Today’s the big staff meeting and you’re running late. As you grab your briefcase and lunge toward the door, a little voice stops you cold.

“Are you getting my toy tonight?”

You feign ignorance. “Toy? What toy?”

Your child smiles, face full of expectation. “The Power Space Commando Ninja Mutant Laser Brain Blaster!”

Why do kids have such good memories? “I thought that was for your birthday. Besides I’ll be working late tonight, honey.”

Your child’s face screws up in dismay. “But you promised!”

You look at your watch. “Why do you need the toy tonight?”

“Because … (sniffle) … you said tonight. And I believed you!”

Your heart sinks. “Okay. I’ll stop by the toy store tonight. All right?”

The little face lights up again. “Thank you thank you thank you.”

Two minutes later as you drive away, you see your child waving frantically at you from the front window, eyes wide with glee.

You wonder … what just happened?

Kids know something that you and I often forget. They have a secret, but deviously clever way to get just about anything they want. Like a good sales person, this child used three simple principles to generate a “yes” response.

1. If you want something from someone, ask for it.

My wife used to be subtle about gifts she wanted. She would walk me by a store and comment on the leather purse in the window. Or she might leave a catalog open on the coffee table, the corner of the page turned down, pointing to a jade bracelet.

Then she would be flabbergasted on the big day when she tore back the wrapping paper to reveal a bread maker or battery-powered socks.

She has learned that a direct approach works best. Now, she writes down her wish list, complete with price, color, size, store location, and item number. I buy two or three of the items, wrap them, and hand them over on the big day, all the while thinking I’m clever for getting just what she wants.

Everyone’s happy.

The child in my previous example knows what he wants and asks for it. Repeatedly. There’s no question. No confusion. It’s clear, direct communication.

2. If you want someone to do something, give a reason why they should act.

I read about a study where a psychology student tried to skip ahead of a long group of people waiting to use an office copier. The first time, the student walked to the head of the line and asked, “May I please use the copy machine?” Between choice expletives, most people told the student to wait her turn.

Later, the student tried again. Only this time the student said, “May I please use the copy machine because I have to make a copy?” Even though the reason given was meaningless, that one word — because — generated a “yes” nine out of ten times!

It’s a natural human instinct to want reasons to act. We make emotional decisions, but we temper those decisions and rationalize them with logic. We need to know the reason why. In our opening story, the child not only asks for the toy, but gives a good reason for prompt action: “You promised.”

Why use a reason? Because it gets results.

3. If you want something now, create a real and unavoidable time limit.

Sales reps know from experience that people are more inclined to give you what you want if you put on a little pressure, establish a time limit, and ask for an immediate decision. People have difficulty making decisions, and given enough time, they will find reasons to say “no.” Limiting the decision making time, and thus bypassing the opportunity to find negatives, makes it easier to say “yes.”

Car salesmen know this. Retailers having a store sale know this. And experienced direct marketers know this, too.

The wily child waits till the parent is walking out the door before asking for the toy. There’s no time to think. Say no, and you get a crying fit. Say yes, and, while you may have to make a trip to the store, you’ve maintained the peace.

The conclusion? If you want a yes response and you want it now, act like a kid begging for a toy: 1) Ask for it. 2) Give a reason. 3) Create time pressure.

part 4 of a 4-part series

We’ve been looking at offers because offers are the heart of direct response advertising.

In fact, I’ll remind you yet again, there are three absolute requirements if you want to do direct response. You must:

1. Make an offer.
2. Provide sufficient information to allow your prospect to accept your offer.
3. Provide an easy means of responding to your offer.

If you’re not doing all three, you’re not doing direct response.

So far we’ve looked at 14 offers to raise response and lower risk, 17 offers to reduce price and increase urgency, and 13 offers to improve terms and provide services and bribes.

Finally, we’ll look at 14 offers to increase profit (specifically dollars per sale) and generate inquiries for multi-step sales.

Let’s get started.

Increasing Profit

In the long run, profit, not a high response, is your goal. Offers that increase your total profit per sale can sometimes pay off better even if fewer people respond.

Deluxe Version — You offer a second version of the same item with enhanced features for a little more money.

Good-Better-Best — This gives your prospect a choice of quality. It also subtly urges people to spend more than they might if you can demonstrate that the “best” choice is the best value. Ideally, you should show more features for higher-quality items.

Load Ups — In a continuity series, you send all the items in a series after the first few are paid for, allowing your customer to continue paying month-to-month. Or you might offer a certain number of items for a low price with a commitment to buy a certain number at the regular price within a certain time frame.

Membership Fee — You ask your prospect to pay a one-time fee to become an exclusive member of your club or organization in return for reduced prices and other benefits not available to the general public. The fee can be assessed yearly or it can be a larger lifetime fee.

Ship Till Forbid — This is often used with continuity programs, business services, or perishable products. Your customer gets the convenience of regular shipments and the option of canceling those shipments at any time while you get regular orders.

Generating Inquiries

For products and services that you can’t sell in one step, you need offers that can identify prospects for additional sales efforts. This usually involves giving away something.

Free Information — This is the ideal offer for identifying interested prospects, making two-step sales, creating a list, and initiating a first contact for a long-term relationship or sales cycle.

Free Samples — If you have a good product, it can sell itself if you can get a sample into a prospect’s hands. You can offer a free sample or charge a nominal fee (which may encourage the prospect to actually try it).

Free Gift for Inquiry — You offer a gift as a reward for requesting information about your product or service. As you might expect, this can boost the number of prospects who inquire but lower their quality.

Sales Call — Your prospect asks for a someone to contact them and set up an appointment for further information. This produces high-quality leads, but much lower overall response. Generally those who want to talk are ready to buy.

Free Survey of Your Needs — You offer to analyze your prospect’s requirements with no obligation. Then you show how your product or service can fulfill those requirements.

Free Demonstration — This is especially good for something that is new or complex. You offer to provide an exclusive demonstration not available to the public, which could be a video, a special version of the product or service, or temporary access to the item.

Free Estimate — For those who want bids or who analyze costs carefully, this a good first step for getting your foot in the door.

Free Subscription — You offer a subscription to a newsletter, journal, or other company publication to educate prospects and build your database. It should include valuable editorial material, not just promotional puffery.

Member-Get-a-Member — You give your customer a free gift for providing the name of someone else who may be interested in your wares. This is a good way to build your customer base.

In selling, everything comes down to offers. The 58 offers we’ve covered in this series are just a few of the most popular and successful.

Keep your eyes open for new and exciting offers. Mix them. Test them. Improve them. A great offer may be the easiest and fastest way to boost your sales.

part 3 of a 4-part series

In this series, we’re looking at offers.

Back in part one, we listed three things you must do to create effective direct response advertising:

1. Make an offer.
2. Provide sufficient information to allow your prospect to accept your offer.
3. Provide an easy means of responding to your offer.

Then we looked at 14 offers to raise response and lower risk and 17 offers to reduce price and increase urgency.

Now we’ll consider 13 offers that improve terms and provide services and bribes.

And off we go.

Improving Terms

A good offer will always improve your selling results. But you can also improve an existing offer by simply adjusting the way your customer pays or orders.

Bill Me Later — This gives you some of the promotional power of a free trial offer but with a stronger sense of obligation. It appeals to the modern consumer who has been trained to postpone payment until the last possible moment. It can double response over a straight cash upfront offer.

Installments — This offer takes a larger price and divides it into a set number of smaller monthly payments, usually with no interest. This makes a high price less painful. It’s most effective when you highlight the installment amount and de-emphasize the total price.

Positive Option — This is the reverse of a negative option. Instead of shipping or billing automatically after a trial period, you offer a trial period and require action by the customer for a purchase. Response will be lower than for a negative option, but overall customer quality is often better.

Reservation Option — You offer to reserve or set aside an item that soon will be announced to the general public and which may sell out. You may also give a special price or a premium as a reward for responding by a certain date. It’s similar to the pre-publication offer but with more urgency.

Offering Services

These are ways to add a little extra convenience to your offer. The first, free shipping, is currently one of the most popular offers on the Internet.

Free Shipping — People are used to paying extra for shipping and consider it a necessary evil. But you can offer it free as an unexpected and inexpensive incentive.

Gift Shipment Service — A customer sends you a gift list, and you send the gifts directly to everyone on the list for free or for a nominal charge. This offers your customer convenience and offers you lots of simultaneous orders.

Rush Shipping Service — You promise to ship an item overnight or within a shorter time period than normal shipping. As with gift shipping, you can offer this for free or for a small additional charge to cover the extra cost of FedEx, UPS, or other service.

Offering Bribes

Sometimes an extra offer on top of your offer helps to push people off the fence and take action. Some of these are pretty sophisticated, but can be effective.

Free Keeper Gift — This encourages people to make the decision to try your product or service. You offer a gift and they can keep it even if they change their minds later on.

Free Gift with Payment — This encourages prompt payment, increases cash flow, and helps reduce no-pays. You can offer a gift for every paid order or for orders of a minimum value. You can offer one gift or multiple gifts.

Choice of Free Gifts — Here, you offer a choice between two or more gifts. While this seems very appealing, it often does not work as well as offering a single gift, since the choice may create indecision and inertia.

Stepped Free Gifts — You reward customers based on the size of their orders. The more they order, the more gifts they get or the higher the gift quality.

Two-Step Gift — The customer gets a small gift for a first step and a bigger gift for the next step. For example, you can offer a freebie for trying your product then another freebie for actually buying it.

Cumulative Incentives — This is a reward for customer loyalty, such as redeemable “points” for buying items or every 13th order free. This works best when the customer can see the value increasing. For example, you can provide a running total of points earned on each billing statement or order form.

In our final installment, we’ll look at offers that increase profits and offers that generate inquiries.

part 2 of a 4-part series

Last time, we established that there are three things you must do to create effective direct response advertising:

1. Make an offer.
2. Provide sufficient information to allow your prospect to accept your offer.
3. Provide an easy means of responding to your offer.

We kicked off by listing a few classic offers and offers that reduce perceived risk.

We’ll continue by looking at offers that reduce the price and increase the urgency.

Ready? Here we go.

Reducing Price

No matter what you’re selling, eventually it comes down to price. Saving money can be a good motivator, especially when you’re operating in a competitive environment.

Dollars Off — You offer a certificate with a dollar value that may be redeemed toward a purchase. Or you simply show the original price, cross it out, and offer a lower price. However, test carefully because a free gift of equal value often works better.

Refunds and Rebates — With a refund, you may ask $5 for your catalog, report, or other promotional item, then send a $5 discount certificate to be used on a first order. With a rebate, you offer a delayed discount, which encourages a purchase, then send a coupon which can be redeemed for dollars back.

Sales — A seasonal sale is a trusty standby to raise volume. A “reason why” sale is similar but gives some explanation for lowering the price, such as going out of business, inventory reduction, or overstock.

Introductory Price — This allows people to try something at a reduced cost for a short period of time. You can use this to get new customers, though it may annoy loyal customers who might feel they should get the best price.

Relationship Discount — This is the opposite of the introductory price. For example, new customers pay $30, while regular customers pay just $25. The goal here is to reward current customers, not to get new customers.

Group Discount — To target certain markets, you can offer a special discount exclusive to a type of profession, industry, club, etc. For example, an investment newsletter can offer a “professional discount” for accountants.

Quantity Discount — The larger the order, the better the deal. Or if your customer orders five items, you provide a 5 percent discount. Or you offer a lower per-item price for a two-year commitment than for a one-year commitment.

Step-Up Discount — This resembles the quantity discount, but is based on the incremental dollar amount. For example, a 5 percent discount for orders over $50, a 10 percent discount for orders over $100, and a 15 percent discount for orders over $250.

Early-Bird Discount — This encourages more and faster orders. Make sure the discount is a real discount. Don’t just raise prices for those who order later.

Price Matching — If you compete on price, you offer to match any competitor’s price. The idea is to assure prospects that you offer low prices.

Trade-in — You offer dollars off when a customer trades in a previous model or version and buys a new one. The trade-in can be your own brand or a competitor’s.

Increasing Urgency

In every sale there’s always a little hesitation at the last moment. By creating a short window of opportunity, you provide the push needed to help people make a decision.

Last Chance — This is usually a reminder that you’ve previously made an offer and time is running out. If you say “last chance,” mean it.

Limited Edition — This works well for art, plates, coins, special book printings, and other collectibles or rare items. The item is special in some way and there are only X number available or there’s a time limit.

Enrollment Period — You establish a “window of opportunity” when people may enroll, for learning courses or business services, for example.

Pre-Publication Offer — This is a popular offer used by publishers, especially for expensive reference works. You tell people that you need to plan ahead, so you offer a special deal to reserve copies. Readers are guaranteed to get a copy and save money, usually 10 percent or 15 percent off what others will pay.

Price Increase Announcement — If prices are going up, you can announce it ahead of time so people can take advantage of the old prices one last time or stock up.

Charter Membership — You offer a prospect the chance to be one of the first to subscribe to a publication or join a club or organization. A special introductory price, gift, or other incentive is usually included.

Next time, we’ll look at offers that improve selling terms and provide services and bribes.

part 1 of a 4-part series

There are three things you must do in order to create effective direct response advertising:

1. Make an offer.
2. Provide sufficient information to allow your prospect to accept your offer.
3. Provide an easy means of responding to your offer.

One way or another, everything hinges on your offer.

Whole books could (and should) be written about offers and offer strategy, but I’ll forgo erudite lectures here and just give you a bare bones and practical list of offers that have proven to be winners over the years.

Just remember that most good offers are really combinations of two or more individual offers, so all of these are mix and match.

I’ve organized the offers by function to make the list easier to use. And because of space limitations, I’ve broken the list into four installments.

Raising Response

Technically, every type of offer is intended to boost response. However these are classic offers that have proven themselves particularly good at raising the numbers.

Free Trial — This may be the best offer ever devised. People can try out your product free and without obligation for 10 days, 15 days, 30 days, or more. The time frame should fit the product. This offer removes risk for the prospect and overcomes decision-making inertia.

Money-Back Guarantee — This is perhaps the second best offer. A customer pays upfront, but if dissatisfied can return the item for a full refund. Like the free trial, this offer removes risk but allows you to use customer inertia because only a small percentage of people will take the trouble to return something.

Free Gift — When you offer a freebie that your customer wants, your offer will usually outpull a discount offer of similar value. That’s because a gift is a more tangible benefit.

Limited-time — An offer with a time limit gets more response than an offer without one, especially when you give a specific deadline. This forces a decision, and the faster you can force a decision, the more likely it will be in your favor.

Yes/No — You ask your prospect to respond positively or negatively, usually by affixing a “yes” or “no” stamp, checking one of two boxes, returning one of two reply forms, etc. This offer creates involvement and usually pulls more response than an offer that does not offer a “no” option.

Negative Option — This is generally used with a free trial. You allow your prospect to try your product for free and then automatically ship unless the prospect specifically refuses the order within a certain time frame. This often results in higher returns and a few more irate phone calls, but it pulls better up-front and can produce higher overall sales.

Credit Card Payment — Nothing is easier than paying with plastic. These days, there’s no reason not to accept payment this way whether by phone, mail, fax, or the Internet.

Sweepstakes — This can dramatically increase your order volume. Just remember that running a sweepstakes can be a pain. And sweepstakes customers are seldom loyal. Plus, many marketers find that once they start using sweepstakes, it’s hard to go back to more traditional offers.

Lowering Risk

Since people can’t touch or try your wares immediately, there’s always an element of risk when buying via direct marketing. By lowering risk, you can raise sales.

Double-Your-Money-Back Guarantee — Since most people never make a return, this is a simple way to dramatize both your offer and your guarantee for low-priced items.

Long-Term Guarantee — Another way to dramatize your offer and guarantee. Instead of a 30- or 60-day guarantee, you offer a one-year, multi-year, or lifetime guarantee. If you can reasonably expect your product to last, this puts inertia and forgetfulness on your side because few people will take advantage of or even remember your guarantee later on.

Guaranteed Buy-Back — This is just another way of offering a standard money-back guarantee. You offer to “buy back” the item if your customer is not satisfied. It is often used with collectibles.

Guaranteed Acceptance — If people usually go through an application process to use your product, access your service, or join your club, you can give them a guarantee to accept them. You’ll often see this offer with credit card or financial products.

Limited-Time Introduction — This lets prospects try something with little risk before making a greater commitment. “Try 13 weeks of The Wall Street Journal for only $34.00.” You must track responses, though, and be sure your conversions justify the lower price.

Yes/Maybe — This is another way of making a low-commitment or no-obligation offer. You’re happy to get the “maybe” response, which could be for a free trial, product information, introductory offer, etc. And if you get some “yes” responses, that’s gravy.

Next time, we’ll look at offers that reduce price and increase urgency.

A few years ago, Inside Direct Mail ran an article on offers and interviewed me about one of the most clever offers ever devised: the yes/maybe offer.

If you can be a fan of an offer, then I’m a fan of yes/maybe. It’s an offer you often see with subscriptions, but I’ve used it for many different products and services.

What is the yes/maybe offer? Here’s how I describe it in my list of proven offers:

Yes/Maybe – This is another way of making a low-commitment or no-obligation offer. You’re happy to get the “maybe” response, which could be for a free trial, product information, introductory offer, etc. And if you get some “yes” responses, that’s gravy.

In other words, the yes/maybe offer lets you make an offer for those who are ready to say “yes” and for those who might want more information before making a decision. “Yes” might mean a purchase while “maybe” could be an information kit. Or both could lead to more information.

Here’s the text from that interview:

When does the yes/maybe offer work best?
The yes/maybe offer works well when you want to generate inquiries or sales leads. There are several variations. If your yes is a direct sales offer, your maybe can be an offer for information. Or if your yes is an inquiry offer that requires a certain degree of commitment, such as an estimate or consultation, your maybe can be a softer inquiry offer with less commitment.

One variation I’ve used quite a bit is a yes/maybe where both options are essentially the same, but worded differently. For example:

Yes. I want to beautify my home with the EZ Deck system. Please send my FREE EZ Deck Planner and Information Guide which will help me design a professional looking deck in about 30 minutes.

Maybe. I’m not sure if EZ Deck is for me. Please send additional FREE information, including a side-by-side comparison of the leading deck systems so I can decide which is best for my home.

Either choice results in the same information kit being mailed out, but the yes/maybe helps qualify the responses and pulls in more people who haven’t made a decision.

Caveat: People put off making decisions. So if you give them a maybe, you should expect lots of people to choose this option. Depending on the offer, you may significantly decrease your yes responses. So you should actually want the maybe responses and be prepared to follow up on them.

Why do you think that the yes/maybe offer works so well?
For any given offer, people run the spectrum from more to less ready to buy. So yes/maybe gives people who are ready to buy a chance to respond and it allows those who are not ready to buy a chance to identify themselves and take the next step.

It gives the marketing department a list of interested people who are ready for more information or it gives the sales department a list of people to contact.

How long would you recommend retaining a “maybe” who hasn’t converted to a “yes”?
That depends on the product, sales cycle, and experience of the company. Like anything else, you have to test and see what your results are. It’s foolish to throw away maybe responses without trying to convert them. However, it’s also foolish to continue sending information or calling if the maybe database isn’t producing sales.

Are there any dangers of using a yes/maybe offer?
The primary danger is being overwhelmed with tire kickers, brochure collectors, fence sitters, and other people who consume mass quantities of marketing materials without ever buying anything.

Another danger is not having a plan to follow up effectively. You must always have a plan for how you want to convert maybe to yes and have all the elements in place before you make the offer.

Do you have an example of a time that you have used a yes/maybe offer?
I’ve used yes/maybe many times with great success. Here’s one example of an inquiry offer for a specialized mailing list of apparel buyers. The yes/maybe on the reply card read like this:

YES! I want to know which apparel buyers are actively looking for my products. Please send a FREE estimate for my personalized Apparel Buyer List. If I order by July 1, I’ll get 1,000 FREE buyer contacts with a minimum order of 5,000. That’s a savings of $100! Plus, I’ll get a FREE copy of The Fashion Industry Guide to Direct Mail Success. I understand that I am only asking for an estimate. There is no cost or obligation.

Maybe. I would like to think about it before I get an estimate. But please send a FREE copy of The Fashion Industry Guide to Direct Mail Success as soon as it’s published.

Additional thoughts on the yes/maybe offer:
Any time you get an inquiry, follow up fast. People often request information on impulse. So if you make them wait weeks or months to receive your information, they may not even remember asking for the information.

The whole idea is to keep the momentum going and move people along step-by-step from “maybe” to “yes.” Ideally, you should get your information out within one or two weeks. The faster, the better.

I’ve been seeing some pretty crappy advertising recently and it’s all crappy for the same reason. All of it tries to make a point with clever concepts rather than benefits and relevance.

It made me think of the following article I wrote a while back. Some of the examples may be a bit dated, but the point is still valid.

***

There’s a saying: Dumb people talk about people. Smart people talk about ideas.

This might be true in some areas of life. But in marketing, it’s flat out wrong.

In fact, I’m going to show you why people-centered ads are very smart indeed, much smarter than abstract concept-centered ads.

And I’ll prove it by taking you on a tour of my local grocery store, the experimental lab of evolutionary biologists, and my own advertising swipe file.

People are interested in people!

The first stop on our tour is my local grocery store to glance at the magazines. Why look at magazines? Because they’re in the business of offering editorial and photographic content they know people want.

They can instantly gauge which words and pictures generate the most sales. So, if you want to quickly know what people respond to, look at high-circulation magazines.

They’re all over the store. Sports, auto, and biker magazines by the beer. Cooking, home decor, and fashion near the bakery. News, puzzles, and gossip at the checkout.

They’re all different in their subject matter, but the most successful all share one vital characteristic: they feature people.

Psychology Today shows a picture of a woman looking at herself in the mirror. Headline:

Body Image
An In-Depth Look at How We See Ourselves

Entertainment Weekly does little more than show pictures of stars with short blurbs:

Harrison Ford Teams With Brad Pitt in ‘The Devil’s Own’
Liv Tyler in ‘Inventing the Abbotts’
Tim Allen in ‘Jungle 2 Jungle’
Meg Ryan in ‘Addicted to Love’

American Health for Women shows a close up of a beautiful woman. Headline:

Exclusive Sex Survey
500 Women Tell Why It’s Hotter Than Ever

Mademoiselle show another beautiful woman. Headline:

Your Friends & You
Understanding the Relationships That Can Make or Break Your Life

Ditto for Time, Newsweek, Reader’s Digest, and just about every other magazine. In some form, they all feature people in pictures, in headlines, and in editorial content.

People think in terms of people!

Next stop, a laboratory where evolutionary biologists are exploring a unique question: What is the brain really for, anyway? The heart pumps blood. The stomach digests food. But what is this great big brain actually designed to do?

In a series of experiments, researchers give subjects a problem to solve. To one group they present it in the form of an abstract logic problem. Only 10% solve it correctly. To another group they present the very same problem, but in the form of a social situation between people. In this case, 75% get it right.

From this and numerous other experiments, the researchers develop a theory that the human brain has evolved very specialized ways of thinking. It’s not a calculator or computer, but an organ that is designed primarily to help us deal with social situations.

How can I make a better living? Is this person trying to cheat me? Will this person make a good spouse? What do people think of me? How can I use this relationship to my advantage? What will that person’s reaction be when I do this?

The researchers conclude that while our brain is fully capable of processing abstract information, it was never specifically designed for this. It works best when it must deal with people, emotions, relationships, and other elements of the human experience.

People respond to messages about people!

The final stop is my swipe file, which is a box under my desk where I toss direct mail samples until I file them away in my basement. Let’s take a look at some well-crafted pieces.

American Online sent me a polywrapped magalog-size piece showing a father and his two sons at a computer. Headline:

More access, More content, More AOL for you!

The Hume Group sent me a 6″ x 9″ manila envelope. Teaser:

YOUR SPECIAL REPORT ENCLOSED.

Inside the “report” is actually a letter with a picture of a financial planner. Headline:

Special Report …
GET RICH SLOWLY
“Forget the hype of get-rich-quick schemes,” says this top financial planner

Nightingale Conant sent me a 6″ x 9″ full-color envelope with a picture of Zig Ziglar on the front. Teaser:

Thousands of Sales Professionals Have Benefited From His Dynamic Presentation …

There’s a lot going on in these and the thousands of other samples I have, but the point is that the best are often all about people — pictures of people, names of people, subjects distinctly people-centered and loaded with people benefits, and language that is personal and emotional.

General guidelines for people-centered marketing messages:

What have we gleaned from this whirlwind tour? We humans are captivated with ourselves. It’s the most interesting subject we know. It’s not just a media or marketing trend, but an evolutionary fact. So, why fight it? Use it to strengthen your sales message.

Develop concepts around people and their concerns. Forget abstract ideas and deep meaning. Marketing is about PEOPLE selling things to other PEOPLE who are primarily interested in PEOPLE, most especially themselves. Arbitrary images and concepts are completely irrelevant.

Find the human element in your product and build your offer around it. Anything you have to sell has something to do with people, otherwise it wouldn’t exist. What’s the human need? What’s the human benefit? But don’t stop there. Dig to find the human stories, human qualities, and human relations in what you’re selling. Offer that.

Write copy that speaks to the human experience. Your language should be full of names, pronouns, feelings, hope, helpfulness, kindness, and warmth. Raw technique can certainly makes sales if your offer is good, but to supercharge your message, make a meaningful personal connection.

Speak directly to your ideal prospect about his or her wants and needs. People listen when you talk to them personally about what they want. Make your offer about them. People also respond to promises. Make a dramatic but believable promise — and keep it. And make it easy for people to identify with what you’re offering.

Use design that triggers the appropriate emotional response. A good designer does more than typeset the copy. A designer must help to communicate the copywriter’s message with type that has the right feel, with images that elicit clear emotions, and with a layout that encourages reading and involvement.

What’s wrong with abstract concepts?
There’s nothing inherently wrong with clever advertising “concepts,” except that they too often focus on an analogy or image that is not about people. All things being equal, the farther away your focus strays from people-centered concepts, images, language, and benefits, the harder it is for your prospect to be interested, to process the information, and to respond positively.

Consider these examples from my what-the-hell-were-they-thinking file.

From the United States Postal Service — a self mailer with a picture of an orange stamped PARCEL POST. Headline:
GET A TASTE OF OUR RELIABILITY

From ADWEEK Directories — a 6″ x 9″ envelope with a graphic of a clock and a dollar sign. Teaser:

1/2 the cost
1/2 the time
All the benefits of our unmatched worldwide resources

From Roosevelt Bank — an envelope with a photo of an eagle flying in a blue sky. Teaser:

The Search Is Over
Not Just Another Gold Card … A Better Gold Card

Every one uses an abstract concept to make a point. But the concept and the point are divorced from the central subject people are interested in: people.

When you use an abstract concept to deliver a message, your audience has to connect the concept to your message then try to relate your message to something they find personally relevant. Why make people work so hard, when there’s one subject they are guaranteed to find interesting? PEOPLE!

If there’s only one change you make in your direct response advertising this year, make it this: Build your message around people.

In direct marketing, everything is built around offers. In fact, to create a true direct response ad in any medium, you must do 3 specific things:

1. Make an offer.
2. Provide sufficient information to accept the offer.
3. Provide an easy means of responding to the offer.

So, in any direct mail piece or ad, the offer is the heart of the message. But while a rose may be a rose, an offer is not an offer.

An offer is more than a fixed monetary exchange. A 50% discount is not the same as “buy one widget, get the second widget free.” In dollar terms, these are identical. But how you position this deal creates different perceptions and different response rates.

Offer positioning is a vital step in the copywriting process. And businesses should be open to suggestions for more powerful ways to position offers.

Let’s look at an example.

Imagine you have a magazine subscription offer. The magazine sells for $3 an issue and 12 monthly issues are $36. The publisher wants to test a price reduction of 50%. Here are a few ways you can position this offer:

• 50% off
• Save $18
• Only $1.50 an issue
• Save $1.50 per issue
• 6 issues free
• 12 issues for the price of 6
• Less than 5 cents a day

This is more than wordsmithing. Buyers perceive each of these offer positions differently, each with a unique perceived value.

And what’s the value of testing different ways to position your offer? Better response. For example, most tests show that a “buy one get one free” offer will beat a “half off offer.” Why? Greater perceived value. Getting something free carries more psychological weight than saving money, even when the monetary value is identical. “Free” is easier to understand and more tangible that a percentage savings, which is an intellectual mathematical concept.

The takeaway? Don’t accept your offer at face value. Try different ways to position the offer to make it feel more valuable.

Offers are the heart of direct marketing. So if you want a powerful way to improve response to any direct advertisement, look at your offer.

That’s the gist of a recent article I wrote for Target Marketing called Energize Your Offer.

I determined a long time ago that there are 3 essential elements of any direct response ad. You must:

1. Make an offer.
2. Provide sufficient information for acceptance of the offer.
3. Provide a means of easy response to act on the offer.

If you leave out any one of those elements, you not only will end up with a failure, you will be doing something other than direct response.

You can read the entire article over at Target Marketing. I provide a simple definition of “offer,” take a look at the guts of an offer, reveal the world’s best offer, and discuss how to test into offers the right way.

This is really all part of my simple “big picture” approach to effective copywriting. While little tweaks can sometimes boost response for giant promotions, and occasionally a small headline edit can make a difference, generally little changes produce little results. To get big improvements, you should concentrate on the big picture. In direct marketing that means the list, the offer, the format, and then the overall copy approach.

If you want to know more about offers, have a look at my list of 99 proven offers. You can also read a detailed explanation of the 3 elements of direct response.

David Ogilvy called direct response advertising his “secret weapon.” When he started out in the advertising business, direct response wasn’t exactly a respected form of selling. It was in the red light district of the ad world.

But he was smart enough to know its potential and built his agency, at least in part, with the principles of direct response.

I’ve found a video of Ogilvy addressing a group of direct response advertising professionals and laying out the advantages of direct response over general advertising. This is a treat to watch.