Top 15 FREE Rules to Great Direct Response Creative

It's funny. Although the most important factors that contribute to Direct Mail or Email Success are the list and the offer, 90% of your effort will be focused on the creative. Trust me.

So, here is my cheat sheet, if you will, of rules that I'm reviewing while reviewing creative.

1. Stress benefits - not features. Ask WIFM? (What's in it for Me - the reader?) If you can't answer this question, start over.


2. Drive the offer – get attention & drive response. This is the reason you are writing. You want the reader to DO SOMETHING.


3. Design for clarity over beauty – never let the reader hesitate. Don't let your creatives or copywriters get too fancy. This is all about Return on Investment.


4. Use a personal tone – make it all about "you" (the reader), personalize if you can.


5. Eliminate risk – add a guarantee and testimonials whenever you can. They work, just ask my friend Jon.


6. Call for action - tell them what you want them to do (and ask them again. And again.)


7. Avoid asterisks - they add doubt to your offer.* See what I mean?


8. Provide an offer they want - make it worth their while. If your offer isn't compelling, start over.


9. Limit choice - make it easy to say "Yes!" Again, this means design for clarity.


10. Make it easy to respond – OK. I know I just said limit choice, but every rule is made to be broken, and this is the one spot you can break this rule. Give the reader a choice in how to reply to your offer: phone, web, email, fax, BRE


11. Be relevant – only irrelevant information is spam/junk mail.


12. Make it legible - no initial caps or all caps. No reverse type. Use open, easy to read serif fonts.


13. Be specific - As Herschell Gordon Lewis says, "specifics beat generalizations every time".


14. Always have a landing path - or at least a landing page. Don't drop your reader off somewhere that it isn't perfectly clear that they are at the right place.


15. Give the envelope one job – to get opened by the right person. Not thrown away, not read by the admin, but opened by the right person (homemaker, CEO, etc.)

Direct Mail Sample

Here is a sample Direct Mail piece that we created for Intuit for their ProSeries Tax software. Our target was tax professionals. Notice the Kraft envelope that looks like something the IRS might send you. Also, the tear off reply card that is pre-printed with the mailing address (so it shows through the outer-envelope and ensures that the contact information comes back correct so Intuit can fulfill the offer and ensure 100% tracking.