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Dear Direct Marketing Friend,
Happy New Year! Are you ready to start 2009 with a profitable bang? I thought so. That’s why this issue is full of practical tips you can use right now to improve your marketing.
I also invite you to participate in my upcoming webinar, 17 New Marketing Trends for 2009: Strategies to Increase Your Market Share on Thursday, January 22. See the sidebar for more details or click here to register. Direct Marketing Update subscribers save 50% off the regular price.
In this issue…
98% of direct mail marketers overlook this success strategy
You’re one of the 98% if you’ve never considered a bookalog.
What’s a bookalog? It looks and feels like a paperback book—but it is actually a persuasive sales piece for your product or service.
When it’s done right, your prospects can’t tell the difference.
The format alone builds the credibility of its author—usually the president, entrepreneur, expert or personality representing your company. Why? Because people trust an author as an authority. This additional credibility then persuades the reader to respond to your message.
What differentiates a bookalog from other books is that every word, including the title, is direct response copy.
I have had B2B marketers profusely thank me for their bookalog success, and I’ve witnessed firsthand how a consumer bookalog can generate hundreds of thousands of new buyers.
I remember having my hair cut a few years back and hearing my barber talk about how his mother in Florida had bought a nutritional product after reading a book. She sent him the book, and he decided to buy it too. The book was so good, he said, that I should read it as well. As it turned out, it was actually a bookalog I’d produced with my team to sell the nutritional product.
Whether your audience is a few hundred or a few million prospects, a bookalog is a powerful way to turn your products into bestselling superstars.
If you’d like to learn more about the effectiveness of the bookalog (and two other powerful direct mail formats), click here to read an informative article from the Direct Response archive.
Then find out how a bookalog can work for you. Call me at 310-212-5727 or email me at craig@cdmginc.com to discuss creating one for your next campaign…and get ready to achieve breakthrough response.
Little-known technique to get top listing in Google
With the rise of smartphones and mobile marketing, search engine optimization (SEO) is more important than ever. Because having a great site means nothing if prospects can’t find it.
One way we start maximizing SEO is by optimizing meta-keywords, meta-title, meta-description and URL tags.
Imagine your keyword phrase is “orchid care and maintenance.” Here’s how you’d optimize your web strategy:
| Title: |
orchid care | Free report shares secrets to orchid care and maintenance |
| Description: |
All the tools you need to become an orchid care expert and grow beautiful orchids all year long |
| URL Tag: |
orchid-care.html |
Then, make sure the tagged keywords appear in your landing page copy.
Of course, this SEO makeover is just the beginning. SEO is a web strategy you can’t afford to ignore in 2009. Why? Because more responses come from “organic” search than paid search (70% to 30%).
If it’s still a foreign language to you, contact me and my team of experts at Creative Direct Marketing Group. Email me at craig@cdmginc.com or call me at 310-212-5727 to find out how we can boost your web traffic and paid search results.
How to beat spam filters in one easy step
Nowadays, Internet service providers (ISPs) like AOL and Yahoo! and email providers (like Gmail and Hotmail) make it easier than ever for recipients to mark your emails as spam.
Unfortunately, many recipients will mark your email as “spam” or “junk” instead of opting out of receiving your emails.
This has long-term consequences. Lots of spam complaints will land you on an ISP blacklist—which means no one using that ISP will get your emails.
That’s why every one of your emails should have an easy-to-find opt-out link.
To avoid email blacklists, you want to build up a good reputation and get on email whitelists instead.
One of the simplest strategies: Ask recipients to whitelist you by adding your email address to their address book or safe senders list.
Be sure to provide easy instructions. The best place to do this is on your email confirmation page, so you can get whitelisted right from the start.
Watch for my next issue: I’ll share another easy way to help your emails reach their destinations.
Copy tip: 3 secrets to a money-making headline
Is your headline really doing its job? Does it command attention and keep your prospect reading? Does it promise valuable information or offer an irresistible solution?
But most of all, does it help turn browsers into buyers? It should.
Here are 3 secrets to writing an attention-grabbing headline that will convince prospects to read and buy:
- Create intrigue. Curiosity is a powerful motivator.
- Make a compelling but easy-to-understand promise. Show your reader that you have information they need or want.
- Stir the appropriate emotion. Has your testing revealed which emotion is your audience’s most powerful motivator? (Click here to read about 7 effective emotion-driven themes, featured in our last issue.)
Here are some examples of winning headlines from Victor Schwab’s infamous list of “100 good advertising headlines”:
- A little mistake that cost a farmer $3,000
- 5 familiar skin troubles—which do you want to overcome?
- Advice to wives whose husbands don’t save money—by a wife
To keep your prospects reading, use your headline to show them that you have a solution…not a mere sales pitch.
If your headlines need help, email me at craig@cdmginc.com or call me at 310-212-5727 to find out how I can sharpen your copy and supercharge your next campaign.
Testing corner: Do quotation marks add power?
I’m a longtime proponent of setting quotation marks around your headline. Why? They grab attention. They can add credibility and a newsy feel. They make the reader wonder who’s saying this and why.
Best of all, they increase response, according to years of testing.
But exactly where you place the quotes can make quite a difference…and it needs testing. Here’s an example.
TEST: Would quotation marks be more effective around the headline or subhead?
Headline A
“What everyone needs to know
about their brain’s untapped potential”
Research shows that brainwave control
can bring out amazing memory in ordinary subjects
Headline B
What everyone needs to know
about their brain’s untapped potential
“Research shows that brainwave control
can bring out amazing memory in ordinary subjects”
RESULTS: When the response was compared to how the copy performed without quotation marks, the difference was clear. Headline A brought a 9.5% higher response—but Headline B boosted response by a full 26%.
Why do you think Headline B’s response was dramatically higher? Email your thoughts to craig@cdmginc.com. Then, test quotation marks in your own headline.
Action Items
- Think you’ve mastered the art of the commanding headline? Send in your best headlines and let’s spark a reader debate on whether your headlines are strong attention-grabbers…or asleep on the job. Email me at craig@cdmginc.com
- Don’t miss my webinar, 17 New Marketing Trends for 2009: Strategies to Increase Your Market Share on January 22, 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (Pacific Time). Click here for details and to register.
- Add craig@dmu.ccsend.com and craig@cdmginc.com to your address book. Don’t let Direct Marketing Update get caught in your spam filter! Whitelist it today so that you’ll always get the latest direct marketing strategies, tips and news, right to your inbox.
Yours for direct marketing success,
Craig A. Huey
President
Creative Direct Marketing Group, Inc.
email:
craig@cdmginc.com
phone: 310-212-5727
www.cdmginc.com
Click here
to visit the Direct Response Library. You’ll find numerous articles from past issues of my Direct Response newsletters that provide even more valuable direct marketing help.
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This direct marketing newsletter has been prepared by and is the property of Creative Direct Marketing Group, Inc. The information contained herein has been carefully compiled from sources believed to be reliable, but its accuracy cannot be guaranteed. All photos and graphics are used by permission of their creators. Reproduction or electronic transmission of information contained in this report in whole or in part is strictly prohibited.
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About Craig Huey:
Craig Huey is the #1 authority on accountable advertising.
He's recognized as one of the top direct response marketing experts in the nation.
In addition to publishing Direct Marketing Update and the industry newsletter, Direct Response, Mr. Huey is president of Creative Direct Marketing Group, a full-service direct response advertising agency, and InfoMat, a postal and email list brokerage and management company.
Email Craig at
craig@cdmginc.com.
17 New Marketing Trends for 2009: Strategies to Increase Your Market Share
January 22
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
(Pacific Time)
Subscribers save 50%! Register today
for just $99!
In this 60-minute webinar, you’ll receive an exclusive look at the challenges and changes marketers should be prepared to face in 2009.
And you’ll learn how to thrive in spite of them.
Here are just a few of the trends Craig will reveal…
- The #1 way retailers can make up for 2008’s slow sales
- A proposed tax change that could cost you big
- Why you must do all of your direct mail testing by this date
- What you must know about mobile marketing
- The one marketing channel that’s more important than ever before
Nowhere else will you get an easy-to-follow action plan for taking advantage of 2009’s most surprising marketing trends. Plus, you’ll have an opportunity to ask Craig your questions.
Click here to register today and save 50%! DMU subscribers pay just $99—half off the regular price of $199.
**Please note the date has been changed to Thursday, January 22.**
Stay on the
cutting edge with
Direct Response
Get an inside look at what’s working in the world of direct response with the in-depth case studies, practical tools and tested strategies presented in Direct Response newsletter (Direct Marketing Update’s in-depth sister publication).
Here’s what you would have learned as a Direct Response subscriber in 2008:
- 9 strategies for direct marketing to the mature market
- What’s working in B2B direct marketing
- 7 rules for mobile marketing success
- The new technology that boosts personalized direct mail response
- How to turn Google Adwords into a lead-gen giant
- The #1 way to supercharge your Internet marketing (and a case study to show how it’s done)
Quote of the week
“A mediocre salesman may affect a small part of your trade. Mediocre advertising affects all of your trade.”
—Claude C. Hopkins, Scientific Advertising
Did you miss the last few issues of Direct Marketing Update? Catch up here:
A look inside
The Psychology of Sales Call Reluctance
Our last issue featured a look at The Hard Truth about Soft-selling, by George W. Dudley and Jeff Tanner. But that’s not the extent of Dudley’s commentary on the matter.
With coauthor Shannon Goodson, Dudley presents a more in-depth look at the sales profession’s most destructive phenomenon in The Psychology of Sales Reluctance.
This book offers a straightforward explanation of why some salespeople avoid prospecting—and thus freeze their careers and their company contributions.
In the first section of this book, you’ll learn to identify the causes and methods behind common avoidance maneuvers some salespeople cling to. Then, Dudley and Goodson arm you with practical countermeasures—techniques that have been field tested and shown to work.
Click here to learn more or to buy this book.
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