target Market
You will need to profile your target candidates. This is especially important for direct marketing because one of its strengths is that it can reach market segments. By properly identifying your best sales force prospects, you can make the job of proper list selection easier, and greatly increase your changes of success.

Analyzing The Job
Your next step is to look closely at your job offer—not just at the features of the job, but also the main benefits for a new salesperson. This is important in terms of copy. Most new salespersons have very little interest in every detail of a job. For a message to compel them to action (in this instance, to apply for the job), you have to tell them how the job will benefit them.

However, direct mail that simply lists a multiplicity of features misses the point. Ultimately, benefits, not features, cause someone to purchase, inquire or otherwise respond. By highlighting the benefits in your organization, you’ll be better able to translate them into major selling points within your copy.

Establishing An Objective
For most direct marketing sales force recruitment programs, the objective will be a version of one of two broad categories: The acquisition of new sales force/prospects at the lowest possible cost or acquiring a sales force through the hiring away from other firms, training new salespeople, or keeping present people happy.

It is important that you choose your objective very carefully. Every other element of your marketing plan must be linked to it. If you’ve chosen an objective which requires a large number of responses, it can affect your offer, the number of pieces you’ll have to mail or the number of ads you will have to place, and, of course, your budget. To make sure your objective is reasonable, it should be quantified in terms of numbers and time frame. For a direct mail program, this should be tied back into the response rate or number of responses during the period of a specific recruitment offer.

Determining A Strategy
Once you have chosen your objective, you will need to choose a strategy for implementing a direct marketing recruiting program that will achieve that objective. This includes both marketing and creative strategies. Generally, you will find that listing several strategic alternatives and the rationale for each will help you reach your goal. Carefully analyze the advantages and disadvantages of each when making your final decision.

You’ll also want to be sure that your strategy is consistent with the image you wish to maintain in the marketplace and that it complies with all corporate policy and legal considerations. For instance, if the objective of your direct mail program is a large number of applications, your strategy may be to mail heavily, test marginal mailing lists, structure a generous offer (e.g., car, generous benefits, high commission, rapid advancement, prime territory, etc.). If your objective is to achieve the highest qualified applicants, your strategy might include reducing your promotional cost, mailing only to experienced salesmen, or best performing lists, and pushing only one benefit.

Establishing A Budget
The last main planning element of a direct marketing campaign is establishing a working budget. You will need to estimate all of your costs and compare them with your expected return. Too many direct marketing programs fail before they even start because this step is ignored.
Since direct marketing is accountable, you might want to do a Profit and Loss Statement before you go any further, to make sure your objective is achievable. This should include—by medium—estimated production, creative, media, fulfillment, (for direct mail: list and mailing costs), and any follow-up costs (callbacks, special interviews, telemarketing support, etc.). It is helpful to look at the impact of the various cost elements on each response. You can do a Unit Profit and Loss Statement, plugging in the applicable cost items, and quickly estimating your expected return. A spreadsheet software program such as Excel can greatly simplify this task.

Having completed the initial planning stages you can now begin work on the creative aspects of the project. Whether you create it yourself, or hire experienced direct marketing professionals to do it for you, it is important to be familiar with all of the elements of a direct marketing program.

©Copyright Martin Gross 2009

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Giving Something Away Carefully

2009-09-27T10:18:00.005-04:00

Giving Something Away Carefully
by
Marty Gross

When the sales manager complains that his sales force can't handle the number of leads generated through your promotion, or when you're in of running out of booklets, just how do you cut back on inquiries? Unfortunately, the copywriter who is trained to sell heavily sometimes doesn't how to pull back and make the mixture leaner rather than richer. Over the years, however, copywriters have “perfected” 10 techniques.

1. Instead of giving your free booklet an interesting title, just call it “Free Booklet.” This is a guaranteed way to remain small ~and exciting. Years ago, if Merrill Lynch had decided to call its phenomenally successful booklet “Stocks and Bonds, a Guide” instead of “What You Should Know About This Stocks & Bonds Business,” the firm probably would have remained a small regional broker. So if you don't want to add personnel to handle the overflow of leads, or if you're aiming at a very selective audience, be sure to take the sell out of the title.

2. Make sure your description of the free booklet's contents is dry and rather cryptic. Look over standard college-course descriptions to get an idea of the style you should use to discourage idle curiosity seekers from sending for your free booklet. Perhaps just shortening the description or eliminating it entirely will do the trick.

3. Imply that sending for the booklet may be harmful to the would-be sender's health. Play down any advantages or benefits the product or services may have. Exaggerate the time or expertise needed to install it (this is especially effective in computer software advertising). You'll find that dilettantes will stay away in droves.

4. Hide it. If you mention the booklet without showing a picture of it, this can effectively play down any value it may have. If you must show the booklet, be sure not to caption the illustration. You'll be able to devote the space thus saved to selling the product, instead of promoting a giveaway. Triflers will be discouraged.

5. Set up a number of rules that must be followed before you'll give away your booklet. These demanding qualifications will go far in separating the sheep from the goats. For instance, be sure to state an age or income qualification by inserting a box to be checked in a coupon. Each obstacle you put in the way of a prospect will further winnow out sales-literature collectors.

6. Consider a couponless ad. In making your prospect show stronger interest by requiring more effort on his part, you filter out all those coupon-clippers who just want to receive mail.

7. Be more stringent about giving away your booklet. Erect more hurdles in the coupon. Make the inquirer sign the coupon. Ask him to carefully print the size or model number he's interested in. In a business-to-business coupon, no matter how limited the space, ask for a title, and insist that the inquirer give you his phone number and his fax number as well as his e-mail address.

8. Devote less copy to your free offer. Don't put it in a headline. Bury the offer in the body of the text. This is a device often used by auto manufacturers who have a detailed and interesting brochure to give away but who naturally are more concerned in coining phrases like “First in Its Class” or “A Luxury Automobile for the Way You Live Today.”

9. If you find that you're still getting a lot of inquiries, you might consider charging for the booklet. This will help lessen the number of people with their hands out for something free; the fewer prospects who do come in will have really shown their sincerity and should be easier to sell. Be careful, however. Many years ago, a carefully informative and factual advertisement for Rolls-Royce was written so cleverly and clearly that its quietly diffident offer of a $10.00 descriptive brochure was taken up by thousands of charmed readers. Despite the classy attempt to discourage hoi polloi, the Rolls-Royce showrooms were swamped with responses from people who had never even been in a Roller, let alone owned one.

10. Don’t allow the quality of your product or your sales prose to encourage unworthy and undesired inquiries. Frequently, the enthusiasm or supercharged energy of an ad or commercial will carry all before it, and inquiries for free information will get out of hand. Tone down your headline and tune out obvious customers an prospects by using bland, confusing language that will make it difficult for your audience to know whether you’re selling credit cards or underwear. Rule: unselective copy will result in highly selective inquiries.

©Copyright Martin Gross 2009

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Open Systems Open New Idea Doors

2009-09-14T15:23:00.004-04:00

Open Systems Open New Idea Doors
by
Marty Gross

Systems theory allows the observer to see relationships that otherwise might not be noticeable. Basically, in this discipline, a system is a perceived configuration—an entity or unit. While in business and management it is usually used to analyze organizations, systems theory may have a special application to direct marketing.

Looking at direct marketing from this standpoint might open up new areas of investigation. For instance, you might see if there are forces and processes of interaction shaping direct marketing that might be harnessed to aid decision-making and action.

Systems theorists differentiate between closed and open systems. Basically, a closed system can be something like a cloistered religious community, complete unto itself and not requiring any contact with the outside world. Obviously, direct marketing would not long survive this sort of isolation. It's an open system, like the cell, the car and family. To do its job properly, it uses energy from the environment, transforms it and then returns the energy back to the environment in a different form.

As an open system, direct marketing exhibits the following characteristics (drawn from D. Katz and R. I. Kahn, The Social Psychology of Organizations):

Input. This is the importing of energy from the external environment. In the same way cars import gas and cells import blood and oxygen, direct marketing imports information and manpower. An efficient open system will make more use of the energy it imports than a “gas burner.” The efficient direct marketing program will not be top-heavy with managerial types and won't flood its system with too much distracting information or, worse, unprocessed data. (There is a good case, however, for importing a little more energy than you need. See “negative entropy” below.)

Throughput. A trophy worthy of the Jargon Hall of Fame, but systems analysts have latched upon it to describe the process open systems use to make use of available energy. In the same way that the body might convert starch and sugar into heat, direct marketing chews up (a) market and product data to create a service or product and (b) inspiration, insight and talent to create persuasive promotions.

Output. An unhappy part of the analogy! The car exports exhaust fumes, the body gets rid of waste materials ... and what does direct marketing do? It sends out promotions and products.

Cycles of events. A metaphysical or dialectical stage. In this example of recycling, sending out an output makes input or importing possible, which leads to processing and further output, and so on. In direct marketing, this would be the recycling of occurrences or events: Production and promotion lead to responses, inquiries and sales, which lead to more products and promotions. So rather than think of a promotion as an isolated event, consider it a link in a chain or an act in a play.

Negative entropy. Alas, all things must come to an end. The natural process of entropy inexorably moves from decay to dust. Direct marketing, using negative entropy, attempts to defeat this by importing more energy than is sent out. This can produce flab (heavy inventory). It can also produce fuel for a long hard winter (extra cash, and “impractical” research and development that eventually pays off).

Information input, negative feedback and the coding process. For any direct marketing operation, negative feedback can be very positive—it's the information received that tells you, for instance, which list has been naughty and which has been nice. The coding process is another jargon term that simply means the sorting of useful and useless information, such as over elaborate tests that experiment with the color of postage stamps or the use of serif vs. sans-serif typefaces on lift letters.

The steady state and dynamic homeostasis. Any open system surviving by importing energy to offset entropy is said to be in a steady state. However, because environments change, systems must change as well to counterbalance any disruptive force. A catalog company may shift, for example, from selling to rural customers to marketing to city dwellers. Adjusting this way by preserving its character as a catalog company but changing its market to peddle the same old merchandise to a marketplace that doesn't want it, with the result that entropy builds up and with it the end of the business.

Differentiation. The catalog company that once tried to be a department store in print, catering to a far-flung customer base, now carefully segments its marketing with specialized catalogs to targeted groups. This form of specialization is true of all open systems, which move from a state of overbusyness to specialized and standardized operating systems, in a bid to achieve greater efficiency.

Equifinality. Reaching the same goal through different means. One magazine publisher might achieve its profits through reducing the number of magazines issued and concentrating on seminars and video cassettes; another might diversify into newsletters; a third might go into broad casting. In direct marketing, one mail order book publisher might build a system of book clubs; another might concentrate on one subject; and a third might go for coffee-table books. •

©Copyright Martin Gross 2009

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The Profitable Secrets of Pricing Just Right

2009-09-05T10:16:00.009-04:00

The Profitable Secrets of Pricing Just Right
by
Marty Gross

In the tight little universe of a direct mail marketplace, very frequently there exists an opportunity to create your own pricing structure that bears only the most tenuous relation to the real world. This can occur when you're selling a unique item. It can be a newsletter for a specialized audience, a service that no body else is offering or some product that by virtue of its qualities can't be compared with anything else around. Very often the magic of the copywriter er has created a selling impression that can't be assailed by price comparisons, budgetary constraints or the sheer lack of cash.

To take advantage of this special and exclusive moment, the wise direct marketer will have employed a “psychological pricing technique.” This approach to pricing goes beyond cost-based or demand-based techniques, which, though often quite elegant, may fail to address the perceived value of an item-a perception that good direct mail copy will not only create, but also enhance.

The focus of this strategy is a belief that many consumers have: that price is an indication of quality--that the higher priced item “has to be” better-and the consumer can enhance his or her self image by purchasing these “quality” items, such as designer clothes and luxurious automobiles.

Copy, graphics and production can satisfy the customer's psychological needs and create the proper environment for a purchase decision, but price must also support the image. A very elegant package selling a relatively inexpensive item can result in a response rate that may be surprisingly low. By being priced below expectation, the product has lost its prestigious image, thus decreasing the level of demand.

Another aspect of psychological pricing comes into play here: the art of "reducing a price. “Price lining” or “odd/even pricing” is a powerful technique that can often increase demand by apparently reducing price. A $26.99 item seems to be far cheaper than a $27 item. And a $98 item appears to be far less expensive than a $100 item.

Idea: when employing prestige-value pricing, it might be well to try reverse price lining, and bring the price up a dollar or so. Thus the $500-a-year newsletter might have a better cachet than one selling for only $477 a year.

Another way to use pricing in direct marketing is to take advantage of the discrete, identifiable and separable nature of direct mail, and package the identical product or service for different audiences with different prices. While usually employed in testing matrices, it can also be used in “discriminatory pricing.” This has nothing to do with prejudice or bias, but refers to the realization that different markets have different demands and can support different pricing. Thus, the same service that is offered to the public at large can be offered at a discount to certain groups. Whatever the criterion used to qualify these groups -- students, senior citizens, small businesses, government workers, frequent or volume users, off season travelers or charter subscribers -- the offer needs to be worded in such a way so as not to offend customers excluded from the discount structure, and has to conform to Federal regulations governing price discrimination, such as the Robinson-Patman, Sherman, and Clayton Acts. Take heart: a talented copywriter can use this required copy to actually strengthen the offer, by emphasizing the conditions of exclusivity.

For more on pricing, see Nagle, Thomas T. and Holden, Reed K, The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1995.

©Copyright Martin Gross 2009

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How to Use Your Direct Marketing Connections

2009-08-18T17:33:00.005-04:00

How to Use Your Direct Marketing Connections
By
Marty Gross

There’s no reason to treat contacts with prospects as “cold calls” when you can take advantage of any connections, relationships, linkages or networks that may be in place. Though you may lack personal or business acquaintance with people you may be advertising to, very often there are still referral systems, however tenuous, that you can cite.

A. Member Get a Member—Book clubs. use this device to obtain entry into a prospect's mailbox. It's also used by catalog mailers (“Customer Get a Customer”) and fundraisers (“Donor Get a Donor”). It allows the direct marketer to mention a friend's name and so gain a certain credibility and endorsement that otherwise would be lacking. Simply ask your present customer list to supply names of people they feel might be interested in what you're marketing. This can be done with a little note in a regular mailing, a house ad in a club bulletin or even a printed item on the back of your monthly statement. Offer a gift, premium, discount or just your thanks!

B. “ I Know Something About You."—A classic letter by the great direct mail copywriter Ed McLean starts off this way: “If the list upon which I have found your name ...” It overcomes the suspicion that a recipient might feel when he or she gets mail from a stranger; there's something in common between the sender and the reader that allows you to state your business in terms of mutual interest and profit without the usual courtship rituals that are often needed in direct marketing.

C. “It's a Small World."— Here a mailer actually tells the recipient the name of the list on which his/her name was found. “As a reader of Ptarmigan and Partridge Journal, you ought to know about Quail and Grouse Report's special subscription offer."
It’s a way of cutting through possible rejection or indifference to create a productive selling environment.

D. Affinity Groups--Used successfully in credit-card solicitations, the affinity group concept goes beyond reaching out to members of formal organizations. Imaginative marketers have built groups of small businessmen, contributors to certain charities or groups of charities and even fellow travelers and frequent fliers. People with nothing in common but the same last name can be organized into family associations that are basically heraldry or genealogy book operations. And mail order insurance companies can herd prospects with a common birth year into special policy groups (“If: you're over 55, you're entitled to a better deal on auto insurance”).

While a mailing or ad might be the first encounter, its effect need not be casual or one-time. Through careful preparation, meticulous investigation and some imagination, the skilled direct marketer can find links with which to establish a long- time relationship.

©Copyright Martin Gross 2009

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Psychiana -- A Mail Order Religion

2009-08-07T20:17:00.007-04:00

Psychiana-- A Mail Order Religion

Marty Gross

When Psychiana, the mail order religion of the Great Depression and World War II, was at its height, nearly 200 workers were needed to handle the inquiries, fulfillment and correspondence engendered by the remarkable 1200-word advertisements which appeared everywhere.

These ads, which disclosed that Dr. Frank B. Robinson, the founder, prophet and pope of Psychiana, had “talked with God,” offered expectancy and hope at a time when those commodities seemed to have vanished from the American scene. In Moscow, Idaho, though, things were bustling. Psychiana had become the biggest employer in the college town.

From being a drugstore clerk, Frank B. Robinson had become a very big man, indeed. He had contributed Robinson Park to the town. He sat on the board of a local newspaper. He gave baskets of food to local people in need.

There was also a lot of work to be done. There were letters to be answered (for a while Dr. Robinson actually was the sale correspondent; later on, he gave that job over to others), conversion series to be mailed, home study lessons to be sent out (at first, 24 for $26.00), and records to be kept.

Fortunately for posterity, journalists were freely admitted to Psychiana headquarters and they wrote down just how this strange cult or sect adroitly used the mathematics of direct marketing.

{Useful summaries of Psychiana's direct marketing efforts and achievements can be found in Charles Braden's These Also Believe: A study of modern American cults and minority religious movements (NY: Macmillan, 1949) and Marcus Bach's They Have Found a Faith (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1946.)}

Psychiana ran ads in fifteen hundred newspapers and 250 magazines, and kept careful records of the inquiries and the percentages of conversion, realizing the importance of transforming an inquirer into a purchaser. The highest percentage of conversions—21%—was from readers of a magazine about the future. Two astrology magazines yielded 18% and 14%. Three pulp detective magazines (this was the era of private eye fiction) returned 16%,15%, and 11%. One entertainment magazine featuring news about movies and radio stars gave a return of 14%, while another, more specialized movie magazine returned an 8% figure. A magazine of the Police Gazette variety, popular reading matter during the Depression, showed a 14% return. And a Sunday supplement resulted in a 13% return. A small town national weekly newspaper yielded a poor 3% conversion. However, a Midwest farm paper resulted in a 9% return. And a national veterans' magazine returned a 5% figure.

Dr. Robinson kept careful tabs on these figures, and when a publication showed that its responses weren't of sufficiently high quality, he would pull the ad. He also watched conversion results of inquiries from 80 radio stations, mostly on the west coast. Psychiana also used direct mail, usually a lead-generating circular with the same message: “I Talked with God. So Can You --It's Easy.” The circular promised that, “You may learn to use this fathomless pulsing, throbbing ocean of spiritual power just as you learn to use chemistry, physics or mathematics. Moreover you need make no outward show of religion.”

Many mailing lists were prospected, with the highest conversion rates—20%—coming from a lonely hearts list and a list of inquirers interested in “the power of thought.” The next list generated a return of 16%. These were mail order buyers of fish. (Always experimenting, Dr. Robinson had bought a very large list of these seafood lovers. He tested only 2,000—and of those who responded, 16% bought the lessons. He expanded the test and the return was much like the first. ) Other results included a Yoga list (14%). two astrological lists (12% and 11%). a Charles Atlas-like list (6%) and a parent's organization (6%). No conversions at all were received from inquiries from a high-fashion list.

Psychiana drew its membership mostly from Americans in the $3,000.00 a year income range—at that time a white collar salary. They came from all parts of the country and all religious denominations (to the fury of pastors who imagined their congregations dwindling). The follow-up series was extensive, regular and unremitting. A series of letters was mailed to an inquirer every week for at least two months. If there was no response, the name was rested for several months, when another series picked up the effort. In its heyday, Psychiana mailed out more than 500,000 letters a month. While the first set of lessons came in a series of 24, various other lengths were experimented with. There was a series of 12, 20, and even 75 --with a new set mailed every two weeks, so that contact was maintained with the student over a long period of time.

Lessons were written simply and warmly. One began:

“My dear Fellow Student.

You and I are about to begin a wonderful
journey together. We shall travel the most beautiful path you have ever known.
Little did you suspect that such a journey as this could be possible on this earth... “

From a theological viewpoint, Psychiana was an outgrowth of the New Thought movement, which preaches the power of positive thinking, without being a part of any formal religious tradition. The ideas of New Thought can still be found today in inspirational and motivational literature ranging from the works of Dr. Robert Schuller to the Rev. Norman Vincent Peale.

The cost of the lessons varied, and could be paid for in one lump sum, with a generous discount, or by installments over the period of the correspondence course. At one time, an honor system was tried, with the subscriber contributing whatever he thought the lessons were worth. Psychiana lost money that year and the experiment was dropped. However, those subscribers who couldn't afford to pay were sent the lessons without cost. And those serving prison sentences were also given the lessons free of charge.

Psychiana's experience with subscribers who didn't finish the course (and who didn't finish paying for it) was interesting. Nearly 75% of all subscribers stuck it out to the end, with less than one-quarter dropping it. There was a standing offer of a refund in full, but compared with the number of people who completed their payments, only a very small proportion ever asked for their money back. It was estimated that 75% of all students went on to “graduate work”, buying successive sets of lessons and the vast number of books that poured out of Moscow, Idaho.

Psychiana was both loved and loathed. It aroused a great deal of controversy, particularly among organized churches. Every student automatically became an associate member of the Psychiana religion, and ministers feared that they would lose parishioners to the mail order cult. It was investigated by Hearst newspaper columnist Westbrook Pegler, the postal authorities and the Better Business Bureau and given a clean bill of health.

With the exception of a brief attempt in 1938 to form two local groups, and two conventions held in Portland and Los Angeles, Psychiana was never made into a formal ecclesiastical organization, although it had been incorporated as a religious corporation in the state of Idaho, and Robinson had posed in church vestments for a photograph that adorned a wall in his office. Members were never put in touch with each other. And there were no ministers or missionaries, churches or chapels. Frank Robinson relied solely on advertising and direct mail to propagate his messa ge and convert the world.

On October 18, 1948, Dr. Frank B. Robinson died. Soon after, the ads disappeared from the magazines. The letters stopped. By 1950, the last students had completed their courses and were told that no more would be forthcoming. And Psychiana dwindled away. But even today, inquiries still arrive every now and then at the Moscow, Idaho, post office, from people who've seen that, promise of “I talked with God—and so can you!” in tattered old magazines. It really was a powerful ad.

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How to Motivate Responses

2009-08-01T13:09:00.007-04:00

How to Motivate Responses
By
Marty Gross

David C. McClelland of Harvard University identified in The Achievement Motive three types of motivating needs, which he classified as the need for power, the need for affiliation and the need for achievement.

Researchers have been probing motivation, motivators and satisfaction for many years, but the results of their studies have been applied mostly to management and general marketing problems, with direct marketing on the outside looking in, perhaps because of our field's essentially empirical and pragmatic nature. We depend on offers and benefits to lead people to do things, very often relying on those offers and benefits that have worked well for others or for earlier promotions. But in an increasingly expensive and competitive environment, this uninspired reliance on old standbys can yield disappointing results, especially when prospects are being bombarded with similar offers via every medium.

What's a direct marketer to do? Well, by acknowledging that the preponderance of persons who are being solicited are at best neutral about your product or service, and at worst, in tensely opposed to it, you'll realize how vital it is to select as precisely as possible those things-motivators-that will cause your targeted prospects to act as you want them to.

While there is a large body of motivation research, with such important psychologists and sociologists as Abraham Maslow, E. E. Lawler, J. L. Suttle, D. T. Hall and L. H. Porter identifying various psychological needs and the means of satisfying them, David Mc Clelland's research is especially useful for direct marketers because of its specificity. Once you have identified a target group, you can apply the specific basic motivating need that works best.

For instance, you can use McClelland's three categories of motivating drives--power, affiliation and achievement--in strategy to influence the behavior of individuals who best fit the following descriptions. (It should be remembered that the three needs discussed are to be found in all individuals in varying degree. We are talking about people who rate highest in specific categories.)

People who need power: According to McClelland's theory, people in this category are often teachers, public speakers, candidates for office, and the like. Very often they will occupy the second rung--as vice presidents, or assistant professors--but are looking for positions of leadership. If you’re interested in persuading them, you need to make an offer that can help them achieve their greatest ambition--to exercise influence and control.

The copy point that would appeal most to this group of outspoken and demanding people would have to be generously larded with facts they in turn can use to persuade others. For an offer to be successful, it would have to take into consideration their competitiveness and ambition. Examples and testimonials are devices that work well here.

In business-to-business promotions, do not overlook this group even if they are not direct purchasers. Their interest and even endorsement can be used to sway others, but their influence is not to be bought cheaply--so your proposition must be one they will see as helping them climb another rung of the ladder. A good market for self-help courses, seminars and self-improvement books.

People who need affiliation: These people are primarily concerned with avoiding rejection. They want to be members of a group and enjoy pleasant social relationships. You'll find them joining book clubs, church groups and fraternal orders. These gregarious people are prime candidates for credit card affinity group promotions, but the benefits should emphasize membership over convenience or service.

Because of their readiness to help people in trouble, they are excellent prospects for fundraising appeals. Again, the emphasis should be one on belonging, perhaps with an offer of associate membership (this works well with magazine subscriptions to this group as well).

People who need achievement: These people set challenging goals for themselves and enjoy developing new talents and skills. While somewhat restless, they will finish a task once they start it. They are analytical and responsible people who appreciate criticism. You'll find small-business owners and professionals in this group.

Any copy strategy has to take into account their sense of independence. Interestingly enough, McClelland discovered that the achievement drive can be taught through training programs emphasizing prestige and giving emotional support to class members.

Matching motivation with marketing objective has to take into account the complexity of individuals, and shouldn't be considered a panacea. However, this approach may well foster solutions to direct marketing problems that may have seemed insoluble up to now.

©Copyright Martin Gross 2009

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How to Market Business Services

2009-07-26T07:20:00.006-04:00

How to Market Business Services
by
Marty Gross

Whether you're selling a consumer service like dry-cleaning, financial planning or insurance, or a business service, like plant security, pension planning or overnight shipping, you're faced with four problems that direct marketing can help solve:

1. Cycles, valleys and the ticking clock. Services, unlike most products, are perishable. They can't be mass-produced and stored indefinitely. Payrolls must be met and rent paid even if nobody's flying, getting their hair cut or making long-distance phone calls. Because of slack periods, peak hours and slow seasons, the marketing of services calls for extra ingenuity to even out the hills and dales. Direct marketing can help smooth things over with special off- hour rate promotions and lower off-season fares, for instance. Here, direct marketing is needed, not to let the good times roll, but to keep the bad times from taking over.

2. The invisible client. Lacking any sort of tangible feature, services often cannot be demonstrated or displayed. Instead, a copywriter who's quick with metaphors and similes will have to do the selling. Adroitness, too, is called for when discussing quality and value, because your prospect is really in no position to judge these before sending in the order form. (Here's where testimonials and endorsements are very useful.)

3. No peas in a pod. While some services can be standardized—the same mail order hospitalization insurance policy, the identical long-distance phone call—many are not. This means there often will be questions to be answered and complicated forms to be filled out. That's why two-step and lead-generating promotions are of prime importance in the direct marketing of services. It's simply too hard to make the sale with one ad or mailing.

4. Active participation. (See No. 3.) In selling most products, all you need from the buyer is a filled-out order form; some times, just a checked box will do. But because of the refusal of most services to come neatly wrapped, the direct participation of the customer is needed. Whether it's a travel expedition or carpet cleaning, there are usually more exceptions to the rule that have to be worked out.

Because of the hand-holding that's called for when promoting most services, a special kind of direct marketing has to be employed--one that's less remote than the direct marketing of products. Though all direct marketing is a personal form of selling, the direct marketing of services has to be even warmer and friendlier. To maintain this feeling of close personal attention, direct marketing employs three “country-style” devices:

Country roads. A back-home, small-town feeling might be put across by including the sender's own business card, perhaps with a few words of greeting scrawled on it. When closing the letter, the signature might include the sender's nickname, or just his/her first name. Instead of 8-½-by-11-inch corporate stationery, a smaller piece of paper might be used -an executive letterhead that has the sender's name imprinted on it.

Country doctor. It has been pointed out that the ideal service relationship should be something like the relationship between doctor and patient. All promotions should reinforce this sense of professionalism. Copy, therefore, ought to emphasize ability and expertise, but in a way that increases the customer's own knowledge of what he's buying. Everything should be clearly explained, to reassure the customer. While technical information should be held to a minimum, there should be enough in the promotion to convey a sense of ability and know-how. There is a certain persuasiveness in the artful use of facts and figures that no amount of rhetoric can put over.

Country store. The direct marketing of services is rarely limited to one mailing or one ad or one commercial. It calls for an extended campaign that will build a favorable image. That's why so many intangibles are sold with the help of newsletters, or even indirectly through the promotion of related services. Much like a country store in a resort town with its wide range of goods, it can lure you in with its aroma of coffee beans and then proceed to empty your wallet with its display of imported foodstuffs.

Selling services calls for more of a market orientation than is sometimes found in the direct marketing of products. The link between marketer and customer is a stronger one. Personalization here is not only a printing technique but an imaginative approach to a sales area with distinct needs.

©Copyright Martin Gross 2009

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Making a Lasting DM Impression

2009-07-20T09:12:00.005-04:00

Making a Lasting DM Impression
by
Marty Gross

When you consider the amount of money and time spent on acquiring a good customer, some businesses have an almost cavalier attitude about keeping that good customer for a long time. While certain sophisticated catalog marketers will track a customer and try to keep him on the sunny side of the street through offers and special mailings aimed to his particular buying habits, only a handful of other direct marketers will take the time to analyze his buying behavior or attempt to cultivate his loyalty.

Living from mailing to mailing, many direct marketers have to reinvent the wheel each time they sell to their customer base, as contrasted with the long-term philosophy of general marketers that patiently cultivate a customer and try to keep him, not for years, but for decades, and even for generations, yea, unto the grand-children and great-grandchildren. How can a direct marketer, whose only connection with a customer may be by the impersonal media of mail. e-mail and phone, build bridges that last?

1. Frequent-buyer promotions. Bonus points, rebates and discounts and special mailings aimed at selected customers are part of every good direct marketer's strategy. By measuring “RFM,” the recency, frequency and monetary value of purchases, the direct marketer can segment different groups with the idea of upgrading them. While catalog companies will do this almost automatically, few other direct marketers have that inclination or capacity.

For instance, a magazine will patiently mail a renewal reminder to subscribers year in and year out, without isolating those subscribers who have renewed for, say, three years or longer, either through loyalty or habit. A special promotion, with a generously discounted three-year rate, or even a lifetime rate, might reward them for their steadfastness. (It should be noted that there is a school of thought that says that longer-term subscribers aren't particularly good prospects for advertisers they're jaundiced and blasé: They don't read ads with the same intensity as the one-year subscriber, and they don't perform well for other mail order offers, or so the story goes. And inflationary increases in postage and production make a long-term subscriber an extra-heavy burden for publishers to bear.

Consider the apocryphal news-magazine subscriber who may have signed up for a lifetime subscription in 1990 for the equivalent of $7.50 a year! Right now, a delegation from the publisher is doubtlessly knocking on his door with a buy-out offer! Lifetime subscription offers should probably first be submitted to insurance actuaries for their opinion before going public with them.

2. Long-time customer rewards. Some credit cards curry the new member during the first year of card membership with all sorts of special offers. But, on the stroke of midnight, on the first anniversary of card membership, it becomes business as usual, with threatening letters and phone calls should a payment be late. Ne'er a thank you for the business. Despite a credit card company's aloof attitude, many members do stick around. In fact, there are memberships that go back many decades! (Diners Club introduced its credit card in 1950. Even earlier, hotels were issuing credit cards in 1900, gas stations in 1914, railroads and airlines in 1947. The bank card was first issued in 1951 by Franklin National Bank.) Perhaps a little thank-you note might be enough, but the credit-card company with long-term goals might consider inventing a new class of membership-the Silver Anniversary Cardholders, with special benefits (no more annual membership fee) or ceremonies (retiring the credit-card number, the same way they do in baseball).

3. Surviving charter members. Here's an opportunity to celebrate the longevity of a company. Any charter subscribers or members who are still customers after so many years might be honored with a gift or special discount. Like many companies near their quarter-century or half-century marks, it might be a good time to dig into the records and see if there are any customers who have stayed with the firm through thick and thin. Phone companies have their Bell pioneer organizations for long-time employees, but what about customers who have paid their bills for 50 or more years? Some book clubs, for instance. have actuallly celebrated their diamond jubilees (the first book clubs in this country go back to 1927). Would there be any members left from those early years? (Preferably, these should be members who have taken every selection—a great testimonial for the negative-option concept!)

Building a customer franchise is a good way to ensure that others won't invade one's market. A loyal following of customers is a unique resource that direct marketers, especially those in maturing markets, can profit from.
© Copyright 2009 Martin Gross

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How Weber's Law Applies to DM

2009-07-12T21:39:00.003-04:00

How Weber's Law Applies to DM
by
Marty Gross

One traditional way of building a customer base is to dangle a price-discount offer in front of prospects. But to attract the right type of solid repeat customers, the offer has to be constructed in such a way as to be generous, believable and not overwhelming.

1. You have to be Mr. Generosity. If the discount is too small, obviously it won't work. Worse, it may tar your firm with a reputation for chintziness, while giving competitors the opportunity to wheel in the much-feared “unfavorable comparison” device, where, in this era of unrestrained frontal promotional assaults, you become the target of attacks on the high cost of doing business with you.

2. You can't give it away. If the discount is too deep, customers may question your original pricing or wonder about the quality of the merchandise or service you're offering.

3. You have to keep your customer concentrating on the real business at hand. If the discount offer is too great, it can overwhelm whatever it is you're promoting. The discount becomes the hero—with benefits and features of your product being lost somewhere along the way. And to resell your product next time around, you may find that you have to match or exceed the original offer, regardless of the genuine attributes of your product or how well it may have performed. (Magazine publishers relying on subscription agencies to beef up their circulation sometimes find themselves in this bind, no matter how good their publication may be.)

Obviously, the difference between the original price of an item and its sale price can make a difference in your marketing plans. But how can you arrive at a discount that will add to your immediate sales without subtracting from your long term goals?

A German scientist working in the 19th century at the University of Leipzig in an entirely different area may have come up with a solution to this problem.

Ernst Heinrich Weber (1795-1876), a pioneer sensory investigator into the physiological basis of behavior, and the first researcher to study touch and the sense of body movement in elaborate experiments, observed that it was fairly easy to distinguish between 16 ounces and 17 ounces, and even 32 ounces and 34 ounces...but not 32 ounces and 33 ounces. or, using another sense, take two sheets from two equal piles of paper each holding.100 sheets, and ask someone to guess which pile is getting smaller. Only when the pile has gone down about 10 sheets will they come even close.

Prof. Weber asked himself if it were possible to measure just how large a change has to be in order for it to be noticed. Analyzing other experiments of a similar nature, he discovered a major psychophysical principle which a later scientist, G.T. Fechner, called Weber's Law: “Sensation increases as the logarithm .of the stimulus.” The greater the intensity of an initial stimulus is the greater the increase must be of a second stimulus in order to be perceived as appreciably different.

What does this mean for direct marketers trying to figure out what sort of a discount to offer? In marketing terms, as marketing professor S.H. Britt pointed out (Business Horizons, February 1975), this means the more costly an item, the greater a discount is necessary in order to be perceived as a bargain.

Offering a $10 markdown on a $25 book is obviously a better deal than when the same markdown is offered on a $2,000 computer. It's a telling demonstration of the fact that minimal or token discounts are just too slight to be perceived as markdowns or bargains. Calling a discount a discount doesn't make it a discount in the customer's eyes.

Incidentally, using the logarithmic version of Weber's Law (“Sensation increases as the logarithm of the stimulus”) can be a useful way to arrive at a discount that can be really appreciated, even though its mathematical interpretation need not be literally followed.

In addition to its usefulness in building a discount offer, Weber's Law lends itself to product development. It can guide the marketer who is trying to create a different product by helping him determine just how much difference there should be in order to be noticed as an appreciable change. Should a new magazine come out more frequently than its established competitors? Just what frequency would make a significant change? Should a new cookbook be longer, more heavily illustrated, bound more luxuriously than its competitor? While Weber's Law really can't supply the answers, it can provide guidelines that will help in making decisions, and perhaps make a significant difference when it comes down to the bottom line. •
©Copyright Martin Gross 2009

DM APHORISMS

2009-07-04T10:50:00.003-04:00

DM APHORISMS
by
Martin Gross

Mistakes are all right when you’re designing a test, but you don’t have to drag them along into a control.

Anyone who overlooks the influence of current events in planning a mailing will be ambushed by them.

Guessing at results is as pernicious as misreading them.

What a test market does should not be considered an action but a symptom.

Whoever knows only one direct marketing skill, whether it’s art direction, copywriting or list management, does not even know that properly.

Good results are like sea water: the more we drink of it, the thirstier we become.

The direct marketing manager who knows herself will soon know her customers.

You don’t get to know people by their sending in orders. You have to go to them to find out what they are like.

Losing an illusion about your prospects makes you wiser than finding a truth.

When reading results, get your mind accustomed to doubting the numbers and your heart to accepting the inevitable.

Words are just words, and when they flow easily onto the page, be on your guard. Horses pulling a heavy wagon canter at a slow pace

Bad results are bitter pills which you’re better off swallowing than chewing.

All promotions should be read twice. First, you appreciate the call to action better if you know the sales argument. Second, because at the time of another reading, you’re in a different mood or frame of mind. This makes for a different impression — similar to seeing an object under different lighting.
©Copyright Martin Gross 2009

How to Make That First Impression Through the Medium of Direct Mail

2009-07-04T09:48:00.007-04:00

How to Make That First Impression Through the Medium of Direct Mail
By
Marty Gross

As salesmen know, creating a good impression helps you take control of a sales situation. It allows you to generate those cues that will go a long way toward influencing the ideas and channeling the behavior of your prospects.

In direct mail, however, the presentation has to be tailored in advance, with any problem anticipated and taken care of. Because you can't adjust your message face to face by reading verbal and nonverbal signs—body language and conversational hints—you have to prepare your direct mail package to meet all contingencies.

The direct mail package, therefore, must do two things: define the situation so that you are in complete control, while turning away any objections and questions that might arise. You must create an arena where the bull responds to your cues, without your being there.

One way of doing this is by taking advantage of the impression-management technique called “front.” Front is a complex bundle of the three expressive devices—setting, appearance, and manner—that make up any powerful presentation.

Setting refers to the props or scenery that are used to make a point. For instance, books on management often spend a lot of time showing their readers how to break the code of office furnishings. That’s because the special and physical arrangements of a typical office will quickly tell the visitor who is important and who is not.

In direct mail, the setting would be the overall impression a package gives. A research laboratory report should have a weightiness and impressiveness that might not work for a CD-club offer. A mailing to chief executive officers has a better chance of succeeding if the return address is from another chief executive officer, rather than a sales desk or department. The setting of a mailing is to define the situation so that the reader immediately senses what is expected of them (i.e., it’s to their advantage to open the letter).

Appearance is what the salesman looks like. A uniform, a white coat, a blue blazer, a hand-made suit all send different signals. They tell the prospect to defer or to come closer. They also identify the wearer. A doctor’s white coat would look out of place in the used-car lot (the “setting”), just as a reservation clerk’s uniform would look strange in a stock broker’s office. The components of a direct mail package need to conform to the signal sent by the setting. That is, an expensive-looking outer envelope shouldn’t house a flock of cheap pamphlets. And a vibrantly colored 6-by-9-inch outer envelope complete with long teaser copy isn’t the place where one looks for a sedate museum-membership offering. A bargain offer isn’t helped by a luxurious pamphlet. And yachts can be very hard to sell via handouts printed at Kinko's.

Manner. A salesman must tailor his mood, disposition and behavior to fit the time and place. A curmudgeonly used-car salesman is probably as much an anomaly as an effusive banker. This is not to say that one has to stick to a rigid script. A plumber may be sympathetic and understanding or brusque and impatient, so long as he doesn’t come across as either careless or unknowledgeable.

A direct mail package has to use the language and style that properly convey the value of the service or product being sold. A warm, chuckling, anecdotal letter promoting a piece of military hardware will be as successful as a long-winded, plodding, technical message selling plots in a pet cemetery.

Even the signature and title on a letter will give the prospect a cue. A CD club offer aimed at teenagers shouldn’t be signed by the president of the club (a fictitious employee would probably work best here). A letter promoting a new drug to doctors should not be signed with the sender’s nickname, even if it’s “Louie” Pasteur.

Weigh the impression that will be made if a colloquial, perhaps even slangy letter, however earnest and sincere, is part of a fundraising mailing. Conventional messages, no matter how much the innovative, creative writer, will very often work best because they set the proper, expected tone for the desired response.

Any salesman will tell you that trying to make a sale in certain offices is impossible. Even the most able salesman, when forced to make a presentation in crowded or cramped conditions will surrender any idea of building rapport with the prospect. Any hope of making the sale will have to ride on the salesman’s appearance and manner.

In direct mail, however, a little planning will ensure that all three components—setting, appearance and manner—will be in place to create a proper impression. So even if you are not there in person to answer questions or take advantage of body language and verbal cues, you can do much to create an environment that allows you to get your message across clearly and without misunderstanding.

©Copyright Martin Gross 2009
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Why Your Mail May Fail

2009-06-27T21:31:00.006-04:00

Why Your Mail May Fail
By
Marty Gross

Over the years, direct mailers have been able to come up with a lot of reasons why their direct mail wasn't successful. These reasons have ranged from the wrong phase of the moon to a post office conspiracy to dump their bulk mail. But more serious studies have pinpointed seven basic problems that may have contributed to poor results.

1. Unfamiliarity with product/service company. How do you overcome this objection? One solution is to use a celebrity spokesperson, a third-party testimonial from an expert or an endorsement. Sometimes the celebrity may have nothing to do with the product or service, as the case of sports figures, but their recognition helps dispel the mystery about the new product or service. Sometimes the connection can be very tenuous indeed. Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, the widow of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, once endorsed Good Luck Margarine. Sometimes the connection can be a bit more apparent, as when a new health magazine carries the endorsement of a national medical organization or a celebrated doctor.

2. Skepticism about new or unknown products or services. Endorsements and testimonials can also work here, but the operative word is skepticism. A celebrity endorsement wouldn't be of as much value here as an endorsement by a happy user, preferably one known to the prospect. But the best endorsement of all would be that of the prospect who convinces himself. So here's where trial offers and guarantees really shine.

3. Inability to assess quality or value. Even when the prospect gets the product in his hands, he may not be able to evaluate its worth. The sales material has to show him that he's getting a bargain or a valuable item or a deal beyond the dreams of avarice. It's helpful here to reinforce the purchase with supplementary sales literature after the prospect takes home the twin llamas or porcelain motorcycle miniatures or the collected verse of the National Hockey League. What is needed is convincing copy that will enable the prospect to justify the purchase and overcome "buyer's remorse.".

4. Worry over large expenditures. An obviously expensive mailing sometimes will hinder sales because of its obvious cost. The solution? Discounts, special billing arrangements, rebates and credits can help tempt the prospect. But what will strengthen his resolve is thoughtful copy in a thoughtfully designed package that gives good reasons for spending the money asked. Emotional or image copy can set the stage, but a carefully written sales letter--a surrogate salesman--will be able to anticipate objections and close the sale.

5. Resistance to overeager direct mail. Spectacular envelopes that shout a message, colorful inserts that tumble out and say “buy me!” and hysterical letters that exclaim instead of explain are good arguments for larger wastebaskets. Even seed catalogs might benefit from a more thoughtful approach to the customer's wallet. While reticence and modesty may not be virtues to be cultivated by direct marketers, there's no doubt that an air of reason and interest in the prospect's needs can help the selling process-and strengthen long-term bonds.

6. Resistance to direct mail. What are you going to do when any mail that looks promotional is promptly discarded? You can find yourself lists of people who actually welcome direct mail...lists of mail order buyers, for instance. Or increase your mailings. The big national mailers do so many mailings over the course of a year that an antidirect mail reaction, if such a thing actually exists, is just a little blip. For the smaller mailer, however, the solution may be one of making his direct mail more interesting, more useful and more welcome by giving away free gifts or turning mailings into valuable newsletters. One pioneer newsletter, The Gallagher Report, began as a promotional tool for the publisher's main source of business, magazine brokerage. What began as a simple sales-promotion device became a sought-after communication.

7. Annoyance at subterfuges. We seem to go through periods that see a heightened use of devices like announcements of prizes that really aren't prizes. These work for awhile, then, when a particular locality or list's tolerance for them is exhausted, they're reincarnated for use in other parts of the country or in other lists. Their proliferation puts doubts in people's minds about all direct mail, and an innocent mailing may get tarred with the same brush, to the bewilderment of a mailer who can't fathom the reason for a sudden decline in an historically good package’s pull.

Irresponsible mailing practices obviously hurt the innocent mailer as well as the innocent consumer. While some poor mailing responses may be beyond help, the majority of problems are solvable. It may be worthwhile for the mailer faced with a mysterious decline In results to conduct a survey and see where he may have gone wrong. The reason may be closer to home than he realizes.
©Copyright Martin Gross 2009
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How to Sell a New Product

2009-06-20T12:52:00.005-04:00

How to Sell a New Product
by
Marty Gross

Faced with selling a new product or service, the direct marketer is faced with the job of getting people to try it. To make this task easier, it might be profitable to consider all the ways that a product can be considered new and then choose the attributes that the prospective consumer is most likely to accept.

There are six attributes that rank highest with consumers, If you can emphasize one or more of these benefits, your task is far simpler.

1. Lower price. The opportunity to save money ranks very high. If you can position your product or service as a money saver, your chances of success are much higher.

2. More convenient to use. This advantage eases the job of introduction.

3. More dependable. A strong competitive advantage. Consider using when selling intellectual products like books or magazines.

4. More easily available. Shipping and distribution become heroes here. E-publishing of a previously printed newsletter is an obvious example.

5. Status symbol. “Won't the neighbors be envious!” is a benefit that propositions involving collectibles often use.

6. Easily credible benefits. Endorsements and testimonials come into their own here. Use a letter from a third party. Of course, not all attributes of newness are salesworthy. When introducing a new product or service, prepare to face resistance. By anticipating problems, you may be able to deflect objections and even turn them to good advantage.

7. A new method or unfamiliar pattern of use. Unless this is obviously simpler, it's going to bother consumers who will have to change the way they've been doing things. The introduction of accounting software had to be eased into offices with the concept of parallel bookkeeping: keeping books manually for six months while also entering figures into the computer. This safeguard helped lessen anxiety about the new procedure.

8. An unfamiliar benefit. If a rather austere product or service has always been associated with efficiency, for instance, and you change it so that it is now more attractive, you might diminish its reputation for efficiency. For example, very handsome gardening tools may qualify for museum exhibitions, but they may just be too good-looking to get dirty.

9. Expensive to use or misuse. Will that new phone-fax-scanner-copier-webcam-burglar alarm disrupt phone service? Answer any possible objections before they arise. People welcome new things, but they're also loath to change. They’re ambivalent, for instance, about innovative printing methods or presentations. Years ago, Flair, a magazine startling and innovative for its time, featured cut outs, wraparounds and inserts. It was too far ahead of the curve and quickly disappeared. Spectacular car designs also have a way of simultaneously attracting attention and depressing sales. Unless the cultural environment is right (choose your lists carefully!), new products will remain only novelties-gimmicks that arouse curiosity and never touch the pocketbook.
When selling a new product or service, it's almost more profitable to emphasize those elements of newness that have proven saleable.
©Copyright Martin Gross 2009
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Placing a Premium on Offering Assistance

2009-06-13T17:34:00.006-04:00

Placing a Premium on Offering Assistance

At one time, road maps were given away by gas stations. Now it’s hard to find a road map even if you wanted to buy one. As a premium, they’re hard to beat, but few direct marketers offer road maps. Car-rental companies, gasoline credit cards and hotels and travel agencies can all benefit from this helpful product-generated premium that ties in with what you're selling.

Magazine subscription-selling especially lends itself to this kind of premium thinking. For instance, an offer of article reprints can be personalized according to the readily identified names on a mailing list. A financial self-help magazine could offer reprints on mortgage planning to suburbanites, pension-planning to people in older age groups and budgeting for college to parents of high-school children.

A book club might offer sample chapters or a digest of recent selections, or even a collection of newspaper and magazine reviews of selections reprinted in their entirety. (Almost as interesting as the Civil War best-seller Gone With the Wind itself were the reviews from both sides of the Mason-Dixon line.) A DVD club could provide the same service with movie reviews. The reviews might be only laudatory, of course, but their third-party objectivity would still lend credibility.

There are many opportunities for helpful premium-giving. For instance, commercial real-estate operators can offer booklets on using space wisely; mail order business suppliers can help customers assess their filing needs; and banks can provide envelopes for holding statements and copies of withdrawal an deposit slips.

Free newsletters have long been a popular premium, but there is a type of premium periodical that has not been exploited: the free magazine subscription. This is a very strong selling tool among manufacturers and wholesalers that want to reach retailers. While many trade magazines are sent free to qualified subscribers, there are still trade magazines that demand a paid subscription.

Here's how it works: A retailer is offered a one-year subscription to one of these expensive trade magazines. Every two weeks or month, the magazine arrives— courtesy of a wholesaler or distributor—that has an ad by that wholesaler or distributor on the back cover. Some magazines may be sent with a poly-bagged message from the wholesaler or distributor. The magazine publisher makes a special subscription rate and advertising arrangement with these suppliers on an exclusive regional basis. The wholesaler or distributor supplies the names of the ultimate retailer/reader, and, through salesmen’s call reports, keeps these names up to date. The magazine publisher then sells a major national manufacturer a heavy advertising contract based on the demonstrated support of the supplier and the readership that he is underwriting.

Most free premiums need not call for an arrangement this complicated. Industry phone number listings and special hotline numbers for information and reference library services can also be strong premiums that both help and sell.

Ask yourself these questions when building a premium offer of this kind:

Can the premium be produced internally and easily? If not, is it so helpful—and exclusive—that it will pre-empt the market and be eagerly welcomed by prospects who will give me all the credit?

Does the premium reflect my product or service?

Does the premium fill a need?

Will the premium disappoint prospects? Am I overselling it?

Does the premium overshadow my product or service?

Can the premium become a revenue source later on? For instance, first giving away reprints…and then charging for them at some future date?

Would I want the premium in my own home or business?

How long before competitors copy my idea?

Can it be made exclusive? Can I handle a heavy demand for the premium?

Have I remembered to test all promotions with and without the premium?
©Copyright Martin Gross 2009
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For New Ideas, Guerrilla War

2009-06-06T15:38:00.005-04:00

For New Ideas, Guerrilla War

Unless you're an independent entrepreneur, answerable to no one except your banker, you're going to find that it isn't enough just to have a bright idea. You have to sell it to others in order for it to be used.

In fact, there are three steps to the acceptance of a good idea in any organization:

1. Perceived need. It's no good just spouting ideas, unless your company sees the need for them. A successful, stable and sleepy catalog house or mail order company whose basic reason for being may predate World War II is rarely a hotbed of creativity, even though its market may be maturing or even disappearing. The kind of environment that fosters ideas is usually turbulent, even rough house. Firms that accept or even welcome creativity include companies whose stock in trade includes ideas (ad agencies or media companies, for example), and enterprises that are just starting up or fighting for survival.

2. Resources. While not all new ideas require a lot of money for implementation, testing a new direct mail package, for instance, calls for expenditures without any hope of return. Even a firm wholly devoted to new ideas can spend only so much this way. An elaborate or complicated innovation—-new computers, a different fulfillment procedure or a telemarketing installation—can also require the dedication of human resources, both management and specialist.

3. Politics. It's a shame that many creative people shy away from company politics, because, like it or not, here's where the real battle for acceptance and implementation of new ideas is fought. What's more, it's usually guerrilla activity rather than by-the-book procedure that wins the day. Even in the company that pays lip service to the encouragement of new ideas, such as a technological firm with a research and development plan, or an advertising agency with a so-called commitment to creativity, a certain amount of skirmishing, street fighting and stacking the cards may be necessary to get management to perceive the need and commit the resources.

For instance, a major change can threaten the vested interests of many people. To be accepted, an idea might have to be disguised as merely a minor improvement or just a temporary solution to some crisis. It could be something as simple as a new envelope design or a cheaper production method, or it could be a brand-new product category or service concept.

In any case, experience shows that the best way to get a new idea accepted is as the immediate solution to some problem. And once the camel’s head is inside the tent, the temporary idea can become a permanent change. But getting any idea accepted isn’t a matter of bursting into the boss’s office or jumping up in a meeting and “selling” the concept to instant acclaim. A lot of spadework is required in building a coalition or commando team skilled in cutting the wires, climbing fences, disarming booby traps, unlocking the palace gates and seizing control of the radio station.

Your guerrilla unit consists of the following special agents, who should be devoted to your cause mainly because it’s in their best interest.

The Sponsor. Sometimes called a rabbi, this alpha dog looks out for you. With both authority and responsibility, his or her title is something like management supervisor or senior vice president. While usually not the boss, he or she has the boss’s ear and has the clout to convince top management to go along with the new idea and the skill to get around any procedural hassles. In certain circumstances, he or she may be an outsider—a client, for instance.

The Advocate. Not in as exalted a position, but still very important, because he or she is well-briefed to present your case to the sponsor’s peers, colleagues and rivals. This individual is your ambassador in the executive suite and sometimes works in tandem with the sponsor in board meetings. Because your advocate is a rung or two below, he or she can have the spark and passion that might be deemed unseemly in a sponsor. In an advertising agency, this person might be a creative director or a management supervisor, but in any case, never less than a manager or vice president. He or she, like the sponsor, has both personal and corporate reasons for championing your cause. They are both excited about your idea, but they also see good things coming their way should the idea work. Should it fail, it will be all your fault anyway.

The Mentor. Usually an immediate superior. He or she will be encouraging, but even more important, will open doors for the shy or nonassertive creator. In certain highly sophisticated and subtle organizations, the mentor will actually be an agent or management trained to look for ideas and bring them to fruition. He or she might be a senior writer or art director, an account supervisor or assistant product manager, often a counter culture individual, other times an organization man. This mentor, who may not be an especially creative individual, is nevertheless gifted in the recognition and nurturing of ideas. Without discouraging the innovator he or she can help design the idea so that it will fly, by suggesting copy changes, or rewriting the business proposal or putting together a useful cost package. By using these “change agents” the innovator can ease acceptance of his or her idea and also develop the readiness of management to listen to ideas from any source.
©Copyright Martin Gross 2009
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Profiting from Guerrilla Techniques in Direct Marketing

2009-05-31T19:03:00.005-04:00

Profiting from Guerrilla Techniques in Direct Marketing

Che Guevara's book Guerrilla Warfare (Vintage Books, 1968), a sort of cookbook on the subject, achieved a certain notoriety in corporate America almost a half-century ago when it became faddish to equate marketing with warfare. Since then the usual pendulum of popularity and a more level-headed attitude toward business have cast Guevara, Vo Nguyen Giap, Von Clausewitz, Sun Tzu and all their kindred theorists into a limbo where marketing and Mars shall never meet. However, for the jaundiced direct marketer used to seeing marketing concepts borrowed from every passing fancy from sociolinguistics and general semantics to New Age channeling, a cooler look at guerrilla warfare after all these years might be advantageous. especially in today's very competitive business climate.

To recapitulate Guevara's ideas. the four main elements in guerrilla strategy are:
1 The defeat of the enemy as the final objective
2 Tactical flexibility
3 The use of surprise
4 Concentrating firepower on ground favorable to the guerrilla.

A number of books have been written trying to weave these four elements into business strategy. forgetting, of course, that the goals of a sensible business “guerrilla” are not as ambitious as those of a political revolutionary.

For instance, few practical boardroom agendas of small or midsize companies would have as their priority the overthrow of large competitors. In fact. winning a skirmish here and there would satisfy most businessmen. And that's where Guevara can still offer a lesson or two--through his second element of guerrilla strategy: tactical flexibility. (“As means, tactics are much more variable, much more flexible than the final objectives, and they should be adjusted continually during the struggle.”)

Direct marketers. in particular, do have an advantage of speedy reaction and flexibility. and can employ these resources with stunning effectiveness.

1 Changing creative strategy. A traditional commitment to any particular creative viewpoint can spell disaster in the rapidly shifting marketplace. For instance. an emphasis on sweepstakes rather than discounts might have worked in the past, but a careful reading of results may indicate a decline in this sort of activity. which should be carefully noted and acted upon-perhaps as part of a test.

2 Changing customer profile. A tried and-true customer base may have slipped out of town unnoticed due to changes in the economy or even a gradual reassessment by consumers of the advantages of a particular product or service. Don't lose heart: The product service may still have a lot of life in it, and there might be a new consumer ready to buy it. This happened to a number of business newsletters when their American market faded away. Instead of killing off their publications. the publishers found a new market overseas, where the sales proposition was fresh, attractive and appealing.

3. Changing rate of market acceptance. Consumers may be buying another brand or even switching out of the generic product/service. Special-interest magazines. for instance. sometimes are lulled into thinking that they have captured all potential readers only to discover that a brash new competitor is taking away business by using different and stronger claims in the areas of performance or satisfaction. Without missing a beat, the besieged publisher might test a circulation campaign based on counterclaims, while working on editorial changes and improvements.

It is important to remember, though, that hostile challenges can some times backfire, resulting in general readership disloyalty and consumer dissatisfaction. Readers might end up saying, “A plague on both your houses,” and look for alternatives. When a direct marketer is blessed with agility and speedy market responsiveness, the metaphor of a low-intensity guerrilla operation can be successfully adapted as a temporary business strategy to meet suddenly changing conditions in the market place.
©Copyright Martin Gross 2009
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Riding High With Riders

2009-05-25T08:36:00.008-04:00

Riding High With Riders

While direct marketers appreciate (quite properly) the power of a postscript to a sales letter and will spend a lot of time fashioning a good one, they'll often do scant justice to another minisales device—the “rider.”

This is the little last-minute suggestion you'll find in coupons or order blanks that invites you to buy the deluxe version or take advantage of a multiple discount. They give the impression of being added on at the last minute, and very often they are. They're stuck in because the coupon doesn't look jammed enough with type to please an advertiser, or there's a need to reduce inventory, or there's a chance to make a few extra dollars on a sale. But the really wily direct marketer plans a rider with the same care that goes into building an offer, and there's nothing last-minute about it at all.

There are at least five effective ways to use riders. They're each designed to ride along (hence their name) on the sales argument of a letter or ad. And when they do their job well, as many as 10 percent of all orders will have the little rider box checked.

1. Upgrade. Use the rider to sell a more expensive version of the product or service.

2. CWO inducement. Ask for cash with order (CWO) or credit-card payment for a service or product that is usually billed, and pay for shipping or give a small gift in return. Depending on the offer, you might see a cash business from 20 per cent to as much as 70 percent. (Don't be fooled by this cash with order flow, though. Some marketers, deluded by the huge response to their optional rider, decided to make cash up front compulsory, with a sickening slide in sales.)

3. Multiple orders. Works well with inexpensive items, or extensions to magazine subscriptions. (“Take another 6 months for only $6.50 more.”)

4. Bonus for quick action. Offer a gift or free shipping for orders received before a certain deadline.

5. Qualify. If you want to discourage inquiries from children, put a box in the coupon that offers to send a special booklet to respondents who are “17 years or under.”

Riders can be effective in broadcast promotions and telemarketing as well. Usually heralded with the words “Save even more!", the spoken rider might offer a discount for cash or credit-card payment, or offer a bonus for early ordering.

The rider can help turn a promotion into a money-making bonanza, but this versatile little device can be used in another—to test an offer or deal. If you're thinking of giving away a booklet as an incentive, test the idea first in your mail order coupons with a rider. If the response is strong enough, then you can expand the idea into direct mail.

Be cautious, though. Remember the overeager entrepreneur who switched to a 100 percent cash-with-order proposition on the strength of a good pull from a rider and lost his shirt. The rider can only indicate—not definitely forecast—a possible shift pattern or trend. And it's a nice, inexpensive way to test an offer without going overboard.

While the chief ingredient in most riders is an offer or hook, there's no rule that says riders must offer a special inducement. Your copy may have been so convincing that the prospect just needs a little push to order in quantity or a deluxe version. In this case, the rider merely gives him a convenient way to upgrade his order. Think carefully about using this “afterthought” in your order form. The tiny little rider is much more powerful than it looks, and it deserves respect. With the right planning, it can be an important component of any direct marketing effort.
©Copyright Martin Gross 2009
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Signatures: the Subtle Sign

2009-05-18T09:00:00.006-04:00

Signatures: the Subtle Sign

One means of checking identification is to match signatures, whether on credit cards, checks or applications. While not exactly foolproof, it does provide some reassurance to the person doing the checking. Matching signatures is also done unconsciously by recipients of direct mail. Every letter in direct mail bears two signatures: one is the autograph on the bottom of the last page, and the other is the pattern or style of the writing. When these two signatures match, the reader is reassured. When the two clash, response can dive and orders decline.

The autograph signature. While this can be the signature of a real person, many firms prefer to use a nom de plume, a corporate pseudonym that is timeless and anonymous, as represented by Betty Crocker and Ann Page. This signature should be chosen as carefully as any other corporate design, since it represents the company. Should it be a man's name or a woman's? Should it be one of the popular last names, like Smith or Miller, or should it reflect the company's actual or fictionalized origins (a Scottish name for a whiskey distiller, a French name for a vintner or perfume maker, a Spanish name for a cigar maker)?

Instead of relying on the usual office practice of having somebody with neat penmanship “sign” the letter, consider having the signature designed. More questions: Should it be sprawling or compressed?... legible or a collection of swirls and strokes?... both names spelled out or first initial, last name only?... genderless (J. Smith) or sexist?... friendly, with a nickname, or cold (again, J. Smith)? ...show a title (vice president for marketing or editor) or don't bother?

Now, read the letter again. Would J. Smith have signed this letter? Or should Joan Smith have done the honors? What you are doing now is analyzing the pattern or style of the letter itself. Just as there are sprawling, friendly, bear-hug types of autograph signatures, there are letters that are warm and casual. Obviously, that warmth should not be suddenly frozen off with a microscopic, pedantic signature. Nor should a carefully engineered letter, encrusted with detail and specification, be signed with a thick, heavy-fisted crayon.

The stylistic signature. Matching the autograph signature with the letter is easy enough, but it's somewhat more difficult to match the style of the letter with what you're selling and the audience you're trying to reach. While there are some versatile writers who can change their style from product to product or appeal to appeal, most copywriters develop a pattern that's most comfortable for them. It could be an anecdotal first paragraph or an elliptical, allusion-rich sales talk or an abrupt, clipped style with short sentences and single-sentence. This identifiable stylistic signature can also be a factor in the pull of a promotion. Should a collector's newsletter be sold with short, staccato phrases, or should a story-telling approach be used? Is a warm, conversational technique right for introducing a new sprinkler system to grounds-keepers?

Just as there might be a corporate autograph, there might also be a special house style. It can be slightly pompous or matter-of-fact or casual— but it’s a style that customers have come to know, if not to love. Before attempting to change it, weigh the consequences carefully. It may be as traumatic as changing the name of your company. Make sure that new copywriters can handle the house style, unless you are trying to break with the past. Of course, if a house style never did evolve, here is your opportunity to create one. Just be careful that your “forgery” fits in with your market and product.

Reminder: Always sign your letter in blue. (Black ink looks machine-made. Other colors look like the circus is coming to town.)

©Copyright Martin Gross 2009
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Increasing Conversions From Inquiries

2009-05-14T17:41:00.007-04:00

Increasing Conversions From Inquiries

While the creation of productive promotions still remains high on the agendas of advertising agencies and direct marketing companies, the creative handling of inquiry follow-ups all too often occupies a much lower rung. All the good ideas and innovations having been expended on the initial campaign, the conversion efforts remain that—efforts--unoriginal, plodding, tired and worn out. This may be the result of overspecialization or perhaps a sense that this task is something like interrogating prisoners after the big battle...necessary, but without glamour.

Sometimes inquiry follow-up is given over to an understaffed and overworked sales department or fulfillment group, where copywriters and art directors are rarely seen. Or it's considered an apprentice chore for junior personnel, on the order of collection or renewal letters-- two other assignments that are wrongly given short shrift. Or it's something that a copywriter might bang out just before going to lunch, without flair, imagination or appreciation of the inquiry follow-up’s role in the direct marketing channel --as the payoff process that turns a browser into a buyer. a window shopper into a cash customer.

Today, marketers see the buyer/decision process as an exercise in problem solving. The consumer passes through several mental states or buying stages: awareness or information search, interest in or evaluation of alternatives, and desire --before the final action of making a purchase decision. Inquiry follow-ups should recognize and take advantage of this process by helping the consumer through each buying stage with materials that will exert the right influence. In any event, when inquiries are treated like bag ladies in a Fifth Avenue salon, the chances for a sale are considerably diminished. On the other hand, a grotesquely overstuffed acknowledgement package that is nothing but a themeless and thoughtless collection of brochures and leaflets is just as bad.

Why this sloppy handling of inquiries? Much of it can be blamed on an unchanging way of doing business in certain industries, including tourism and financial services. Too often nobody has been assigned the responsibility for the second phase of the direct marketing campaign, which is what a good follow-up is. It can also be the result of management having second thoughts about the entire campaign.

When an advertising budget appears in danger of being eaten up by the costs of the initial campaign, the reaction is sometimes to make do with a warehoused inventory of printed forms as inquiry follow-ups. no matter how irrelevant they may be to the task at hand. In the case of leads going directly to a firm’s salesmen or manufacturer representatives. it may be the fond cost-cutting dream of the feudal lords running the company (ignoring all experience) that their salespeople are capable of converting every qualified inquiry into an order without the help of a well-orchestrated follow-up campaign or even decent collateral material.

Of course, when the cost of “sales literature” is deducted from commissions, it’s hard to convince salesmen to pay out of their own pockets for expensive printing. When leads are funneled to dealers or wholesalers, fierce territorial arguments over budgets, advertising allotments and creative responsibilities may capsize any careful planning or long-range design. And even in a traditional two-step promotion. where many different media --including space, broadcast, telemarketing or direct mail --may be called upon to generate inquiries that then receive a sales kit by mail, there can be a tendency to slough off the conversion package, which then may have all the charm and understandability of a tax form. (In all fairness, It should be .noted that many closing packages, including those selling financial services and insurance, must answer to very austere and demanding government authorities, who may dictate not only the wording of a sales message but even the size of the type in which it's set.)

In a more elaborate conversion campaign, where there may be as many as eight or nine mailings and phone calls in an attempt to overcome a prospect's hesitation and procrastination, forcing a sale may only reinforce nagging doubts, anxiety and perceived ask. It may actually make a sale but at the risk of customer uneasiness. and the chance that repeat purchases won't be in the offing, leading to a deterioration of the customer base.
©Copyright Martin Gross 2009
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Selling to the “Aliterates”

2009-05-11T17:20:00.009-04:00

Selling to the “Aliterates”

Direct marketers currently waking up each day to do battle with soaring postage, falling response rates, rising production costs and intensified competition may yet look back fondly to the present as the good old days when they begin to wrestle with the latest problem on the horizon: aliteracy. (Yes, that's the correct spelling.)

According to a special education supplement of The New York Times (Jan. 4, 1991), this affliction may have reached epidemic proportions in that part of the population born after 1965. It's a serious problem that may well prove fatal for many direct marketers already staggering under the load of shrinking markets.

Aliteracy, a nonce word which has not yet reached the dictionaries, may be defined as "a literate person's disinclination to read." In its most virulent form, it may even turn into actual antipathy to the printed word. According to a 1990 report by a unit of the Federal Department of Education, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, reading for pleasure may soon be obsolete. The report disclosed that while almost half of all fourth-grade students read daily for pleasure, only 25 per cent of all 12th-graders opened a book for the sake of enjoyment.

While the usual suspects—television, iPods, cellphones, computers, committee-written textbooks, irrelevant material, predigested summaries of “hard” books, domestic difficulties and poor parental examples—are being rounded up, and while teachers, television producers and publishers are calling one another names, this gloomy state of affairs, if true, means that direct marketers will have to rethink their most hallowed selling practices, especially those that take for granted a population that gets its information from the printed word.

Although the Times article estimated that no more than 12 percent of all adults even glance at a serious book, this abysmal figure will look like The Golden Age of Literature as the aliterate population takes its proper place on the nation's mailing lists. What's going to happen to long, well reasoned copy then? Who will be persuaded by comfortably upholstered sales arguments set in 9-point Myopia Condensed? Will book clubs and magazines without picture editors join mimeograph machines and crystal radio sets on the junk heap of obsolete information media? And will the only direct mail customers be copywriters covertly reading one another's four-page letters, in some sort of parody of Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury's dystopic vision of a bookless future, where the written word is banned and readers are punished?

Alert to the threat of aliteracy, some direct mailers are taking precautions. They're using something called “two-tier” mailing packages, fail-safe promotions that might be considered the marketing equivalent of belt and suspenders.

Traditionally, a direct mail package might be made up of a letter and a brochure, each with a particular role. The letter's job was to “sell”—provide persuasive arguments that led to immediate action. In most cases, it did all the work. In a literate society, where the message and the medium depended on the printed word, the letter came first. Copywriters spent the most time cra1ting it. The brochure was too often the dumping ground for the “much, much more” story, the facts that couldn't fit into the letter. The brochure was designed to “tell”-- reinforce the letter with an amplified presentation, perhaps to be read alongside the letter, to be filed for later reference or to answer questions that the short letter couldn't handle. In any promotion, however, its basic job was never forgotten. Even in its often second-class role, it was intended to get a response. In the well-designed effort, of course, the brochure, like every other element, was carefully integrated into the fabric of the mailing, not just added like icing on a cake.

Now while aliteracy may be a phenomenon recognized only by The New York Times, smart direct mailers have been dealing with it for some time. List selection can help, of course, but in a world where even theologians and nuclear physicists sit unblinkingly before a computer terminal, the democracy of aliteracy means that the sales strength of words on paper may be diminishing across the board, and that al1 levels of society have fallen out of love with the printed word. That's why so many more brochures have become pictorial sales media, the direct mail version of TV. When well-designed, a brochure can be attractive, illustrative and even independent of the letter. In short, it has become a selling vehicle that uses pictures instead of words.

It doesn't matter whether the recipient reads with his lips or is a rocket scientist or both. The direct mail package will cover all bases. In the “two-tier” promotion strategy, this stand-alone characteristic is carefully exploited so that the recipient will be made to respond by either the brochure or the letter. The strongest persuasive effort will still be made by a combination of all the elements in the mailing, but now the brochure has become an equal partner rather than a second banana.

Does this mean a duplication of effort, with both the letter and the brochure called upon to sell? If aliteracy is indeed a factor to contend with, it will require a lot of hard work on the part of direct mailers. The brochure will have to become a joint effort on the part of both writer and al director, much like a TV commercial. But the creative team in direct mail is here to stay, and any bookish attitude toward the customer going to result eventually in a loss of the customer. In a worst-case scenario, will the direct mail package of the future be made up of a 10-word buck slip —a vestigial reminder of the once-glorious long letter —and a comic-book brochure limited to a fifth grade vocabulary level? Not to worry: unless the intended recipient is a brain surgeon. Then we're all in trouble.
©Copyright Martin Gross 2009
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