30 Timeless Direct Marketing Principles

Bob Stone has been called one of the founders of modern direct marketing. He had the ability to understand both the big picture of marketing and the finer details of selling tactics.

Here are 30 timeless direct marketing principles he discovered over the course of his long career:

1. All customers are not created equal. Give or take a few percentage points, 80 percent of repeat business for goods and services will come from 20 percent of your customer base.

2. The most important order you ever get from a customer is the second order. Why? Because a two-time buyer is at least twice as likely to buy again as a one-time buyer.

3. Maximizing direct mail success depends first upon the lists you use, second upon the offers you make, and third upon the copy and graphics you create.

4. If, on a given list, “hotline” names don’t work, the other list categories offer little opportunity for success.

5. Merge/purge names — those that appear on two or more lists — will outpull any single list from which these names have been extracted.

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Direct marketing extra credit reading list

I’ve been busy recently writing articles for everything other than this blog. So here’s a short reading list for a little direct marketing extra credit.

First, Melissa Data recently published The Ultimate Marketing Survival Guide for 2009. I wrote the lead article, “Direct mail remains the king of direct marketing.” Just in case you thought direct mail was dead or that tweeting is better than mailing, this article will disabuse you of that faulty assumption.

Next, there’s a fun little article over at Copyblogger titled The 3 Secret Persuasion Techniques Every Kid Knows. You parents will relate to this one. I don’t have children, but I know they’re often tuned into persuasion better than many adults.

Feeling a little burned out? Mary Jaksch asked me to submit some tips for Write to Done in a post titled 7 Easy Ways to Energize Your Creative Powers. If you’re a professional writer, you can’t just wait for the muse to drop by. You need a few techniques for flipping the switch on creativity when you need it.

Finally, there’s one of my regular columns for DM News, one of the most recent is Problem Solver: Is it smart for an online business to use direct mail? I discuss how you can’t let a particular medium dictate your marketing strategy and ways to use direct mail to build your online business.

This should keep you busy for a while.

3 predictions for the future of direct marketing

There was a time not so long ago when direct marketing was the red-headed stepchild of the business world.

I remember just 15 or so years ago working for ad agencies who were just “discovering” direct marketing, calling it “interactive” marketing and lumping it in with Web site design, CD-ROMs, and other technology stuff. Direct response advertising was considered separate from all the “real” advertising, such as glitzy TV spots and splashy print ads.

Today, direct marketing is mainstream. People have finally realized the advantages of accountable advertising and the effectiveness of integrating direct marketing methods into the standard business model.

This is due in large part to the rapid growth of the Internet, which is well-suited to direct techniques. People have figured out how to both brand and sell on the Internet, and there is finally a realization that there doesn’t have to be a wall between these strategies. They can and should be integrated.

But what does the future hold? With all this change happening so rapidly, what will the marketing world look like 10 or 20 years from now? I have a few thoughts on that. Read more

$#!* Happens - A dirty story about ad testing

It was about 11:00 a.m. when we started up the mountain outside of San Pedro Sula in the northwest corner of Honduras. The humid air lay heavy and still in the valley below, causing the fields of sugar cane to shimmer in the hot sun.

We were videotaping b-roll for a few TV spots one of my fundraising clients wanted to test. Our task that day was the same as it had been every day that week: to capture images of the devastating poverty these people suffer.

The camera crew donned their battery belts, cables, and assorted gear and we followed the narrow dirt path toward the shacks above. As we ascended a steep rise and veered to the right, we came across a young boy toting an armload of dry firewood. One of our videographers wanted to shoot this and positioned himself in the middle of the path.

That’s when it happened. And to understand what happened, you must understand the term “wrap-and-throw.”

Many of the people my client helps are so poor they live in makeshift shacks, some of mud or wood, others little more than plastic or cardboard nailed to sticks. These places often have no sanitary facilities. So the residents have developed a practical way to deal with their waste: They wrap it in a small bag and throw it.

Thus, we were walking in a “wrap-and-throw” community. And while the videographer set himself to shoot the kid with the wood, one of our guides trotted ahead to ask the child’s permission. The boy agreed, and the guide came running back toward the cameraman.

A wrap-and-throw lay silently in the path, aged and ripe. A group of unsuspecting, sunblock-smeared gringos stood stupidly smiling three feet away, anticipating nothing but the beautiful picture they were about to record. Our guide’s foot came down hard at ground zero … and the principles of ballistics did the rest.

It gave new meaning to the term “$#!* happens.” Read more

How much choice do consumers want?

It’s standard practice to give consumers plenty of choice. Choice of products. Choice of offers. Choice of configurations, options, avenues of response, and more.

But in a world where everyone is offering so many choices, could fewer choices give you a competitive edge?

In a recent article about consumer choice, eMarketer asks analysts whether consumers want more or less choice. The answers come in many flavors, but the takeaway seems to be that choice comes with a cost.

In my direct marketing experience, less choice often works better than more choice. The fewer decisions you ask people to make, the more likely they are to actually make a decision. And I can tell you from personal experience that I don’t like too many choices when making buying decisions. Whether it’s picking out a box of cereal at the local mega food mart, selecting software, or buying clothes, less choice is better. Otherwise analysis paralysis can set it.

On the other hand, I like lots of choices for finding these and other items. I like the fact that there are hundreds or thousands of companies and products competing for my business because that increases the chances that I’ll find what I want. But when I come to the moment of truth, I like the choices to narrow dramatically so that I have what appears to be one clear choice.

What do you think about this? Is more choice or less choice better? Does it depend on the circumstances? How does this apply to direct marketing and advertising? Share your thoughts on this.

Reports of the death of advertising as we know it are greatly exaggerated

In a recent report from eMarketer, Geoff Ramsey says there is a fundamental change taking place in the advertising industry.

Read what he says, then I’ll give you my take.

For decades, the ad industry was built on the interruption-disruption model. Consumers understood that if they wanted to experience free content—in the form of television shows, music on the radio and magazine articles—they would have to put up with ads, most of which were perceived as irrelevant, boring, annoying or all three. In this standard construct, ads were seen as a “necessary evil” to support the content consumers really wanted to see.

But the interruption-disruption model is dying out, thanks to shifting consumer trends. Consumers are increasingly in control of their media content and can easily eradicate ads they don’t want to see. They also have less trust in advertisers and their messages. Further, consumers are creating their own content with the help of blogs, social networks, wikis and other digital-communication platforms.

As a result, advertisers and their agencies who want to engage with today’s consumers will have to start turning their ads into content. Ultimately, they will need to be able to produce content that is so compelling, relevant and entertaining that consumers will seek it out and want to share it with others. The new ad model is about creating great content and finding clever ways to embed it in the fabric of communities and content platforms where consumers are hanging out and actively participating.

Okay, now my take.

I don’t believe for a minute that there will ever be a time when consumers are totally in control of the ads they are exposed to or that advertisers aren’t interrupting and disrupting.

I understand that consumers are gaining more control through opt-out and opt-in programs or technologies such as TiVo. And I know it will continue. But only to a point.

Will magazines and newspapers stop printing ads? Will television embed all ads into content? Will direct mailers sit on their hands waiting for prospects to ask for their ads? No.

Mr. Ramsey has it wrong when he says the “interruption-disruption” model is decades old. It is thousands of years old. The ancient Greeks shouted in the streets about the sale of cattle. Romans pasted signs announcing gladiatorial games. In the Middle Ages, street barkers drew passers by into shops.

Advertising has changed little over the ages. It has always been about reaching out and capturing people’s attention. The technology changes. The laws modify techniques. And those with new ad services to sell are always predicting doomsday for old ad services. But it never happens and it never will.

If history doesn’t convince you, then human psychology or common sense should. People are lazy and they simply won’t spend lots of time seeking out new products. And even if lots of advertisers were foolish enough to stop being interruptive, then smart advertisers would simply have an easier time growing market share.

My prediction? People love and respond to advertising far more than they’ll ever admit. And the interruption-disruption model may be tinkered with and modified, but it will never die. Ever. Because no matter what you call it, selling means pushing products. And if you aren’t pushing, you aren’t selling. And if you aren’t selling, you’re out of business.

Read a related post about the future of advertising intrusiveness.

Ram rumps and direct marketing success

Celebrating the New Year is an ancient tradition. Like people today, our ancestors marked the New Year by watching parades, making resolutions, and drinking themselves into a stupor.

That should warm the cockles of any direct marketer’s heart because it’s further proof that people don’t change much over time.

Another thing that hasn’t changed is the desire to find ways to improve business in the coming New Year. One ancient method was beheading a ram and rubbing the rump of the poor beast against the temple walls.

Now I can’t say whether ram rump rubbing worked or not. But if you’re thinking about your direct marketing business, I would suggest trying a few ideas that are a bit more pragmatic, none of which involve farm animals or their rumps:

• Start testing carefully and regularly. Establish goals. Run tests. Track your results.

• Stop shortchanging the creative budget. You can spend a fortune researching and developing your product. So why get cheap when you hire copywriters and designers?

• Start collecting testimonials. You can use them for inserts, headlines, teasers, letter stories, and dozens of other promotional applications.

• Stop stealing copy. We should all learn from successful advertising. But simply lifting headlines, letter openings, and other copy is a sign that you simply don’t know what you’re doing.

• Start developing some freebies. Offering free stuff is the best way to generate inquiries and sales leads, but freebies also can be useful for premiums, gifts, handouts, and testimonial incentives.

• Stop hiding the guarantee. Make it visible. Flaunt it. Your guarantee is proof that you are reputable. It lowers your customer’s perceived risk and can, therefore, boost your response.

This is based on an article I wrote several years ago titled “Ram Rumps and New Year’s Resolutions.” I suggest you read the entire article.

By the way. You’ve noticed that I don’t use illustrations much in this blog. This is mostly because I’m lazy and finding great photos takes time. But I’ll bet you’re particularly relieved that I didn’t try to illustrate this post, eh?

Who is the greatest marketer in history?

Henry Ford? Montgomery Ward? Bill Gates?

I have another person in mind. You know him. You love him. His name is … Santa Claus. And he operates the oldest and most successful toy and gift manufacturing and distribution business in the world.

How has he done it? I can’t reveal all his secrets, but I’ll tell you a few.

Santa’s Secrets of Marketing Success

And yes. That’s me on Santa’s knee. I’m one of his best customers.

Merry Christmas.

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