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Getting the basics right goes a long way toward achieving direct mail success. In my last post, we discussed 11 strategies that you’ll want to include when planning your next campaign.

You can see these here.

To complete 21 Steps to Direct Mail Success, here are ten more often overlooked strategies that you’ll want to include in your next campaign.

12. Test, test and test are the three most important rules of direct mail; yet mailers regularly claim they can’t afford to test. In truth, you can’t afford not to test. Even the best mailing packages fatigue. There are a finite number of prospects who will respond to any mailing, and each time you mail your control, fewer and fewer people remain in this pool of names. To remain competitive, you must continue to test new lists, offers, formats and copy. Even the few direct mail letters that remain the control year after year are “tweaked” with subtle changes to maintain response. A successful direct marketer is always pushing for better results, and this can be achieved only with a disciplined testing program.
13. Test the big things. When you’re looking for breakthrough results, test the lists, offer, format and copy. Testing minor copy revisions on page 3 or changing the paper stock of the reply form or the color of the return envelope will make a difference only to large-volume mailers. To everyone else, it’s a waste of money.
14. Maintain control of the package design. Don’t surrender control of the package’s design to the graphic designer. Direct response isn’t about looking good or winning awards. It’s about getting results. Understand how people read direct mail and design your layouts accordingly. It may not look “award winning” and the designer may not agree with your choice of type, but readability is more important than pretty. (See How to Use Graphic Devices to Boost Direct Mail Response Rates.)
15. Focus on the letter. Brochures explain while letters sell. There are exceptions, but more often than not, including a brochure will depress results. And, if you don’t make the outer envelope interesting, no one will see your great letter copy. Focus on the letter, the response form and the outer envelope.
16. Ask for the sale. In direct response, your purpose is to convince the recipients to take a specific action. Whether it’s to buy a product, make a contribution or generate a lead, you need to tell the recipients exactly what you want them to do. Then remind them. And tell them once again. To make the sale, you have to ask for the order.
17. Test before you adapt. We can learn from the mistakes of others and we can learn from their success, but every organization is unique, so don’t assume that what works for your competitor will work for you. Test it first.
18. Put the needs of your donors or customers first. You’re not the only one writing to your customers, and more often than not, even your multiple buyers/donors won’t remember your name. In every communication, remind even your most frequent donors/buyers what your organization is, why it’s important to them and how they benefit.
19. Give the copywriter all the information he or she needs. Several clients have told me that they don’t want to prejudice my thinking by sharing package samples or past results. But are you paying the copywriter to be creative or to beat your control? We live in an “age of skepticism,” and the more information the copywriter has, the better the job he or she will do. Besides, an experienced copywriter can often discover new concepts buried in old package samples and research material.
20. Respect your test results. In direct response, we don’t need to decide what lists, offer or copy works best. With proper testing, the customer will tell us what works. Before adopting any major change to your mailing package, double-check the list work for the test, review package samples and confirm your postal receipts. But once everything checks out, don’t second-guess the test results.
21. Deal with the back end before you mail. When accepting orders via phone, everything comes down to one telephone call. And if the person answering the phone isn’t trained, professional and polite, you’ll not only lose the order, you’ll lose the customer. And if you’re directing respondents to a landing page, make certain that its contents and look match that of the mailing piece. Confirm your inventory and work through the entire ordering process to ensure that it gives the customer a good experience. And be certain that procedures are in place to credit telephone and online respondents to the mailing’s results.

Including these essential steps in your direct mail campaign doesn’t guarantee success, but these steps will greatly increase your probability of achieving a successful mailing.

You can download the complete list of “21 Steps to Direct Mail Success” as one document in my Direct Mail Resource Center.

Download as a pdf

The key to success is to avoid making mistakes. And with direct mail, getting the basics right accounts for 95% of all successes.

21 Steps to Direct Mail Success

You can find many articles about effective direct mail testing, copy and design in my other posts, but here I focus on key–but often overlooked–elements of a successful direct mail campaign.

Below are 11 essential elements of a successful direct response campaign. In my next post, I’ll follow up with an additional ten steps that you’ll want to incorporate in every direct mail campaign.

1. State the campaign’s objective clearly. Get everyone focused on the same goal before launching the campaign. Generating a lead is quite different from closing a sale with a prospect or cross-selling to a customer. Each effort has its own expectations and everyone needs to understand how to measure success.
2. Start with a budget. Every direct response campaign is measured by its results. Know how much you can spend to meet these expectations, and before you mail, establish how much money you’ll have to follow up on your initial tests. It doesn’t do you any good to achieve breakthrough results unless you have the resources–time, money and personnel–to exploit your success.
3. Establish a mailing schedule. Knowing that even the best plans will change, I schedule mailings twelve months out. Holidays, annual events, anniversaries, etc., often inspire donor and customer mailings, and these dates can become the core of your schedule with other “To Be Announced” mailings planned around them. For acquisition mailings, schedule follow-up mailings 45-60 days after the test is in the mail–or the number of days it will take to receive, process and analyze the returns plus the time required to produce the follow-up mailing. Without a schedule, project dates quickly begin to slide and things just don’t get done. A schedule is one of your strongest planning tools.
4. Do the math first. There is no reason to spend money on a direct mail campaign if the results needed to turn a profit are unrealistic. We all enjoy a challenge, but, for example, a 20 percent break-even response on an acquisition mailing isn’t realistic. Do the math first and avoid any mailing that has little chance of success. (See How to Use a Pre-Event Routine for More Profitable Direct Mail Testing.)
5. Focus on the mailing lists. The creative portion of the mailing may be the most fun, but it’s not the most important. Turn your attention to selection of the mailing lists. Nothing will play a greater role in your success or failure than list selection. No matter how good the copy or offer, you’re not going to sell lawn mowers to Eskimos. Work with a list professional who has experience in your market and will take the time to learn about your company, its competitors, the mailing’s offer and your past mailing results.
6. Show the benefits. No one really cares what your gadget does or how worthy your organization is. What they care about is how they will benefit from responding. The benefit can be tangible or intangible, but fulfilling the prospect’s needs is far more important than anything you’re selling. Show how your offer meets the prospect’s needs and you’ll make the sale.
7. Don’t reject a promising test based on price alone. Just because a test cost 50 percent more than the control doesn’t necessarily mean you need to increase response by 50 percent or more. Rather than ask how much the test costs, ask, “What response does this test need to beat my control?” (See link provided above in #3.)
8. Test new offers. The offer is what you promise the recipient and what you ask in return. And your offer is second only to the mailing list in terms of its effect on the campaign’s success. If you’re looking for breakthrough results, test the offer. (For ideas on offer tests, see 17 Ways to Improve Your Direct Mail Offer.
9. Test enhancing your mailing package. You’re more likely to increase net profit by adding to the package than you are by eliminating a component. Test new package components that promote the premium, display testimonials, emphasize the guarantee, and add credibility to the organization or letter signer. “Bells and whistles” like address labels and peel-off stickers for the prospect to move to the response form still work and often give you a big bang for the buck. (The one component you probably don’t want to add is a brochure. If you use a brochure now, see what happens when you drop it. It’s likely a drag on results.)
10. Hire a professional direct response copywriter. You may have someone within the organization who, because of his or her intimate involvement with the group and the sincerity of his or her beliefs, can produce a letter that outperforms copy written by a professional direct mail copywriter. But these people are few and far between. Hire a professional direct response writer. It will be money well spent. And recognize that copywriting for general advertising and direct response copywriting are two different skill sets.
11. Now is the time to test. Don’t wait until your control stops working before testing new lists, offers, formats and copy. If you do, cash flow will come to a halt and you’ll feel like you’re standing in a hole trying to dig yourself out. It’s not a career-enhancing move.

In my next post, I’ll publish ten more easy steps to take to achieve direct mail success. (Subscribe to my blog–see sign-up in the navigation column to the left–and you’ll receive this next post automatically.) In the meantime, best wishes for your continued success.

Too often, we receive direct mail that’s offensive to the eye.

Big blocks of text crowd the page. Narrow left and right margins choke the life from the words. And small sans serif type makes the copy difficult to read.

Visually, these letters are uninviting.

Tips to Increase Readership

Graphic designers may love the look of grey-colored type, but readers need text printed with high contrast. Illustrations and graphics can enhance a mailing, but when overused they pull the reader’s eye in so many directions that it’s virtually impossible

What might appeal to someone’s sense of design doesn’t necessarily help the reader. And with only a few seconds to capture the reader’s attention, any distraction to the eye flow can doom the mailing.

Even when you mail award-winning copy with an offer that meets the recipient’s every need, few people—even those who respond to your mailing—will read the entire direct mail letter. But when you follow a few proven techniques, you can lead more readers to the letter’s most persuasive points and direct them to the call for action.

Here are some basic techniques that you’ll want to see included in your next mailing. They will increase your readership and help you achieve a more profitable campaign.

1. Make the letter look like a letter. People know what to do with a letter—read it. Don’t confuse them with something that looks like a brochure, a flyer or some creative hybrid approach. Most recipients will recognize your letter as being part of a mass mailing, but providing the perception of a personal letter will typically increase results.
2. Provide lots of space for your left and right margins and only justify the left margin—flush left, ragged to the right.
3. Use a serif type for your letter copy. (Serif type has little “feet” at the bottom (Courier, Times New Roman and Georgia are examples.) Virtually every newspaper, magazine and published book uses serif type because has proven to enhance reading flow and reduce eyestrain. If you want it read, use a serif type.
4. Always indent your paragraphs. Studies show that indented paragraphs “catch” the eye moving down the page and make the letter more readable.
5. Single space the letter and put a double space between paragraphs.
6. Don’t end a page with a complete sentence. Look at your newspaper. To finish practically any article, you have to turn the page and that’s exactly what you want the reader to do with your letter—keep them turning pages until they reach your call to action.
7. When using “handwritten” notes in the margin and/or underlining, be sure the letter signer uses the same pen used to sign the letter. This is one letter, written by one person to one other person. Make it believable.
8. Letters printed in a faux handwriting font have their purpose but keep them short. It’s a struggle to get through four pages of handwritten text.
9. Use nothing smaller than 10-point type (except for disclaimers). For an older audience, you’ll want to use a larger 12-point type.

Direct mail isn’t rocket science. If you’re going to persuade the reader to respond, he or she needs to read your letter—or at least its main points. No one wants to work their way through a letter they didn’t even ask for so keep it simple, stay on point and make it easy to read.

On average, the reader takes no longer than 11 seconds to decide whether to read or trash your letter. Research by Professor Siegfried Vogele found that during this 11-second preview, the reader’s eyes fix only on pictures and headlines—never on the body copy. Knowing this, you can use illustrations to draw the reader’s attention to your most persuasive copy and lead them to the call to action.

1. Typically, readers follow the classic pattern of reading left-to-right, top-to-bottom, but eye flow can be redirected using “pointing devices” with a graphic element. For example, when you place a graphic of people in your letter, the reader’s eyes will follow the eyes of the subjects in the picture. Use this by pointing the subject’s eyes toward your copy.You can use practically any “pointing device” to direct the reader’s eyes. With an illustration showing a model wearing a man-style tie, for example, the eyes of readers will follow the tie right down to its pointed end—and to the copy below.
2. Most illustrations need a caption. To get the caption read, put it below or to the right of the illustration, not above or to the left of it.
3. With 2-page layouts—as in a brochure—you can expand what the reader sees by placing color pictures to the left and black-and-white pictures to the right. Warmer colors will draw the reader’s eyes across the page revealing more of your message. When using pictures with and without people, put the people pictures to the left to encourage the reader’s eyes to go across the page.

People love a good story especially when it’s about them. To increase readership, you want to:

1. Include a salutation. You wouldn’t start a conversation without a greeting so include a salutation with your letter. And assign title codes. There is nothing more impersonal than using the recipient’s full name in the salutation. (“Dear Mr. Hugh Chewning,” for example. It’s either “Dear Mr. Chewning” or “Dear Hugh.”) When you can’t assign a title code, use a default—“Dear Member,” “Dear Homeowner” and “Dear Friend” are examples—but say “hello” and welcome the reader before launching your sales pitch.
2. Have the copy written as if it’s a one-on-one conversation between the letter signer and the recipient. Direct mail is an “I” to “you” medium. Not “us” and “we.” People are more comfortable with an individual than a large, impersonal organization, so keep it personal and they’ll keep reading.
3. Personalize the copy with the reader’s name and any other pertinent information that’s available. Properly used, the cost of adding personalization to the letter will almost always pay for itself. And when you’re mailing to customers or donors, recognize the recipient as such early in the copy.
4. Give special attention to the letter’s first paragraph and the P.S. Typically, these areas get the most attention so use them to state the problem your offer will solve, how the reader will benefit by responding and to issue your call to action. If they read nothing else, they’ll know how to respond and why they should respond.
5. Don’t worry about using incomplete sentences, contractions or a preposition at the end of a sentence. Write in a conversational style as if the letter signer is speaking directly to the recipient.
6. Create an image for the reader. If the reader can see him or herself in the situation you describe, they’ll take an interest and continue to read.
7. If you can’t spell a word or need to look up its meaning, don’t use it. You want to give the reader a “warm and fuzzy” feeling not impress him or her with your vocabulary.
8. Don’t let the reader stumble on in-house abbreviations. When using the term for the first time, spell it out. For example, rather than beginning a letter with “ACLU” you would write, “American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).” You’ll lose all momentum if the reader must turn back to the start of the letter to understand your meaning.

The more you create the perception that your direct mail letter is a personal communication from the letter signer to the recipient—and make it easy to read—the more readership you will have.

And the math is simple—greater readership equals higher response.

Getting every possible response is always worth the effort of giving added attention to the package’s layout, its use of graphics and its copy style. Increase readership of your letter and you and your organization will profit.

Whether you’re promoting an idea, a product or a service, successful direct mail copy persuades the reader to take a desired course of action.

Years ago, the televangelist Don Stewart successfully wrote to his supporters saying, “Send $25 now. I’ll explain later.”

But today we live in an “age of skepticism,” and without facts to support the letter’s claims—and a clear understanding of the mailing’s purpose—the direct mail copywriter cannot write his or her most persuasive appeal.

Facts help build creditability, and every promise needs to be supported with believable data. But, to do his or her best work, the direct mail copywriter needs more than product information. Before beginning to write, your copywriter also needs to know:

• What’s the purpose of the mailing?
• Who will receive the mailing?
• How will the offer benefit the reader?
• What are we asking the recipients to do?
• Are there any terms or phrases that must be included or excluded?

Additionally, I want to know current response rates, average order and the cost of the control package so I can estimate how much we can spend on a new test package. Does it make sense to add an insert to the mailing, use a larger format or include a premium? (See my past blog entry, How to Use a Pre-Event Routine for More Profitable Direct Mail Testing.)

Why share mailing list information?

The best direct mail is a one-to-one communication between the letter signer and the mailing’s recipient. And only by understanding who will receive the mailing can the copywriter effectively communicate the offer.

When we meet someone for the first time, our conversation becomes much more effective once we learn a little about each other. The same is true for the copywriter when writing to prospects or customers for the first time.

Understanding which mailing lists or segments are most successful—and least successful—along with all available demographic information and buying/contribution history, can help the copywriter speak more effectively to the mailing’s recipients. Plus, the copywriter can use this information to personalize the letter copy—which typically increases results.

Why mail volume is important to the copywriter

Including involvement techniques—surveys, CDs, samples, admission tickets, address stickers, etc.—in a test package is often a great way to achieve breakthrough results. The same is true of oversize formats and premiums.

All of these add-ons come at a cost, but with the price breaks typically available with large volumes, the copywriter can consider testing “bells and whistles” that would not make sense for a low-volume mailing.

And when knowing there will be more mail volume, the copywriter can propose more tests.

For example, if your mailing is only 100,000 pieces, it doesn’t make sense to mail five different tests of 10,000 names each. This would put half of your total mailing at risk, and that’s not a good idea for cash flow. And, depending upon the response rate, making your test cells smaller might not generate enough responses to achieve statistically valid results.

Yet when mailing a million pieces, assigning the same 50,000 names to testing would only represent one-twentieth of the total mail volume—a far less risky investment.

Sharing potential mail volume can help the copywriter make better use of your test dollars.

More information is better

The more information the copywriter has the better job he or she can do. Here are several other things I want to know before I start to write—and why:

• Who is the letter signer? I ask for a biography of the letter signer because the direct mail copywriter speaks for him or her. And the more the copywriter knows about the person signing the letter, the better he or she can relate the copy to the recipient’s needs.
• Who are the client’s competitors? A competitor presumably shares at least a portion of the audience I’ll be writing to, so I want to see how they present their offer and review the benefits they promise.
• I also want to see samples of the company’s space ads, collateral, and radio and television ads. Direct mail is only part of the organization’s marketing plan, and the copywriter needs to create a synergy between the different advertising mediums. The company’s communication to the targeted audience—whatever the source—needs to share a common image and message.
• Share testimonials and press clippings—both positive and negative. They can add creditability to the copy.
• Provide the copywriter with a sample of the product or let him or her experience the service. Holding, feeling and using the product or service lets the copywriter experience its benefits, and as a result, he or she can then better relate these values to the prospective buyers.
• How will the client judge the package’s success? Will it be net dollars, number of new customers, customers making a second purchase, click-throughs, telephone calls or the number of leads received? The client will judge my performance by the package’s success, and we can avoid disagreements by agreeing on the rules beforehand.

Share mail samples

Some organizations worry that sharing past mail samples will limit the copywriter’s creativity and influence the work. But creativity isn’t the job of the copywriter. Increasing response is.

Past mailings should influence the copywriter. After all, the whole concept of direct mail testing is to build on past successes and avoid past mistakes.

If there are particular techniques that consistently work, I want to consider including them. If there are concepts that have consistently proven not to work, I want to avoid them.

And the argument not to share samples because the organization must preserve its confidentiality just doesn’t work. Once the package mails to thousands of complete strangers, it’s not a secret. Share it with your copywriter.

To achieve the highest return on the organization’s test budget, share information, samples and past results with your copywriter. When you do, everyone wins.

Direct mail is a sales medium. We use it to sell ideas, products and services. And like any other form of sales, its success is based on trust.

Regardless of how much the prospect may value your offer, if he or she doesn’t trust the person attempting to make the sale, it’s not going to happen.

In direct mail, our salesperson is the letter signer. And to establish trust we use testimonials, money-back guarantees and clear, straightforward language.

By definition, an asterisk “indicates omission…”

An asterisk signifies that the claim being made isn’t complete. There are qualifications and/or limitations to what you’re being told. In blunt terms, an asterisk says that you’re not being told the whole truth.

Recently, I received a mailing with the headline “Save $1,000.*”

Seeing the asterisk, I read this headline as “Save $1,000? Maybe.”

The headline makes a big claim but the asterisk warns me that I’m not getting the full story. Continuing with the letter, I encountered three more asterisks before I completed the first paragraph.

Where’s my trust level now?

I’ve never been impressed by fast-talking salespeople who oversell and promise something they can’t deliver. If there are restrictions or qualifications to become eligible for an offer, just say so in clear, straightforward language.

Full disclosure is not only a legal responsibility and a matter of conscience, it’s good salesmanship.

I expect that on more than one occasion you’ve walked away from a sale because you sensed the salesperson was more interested in making a sale than giving you all the information you needed to make a good buying decision.

Isn’t this the same message an asterisk delivers to our readers?

There will be times when using an asterisk to direct the reader to the disclosure is your best choice. But too often we use an asterisk because it’s easy. All we need to do is insert an asterisk and drop the legal department’s comments into an endnote and we’re done.

But typically, there’s a more effective way.

• When making a statement that requires a comment, write, “You’ll find the full details and limitations below.” You’ll still have the endnote, but you’ll avoid the asterisk.
• In a four-page letter, try to work the mandatory copy into page two or three where it won’t disrupt the flow of the letter.
• Rather than try to hide the legalese, see if you can find a way to feature the disclosure copy. Be upfront and let the reader know, “Here are facts that you need to know.” People want to do business with people they trust—someone who doesn’t hide information concerning the sale.

Recently, I attached a Post-It note to the letter’s first page and wrote:

As you might expect, with an offer this good—and discounts this huge—there are certain conditions that apply. You’ll find complete details printed on the blue insert I’ve enclosed.

You may not like this particular idea and I can’t say how well it worked because we didn’t test it separately. But my point is that we can meet regulatory and legal requirements without littering our copy with asterisks.

Here are a few examples:

• Often we see an asterisk pointing to a disclosure that reads, “For new customers only.” Instead, try adding copy to the letter that says, “The savings and benefits offered are reserved exclusively for our new customers.” Now, the mandatory copy adds exclusivity to the offer.
• If the offer is only good for a limited time, don’t hide it in the disclosure. Turn the “limited time” into a deadline to respond and add urgency to the offer.
• Using diet products as an example, you often see “With diet and regular exercise” added to the disclosure. But rather than put this into the disclosure, include letter copy that says, “With regular exercise and proper diet, you can see amazing results with XYZ product.” You’re communicating the same message but the qualifying statement is now part of the benefit.
• When promoting Certificates of Deposit rates, financial institutions often add “New Money Only” to the disclosure. Instead, try putting this into your copy: “Because we’re looking to raise money to make new home loans, this special rate is limited to new money—money that’s not already deposited with the bank.” This not only gets rid of an asterisk, it also opens the offer to existing customers.

There will be times when directing the reader to the disclosure with an asterisk is still the best approach. Sometimes there’s just no better way to communicate mandatory information. But don’t make it the first thing you try because more often than not, you can make better use of the disclosure information in the letter copy.

Including required information in your letter copy can increase the believability of your offer and build trust. But using an asterisk to point to a disclosure in eight-point type can only hurt the mailing’s creditability.

________________________________________

*To kill the perfect offer, use an asterisk in the headline and letter copy.

Too often, people and organizations put all their attention into getting the big things right, but ignore the details.

There’s a word to describe this. It’s “mediocrity.”

Giving attention to the details can’t ensure your success, but ignoring the small stuff can quickly bring about your downfall.

Every detail has bottom-line repercussions and it’s irresponsible to think of any aspect of direct mail as trivial, unimportant or inconsequential.

Here are a few fine points often overlooked in a mailing. None will ensure your success, but collectively, they can make a huge difference in your mailing’s success.

• Double-check the planning schedule. Don’t assume that someone has selected and ordered the mailing lists. Has the copywriter submitted his or her work in time to get it approved and into production in time to meet your mail date? Have the envelopes been delivered to the mail house? Too many projects never get off the ground—or mail at an unfavorable time—because no one monitors the planning schedule.
• Make certain all the mailing’s components—the outer envelope, the letter, the response form and other components—synergize into one mailing package. It’s one direct mail package, not a collection of individual components.
• Understand that giving attention to detail is not the same as cluttering the package’s design with details. Including too many graphic elements in the design can confuse the eye and keep the reader’s attention away from where you want it to flow.
• Check the art and make certain the letter uses a serif font. If anyone questions the value of using a serif font in the letter, have them pick any book from the library or look at any magazine or newspaper, and they will see that they all use serif fonts. Why? Because a serif font is more readable. And having more people read more of your letter can only increase response. When you want something read, use a serif font.
• You wouldn’t start a conversation without greeting the recipient, so make certain the letter includes a salutation. And give attention to title codes—Mr., Mrs. and Ms., for example. For me, there’s nothing more impersonal as “Dear Hugh Chewning.” It makes everything sound like a sweepstakes letter. Open the letter with “Dear Mr. Chewning” or, when appropriate, “Dear Hugh.” And provide a “default” for names that you can’t match to a title code. For example, “Dear Member,” “Dear Customer,” “Dear Neighbor” or even “Dear Friend.”
• Keep the letter’s paragraphs short and provide plenty of white space for the margins. Wide margins and short paragraphs invite the reader’s eye to the page. Fat paragraphs and long sentences are intimidating and unwelcoming to the reader. You want to get the letter read, so make it warm and comfortable to the recipient. (Compare the pages of a novel written in the 1930s or earlier with those of a contemporary book and see which you find more inviting.)
• Make sure the letter’s paragraphs are indented. Eye-camera studies show that indented paragraphs “catch” the eye moving down the page and make the letter more readable.
• Check for asterisks and, whenever possible, eliminate them. Asterisks are for the lazy and they announce that you’re hiding something. If there’s something you must say, just say it. It’s far better to announce a limitation or condition than for it to appear that you’re hiding the full truth. In a four-page letter, put required legal information on page two or three—very few people read those pages anyway.
• Format the letter as a “friendly” letter rather than a business letter—even for business-to-business mailings. Think of the letter as a one-on-one conversation between the recipient and you—the salesperson. To whom would you be more likely to respond—a salesperson who comes across as warm and friendly, or someone who is formal and distant?
• Read the letter aloud. Its copy is a conversation you’re having with the reader and that’s how you want it to sound.
• Don’t let a page—other than the last—end with a complete sentence. Any newspaper—with the possible exception of USA Today—will force you to turn a page to finish the front-page article. Why? They want you to see the advertisements. In direct mail, we also need the reader to turn the page to discover the benefits of our offer and reach the letter’s call to action.
• Give attention to the letter signer’s signature and any margin notes. The signature needs to be realistic but readable. You don’t want it to look like an artist signed the letter, but the signature needs to be legible or it’s going to hurt the letter’s credibility. And make certain any “handwritten” note in the margin is in the same handwriting and ink color as the signature.
• Has the letter used any in-house words or abbreviations without providing an explanation? Don’t assume the reader—even customers—will understand the terms that are unique to your business. If your spouse, best friend or neighbor aren’t familiar with the term, you need to explain it or omit it from the copy. When you do use abbreviations, always spell the word out when first used. For example, rather than beginning a letter with “ACLU,” you would write, “American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).” You’ll lose all momentum if the reader must turn back to the start of the letter to understand what you’re talking about.
• On the response form, tell the reader to whom their check is to be made payable. Don’t make them guess or give them any reason to hesitate. And it’s not “Make your checks payable to…” You’re only asking for one check, so use, “Make your check payable to…”
• Check the response form and make sure it fits into the return envelope. And, if appropriate, have you included a toll-free telephone number or a website the recipient can use to respond?
• When you do offer a toll-free number or webpage as a method of response, make certain that you have procedures in place to include these responses in the mailing’s results report.
• Finally, have the letter proofread. Don’t expect the copywriter to be the final proofreader of his or her own work.

Managing any one of these details isn’t going to produce a huge lift in your direct mail results. But collectively, getting the details right can be the difference between success and failure. Plus, it’s the professional thing to do.

You’ll often find the greatest success within the smallest details. And when it comes to making a difference in your mailing results, a penny is a penny. And pennies make dimes and dimes make dollars.

Sweat the small stuff. Strive for perfection and you’ll achieve excellence.

With direct mail, it’s often said, “The letter sells while the brochure explains.” With this in mind, it’s important not to let your explanation get in the way of making the sale.

I do a lot of “Beat the Control” work, and whenever I’m up against a package that includes a brochure, my first instinct is to test eliminating the brochure. More times than not, dropping the brochure will increase the mailing’s response.

Why? Because when people are reading your brochure, they aren’t responding. Too often, the brochure becomes a distraction and diverts the reader’s attention from the letter’s call to action.

Yet, there are times when it makes sense to test a brochure.

With some products and services, you can better communicate their benefits with a picture, illustration or graph than you can with just words.

For example, if you want to demonstrate the inner workings of a gadget, exhibit the beauty of a collector’s item or show the photo quality of a travel magazine, a brochure can help you sell your offer.

You use a brochure to document the claims made in your letter.

With a brochure, you can show pictures of customers using your product, include more testimonials, provide a chart comparing your service with that of your competitors, include graphs to validate improved product performance, and deliver product information your prospects can keep or pass along as a reminder of your offer.

Selecting the Right Format

You define your brochure’s format by the job you need it to do. For many offers, a simple flyer is enough, while a tri-fold brochure may work better for others. High-ticket offers may even require a multiple-page booklet.

Whatever the format, the brochure is always part of the total direct mail package and its design must share the image of the mailing’s other components. For example, a glossy, four-color, multiple-page booklet doesn’t fit with most fundraising offers. A tri-fold brochure may be out of place with an offer for gold coins, but it can be the perfect fit for a security alarm company.

When designing your brochure, you also want to consider the following:

• Unlike the letter, design the brochure to be scanned, not read.
• Include a strong headline that tells the “what and why” of your offer. The headline identifies the reader’s problem and suggests that there is a fix.
• Make your first paragraph count. Engage the reader and briefly describe how they will benefit from your product or service.
• Include a strong guarantee. Nothing will overcome the reader’s hesitation more quickly than a strong “No-Risk, Money-Back Guarantee.”
• Issue a clear call to action and tell the reader how to respond—by mail, telephone or via your website. Include a response device at the bottom outside corner of the page, where it’s easy to cut out. Show perforation lines around the response device to suggest what the reader needs to do. Also, include your toll-free number and the URL for the offer’s landing page. The brochure is a stand-alone device and needs to provide all the information necessary for the reader to respond.
• A brochure is a great place for Questions & Answers—written as if the reader is asking and you are answering.
• Increase your credibility with testimonials.
• Use graphs and product reviews to compare your product with those of your competitors. People will scan, not read, your brochure and graphs and charts can often tell your story better—and quicker—than text.

Focus the Reader’s Attention

The brochure is a “show me” component; you want to use its graphics to focus the reader’s attention so they quickly get the information that will motivate them to respond.

Use photos freely because before any word of text is even noted, the reader’s eyes will be pulled to photographs and illustrations.

• Select a readable typeface (serif); use short paragraphs and sub-headlines.
• Include pictures of people using your product or service. Readers will look at pictures with people before they see pictures of products.
• On two-page spreads—the inside of a folded brochure, for example—put your strongest picture as far to the left as possible. In most cases, eye flow begins at the upper right of a two-page spread and continues in a sideways “U” like this . Placing a strong picture to the left pulls the reader’s eyes back across the page and “exposes” more of your message.
• People read captions. Place captions as close to your pictures as possible—below or to the right of the illustration.
• Your reader’s eyes will typically follow the eyes of the people in your photos. You can take advantage of this by, for example, having the models in your photo look to the left when you want to call attention to copy that’s to the left of the picture.
• Place color pictures to the left and black-and-white pictures to the right. Warmer colors draw the reader’s eye to the left and they will see more of your message.
• Readers will see action illustrations before still pictures. Portraits gain attention before full pictures of people and, most often, a larger group of people will gain attention before a smaller group does.

Does It Help or Hurt?

Your brochure can be a great asset, but you do need to test its effect on your mailing. It’s a mistake to assume that the brochure’s four-color beauty, high-quality photos and fancy charts will increase response.

Test and retest your mailing’s brochure. And remember, the brochure’s purpose isn’t to educate, entertain or impress. In a direct response mailing, the brochure has only one purpose: to increase the mailing’s net income.

If you watch sports, you’ve seen a “pre-event routine” in action.

In baseball, major-league batters will go through their pre-event routines before every pitch. Watch them and you’ll see some batters come to the plate, take two swings and then tap the edge of the plate with their bat before each pitch. The routines vary with each batter, but practically every major leaguer has an established routine.

You’ll see the same thing in basketball. The next time you see a player taking a foul shot, watch what they do. The player may bounce the ball twice, hold the ball and then bounce it again before taking the shot. Whatever their routine, they will go through the same sequence of events each time they take a foul shot.

Athletes use pre-event routines to prepare for success. It gives them focus and purpose, and helps them achieve a higher level of performance. Now we need to develop our own pre-event routine to make our direct mail more profitable.

How direct marketers can use a pre-event routine

As direct marketers, we know the importance of testing. But what do we test? Dick Benson, in his book Secrets of Successful Direct Mail said, “Any idea you honestly believe can economically increase response is worth testing.”

But how do we know whether a test idea has a reasonable chance of economically increasing results?

First, let’s acknowledge that to increase our mailing’s profitability, we need to do more than increase the response rate or generate a higher average order. For our test to succeed, we must generate more net income than the control. And while we can’t always predict which test will succeed, we can insure that we don’t waste money by testing things that have little hope of increasing profitability.

Here’s a real-life example that proves the point.

Several years ago, I worked with a client whose previous agency produced a test package that everyone predicted would increase response. And it did.

The test package was creative, the graphics were incredible and the format was certain to stand out in a crowded mailbox. In fact, it was so impressive that the agency predicted that people who received the package would display the mailing on their office bookshelf. And perhaps they did.

But unfortunately, the client lost a bundle of money—and the agency lost the account—because no one bothered to price the test package’s rollout costs and determine out how much additional response would be needed to justify its higher cost.

If they had, they would have realized that this elaborate package needed—this is a true story—a 476% increase in response to break even with the control.

Now, I’m not saying that you can’t outperform the control by nearly five to one. But is it a reasonable expectation? Even if the test package doubles or triples the response rate, it’s a big loser. And this is where a pre-event routine helps.

Doing the math first

Before we invest our own money—or the client’s money—we need to do a little math and determine what results a test package must generate to justify its cost. And with this information, we can make an informed decision on whether the test can give us a reasonable expectation of economically increasing response.

My routine is simple and works like this: If the test cost $100/M more than the control and you currently average $25 per order, then the test will need to generate four additional responses per thousand pieces mailed. Therefore, if your control is pulling a 1% response rate, your test needs a 1.4% response to break even.

Here’s a simple worksheet I use before committing to a test.

You may find this approach to be too simplistic for your needs but, regardless of our methods, we all need a pre-event routine that causes us to ask, “Is it realistic to expect this test to increase results by 40%? Is this test a good investment?”

With a pre-event routine, these questions are answered before we spend a dime on the mailing. And whatever approach your pre-event routine takes, the process is essential to getting the greatest return from your direct mail test dollars. Like professional athletes, we’ll achieve a higher level of performance with good preparation.

When times get tough, everyone wants to cut direct mail costs. After all, if we can bring in the same amount of money and spend less, our profits increase.

And there are ways to cut costs without necessarily hurting the effectiveness of your mailing.

Cut Costs or Make Money?

You can, for example, trim your package format by ¼ inch or so to make it run better on your printer’s press, use a cheaper paper, test smaller formats, omit package inserts or eliminate the premium.

But don’t act too quickly.

Before getting caught up in the rush to cut expenses, we need to remember the objective of our direct mail campaign.

Because few, if any, of us mail to save money.

For most of us, the mailing’s objective is to make money.

This is a huge distinction. Saving money and making money isn’t the same thing. And, more often than not, we can increase the mailing’s profitability by adding to the package rather than by subtracting from it.

To increase your mailing’s profit, even as you increase its cost, you can:

• Add an involvement technique—a survey, membership card, petition, name stickers, a certificate—anything that gets the reader involved with the package. But it’s not enough just to toss the piece into the package. You must weave it into the copy and give it a reason for being there.
• Offer a premium and promote it with a separate insert—I’m a strong believer in premiums and need a reason not to offer them. The premium doesn’t need to be expensive and can be as simple as a white paper, a decal or a bookmark. But it does need to have a perceptible value.Many groups hate premiums believing that they cheapen the organization. But most donors and customers respond to them and, in my experience, when used properly, a premium will increase the mailing’s net profit.
• Test a larger format. A larger format is going to increase your production cost and perhaps even your postage cost. Yet they grab attention and generate response. Today, fewer oversize formats are being mailed so they command even more attention in the mailbox and can be especially useful for acquisition campaigns. In tests, when nothing other than the format size was changed; I’ve seen response increase by 100% when using a large format.
• Add an insert that emphasizes your guarantee. (If you’re not using a guarantee, you need one.) The mailing’s recipient has plenty of reasons—real or perceived—not to respond to your offer and the guarantee helps remove any hesitation that might otherwise jeopardize the sale. And by featuring your guarantee with a separate insert, you’re calling attention to your promise of a good customer experience.
• Include a lift note. The lift note, signed by someone other than the letter signer and printed on a different paper stock—the perception is that it’s coming from source other than the main letter—has many uses. You can use it to add credibility, present a testimonial or endorsement, emphasize your risk-free offer, expand upon the offer, tell a story, customize the offer to particular list segments and provide an added “push” to get the reader to respond.
• Spend money on list segmentation. Every good list includes bad names and every bad list includes good names. And since the mailing list is the most important component of your mailing, there’s no better place to spend money than to refine your list segmentation. List modeling/profiling isn’t cheap but with better segmentation you can increase your response and even reduce your total costs by mailing fewer, but better targeted, mailing pieces.

All this isn’t to suggest that you should drop your efforts to reduce costs. But cost cutting alone will not produce sustainable success. And I’m not suggesting that you change your control mailing without testing.

I am, however, suggesting that before investing in a new test mailing, you do the math to determine how much of an increase in response or average order is needed to justify the mailing’s added expenseand decide whether, with the changes being tested, this is a reasonable expectation.

It’s certain that we will continue to come under increased pressure to reduce costs but as direct marketers, we must change the conversation from how to cut costs to how we can make our mailings more profitable.

When I started my direct marketing career, I wanted to be a copywriter. Copywriters were the agency “hotshots”; it seemed like they were the star attraction.

Yet my mentor told me that the people of most value to the agency were direct mail “generalists.” Taking his advice, I spent the next six years learning how to initiate, develop and manage successful direct mail campaigns.

I studied list selection, graphic layouts, the letter’s structure, print production and lettershop capabilities. And I gave special attention to what and how to test.

Yet today, most of my income comes from direct mail copywriting.

Over the years, I’ve tested against other copywriters who wrote fancier words, enjoyed reputations that are more widespread and commanded larger fees.

And I freely admit that others write copy that’s richer, less choppy and often, they select particular words that I wish I had thought to use.

Yet when testing head-to-head against these higher-profile writers, my packages regularly generate higher profits.

It isn’t because of the words I choose. It’s because of the lessons I learned long ago.

An Unbeatable Advantage

Before putting a word on paper, I invest time to learn about the mailing lists that will be used, review current and past mailing packages, study test results, and ask
about the printer’s and lettershop’s capabilities. And once the copy is accepted, I work with the graphic designer to review the layout, the graphics, and the selected font, plus do little things like make sure paragraphs are indented and pages break in mid-sentence.

Giving attention to the details is a nearly unbeatable advantage.

Yet too many agencies, clients and managers fail to give their copywriters these practical advantages.

Today, many agencies have consolidated into mega-agencies. And as they grow larger, they tend to become more stratified.

A team leader—usually an account executive—is assigned to every account. Other team members work on the campaign strategy, select the lists, and handle design, production or back-end analysis.

Too often, the copywriter isn’t brought into the picture until after other team members have developed and released the creative brief. Essentially, the copywriter becomes an order-taker.

It’s More Than the Words

But to do our best work for the team, the client and the organization, copywriters need to be direct mail people first and wordsmiths second. For example:

• List Selection. The best copywriters understand that good list selection is more important than the words they put on paper. You can rehash common statements like “The list is 300% more important than copy,” but in fact, the list is infinitely more important. Even if you have the all-time world’s greatest package, if you mail it to the wrong people, you’ll fail. It’s that simple.To be successful, the copywriter needs to know which lists work and which don’t, and have access to all available demographic and behavioral data. A copywriter should also get to know the list brokers, study the “data cards” and ask to be included in new list announcements.
• Graphic Design. You want your copywriter to understand how graphic design affects readership and, thus, how it affects response. He or she should work closely with your design team and understand that it’s in the designer’s DNA to make things pretty and want to win awards. It’s the copywriter’s job to fight for a layout that encourages readership and directs the recipient to take a specific action. Pretty isn’t important. Results are. Let the designer do his or her thing with your collateral pieces, but for anything being measured by its response, the direct mail people—including the copywriter—should have the final word.
• Production. Encourage your copywriter to meet with your printer and lettershop, and include him or her in meetings with new vendors. Copywriters don’t need to be production experts, but they do need to know the full capabilities of the printer and lettershop. Otherwise, they can’t take advantage of the technology and unique capabilities that they can use to drive results.
• Back-end Analysis. Direct mail isn’t “fire and forget.” Share results of past mailings with the copywriter so he or she can take advantage of your new findings and avoid repeating past mistakes.

If you need an outside copywriter to sign a nondisclosure agreement, do it. If you don’t want to share specific results, assign an index to the numbers. If you can’t trust the copywriter with this, why are you using him or her anyway?

And for the record, once a piece mails to thousands, if not millions, of people, it’s no longer confidential, so give a sample to your copywriter. (A pet peeve.)

Whatever your cause or whatever you’re selling, you can achieve greater results by making the copywriter a full participating member of the account team. Bring him or her into the job early in the campaign’s planning stages and you’ll get better results.

Life doesn’t have to be complicated. Empower your copywriter and enable him or her to deliver greater profits. After all, higher profits keep the client and/or the board of directors happy, pay the bills and will give you a good night’s sleep.