5 Ways to Improve Your Direct Mail Copy

1. Relate to your prospect as well as promoting the product
Anecdotes, stories of success and testimonials engage your prospects with the element of human interest. These accounts allow consumers to relate to your product and envision themselves using it.

2. Back up your claims with facts
Facts add power and credibility. Be specific with figures, data and outside opinions to support your claims. Statements backed up with “proof” are infinitely more persuasive than vague and unspecific copy.

3. Put in research time
Take the time to research the facts to support your case. And, find out what's on customers minds – what are their concerns, what do they need, what problem do they need solved? If you know their questions, you'll also know the facts you need to present to make a strong case for your product.

4. Identify the motivation
Pinpoint your prospects' motivations and address them in your copy. It's tough to change behaviors of consumers so instead play to them by identifing the motivations that guide their behavior. Speak to those motivations in your copy and target additional prospects with similar motivations.

5. Review competitors direct mail packages
See what's working for others. Study it and try to determine the principles at work. Adopt those winning principles and make them your own. Put a spin on them with your own perspective and unique selling proposition.

2 Quick Hints for a Stronger Direct Mail Package

1. Ask for the Order
-- ask for it often
-- ask for it in different ways
-- ask for it aggressively enough
Ask repeatedly on every panel within your package! Don't be shy and don't rely on the last paragraph of your letter be the one and only request in your entire package – it's a weak strategy that produces weak results.

2. Instantly Increase the Substance of Your Offer
Instead of a vague offer of “send for free information,” create substance with a more tangible offering. Ask the reader to instead send for “Information Packet #12.” Not only does this sound like something of greater substance, but it implies the existence of a line of valuable information, lending credibility.

Rick Levin & Associates, Inc. Upcoming Auctions

We're updating this ad daily as details on properties - and more properties - are added to these Rick Levin & Associates real estate auctions. The ad appears in real estate sections throughout the Chicago metro area so we're keeping in close contact with newspapers to replace the ad as soon as updated versions are proofed and ready to publish.

The real estate auction business is normally fast-paced ... but at times like these when home foreclosures are peaking - the auction business is moving at lightening speed! An auction is the most effective method for bringing together motivated buyers and qualified sellers ... so property being sold at auction is at an all time high.

Of course ... the RLA website has the newspapers beaten hands-down for speed, so we encourage Buyers to go to http://www.ricklevin.com/ for the absolutely, most updated information.

Cartoon Characters Can Tell Your Story

This client sells a solution to a big problem for food manufacturers ... costly damage to valuable product during shipping. But, Locus-Traxx's amazing solution - a GPS powered monitoring system apropriately named "OVERSIGHT" - is so new that their potential customers don't even know they need it!

So, the Locus Traxx marketing director (a VERY smart guy!) asked us to tell a little story to get the point across: With OVERSIGHT you don't ever need to have another bad day! Here's the first in our series of "story ads" ...

Learn more about OVERSIGHT at http://locustraxx.com

New Media Merchandising: How To & Why To!

Learn about New Media Merchandising ... how you can brand your business and sell merchandise through social media campaigns. Click on each slide to get a close-up view and learn about the new way to go direct and how it can work for your business.

What’s your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)?

If you haven’t defined it yet, take a look at the definition of the term, written in Rosser Reeves in his 1960 book, Reality in Advertising:

"Each advertisement must make a proposition to the consumer. Not just words, not just product puffery, not just show-window advertising. Each advertisement must say to each reader: Buy this product, and you will get this specific benefit.

The proposition must be one that the competition either cannot, or does not, offer. It must be unique – either a uniqueness of the brand or a claim not otherwise made in that particular field of advertising.

The proposition must be so strong that it can move the mass millions (i.e., to pull over new customers to your product)."

info@measuredmktg.com
312.929.4882

Own It! The Defining Attribute of Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

That one special distinctive feature or characteristic is what you want to define. What’s unique about your product is the attribute you want to promote. It cannot be the same as your competitor’s – your must own it. Adopt the complete opposite attribute from your competitor if what first comes to mind is already “owned.” Your defining attribute cannot be similar because it will simply be second best.

Keep it simple and benefit oriented. Find that one word or benefit that sums up your special attribute. And, as some attributes are more important to customers than others, try to “own” the most important one.

info@measuredmktg.com
312.929.4882