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Posts Tagged ‘direct response’

Exploding the Response of Your Direct Mail

By: Bill Glazer on: December 15th, 2009 9 Comments

This is the transcript from an interview Bill Glazer did with Keith & Travis Lee:

What we are going to be talking about today is a particular type of strategy, although it’s very, very far reaching, which is involved with the use of my favorite media that there is by far and away is direct mail. That’s really where I originally cut my teeth in marketing, and its one that I prefer to do over any other one. And, this is the use of something that we have recently called 3-D mail, although there are some other names for it which are similar to it and we will get into it.

And, I am joined today by the current Glazer-Kennedy 3-D mail aficionados, the famous father and son team, Keith and Travis Lee. How are you guys doing?

Keith Lee: Just great, Bill.

Travis Lee: Doing good Bill, thanks.

Bill: So, we want to talk about 3-D mail and you guys have sort of taken on that mantra of being the experts of that. And, also in those interesting being the suppliers of 3-D mail objects which we will let people know later, if they want to, how they can learn more information about that. I don’t know which one of you want to jump in first, but let’s talk about making sure that people know what we are talking about, so what is 3-D mail?

Travis: 3-D really says it all when you are talking about 3-D mail. It has length, it has width, and it has depth. It is bulky mail stuff that comes in your mail and it doesn’t look like anything else in the mail that you are getting that day. Many other people have called it lumpy mail, or dimensional mail. They all pretty much mean the same thing. And in a lot of cases it’s not even just an envelope that can be lumpy. You know you put a lot of things in an envelope that can give it some shape and some form. But, it can also be like a trashcan, or a treasure chest, or a message in a bottle. Any number of different things that are going to cut the clutter in your direct mail and set you apart from everything else your prospects or clients are getting these days.

Bill: We are going to be talking later on in this call about why it’s so important to be thinking about 3-D mail. I’ve used it and continue to use it often in my marketing. Certainly in my former business as a menswear retailer I used it often, and I still us it now to market Glazer-Kennedy. And, we will be talking about why that’s a smart thing to do, but you guys formed this company. Keith, I am going to let you answer this question. You guys formed this company which is called the 3-D Mail, and so why did you decide to start this whole business to provide people with what they need in order to incorporate 3-D mail?
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The 5 Elements of a Good Direct Response Ad

By: Bill Glazer on: September 28th, 2009 19 Comments

This is my quick checklist of ESSENTIAL Elements of a good direct response ad

1.) REASON FOR ADVERTISING other than your desire to get customers or sell something. BIG NEWS (other than announcing a new logo), BIG IDEA, a breakthrough solution to somebody’s problem. The biggest reason for advertising failure is advertising just because you need to advertise.

2.) ATTENTION-GETTING HEADLINE that telegraphs the news, the idea, the breakthrough…and”sells the ad.” The Headline’s first job is to compel the reader to stop whatever he’s doing – like reading the news in the newspaper- to, instead, shift his attention to your message.

3.) AS CLOSE TO AN ‘IRRESISTIBLE OFFER‘ AS YOU CAN GET. Most ads have no offers or weak, dull, plain vanilla offers. You have no right to response when you offer little.

4.) URGENCY:REASON(S) TO ACT IMMEDIATELY, made believable.

5.) DIRECT,CLEAR ‘CALL TO ACTION’ which connects #3 and #4 to INSTRUCTIONS to the customer of how to respond and what will occur when they do.

There are many additional helpful elements – such as proof, credibility,celebrity, pre-emptive answers to skepticism and reasons not to respond,risk reversal, and others.

But the above five are the absolutely mandatory components.

If you lack any, you do NOT have an ad at all.

Bill Glazer Shares 7 Small Business Marketing Tips About Offers

By: Bill Glazer on: September 23rd, 2009 11 Comments

You should have one! Never, ever fail to make a specific offer or offers, and have a clear call to action. So much bad advertising fails to tell the reader/listener/viewer exactly what is expected of them, what to do next, and how to do it, in clear terms. Most ends vaguely: here’s where we are, here are our hours, here’s our phone number.
Build an appealing offer. Most are very unexciting, plain vanilla. A strong offer inspires the prospect to rush – RUSH – to respond. Has him excited about everything he’s going to get.
Tie the “here’s everything you get” part of the offer back to previously presented benefits. Don’t stop at listing products or services.

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Ads or Articles – Which is Better to Market a Small Business?

By: Dan Kennedy on: July 9th, 2009 9 Comments

The Advertorial, The Challenge Of Maximum Readership Reconsidered

The knee-jerk answer is: articles. And the argument for the “advertorial” i.e. an ad made to look like editorial material is that it is obvious; people buy newspapers and magazines for the articles, not the ads. But, like all dogma, ain’t necessarily so. For example, lots of people buy the Wednesday newspaper to get the supermarket coupons, buy the Friday or weekend newspaper to see the movie and nightclub ads. In analogy, people often go to national conventions more interested in the trade show than in the seminars, me included.

MY ADVICE: DON’T STEP IN THE DOGMA

Anybody who has an ironclad rule about the most successful way to do something can be proven wrong. I constantly violate one of the most respected direct response copywriter’s rule about the number of words for a headline. The “A-pile mail” argument makes perfect sense, but I have beaten it in split-tests with teaser copy laden envelopes. Not often. But sometimes. To conclude that the advertorial is the ad format that will always get the highest readership is wrong. On the other hand, a lot of advertisers err in never using it – in space as well as in direct-mail.

I try to be careful about this; I know too much about what doesn’t work. So, I try to be careful not to be dogmatic, or too quickly shut off a client’s idea. I’ll say: I’ve never known ‘x’ to work, and I’ve certainly seen it not work, but let’s explore it from several different directions, including:

Can it be easily and cheaply tested?
Is there a more reliable approach that will do just as well?
Is there enough benefit to balance the cost of experimenting? Etc.

THE CHALLENGE OF READERSHIP

Here’s the key point to keep in mind, whether contemplating different ads or FSI or direct-mail formats, headlines, photos, grabbers, etc.: it can’t sell if it isn’t read. The Big Lesson is – you have to WORK JUST AT GETTING IT READ. Not presume readership, which is what most people do. Way, way, way too much advertising and mail is produced with a presumption of readership. Actually, the opposite is the smarter approach; presuming every recipient will try NOT to read it.

THE BEST WAY TO MAXIMIZE READERSHIP IS targeting. My message to market match’ principle. But when you can’t target, when you must use mass media and fish from a very large lake, then you have to work even harder at getting people to bother reading your message.

Smart-Bomb Selling: Use Information Technology to Home In on Hot Prospects

By: Dan Kennedy on: July 9th, 2009 4 Comments

By Duncan Maxwell Anderson

From Success Magazine

DAN KENNEDY says he’s found a way to multiply your closing ratio in face-to-face selling: Instead of carpet-bombing the universe of possible prospects with telephone calls trying to get an appointment, use the techniques of direct-response advertising. Generate a response from those who already need your product. Then home in like a cruise missile for the close. Kennedy, president of Empire Communications Corp. in Phoenix, uses direct response to grow his own business and consults to other companies.

“One of my client companies sells seals for industrial pumps,” says Kennedy. “The ordinary seal has to be replaced every 30,000 pumps, taking four hours of downtime. But this company’s seal lasts 300,000 pumps and takes only two hours to replace. How would you sell it? The conventional approach is to send out a rep to each factory with a bag of seals under one arm and a box of doughnuts under the other. He’ll wait around for an hour waiting to see someone. That uses up time, and it’s also bad positioning.”

GET IN POSITION TO CLOSE

Kennedy says that you’re in better position to close a sale if you manage to get the customers who might need your product to come to you. This is where the direct-response methods come in. “Suppose you send every prospect a brochure that offers him a free video showing how to cut his downtime in half when he’s servicing his pump. It’s closely related to your business, but it’s not about your company or product.

“Once the guy responds and says, ‘I want to see the video,’ he doesn’t view you as a pump-parts salesman anymore. His defenses come down, because he feels as if he’s in charge when he says, ‘I think you’re the guy who can help me. Tell me how this works.’ Now you’re in a good position to tell him about your longer-lasting seal. If you cold-marketed the same prospect, your results would not be as good.”

With its free video offer, the client company more than doubled its closing ratio per 100 prospects — from 3 to 7. That opens the possibility of hiring more reps, who sell more and make more money. As Kennedy says, “There’s no reason for a sales rep to spend his time on the phone to narrow his prospect search when a letter can do it for him.”

THE SECRET OF BABY STEPS

Kennedy says the strategy works in any market: Every potential customer would be grateful for free information on some area of need, free from a sales pitch. “Take baby steps with your customer to build rapport,” Kennedy says, “until you’re ready for a giant step like a big-ticket sale. Your free report — or video, or manual — should have an exciting title,” says Kennedy. “It should be as good as something you might buy at a bookstore, but you’re giving it to him free.

“Say a computer store wants to sell software, hardware, and Internet hookups,” says Kennedy. “Why not target people with kids, offering a free report entitled ‘How to get your kid into the college of his and your choice’? Let’s say 18 of the 101 tips involve the use of the computer. At the end of the report, put in another offer: ‘Come in to our education fair from March 22 to 24. All of tips 50 to 68 will be on display, with free Internet access and instructors available.’ Have a discount offer that day for software or hardware, and give away a demo of ‘The 5 Greatest Educational Tools for Your Computer.’ These are measures that offer value, cost little, and generate goodwill and sales.”

The principle of the smart bomb can work even with a presentation or sales letter, if you are very confident. It’s a benefit that grows out of what Kennedy calls “the positive power of negative preparation.” In presentations, we are accustomed to mentioning only our strengths, hoping the prospect will forget about the possibility of weaknesses. Of course he doesn’t. All the while, he’s trying to figure out what problems he between the lines. That tension is bad, Kennedy says.

“Why not painfully acknowledge all the weaknesses in your case — every one of your flaws?” he suggests. “Then, answer these problems with the best possible responses. You preempt most objections and show your honesty. Sales managers don’t tend to do this,” he adds, with considerable understatement.

“But winning sports coaches do. They go through all their plays and ask themselves, ‘What do we do if this goes wrong? Or how about this?’ ”

If you can handle the obstacles without breaking a sweat, it’s easier to get in position to score.