A fun tour through the discipline of direct marketing

1. DIRECT MARKETING

2. Marketing Syntax Headline / lead – If It’s for Me I Might Have Time for It Problem / agitation Promise -Solution Bullets (How) Proof Proposition Risk Reduction -Guarantee Call to action / Urgency / Scarcity

3. Translating Mentor’s Value to WIIFM Marketing Syntax: The Rosetta Stone of Copy Egyptian Greek English Marketing Syntax Message Prospect WIIFM

4. DM DIRECT MARKETING Salesmanship in Print Find out what they want and give it to them

5. DM is DIRECT MARKETING Communication designed to trigger a “most wanted” response in specific targets

6. #1 RULE Get all the pieces right or keep your money in your pocket.

7. HOW Learn the proven Principles of DM Learn what DM can and cannot do Know and use YOUR keywords Learn and use the DM Copy Syntax Learn to use the 40/40/20 Rule Learn that Headlines sell and to use an enough copy to sell the product Learn the mailing side is the most important side Learn all lists are not created equal Learn the role of DM Creative Test, test, test

8. The Path of DM Don’t Give Up! 10,000 Hour Rule

9. DM Basics DM is selling, not branding, not feel good, not wishy-washy, not general advertising Customers buy to get benefits Be richer, safer, more successful, more attractive, be smarter, to self-improve, sex appear, profit… If not focused on benefits DM is wasting money Headlines are read 19 times more than anything else in DM Long copy sells better than short DM is instantly measurable

10. DM Basics DM doesn’t create desire or motivation… those already exist in the ear and mind of the target market Instead DM directs, channels and focuses a prospect’s already existing desire

11. DM Basics What Makes DM Work? Burning Problems Wonderful Answers Proof That It Works Compelling Offer Reason to Act Now Risk Reversal

12. DM Basics Write This Down: Knowing the burning problem a customer has is more important than ANYTHING ELSE you can know about a customer Know WHY the customer buys

13. DM Basics DM Knows: If its working Headlines with benefits sell more Optimize the headline to optimize the ROI by 20X or more Reverse type performs poorly Long copy outsells short DM doesn’t care about awards… just sales DM knows because EVERYTHING is measured

14. DM COPY The Principles of DM Copy Proven by the great copywriters: Claude Hopkins Mary Wells John Caples Gene Schwartz Clyde Bedell David Ogilvy Ed McCabe Hal Riney Shirley Polykoff

15. Claude Hopkins "Nobody, at any level, should be allowed to have anything to do with advertising until he has read this book seven times. It changed the course of my life. " David Ogilvy

16. Mary Wells Plop plop, fizz fizz I can't believe I ate the whole thing (winner of the 1971 Clio Award) Try it, you'll like it I ♥ New York Trust the Midas touch At Ford, Quality is Job 1 Flick your Bic Raise your hand if you're Sure Friends don't let friends drive drunk [12]

17. John Caples

18. Ed McCabe

19. David Ogilvy

20. DM COPY Things Change but the Principles Don’t 100 years after principles first established nothings changed WIIFM Yes No We-We, Do-Do

21. DM HEADLINES Written by John Caples in the 1930’s, ran for over 50 years unchanged, why? “They Laughed When I Sat Down At the Piano But When I Started to Play…”

22. WHAT ABOUT TODAY?

23. TWO WORLDS BRAND ADVERTISING DIRECT MARKETING VS.

24. DM Basics You are not the target market; the only thing that matters is what the customer does If DM doesn’t work today it doesn’t run tomorrow The only thing that matters in DM is if it sells today (or gets the “most wanted response”)

25. SNUGGIE $120M Sold in 2008 Who Knew?

26. WHAT WORKS? The 20% of any single Item promo from Bed, Bath and Beyond has been a winner for over 10 years The postcard is dominated by the offer

27. WIIFM? What’s In It For Me?

29. Unique

30. Loved

31. Capable

32. Desirable

33. In

34. Rich

35. Acceptable

37. WHAT WORKS? DESIGN – COPY – TRGET – PRODUCTS - OFFER

38. MAIN POINT! If it doesn’t sell it’s not DM Strategic Planning Copywriting Designing Measuring and Analyzing Results

39. “The only person interested in your product or service is the one who needs or wants it” -David Ogilvy

40. DM Only the person who needs your product or service at that moment is interested Persuade that particular PROSPECT to buy… a few others may “get it”, but forget the rest Use as little – or as much – copy as needed to effectively accomplish the objective In Direct Marketing, copy sells the product or service – while design and graphics sell the copy

41. DM Any language will do… as long as it’s the customers WIIFM – What’s In It For Me?

42. DM The Only Way To Know… RESEARCH

43. WHEN DM? Use Direct Marketing to: Create and complete a sale – transactional Generate a Lead Bring a prospect to your website Get them to take a “Free Report” Motivate an action i.e. attend a webinar Conduct research Balance other marketing efforts Catalyze other marketing efforts

44. BEGINNING Know the objectives – most wanted response Know the targets Know the BIG benefit, promise or offer Copy and design must align with objective

45. BEGINNING Make the offer EASY to respond to Sell your benefits/story over and over again Test, Test, Test… list, offer and creative Track and Report Rinse and repeat

46. 40/40/20 40% of Success is the List 40% of Success is the Offer 20% is the CREATIVE

47. The Offer Think like the Godfather

48. OFFER Call Attention to Your Offer Everywhere On envelopes/postcards Headlines Order forms Post-it notes on letters Email; top 2 inches and at the bottom Show it to make it real; coupon, Free item, etc. Tell and sell your offer as many times and in as many ways as possible and appropriate

49. Call Attention to your offer everywhere Always, always, always on the envelope, mailing panel or top two inches of the email

51. OFFER Anything that’s valuable in the eyes of the target market Anything that’s hard to otherwise find Anything that will advance them Anything that’s nice to have; brand name anything Should not cost more than $25 in B2B

52. OFFER Must be trackable; PIN or PURL Squeeze page – Landing Page Register Opt-In Coupon Reply Some Response Mechanism

53. Most Important Whatever it is…Sell That

54. Most Important Sell That

55. MAKE YOUR OFFER simple and easy for your prospect to understand

56. Meeting Request Subject line in a series of extremely effective lead generation emails

57. What’s Not DM

58. What’s Not DM

59. LIST Targets for Direct Marketing Targets like your ideal client Current customers Targets that look like current customers Target you want to test

60. LIST Types of lists Compiled Subscription lists; rented or purchased Association or membership lists Custom built; combination of the above House; your customers Validated & Maintained

61. 3% - 5% Per Month How Lists Decay Use it or Lose It

62. Data Build Campaigns And Campaigns Build Data

63. LIST Test multiple lists Price and quality do not necessarily relate DM Cost = List, Medium, Design, Graphics The better the list the lower the cost per response

64. CREATIVE Write to – talk to – a specific person The biggest failure of most direct marketing is to forget to communicate one-to-one to a specific person Know and use personas i.e. Sue Johnson is a 25 year old EMT that works for a large Ambulance company in a major metropolitan market. She is in it to help people and she hates technology. Talk specifically to Sue, her pains, her reservations, her perspective

65. TEST Test, Test, Test But only chance one thing at a time If you have a winner, keep using it until it stops working

66. CREATIVE Which Ad Pulled the Best? This is the paper for you! HOW TO GET THE OREGONIAN DELIVERED TO YOUR HOME

67. CREATIVE Which Ad Pulled the Best? This is the paper for you! HOW TO GET THE OREGONIAN DELIVERED TO YOUR HOME The ad above ran for 20 years and beat all of the alternatives. In particular it won in this comparison by a 3:1 margin

68. CREATIVE Winners: When you find a winner stay with it until it stops producing – i.e. Blue Blockers 20,000,000 pair sold and still selling

69. CREATIVE Most productive sales letter of all time Ran for over 28 years before another Ad beat it

70. CREATIVE Advertisers become bored with their advertising much faster than their customers

71. CREATIVE

72. CREATIVE Rosser Reeves USP Long running commercials when others thought they were “worn out”

73. CREATIVE Write and design to the customer Be credible, truthful, believable, sincere, genuine, authentic Write to one person … the user/buyer Write conversationally – “You” – oriented copy Remember to consider … What’s going on in the world? What’s affecting your target? What does she get in the mail these days?

74. CREATIVE Begin Right… Merge Left Engage on the right non-judgemental side of the brain first then move to the rational and logical left side The left side can reject any thought The right side admits all thought

75. CREATIVE It’s What’s Between the Ears One side needs to be able to see, hear, and feel what the benefit is. The other side hates confusion, is insecure, doesn’t like change and can lose focus

76. CREATIVE

77. CREATIVE Ear Vs. Eye Which is a more reliable recorder of data? Your whole life you’ve been told, “we remember more of what we than what we hear.” But it isn’t true. In fact clinical tests have proven quite the opposite: the precise wording of what enters our ears profoundly what we see in our mind.

79. The shortest distance is through Broca’s area

81. CREATIVE Tautology Paradigm Generic Eclectic Enterprise Philosophical Tasked Robust Avoid Harvard, use words the customer can “see”! Shark Sunset Roses Sailboat Alligator Watermelon Apple Rocket

82. CREATIVE Things to Avoid: Unusual or tricky formats that don’t add value Poor taste, double entendres, humor Cleaver or cute – be remembered for being on target instead Content that doesn’t align with your targets interests Over-designing for your equipment or the post office Beginning any sentence with “We”, “Our” or “Name of Company” – Use “YOU” liberally Writing to merchandise vs. market

83. Marketing Focuses on Customers and what they want, need and desire or are motivated to buy

84. Merchandising Focuses on the product, service or company vs. the customer’s wants, needs and desires

85. Marketing Merchandising Usually at cross purposes

86. We-We, Do-Do VS. YOU!

87. WIIFM

88. Lack of compelling headline, focusing on the problem or a specific OFFER. The large photo does NOT speak to your target audience . Lack of a clear and compelling CALL TO ACTION. Lack of testimonials… too much white space. Failure to repeat a CALL TO ACTION or OFFER

89. Compelling Headline Call to Action Testimonial Photo speaks to target market

90. http://www.futurenowinc.com/wewetext.htm We-We, Do-Do TEST People ONLY care about WIIFM

91. 5 we/our 2 you

92. CREATIVE Here are the 10 most frequently used words in Vic Schwab’s “100 Greatest Headlines” You 31 Your 14 How 12 New 10 Who 8 Money 6 Now 4 People 4 Want 4 Why 4 You/Your Total: 45 New/Now Total: 16

93. It all begins with a great Headline

94. HeadlinesSELL On average, five times as many people read the headline copy as read the body copy If you don’t sell the product in your headline, you have wasted 80% of your money. That is why the best headlines include the brand name and promise

95. Headlines The number one job of the headline is to stop your prospect by engaging her over a want, need, motivation or desire she has… Persuade her to read the next line of copy The objective of the next line is to get her to read the next, and so on…

96. Make Every Word Work HARD Headlines make advertising work – the initial headline is 19 times more important than the next 19 or 1,900 words Your target’s time and attention is precious… TEST Is each word important? Can you use a more descriptive or emotive word? Can you be more specific? Remember: Give the Customer what she wants, not what you want to sell

97. Read as a prospect – Edit Ruthlessly Is the headline in step with your primary prospect? Does it make a specific promise to your prospect? Is that ONE big idea visible? Is every word essential? Did you kill every “that”, adjective, adverb, “be verb,” and prepositional phrase? Did you use, “you” or “your” throughout? Is it conversational? Did you use nouns and active verbs? Are paragraphs 4-5 lines or fewer? Do lines have fewer than 45 characters? Is it believable?

98. 5 Questions Is it Persuasive; does it convince or induce the target to take action… Is it informative; does it build a case to for action? Is the information complete; does it include a who, what, when, where and why? Are the off ramps closed? Does it align with your brand?

99. Test, test, test Test to identify what factors contribute to success – avoid opinion Testing protects you from the power and the ignorant… test results can and should trump opinion What to test? Offer List Creative Subject line Etc. Dry run test – do a walk through of your target’s interaction with your piece Preview the sales team so they aren’t surprised and can act in concert Only change one factor at a time – otherwise you’ll never know what made the difference