- Melbourne, Australia
- FAQ
- About AML
- The List Report
- Contact Us
Direct Mail is a copy driven medium. Sure, lists and offers are paramount, but copy is the final part of the mailer’s holy trinity. Yet too many unseasoned practitioners skip the copy and go for prettier designs or new formats and that can be a costly mistake.
Here are 13 tips to remember when crafting your next prose to be the control:
1. Sell your offer or message positioning, not your product or service.
This is hard for many people to understand but what sells your product/service is the compelling reason why I should try it. That reason typically boils down to your positioning. Test different offers. Be careful… an offer that’s too incredibly good to be true can be more detrimental to results than a weak offer.
2. Establish credibility in your mail piece.
Don’t assume I know you or your company. Court me as a prospect/consumer and make sure you do so by establishing your self, your company and your product as reputable. Testimonials can work wonders.
3. Test Headlines.
Great headlines encourage additional reading. Scrutinise each and every headline and ask if it’s compelling enough to hold the reader’s attention. If not rework it.
4. Always include a P.S.
The postscript is the second most read portion in direct mail (the address block and initial headlines are first). Make your P.S. so powerful that the reader will want to go back to the beginning and read your entire correspondence.
5. Start with a short engaging sentence.
Today it’s all about time - or lack of it. A short, grabber sentence help to engage the reader. Think of it like a chapter in a book. If the chapter is too long, you lose the reader and they won’t finish the book. Use the opening to hook the recipient.
6. “You” up your copy.
Your readers are asking “what’s in it for me?”. Answer that question by including more mentions of “you” as opposed to “me”, “I”, “we” or your company name. By including more “you” copy, you make the correspondance more personal and more relevant.
7. Write from the prospect/customer vantage point.
Imagine sitting at the reader’s kitchen table having a conversation with them. It will make your copy so much more effective. Pass the cream please…
8. Keep things simple.
Pare down your copy to make it concise. Don’t use jargon or make it hard for the reader to respond. Simplicity helps make the cash register ring.
9. Tell Stories.
Stories are one of the most effective, under used communication strategies available. We recall stories more effectively, so they sell more.
10. Specifics outsell generalities.
“You can save $31.13” is much more powerful than “save over $30”. Being specific helps with credibility.
11. Letter length can dramatically impact ROI.
People don’t read long letters nor do they read short letters. They read what is interesting to them. Test how much copy you need to convey the benefits and features of what you are selling.
12. Include a brochure.
Think of the letter as your salesperson. The letter sells and the brochure tells. A great direct mail letter will get the reader to search for additional details in the brochure and vice versa.
13. Test, test, test!
Test copy, after your lists and offers are established and before format and design tests.
Posted on 22nd January 2010