Posts Tagged ‘Direct marketing’

  Crystal Balls make life easy, especially for the marketers amongst us. But as they are total figment of our childhood imaginations, we’ll just have to make do with research and copywriting cunning. Direct mail isn’t easy to write. Oh yes it is! No, it isn’t. Because if you think all  you need is a bit of blurb about your product, a price and a way for your customer to order, you’re not going to be very successful. Basically speaking, for your direct mail campaign to work you must have a brilliant: List Offer Copy ...

Although there are many different uses for the direct mail letter, they all have common characteristics that make them successful. Of course, your list and your offer will also have a big impact on your success rate but the characteristics I will be talking about are those that make the letter powerful, engaging – a sales force to be reckoned with. So, that must mean the copy. How you write your letter will determine whether you successfully engage with your reader. A lot depends on the words you use… Be personal When you are in a face to face selling situation, the first thing the sales person will try to do is build rapport. That is exactly what your letter has to do. Use language that will engage your reader ...

    Direct mail has always been a very effective marketing tool – but only if you get it right. It won’t have a place in every business, especially with the advances in online marketing. But it is still very much alive and well. If you dabble in direct mail and want your campaigns to be successful, there are three elements you should use to maximise your chances of success:   Make sure the content of your letter appeals to your target market Make sure it is written to inspire your audience to take an action Make sure you can monitor its effectiveness ...

Every freelance copywriter will know that every new project brings with it a whole new set of challenges. Which is why it is vital that, before you start anything, you clearly understand the goals of your project. If you know where you need to end up, it will be a lot easier to get there. One of the first questions you should ask your client is what is the purpose of the project? For example, if you are writing a sales letter it is important to remember that what you are writing is going to replace a personal visit or face to face conversation. Whereas face to face a salesman can make eye contact, gain clues from the customer’s body language and counter objections as they arise, your letter can’t do that so the ...

As a copywriter I am frequently asked by my clients to write direct mail sales letters. These are quite an art form in themselves and can be quite complex to write. But the work begins long before you actually put pen to paper or finger to keyboard. In fact this is true for just about any form of copywriting. If you launch in without a lot of thought, you are very unlikely to produce something that will be strong enough to sell. There’s a lot of ground work to get through before you should even consider writing. The first stage is to know your market. How can you convince someone to buy something if you don’t know what they want? But not only do you need to understand who you ...

Whether you are talking direct mail campaigns or direct response adverts – this is one form of copywriting that is set to stay. Many people think that direct response copywriting doesn’t work, but if it doesn’t, why do so many companies continue to use it? The key to ensuring your direct response campaign works, is to ensure that your copy is compelling, interesting and relevant enough to grab your readers’ attention. If your writing takes on a friendly tone, it is far more likely to be read than something that is hard sell or ‘high-brow’. As for whether your copy should be long or short – quite simply, it should be as long as it needs to be to get your message across. The magic formula This is the science bit – there are 3 ...

Indulge me for a moment and think of yourself running a busy kitchen. Business couldn’t be better; bookings are up, in fact you now have a waiting list for tables. You have to bring in a new chef to cope with the extra workload. On Wednesday evening he arrives ready and raring to go. But, he doesn’t take the time to discuss with you how the kitchen works. Instead, he heads off and does his own thing. The result is TOTAL CHAOS! The ingredients for successful direct marketing In the world of the freelance copywriter there is a recipe that is regularly used to create great direct mail that works. A great list An amazing offer Brilliant copy As a copywriter, the first two items in the list are usually out of your control, but that ...