Are you tired of wasting money on marketing that doesn’t get results?

Direct marketing, or direct response marketing, is a technique that will help you make every marketing dollar work harder.

Because direct marketing doesn’t just focus on creating catchy taglines and cool graphics (although those are important too!). In direct marketing we look for:

• A clearly defined response. Because if you are designing your materials around a measurable response, you can tell if they are working.
• Information and persuasion. In order to complete a sales process, or sway an opinion, just the right amount of information needs to be provided. As a direct marketing copywriter, I understand that gaps in your message will cost you money.
• The ability to test. Or to learn from the lessons of others’ tests.
• Long-term relationships. Because it costs much more to convert a new prospect (five times, or even more!) than it does to do business with your past clients.

Here’s an interesting thing…

After years of testing, we know all kinds of interesting little things that will make your materials more or less effective. Did you know, for instance, that:

• Your prospect doesn’t really care that much about you; he just wants to know “what’s in it for me?”. That’s why we talk so much about benefits (and that’s not the same as features, believe me).
• When someone clicks on your website you have about three seconds to grab their attention, or they will click away.
• No-one will read your fascinating copy (at least not immediately). First they look at the picture … then they move down the page and read the headline … then they read photo captions … then they will scan for anything that stands out like sub-heads and bullet points. Then (if you have really done your job, and you still have their attention) they will go back and read what you have to say.
• One of the biggest marketing blunders is not asking for a response.

Not Just Direct Mail

Whatever you’re writing, some direct marketing techniques can make sure you’re getting your money’s worth. And that goes, not just for your direct mail or online marketing, but also for materials such as brochures, newsletters, even proposals.

You see, decades of testing in traditional direct marketing media, such as the mail, newspapers and now the internet, have given us an amazing insight into how people read, how people react and what makes people respond.

So, you don’t have to be a direct response marketing company to be using direct marketing techniques to maximize the return on your marketing investment.