High Impact Direct Mail

Here's a current customer upsell piece we just completed for eBay Motors using digital variable printing and a clear poster tube. Note that the entire piece was printed digitally on both sides, so each version was fully customized to the recipient.

We personalized the target's name and company name in the piece and rolled it so it shouted right out of the tube to the recipient. They couldn't ignore this one! And in fact they didn't call volume shot up 25% when we dropped this.

I don't typically recommend digital variable printing for any quantity over 10,000 unless I believe the response rate will be so significantly more to justify the additional expense. As digital printing is cheaper than going on press for small runs, but it has a pretty even cost per piece rate while there are gigantic economies of scale when printing much larger quantities.

Note that my 'breakeven rule of thumb' was 5,000 last year and this number has increased as digital printing presses improve and the cost drops.

How to get a 95% response rate

Here is an email message I just received from my wife.

"What would you estimate average Direct Mail response? .05%? 1%? Don’t you think a 2% response rate from a LIST BUY (not our own list) is aggressive?"

Oh, how many times have I been asked this question? Thousands. And here is my typical answer:

"Response depends upon your list, offer and creative - in that order. I've received a 95%+ response rate on a DM campaign. For my wedding. We had the right list 200 closest friends & family), the right offer (free food and booze), and the right creative (my sister is the wedding invite producer for the stars). I've also done successful campaigns for clients that achieved a less than 0.5% response rate. (because each sale was worth $20K)."

Asking what the response should be is asking the wrong question. You should first back into it. Figure out what each lead is worth to you. Then back into what response rate gives you positive ROI. Then you'll know whether that response rate seems achievable or not.

What's new in Direct Marketing

I went to the DMA Conference last week in San Francisco to see what was new in Direct Response Marketing. Everything I saw has been around at least in the idea stage, for several years now, the difference today is that large companies are really starting to take advantage of and push the envelope on the technology.

Blogs
6% of Fortune 500 companies now have Blogs (and so does Swirl!) and 35% plan to start one this year! One of our clients, Intuit, makes sure they have a blog for each and every one of of their products. Notice that these blogs are official, but unofficial. They are written by the engineers or product managers. They don't have to go through levels of lawyers and PR. Companies are getting real.

Wikis
User generated content is the Web 2.0 rage. It’s free, it’s honest, and it turbo-charges search engine optimization. Our clients eBay, Shopping.com, and PayPal all have their own wikis now. They use them internally (like the eBay Marketing Wiki) to share information amongst themselves, but also externally - to engage their community. Of course, the natural search listing increase doesn't hurt ;)

Podcasts
I found it interesting that the target ages that index well are 18-44. Older than I would have initially thought, but then again, I guess that most teens aren't really podcasting NPR. Here's an innovative way Purina is using podcasts on their website.


RSS Feeds
RSS can be used for new product announcements, security alerts, product tips, customer communications (e.g. special offers, best sellers), press releases, etc. Here's an example from Titleist. Someday you may see one here.

Text Messages
Retailers want to (and are) using these for sales, instant coupons, news events, etc. Here's a sample of Target's web site - using text messaging to send tweens information about hot fashion items and sales.

Custom Media
Creation of targeted magazines to carry the message in detail. Can be cash flow positive by taking advertising from partners. Here is one the US Postal Service sends me monthly. Notice that the magazine's publisher is not even posted on the front cover. We are trying to get PG&E (the California Utility to do something similar).

It's not Spam if you're Interested.

I get SPAM everyday. I also get emails from companies that I actually look forward too. Last minute flights to Mexico from United - Yes! Two for one dining at my favorite restaurant - Give it to me! I've signed up for these emails and I'm interested in having a dialogue with the company that is sending them. Here are some tips so you can be one of those companies.

Subject Line

• Include brand or product name.
• Avoid SPAM filters, image blocking & Blacklists
• Keep subject lines under 35 characters

Links

• Have either one link or 6-10 links
• Have both text and image links (and put near each other)

Offers

• Free gifts & dollar amount off are beating free shipping!
• Always put offer & links above the fold

Programming

• Use tables, not CSS.
• Get authenticated (via email provider)

From Line

• From a person, not a brand
• Design for Preview Pane
• Put company logo in upper left corner
• Put offer and click at top

Content

• Keep copy short & scanable, Use bullets not long paragraphs
• Run through spam check at http://www.spamassassin.org/
• B2C – Emails should be mostly images
• B2B – Emails should be mostly text
• Be sure it’s CAN-SPAM compliant (opt out and physical address at bottom of email)
• Don’t say "remove me" or "unsubscribe", say "To no longer receive this email"

Examples

Here are some example emails we created for Intuit's Quicken product. We were trying to get their customers to upgrade to the newest version of Quicken. Notice how many of the tips we used - not all of them of course, sometimes, you gotta break the rules (or clients ask you to).

Great Offers

I'm often asked 'What types of offers work well'? Well, it depends upon what you are trying to do, are you trying to get a lead? A sale? Remind a lead that you exist?

Really, what is an Offer? It's what your target is going to get, and what they are going to have to do to get it. It's sole purpose is to move the prospect to action. Great offers are valuable, tangible, unique & related to the company offering it

Remember, be clear & easy to understand. Do not provide a choice of offers. Here's an offer we ran for eBay Motors. We were trying to get Auto Dealers to start listing cars on eBay. This was several years ago, and Digital Cameras weren't as popular as they are today - and they had an extremely high perceived value (something we always look for - a higher perceived value that our actual cost).



Here is a list of offer starters - many of which we've run.

• Free trial


• Free gift


• Extra service


• White papers


• ROI calculators


• Case studies


• Webinar


• Free lunch


• Free shipping


• Tickets


• Survey Results


• Contest


• Free consultation


• Dollar discount


• % off discount


• Buy one, get one free


• Buy one, get one for a penny


• Terms of payment


• Guarantee


• Sweepstakes


• Free sample


• Seminar


• Premium


• Book
  

Sweepstakes vs. Rebate - Which to Use?

"It depends". I hate saying these two little words, but end up saying them almost every day. So much in Direct Marketing, as in life, depends. So when clients ask me 'Which is a better: a sweepstakes or a discount' (or a rebate, or gift with purchase, or a buy one get one free, you get the idea) I have to say 'it depends'. But a little info gathering helps point you in the right direction as "it depends" upon your objectives and the the size of your audience and budget. Let's break these down:

• Your Objectives. What are you trying to do? Sell a product or get leads? In general, discounts help sell products, sweepstakes get leads.
• Your Audience Size & Budget. How big is your target audience and you budget? Discounts can be expensive when your audience is national - and the costs scale with sales. Sweepstakes take one prize package and allocate it across your entire audience. Costs are fixed no matter how many people enter.

Sweepstakes are a great way to add an incentive to a program without spending a lot of money. The problem with them, of course, is that they are far less compelling to consumers than a guaranteed return (e.g. rebate, $ off, gift with purchase, etc.). In a chance to win vs a guaranteed to save face off, consumers will always go for the guaranteed.

In addition, sweepstakes can add complexity to your message that a discount doesn't do. That is one reason that when I run a sweepstakes, I always try to make the product the prize. This helps ensure that entrants are more likely to be interested in your product and not just win a trip to Hawaii (unless of course, your advertising for Suntrips).

And finally, there are many landmines with Sweepstakes - all of which are surmountable - but can be legally challenging. You cannot make a consumer spend $ or 'work' for a chance to win. If you do, it becomes a lottery and those are only legal for our State Governments to run. This is why there is "no purchase necessary"

Net. A guaranteed savings is always going to win a chance to win in terms of response. That's why there are so many more coupons and instant discounts than sweepstakes at retail (e.g. Think of Safeway or Macys). Rebates can be more expensive, but the good news is that you only pay the rebate to people who are in the program. You only pay if you are successful!

DRTV Best Practices

You've seen them on late night TV. All the pitch men and women asking you to be the incredible new exercise equipment. We in the ad community turn up our noses at them. But to tell the truth, these guys typically know exactly what they are doing. We, as good direct response marketers, can learn from them. Here is my list.

Good Creative

• Is bold, creative, authentic & succinct (simple yet effective).
• Phone numbers should 800 #s and be shown the entire time (no 866, etc).

Bad Timing

• Mar, Jun, Sep, & Dec are the worst months for both clearance and price.

Best Practices for Testing

• Cable: 4 week flights, $75K/week, 10 networks, 2-3 dayparts per networks, 15 spots/week/network.
• Spot: 4 week flights, 3 markets, 3-4 stations per market, 2-3 dayparts per station, 15 spots/week/network.

Rules of Thumb

• Optimization typically lowers CPL by 50-75% over 10 week flight.
• DRTV ads increase online searches by 15-1000%

The Motivation Sequence

Memorize this order. Then use it the next time you are evaluating direct mail creative. Here is the motivation sequence all direct mail (and all advertising really) should follow.

1. Get attention (appeal to their self-interest)


2. Identify the problem or need


3. Position our product as the solution or answer


4. Prove that our product is the best solution (data points, testimonials)


5. Ask for the order

It's really that simple. So the next time you are looking at a piece of creative for feedback. Remember this list and get to it.

Here's a self-mailer we created for Intuit's QuickBooks product. As you can see, we got attention by tailored the image on the cover to match the industry of our target (in this example, Construction versus Manufacturing). We then identified the problem with the headline copy. We positioned our product as the solution to the problem on the inside of the piece, and then proved that we had the best solution with data points and testimonials. The last panel asked for the order.

Here is the inside of one of these packets so you can see the testimonial.

Shutterfly Holiday Direct Mail

We recently completed a bunch of Holiday campaigns for Shutterfly. Response was fantastic (but proprietary), but I think you might want to see what we did. Here's our first mailer where we introduced a gift card. We were mailing this way before the Holiday, so I wanted something people could easily keep with them as they went shopping. The gift card was put in loose so customers could put in their wallet.


We then created an accordion-folded gift guide.

And a postcard.

And finally a tri-fold self-mailer.

Direct Mail Best Practices – Sizes and Shapes

The creatives are always thinking outside the envelope... And that's great, but sometimes it pays to think inside the envelope - literally.

The US Postal Service has some requirements that if you stick to them, you can save a bundle on postage. The US Postal Explorer and the Domestic Mail Manual have tons of detail on these regulations, but it's tricky to find what you are looking for. Here's my skinny on sizing.

Letters

• Not less than 5 inches long, 3-1/2 inches high, and 0.007-inch thick.
• Not more than 11-1/2 inches long, or more than 6-1/8 inches high, or greater than 1/4-inch thick.
• Must be rectangular, with four square corners and parallel opposite sides. 1 to 3.3 ounces.

Postcards

• To get ½ rates, must be no more than 4-1/4" x 6".
• If going ‘oversize’, recommend 6x9"
• Must be rectangular, with four square corners and parallel opposite sides.

Self-Mailers

• Folded self-mailers must be prepared with the folded edge parallel to the longest dimension and the address of the mail piece - and best if at bottom.

Three Dimensional Packages

• These are boxes, tubes, Fed Ex packs with pens in them - I've even seen coconuts mailed in from Hawaii. These often work best when you are mailing to a very small audience and/or you need to generate a very high response rate - regardless of cost.

Here's a Three-Dimensional Package we ran for eBay Motors. There was a map in one box and we tested it against a magic trick (that made your money 'disappear').

Direct Mail Best Practices – Letter Packets

I've created a lot of letter packets over the years and have developed a few 'rules of thumb'. Hopefully you can use them to help you creating your own successful direct mail packages.

Envelopes

• I prefer stamped or metered letters on a envelope (but using an indicia is fine on self-mailers - they already say "bulk mail").
• I do not use a company logo on the outer envelope if the brand isn’t well known or loved.
• I shy away from teasers unless the offer is fantastic and you've found a really freakin’ good way to say it.

Letters

• As they say "The brochure tells, the letter sells." So this is where we SELL!
• I often recommend laser printing these, so we can get personal. I'll often take a window envelope (although I don't prefer them) to personalize and so we don't have to double match the letter and the envelope over a non-personal letter and a regular envelope.
• We can customize anything in the letter, entire sentences and paragraphs. So use the information you know about the customer to your advantage. Make sure the letter speaks to the reader - remember WIFM!

Brochures

• Sometimes the letter and the brochure are one (such as tri-fold self-mailers), these work well with products that have strong brands & need images to sell.
• When quantities are under 20K, we can look at digital variable printing – where we can personalize and customize, words AND pictures!

Here's a letter we did for Heald. Showing the personalized letter and the tear-off reply card.

Here's another version of this letter that was a survey. The survey was printed on the back of the letter.

How To Manage The US Postal Service

About the USPS

Ah, the United States Postal Service. Love 'em and hate 'em. It's still pretty unbelievable to me that I can ship a letter across the country for less than a cup of coffee - even with half their workforce on jury duty.

I have to say, I give them credit. They innovate. I met the Postmaster General, John E. Potter, at last year's eBay Live (our client's customer love fest event) and was very impressed. Great speaker - really gave the crowd what they wanted.

Anyway, here are some rough guidelines for you to help decifer the USPS.

• First class mail takes roughly 2-5 days to arrive, standard mail 2-3 weeks. Nothing is guaranteed though.
• We clean the list and add bar codes so the post office does less work and gives us lower postage rates.
• Postage rates differ depending upon how much grouping you do, so we never know exact rates until the piece has dropped – but the post office wants the money up front. So we need postage a week in advance of the drop.
• With enough time, we can commingle our mail and drop at the SCF – cutting postage rates dramatically & pinpointing our delivery window to within 2 days!
• Planet Codes – New! Can track mail delivery as it goes out through the mail system. A very cool tool that will come in handy with retail customers who are trying to predict call volume and ensure they have staff on hand to handle it (or simply to help keep worried clients in check).

Getting Competitive Ads

You can get samples of competitor direct mail ads by paying third party collection services.

Direct Mail:

• www.whosmailingwhat.com

Web:

• www.nielsen-netratings.com

Email:

• www.emaildatasource.com

Best Practices - List Generation

The number one factor to direct response success is your list. Send an offer for snow tires to a Grandma in Florida in Summer, and you have zero chance of success. Send the same offer to a Canadian who drives a four wheel drive and who last bought tires a couple of years ago, and your chance of success jumps.

There are two types of lists: House Lists and Rental Lists.

House Lists
Most companies have customer, lead, and/or prospect information in a database and want us to maximize the revenues from these people. These lists are free to use, but this internal data gets old quick.

• 3% of Americans move every month.
• 706 firms move locations every two hours.
• Mailing to the wrong person kills ROI, so data hygiene is important

We can fix a lot of these data issues by running our lists through NCOA (National Change of Address), FASTforward, and CASS. Most mail houses will do this automatically to help you save money. Also, don't forget to run your list by your "Do Not Mail" File and check for duplicates before you mail!

Rental Lists
There are many lists available to us –both compiled and subscription lists. Compiled lists are summary lists from multiple sources. Subscriber lists are lists directly from one source (e.g. a magazine). Some lists are better than others. That is why we test them against each other. We once found that ~30% of eBay’s prospecting list was junk.

Each list has a total Universe Size and a Base CPM (cost per thousand) of about $50-250/ thousand names. But this Universe can be narrowed through selections (such as number of employees). These selections increase the list rental expense.

About Data Cards

Each list source has a corresponding Data Card. These Data Cards include additional information on the list source(s) and information on available selections and the additional expense related to that selection. Unfortunately there is no standard selection criteria and the selections available vary by list source.

Best Practices - Production Tips

Did you hear about the recent Agency / Auto Account debacle? It appears that a local agency ran ads with the wrong phone number. I can't blame them, this has happened to pretty much every agency. Luckily, we have Joppo's Production Tips to save us. A former producer once created this list of production tips to help our creative and account people ensure that we don't face the same fate. For your own good, follow his advise.

• Map out & matrix versions, codes and lettershop plans, with the client and as close to the beginning of the project as possible.
• Create mockups of ALL components before building mechanicals and again after final mechanicals are built and sent.
• Perform tap tests before sending final mechanicals. Put together the mockups & tap each side against a flat surface. Check envelope windows to make sure the shipping address and other desired information stays visible with each tap.
• Send a set of tap-tested mockups to both vendor and client.
• Call all phone numbers & visit the URLs before the piece is printed.
• Don't make up an address as a placeholder for any address on a DM piece. Use the merge field placeholders: Example:

{FName} {LName}
{Address}
{City}, {State}, {ZIP}

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.