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Advertising Resource Center |
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Direct Mail Rules of Thumb
First and foremost - You should identify your target market. Target your direct marketing lists. Identify who you are selling to, and why they should buy from you instead of your competition. Keep in mind that placing your offer in front of 100 targeted response leads that have shown an interest or have a history of using your product or service can be much more effective than marketing to 1000 non pre-qualified leads. Find an angle: Attract attention with your mail piece, grab your prospects interest, and hook them in with your offer. The goal is to offer the sales prospects something so irresistible that he or she will immediately want it. Some companies will hook new clients in with an offer close to cost with hopes of retaining the clients in the future. Your message: Choose a benefit with enough appeal to play on impulse buyers emotions. Know why people buy and identify their want or need. What problem are you going to solve? What "want" will you fulfill? Make sure that your direct mail creative is appealing, start at the stamp and go from there. Prove it to them: Explain how your service, or your product will perform, and fulfill the prospects wants or needs. Make it easy to buy: If you want them to place an order make it as easy to make a purchase or gather more information as possible. If you want folks to call you, get a Toll-Free number, if you want to generate a lead, create an easy to fill out form on your website. You may want to include a business reply card with your direct mail piece. Motivate your prospects take action: Use coupons and other time sensitive limited-term sale offers to create a feel of urgency, promotional techniques like coupons with expiration in bold will highly increase your response rate. Best Regards, Brian E. Knapp
MORE RESOURCES: Three money managers who called the turn in March 2009 see big gains ahead; a fourth dissents Individual investors have largely stayed on the sidelines of the current rally. What will lure them back? The yearlong rally in the U.S. market has pushed the number of stocks showing unusually sharp daily gains to the highest level at least since 1994, a sign that more gains may come, according to Concept Capital. Higher- than-estimated inflation in China spurred speculation the nation will be forced to raise interest rates Shares of the following companies are having unusual moves in U.S. trading. Stock symbols are in parentheses. Prices are as of 11 a.m. in New York. The dollar rose against its Canadian counterpart and South Africa’s rand after a report on U.S. trade indicated the global economic recovery may be slowing, reducing demand for the currencies of commodity- producing nations. Wall Street analyst opinions on stocks making headlines in Thursday's market Investors should avoid Spain’s bonds as the euro region's highest levels of joblessness stifle the country’s ability to cut its budget deficit, according to Invesco Ltd. and Merrill Lynch What Wall Street economists and strategists had to say about key developments on Mar. 11 GMAC Inc., the auto and home lender rescued by the U.S. government, may have overpaid its top executives after receiving taxpayer funds, according to a report by the panel overseeing the Troubled Asset Relief Program. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka listened to Andres and Esteban Contreras tell how Andres moved back home to help with rent and medical care after their father lost his job and their mother had her hours cut. Lloyds Banking Group Plc, Britain’s biggest home-loan lender, will allow customers to increase mortgage repayments without penalty, as the bank seeks to cut its 1.03 trillion-pound ($1.55 trillion) balance sheet. Bain Capital LLC’s Sensata Technologies Holding NV sold $569 million of shares at the low end of its price range in the biggest U.S. initial public offering this year. What Wall Street economists and strategists had to say about key developments on Mar. 10 Wall Street analyst opinions on stocks making headlines in Wednesday's market Ross Morrow, a professor at Iowa State University, talks about the possible impact of U.S. climate-change legislation on gasoline prices. Morrow also discusses the implications of higher prices for the U.S. economy. (Source: Bloomberg) Promotions and international sales let McDonald's wow investors while shares of Wendy's and Burger King languish amid a U.S. hunger for jobs Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings, talks with Bloomberg's Betty Liu about Greece's fiscal woes. Rogers, speaking from Vienna, says a bankruptcy for Greece would benefit the euro. (This is an excerpt of the full interview. Source: Bloomberg) |
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