Paragon Press Shreveport » direct mail

Focus on the Buy

Joan Romph — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:12:20 +0000

Some marketing experts recommend that in creating a direct mail program, you should devote half your time to creating the reply form. Most clients are surprised, if not shocked, when they hear this very revealing rule. The rule is revealing because it suggests that most marketers spend too much effort on the sale and too little on the “buy.”

Think how often you have been virtually sold on something, but chose not to make the purchase because it was too hard to buy. The salesperson offered all sorts of options, for example, or made you worry about the value of an extended warranty. Perhaps they offered more complicated financing packages than you could intelligently choose among. The product was too hard to buy. Now, think of your opposite experiences. Something appealed to you a little, not necessarily a lot and the ease with which you could order, pay for, and receive the product ultimately led you to make the purchase.

Good marketing must focus on the buy. How clear is your offer? Can the prospects sample the service, thereby reducing their risk? How clear is the price? How easy is it to buy?

Save your customers some hassle and make your product easy to buy.

Design Direct Mail That Sells

Joan Romph — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:39:51 +0000

If it sells, it is creative. This, in essence, is the first rule of direct mail design, according to legendary designer and author, David Ogilvy. But what sells?

Here are a few tips to keep in mind when designing your next direct mail marketing piece:

The basics are in your mailbox.

When you need inspiration, just go to your own personal direct mail idea vault… your mailbox! You probably receive tons of good direct mail each year. Set aside packages that catch your eye. The companies mailing these have spent thousands of dollars researching the best methods. Why not learn from their research?

Always try to beat your previous response rate.

Play around with the design before sending the mailing out again. See if minor changes make a significant difference in the response rate.

Send out different versions of your design to similar groups in your database, and test to see which one results in the most responses. Whatever you do, test it, and then test it again!

Use words that grab the reader’s attention.

Here is a recent list of “Words that Grab Attention,” produced by Starch INRA Hooper Research Worldwide:

Announcing / Discover / Easy / Exclusive / Free / Guarantee / Health / Help / Immediately / Introducing / Know / Learn / Love / Money / New / Now / Powerful / Profits / Protect / Proven / Results / Safe / Save / Secret(s) / Today / Trust / Understand / You

As you design the mailer, remember… have fun!

www.ParagonPress.net / Over 34 years, #1 in Shreveport, LA for print, design, mail.

More Bloggers

Joan Romph — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:37:39 +0000

As we work to become smarter about blogging, I’ve invited my co-workers and my boss to start blogging as well…join the party, right? Erin, Tina and Macy should be joining us soon. I’m excited about the steps we’re taking and initiatives we’re doing to try to become smarter social media marketers and smarter inbound marketers and smarter modern marketers (as our friends at HubSpot call it). We want to take things to the next level here at Paragon Press and become more than just a printing, direct mail or graphic design vendor to our customers. We want to become marketing PARTNERS to them, so the more we can add incremental value about marketing initiatives and strategies, the better, right?