How To Get More Response
I agree with this statement: "Each
and every element in a direct mail package, space ad, on your WWW site
- anywhere - is equally important."
Yet, often the response device of a direct marketing campaign appears to
have resulted from left over thinking.
Since the bottom line is response - here are some "To
Do's" To Get More Response from your next DM effort. From your
direct mail Business Reply Card, application form, faxback sheet, coupon
in mail or a newspaper or magazine, off your web site. 
1. Begin with DIRFT ... & send your message to the right audience
Always, the basics: spend more time up front making certain your message
is aimed at the right audience.
That's what DIRFT says ... Do It Right
the First Time.
To be as successful as you can be, sending your message to the right audience
is NOT an option - it is mandatory. For even a poorly constructed collection
of words, with a horrid design and a weak offer has a chance of working
when the right people see it, receive it.
The opposite is true when your news hits the wrong target. A great piece
of copy, superbly designed, beautifully produced and directed to the wrong
people is absolutely guaranteed to fail. It's not even debatable.
Start with the back-end first. Think "how am I going to get my audience to
reply?" That process alone will get you to focus on the right audience.
2. Tell me exactly what you want me to do
And be clear about it, too!
If you want me to come to your store or your exhibit space, tell me. If you
want me to phone your toll-free number to register for a survey, to answer
a survey, to learn about your special offer, tell me.
If you need me to complete the faxback sheet and send it to you before the
next step, tell me why and tell me to do it. If you need me to complete the
app and return it before I earn your premium, tell me.
If you need me to fill out the coupon and mail it in, tell me. If you need
money - tell me. If I can pay by check, credit card, money order, or if you'll
accept a purchase order, tell me.
That is, tell your audience exactly what you need them to do. If your
message is unclear you will receive fewer responses. And some you do receive
will be unqualified to do business with you.
Tell me what to do and I'm likely to do it.
3. Make it easy for me to do it - to respond
The easier it is for your audience to do business with you the more likely
they are to do business with you.
The opposite is true, too. If you are difficult, fewer of your prospects
will work through your maze.
Remember, the fewer steps your audience must take the more likely you are
to receive a response to your offer.
4. Give me more than a single way to respond
Part of making it easy is offering multiple ways to reach you. In business-to-business
today it is mandatory to have at least 6 options:
- phone, which can be a toll-free number, but does not have to be,
- fax, today most often with a pre-printed and personalized form,
- mail, yes, slower, and frequently less threatening and easier for your market,
- E-mail, no longer an option - your B-2-B market expects you to be able to handle an E response.
- WWW, a web site, and
- walk-in, yes, front-door traffic.
For some consumer products and services the same collection applies. And
for others, more! Take, for instance, the financial marketplace. How many
ways can you bank? Let's count:
... walk-in ... ATM ... drive-through ... night drop ... phone
... fax ... E-mail ... Web site ... "snail-mail" ...
and at a competitors location or ATM.
Are there others to this list of 10? I'd not be surprised
Make it easy for your prospects to become customers. Give them many ways
to do business with you.
5. Make me an offer I can't refuse
Your offer is a prime reason many of your prospects will become your customers.
An offer allows those "undecided" to consider you. It gives them
a reason (vs. excuse) to say: "Okay, let's look at what these guys can
do for us."
An offer also gives those who do know you a solid reason to stick with you.
And not fly to the competition.
Offers are over and above your collection of benefits. Frequently it is NOT
the reason someone buys. It IS the reason they STOP ... pause ... think ...
and consider you. It is an "extra". It is over and above your benefit
package.
Offers can be almost anything. More for less. Less for less. An "extra" when
you make a commitment. They can be tied to a visit or other action by the
prospect. A premium for taking a demo.
An offer is mandatory in direct marketing ... if you are to enjoy maximum
success. Always make an offer.
6. Make it a LTO - limited time offer
More than ever, limited time offers make sense.
Why? Because people feel they are busier than ever before. "Change" has
always been a tough sell - more so today. Because there is less time to consider
something new, different, unusual.
Combine this thinking with the fact there are more choices than ever before
- many times the prospect will say: "I'm happy where I am."
Yet, putting a drop dead date on an offer frequently will move that hesitant
person to action. If there is only a short time to take advantage of a special
opportunity - often you will enjoy more response. People will do something
vs. doing nothing. Rather than wait until they feel good, are more comfortable
... whatever "excuse" they were thinking ... they move.
Try a Limited Time Offer.
It may increase your response, too.
7. Use BOLD graphics, show the product, show the offer
We live in a color and graphic world. I've a couple of granddaughters who
do not know black and white ever existed.
This "fact" is neither good nor bad. It IS a fact. And we in direct
marketing need to be alert that copy works better when the graphics are good.
Another fact is people buy benefits - not features. So, show the "benefits" of
your product. Even if you have a service, "demonstrate" with illustrations
the benefits to the buyer. What they will get when they do business with
you.
Yet, a warning: great graphics that do not support the message are not great
graphics. You still need to look like who you are. Like your product and
service. If you're selling a Rolls Royce - look rich. If your product is
The Salvation Army - look poor.
8. Get me "involved" ... use action devices
Even the least of us is fascinated with things that move, open, close, pop-up,
wiggle, sing, light-up, turn-on, ring, chime, fit together, come apart, tear,
stick, peel, smell, taste.
We like "things" that DO something.
One of the best ways to get attention is to have an action response
device. Where your prospect gets "involved". Where they must do
something to get to the next step.
As simple as moving your logo sticker to a "Yes" box on the reply
card. Or putting together a puzzle that tells a story. Or peeling back an
emblem, and then scratching it for an aroma. Tearing along the perforated
dotted line - keeping one part, mailing the other part. Even the action of
putting a card in box gets your prospect involved.
As you develop your offer for your audience, think your creative and your
media - think "how can I get the max amount of action?!"
9. Use clear, crisp, concise, & positive copy
English is the largest language in the world. 625,000+ words, give or take
a few thousand.
Spanish is next - 475,000. In comparison French has less than 100,000 words.
Yet, even with "just 100,000", we have tremendous choice of language.
Back to English: the 500 most common words have 13,000 meanings!
What this says is you have many options on what words to use. And ... you
do NOT need to use them all!
Even though you may be learned in the topic, that does not mean you need
to throw your PhD around. When your audience has a PhD, that does not mean
they know anything about your product, your service.
The best writing for marketing and sales is the language you use in everyday
conversation. The face-to-face communication you have. As easy as reading
the newspaper, listening to the late night television news.
Final point: write so junior high school 13-14 year kids can read the words.
And pretty much get the message. If you're over the head of the kids on your
block, you will be beyond understanding of most of your marketplace.
Write to be understood. Marketing is communication - communicate for understanding.
10. Give me a guarantee, & an absolute guarantee of satisfaction
Having a guarantee is not an option. Your market expects it.
Over time products have "automatically" been guaranteed. Retailers
were leaders. People like Sears made promises to their customers that they
could always return a product. For any reason.
Mail-order giants like L.L. Bean have always offered wonderful guarantees.
The best in the business is from Land's End:
GUARANTEED. PERIOD.
No matter your product or service, no matter the industry you are in, today
customers expect you to offer a guarantee. So, do it!
And make a big deal out of your guarantee. Put it in writing, inside a gingerbread
stock certificate looking border. Make certain it is everywhere. On your
literature. With your product shipments. In plain view at your store.
On your WWW site. And everything you print.
Separately, yet equally important, your customer expects you to satisfy their
needs. This has nothing to do with your product or service ... this has everything to
do with customer loyalty.
"Your product works. It does everything you say. It was delivered on time.
Service has been excellent. Yet, I am unhappy - I made a buying decision I'd
like to change. I want to give you the product back ... I want you to give
me my money back."
What do you do when you hear this? Sure, it depends. Yet, you know what the
customer expects. And you need to be prepared to not only offer a guarantee
- you need to offer a Customer Satisfaction Guarantee.
11. Take the space you need to tell your story ... & then give
me room to write!
Some marketers take pages and pages and pages to share their story. And give
the prospect a tiny, tiny space to complete the response card, faxback, application.
Do what it takes to make 100% certain your response card or form has plenty
of space for reading ... and writing. This is a good time to think "white
space".
If necessary, use a larger sheet of paper. Yes, jumbo costs more. What costs
even more is NOT receiving a reply simply because your response card was
jammed, crammed, stuffed and unreadable.
Use 11 or 12 point type - even larger. Make your reply device a minimum of
2 colors. Use graphics to make it interesting. AND give your reader room
to write.
12. Include a summary of your message,
AND all your ID - everything
- on your reply device.
Once your message is in the hands and eyes of the consumer, you are at their
mercy.
You don't know if they'll read it now, keep it to read later, route it to
someone else, or toss it. We all know what happens to many missiles we send
to our prospects and customers:
... they do get looked at
... they do get opened
... they get looked at - again
... they get set aside for "reading" later.
Which is exactly why you must be certain your full message and full identification
is on your application, faxback, response card, coupon - everything in your
direct mail. Plus, complete in print and through-out your web site.
This means your offer and anything you know is important about it. e.g.,
it is a Limited Time Offer.
This also means your full logo, name, address, phone, fax, E-mail, WWW site
need to be prominent. Easy to find, easy to read, easy to use.
Make it easy for your prospect to become your customer. Let them find you.
13. End with AFTO ... and do it more than single time
AFTO equals Ask For The Order.
Really, a sales axiom.
Which is as applicable in marketing. It simply means communicate with your
audience you do want to do business with them. We've learned people like
to do business with people who want to do business with them. So, tell them
so.
And do it several times. Rarely is once enough. The word "Yes",
used several times on your printed response card or faxback, on your WWW
site, allows your reader options. They have a number of ways to tell you "Yes".
Reach out to your audience and ask for their business. And do it again and
again. AFTO works for sales reps ... it works in marketing,
too.
Use them all and enjoy a higher level of response, sales and profit.