14 Keys for Successful Mailings
by George Duncan,
President of Duncan Direct Associates
To help clean up the direct mailings you send to your clients and ensure your
efforts pay off, you need to be able to answer the following questions:
1. Lists
l Do you know whom you are selling to?
l Have you done your homework on the lists?
l Have you used a trustworthy list broker?
l Have you provided your broker with an accurate description of your product and offer?
l Did you check the lists when they arrived? (Pick several at random and call them to make sure they are who they are supposed to be.)
l Do you understand the differences between “response” and “compiled” lists?
2. Customer Profile
l Do you have a customer/prospect profile to work from?
l When writing copy, do you address yourself to one person, not groups?
l Do you have an idea of how that person spends his or her average day, either at home or at work?
l Do you understand that person’s values (his or her hopes, dreams, gripes and fears) and have you factored them into your appeals?
l Do you write in your reader’s style instead of your own?
l In business-to-business, do you know whether your key prospect spends his or her workday standing or sitting, and how that can have an impact on your communications?
3. Offers
l Have you made an offer?
l If so, is it proactive?
l Do you sell it or just mention it in passing?
l Do you merchandise it throughout your copy? (A free 30-day trial is more proactive than an off-price. An operational program is more proactive than a self-running demo.)
l In lead generation, do you have a primary and secondary offer? (In-house demonstration plus a free report.)
l Is your offer tangible and specific or of intrinsic value?
4. Quantity/Quality
l Have you factored in the “Quantity/Quality” ratio? (You can’t have it both ways. High volume or quantity of responses means lower quality and vice versa.) Remember that no one makes money selling one thing, one time. If you want to attract repeat customers, treat every initial sale as a lead. Go for quality.
5. Costs
l How much are you willing to spend for a response?
l Will your conversion rate and gross margin support a higher cost-perorder?
l Is total response more important than cost-per-order?
6. Format
l Is your format interactive?
l Do you utilize windows on your envelopes for a “peek-a-boo” effect?
l Do you explore brown Kraft stock for value-oriented offers?
l Do you explore special envelope shapes and textures?
l Is your teaser/promise interactive?
l Do you refer to a “guarantee certificate,” or valuable coupon, or is there a Free Trial Certificate inside?
l Do you “action date” your offer?
l Does your teaser also make a promise or provide a strong benefit?
7. Appearance
l Does your letter look and feel like a letter?
l Is it courier typeface or something similar?
l Does it avoid the “brochure” look?
l Are letters personalized to customers and possibly to others? (Look ahead to the kind of relationship you want to build.)
8. Results
l If you include a brochure, does it show the product being used?
l If not, does a lot of LARGE TYPE repeat the key elements?
l Do you offer proofs including test results, testimonials, and case studies?
9. Guarantees
l Do you provide a guarantee?
l Do you showcase it, or hide it? (Your guarantee has nothing to do with the product, but only with you, the marketer, and your forthright and honest way of doing business.) (A 60-day guarantee works better than 30; 90 better than 60. “Try it without risk for 60 days” is more positive than “money back if not satisfied.”)
10. Tests
l Have you provided for testing? (Test lists, test offers, test formats, test copy appeals. Test a less expensive version of your main package.)
11. Headlines
l In direct response ads, is your headline a complete idea in itself? (Not requiring further reading of the text block in order to make sense.)
l Do you quickly expand on that important “headline area” with subheads or bulleted copy extensions?
l. Alternatives
l Have you explored alternative media for your client? (such as card decks, package insert programs, co-ops, and the Internet.)
13. Efficiency
lHave you answered your own ads and mailing pieces, and those of your clients’ competitors to track efficiency and effectiveness of response? (Code your middle initial to track list usage.)
14. Tracking
l Do you track results by test panel and feed the information into a database?
l Do you or your client use the database for up-selling, cross-selling and after market selling?
l Do you track results by source?
Adapted from Streetwise Direct Marketing by George Duncan
