Postage costs make up one of the most expensive elements of your mailing budget. That being the case, it only makes sense for you to wring the most value out of every penny on postage you spend. To conserve your money, it’s important to avoid over-paying on postage when you can. For example, there’s a […]
direct-mail, direct-mail-marketing, lift-note, mailing, sales-piece
If you want people to take action and buy from you, you have to ask for the order. But surprisingly, most marketing messages don’t. If you don’t include a strong, clear, call to action in your direct mail campaign, you are wasting money! You need to make it ABUNDANTLY clear what your offer is. In […]
call-to-action, copywriting, direct-mail, direct-mail-marketing, sales-piece
The headline of your sales piece carries a big responsibility. It takes just seconds for your prospects to decide whether or not to read further, and their decision is based largely on the headline. Does it grab their interest? Does it convince them there’s something here worth learning more about? Does it predispose them to […]
copywriting, direct-mail, direct-mail-marketing, sales, sales-piece
Your direct mail campaign is made up of a number of elements. Of all of them, the one that is most important is the list you mail to. That alone accounts for 40% of the success of the campaign. If you try to sell grass-fed steaks to a group of vegetarians, you will not make […]
call-to-action, common-errors, direct-mail, direct-mail-marketing, sales, sales-piece, testing
Patience is a virtue – one that you should call upon when making decisions about whether or not the changes you made to your direct mail campaign worked. In this article I’ll be focusing on the changes you might make to your control piece, but the basic principles presented here should apply to any change […]
direct-mail, direct-mail-marketing, sales-piece, testing
We are about to look at the most important 20 seconds in the life of a sales piece. And I bet you can guess what they are. It’s those first 20 seconds after your prospect sees your sales piece sitting in the pile of mail he just brought into the house, and what he does […]
copywriting, dimensional-mail, direct-mail, direct-mail-marketing, headlines, sales-piece
Since I am an optimist, I see the good and positive side of just about everything. I’m rarely negative. Although I always encourage people to have a positive outlook, I want to take a moment to mention there are times when you might want to be a bit negative. I’m not talking about having a […]
copywriting, direct-mail, direct-mail-marketing, sales-piece
You do hear about “white papers” a lot lately, although the expression goes back about 90 years. Originally the term referred to government documents that were concerned with policy analysis. Later the term was broadened to refer to any document with in-depth analysis of some social or governmental issue. Today the term is used more […]
copywriting, direct-mail, direct-mail-marketing, sales-piece, sales-pieces, types-of-mailings
The most successful promotion I’ve ever worked on – which brought in hundreds of millions of dollars – didn’t really “take off” until the fourth version of the brochure. My whole life would be different now if that company had stopped mailing after the third version and never mailed the fourth version. How do you […]
copywriting, direct-mail, direct-mail-marketing, profit, sales-piece
Funny boxes have been appearing everywhere: on ads, direct mail pieces, billboards, and I’ve even seen them on t-shirts. You may have also seen them on your boarding pass the last time you traveled by airplane. Those boxes are called “QR codes,” and many of you may already know about them and might even be […]
direct-mail, direct-mail-marketing, marketing, qr-codes, sales-piece