indicate they do use high-speed Internet in their homes. Data also suggests that a significant amount of nonbusiness Internet use occurs in the workplace.
Here’s what some consumers had to say about the issue:
• “Snail mail can be useful. It has the ‘different’ factor. A well-written, handwritten note from an advertiser can go a long way toward creating consumer interest … if it has the differentiating factor. It may be a bit tedious to create, but the effect will last longer. Too often email is considered spam and deleted without opening.”
• “Direct mail if well-presented would lead to it being opened. The fact is, direct mail has a higher rate of being opened than email. With the latter, it’s just so easy to trash it, but when people hold it in their hand and are either walking into the house or the office, they have time to spare and would likely be opening the mail. So, old-fashioned mail is better to me.”
• “Probably snail mail gets more attention — first because there’s less of it. Second, because it takes fractionally longer to dispose of. I actually have to walk with it to a waste paper bin to drop it in so it has a few seconds to engage my attention. Third, because the physical medium allows a variety of shapes, sizes, even feel of paper and a bulge which just might be a freebie inside that I might be interested in. All email has is bold type in the subject line to get my attention. Fourth, and last, because there’s always a chance that it might be something useful. Most snail mail gets read, whereas with email they’re often just dropped in the trash.”
Are these comments reflective of your target audience? Who knows? The point is don’t assume, either one way or the other. If you don’t know your consumers well enough to determine whether traditional direct mail, the online variety, or a combination of both would be most effective, it certainly pays to find out!
5. Structuring Your Offer to Get Results
In direct mail, it’s all about getting to the point. What is it you want the consumer to do? In short, what’s the offer? The offer is so important in direct mail that many marketers start here first. It makes sense. Before you can adequately begin framing your pitch you need to know what it is you’re trying to sell. In other words, what do you have to offer?
There are a number of different types of offers, including cash in advance (“refund if you’re not completely satisfied”) and negative option (“I agree to review future shipments and understand that I can return them in X days if I decide not to keep them”).
Some offers are very simple: “Buy this backpack for only $9.99.” Others are more complex: “Buy this backpack for only $9.99 when you sign up for our DVD-of-the-month club. You’ll automatically be sent our selection of the month every 30 days. You’ll have 10 days to review the shipment and keep or return it. In addition, you can always select from among the titles in our member catalog. Choose any selection for only $14.99. After you’ve made 3 purchases during your first year of membership, you’ll be eligible for even greater savings!”
The structuring of an offer is an important step in developing your direct mail package. The wrong offer can make your entire mailing fall flat; the right one can make it soar.
Even the simplest offer can be presented in a number of different ways. What you have to offer is a bit more nuanced than “Buy my widgets!” Your challenge, as a direct marketer, is to select the way that will be most appealing to your customer. The following are a number of different offer options you might want to consider:
• By invitation only. This can lend an aura of exclusivity to your offer and is particularly effective when used in mailings to your customer list. For example, “Since you purchased from us in the past, we’d like to offer you this new product at a 25% discount. This offer is only available to past customers.”
• Limited time. You can create a sense of urgency by limiting your offer. “Respond by January 1 to take advantage of this special price,” or “Quantities limited, order now!” are just two of the ways you could structure a limited time offer.
• Get there first or limited supply. This type of offer creates a sense of urgency and may give prospects that extra push they need to make a buying decision. For instance, “Free widget to the first 100 people to order.” Do you carefully police the number of people who get the free widget? Of course not. By sending a free widget with every order (for a reasonable period of time), you’ll be creating good will with all of your customers because each will feel that they won.
• Free gift. The free gift or premium offer is very common. You’ve probably seen this type of offer for magazine subscriptions, mobile phone plans, etc. What kind of gift should you offer? The best is one which is related somehow to the product itself. For example, if you’re selling women’s clothing, you might offer a free piece of jewelry. If you’re selling a training program on DVD, you might offer a free whitepaper of tips related to the topic of the program.
• Discounts. An offer of a discount can be structured in a number of ways, such as “Buy one, get one free,” or “Half-price sale.” Be careful, though, that you don’t use discounts too often. There are two reasons for this:
Offering discounts makes a statement about your product. A product which can never be purchased at a discount acquires a certain status.
Customers can become accustomed to receiving discounts from you if you do it too regularly. They may come to look at your discounted prices as your “regular” prices and the effectiveness of the offers will wane.
• Quantity discounts. When creating quantity discounts, carefully consider where to place your price breaks. Don’t make the first break too large. You want to choose a point where it will be easy for the customer to say: “Oh, what the heck, if I add $5 more to my order, I’ll get $x off.” Effective quantity discounts can help you to dramatically increase your average order size. For instance, “Take a 10% discount when you buy 10, a 20% discount when you buy 20.” “On orders more than $100, we’ll take $10 off.” “Call about quantity discounts for bulk purchases.”
• Cost per week. You’ve probably seen this technique often with advertisements for magazines: “Only 43 cents a week will bring you timely issues of Our Magazine!” Breaking down the price of your product can be especially effective if you’re selling a high-ticket item with a price that might put off prospects. Framing it in a weekly or even monthly time line can make the purchase decision less risky.
• Free examination. The easier you can make it for your customer to order, the more likely you are to get the order. How much easier could it be than to simply check a box and toss a business reply card into the mail? If you decide to use this technique, monitor your returns and all the costs associated with those returns and the order processing very carefully. With a strong product, this technique can work very well. With a marginal product, you may find that the costs of handling returns (and your final back-end results) don’t justify a “send no money now” offer. Note that the final back-end results are the overall results of the campaign after returns have been taken into consideration. In other words, you can’t just consider the overall number of orders that have been received; you also need to take into consideration any returns so that you have an accurate reflection of the results.
• Free trial. The free trial offer is a good way to get your product into the hands of your customers, and because it’s “free,” response can be increased. For example, “Try our product for 30 days. If it doesn’t do everything we say it will do, send it back. You’ll
