Direct Response: More response channels bring more responses
In the old days of direct marketing, marketers would send out a letter AND a reply card. Then along came the toll-free 800 number and some marketers decided they could save a few pennies on the reply card and use the telephone as the exclusive response channel. Not a...
Direct Mail Lists: Mailing to job titles instead of names
We would all prefer to mail to individuals by name, if possible. But sometimes that option is not available to us. This is most often the case when you are mailing to job titles that are lower ranked than senior executives. Here’s why: Most corporate databases like...
How to Develop a Direct Mail Budget
New clients come to us with two different scenarios for their direct mail budget: One group already has a budget and wants to know what can be done with it. They are usually looking for ideas and a proposal. The other group knows what they want to do – and often how...
How important is the response rate?
I was talking to the marketing director of a travel company the other day. He told me his direct mail typically produces a “one-tenth of one percent” response rate. That’s 1/10 of 1%. Or .001. Or one sale out of every 1,000 pieces mailed. That’s a terrible response...
Choosing a direct mail offer that fits your sales process
In developing a direct marketing program, one of our first steps is to determine where our program will fit in the sales process. This is done through the direct mail offer. You may already know that the offer is one of the two critical elements in direct marketing...
Branding vs. Direct Response: Are you kidding?
The advertising world is made up of two groups with very different philosophies. There is the “branding” group (mostly traditional ad agencies) which believes that advertising must be designed to leave an impression – so that your product is remembered when a...
Will a photograph improve your response?
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Now I don’t know who’s doing the counting but sometimes a picture is worth a whole lot more than that - and sometimes, it isn’t worth a syllable. Aesthetically, a picture – any picture – can add a lot to your piece by...
Why should we believe you?
People have come to be very skeptical about the advertising and direct mail they read. No matter who you are or how hard you try, there are always a certain percentage of people who just won’t believe you. For good reason too. There are so many products and so many...
What’s wrong with tweaking?
I don’t know – maybe I shouldn’t be complaining – but I’ve never understood why businesses spend so much time and money creating brand new marketing campaigns instead of just tweaking their existing campaigns. I know we all love spanking new creative. It’s fun. It’s...
What I Loved About Mr. Whipple
On November 19th, actor Dick Wilson, who portrayed Mr. Whipple in the long-running Charmin TV commercials, died at the age of 91. Wilson appeared in more than 500 commercials as Mr. Whipple from 1964 to 1985. For those of you who never saw these commercials, Mr....