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The 10 Commandments of Direct Marketing, Part 1

Posted by Randy Mitchell on October 21, 2014

When you think of “The Ten Commandments,” what image springs to mind? For me, it’s always Charlton Heston, the classic Hollywood Moses. I can picture him now in those flowing robes, with that booming voice and more hair than any metal band. The man definitely had an intimidating presence.

In direct marketing, we don’t have Charlton coming down from the mount with those hefty stone tablets. But we do have our own laws that are tested and trusted. Call them the 10 Commandments of Direct Marketing.

These tenets are composed of the distilled wisdom of a vast number of tests by companies in all industries over decades of time. They may not come with the epic Cecil B. DeMille treatment, but they do pack remarkable power in their own right.

By following the 10 Commandments of Direct Marketing, you can dramatically improve your chance for success. So be sure to keep the following direct marketing best practices and email best practices in mind when developing your next control buster.

1. Thou shalt include clear calls to action
Direct marketing is all about motivating people to do something.So it’s important for your call to action to be crystal clear about precisely what action you want the reader to take. You’re not trying to capture a brand attribute at this point. You’re not looking to tie into the theme of the piece. This is the moment for action. That means it’s important to be extremely direct: Tell the reader what to do. It’s also essential to facilitate that action: List every channel your target can use to respond. In addition, include the call to action multiple times. That way, you’ll provide the motivation and the method for response.
2. Thou shalt not downplay the offer
One of the direct marketing best practices set in stone is to highlight the offer. Don’t bury it in the bottom of the letter or hide it at the bottom of an email. Remember that the offer is a critical component to positively impact response rates. Your offer can take the form of an incentive, special pricing or a limited-time promotion. Whatever offer you have to work with, if it can motivate recipients to sign up or take the desired action, put it front and center.

3. Remember the P.S. and honor its power
One of the advantages of direct mail is that you can leverage the power of the P.S. to boost response. In fact, the P.S. is frequently the most-read part of any letter. So be certain your communications use that premium real estate to maximum effect. The P.S. can quickly restate your offer and drive your reader into action. That way, even if readers only skim the letter, they’ll know why to respond now and how to do it.

4. Thou shalt stress the expiration date
An expiration date is another one of those direct marketing best practices proven to lift response. It ensures your readers know when they need to take action or risk missing out on the offer. Just like the call to action, make sure to repeat the expiration date in several places. It is especially important to include the date on a printed response device or next to the response button on emails.

5. Thou shalt not rest without a test
Testing sets direct response apart. It is one of the chief advantages of direct mail and a powerful tool for enhancing email performance. Testing provides you with seemingly endless opportunities to try new things, quantify the success and improve upon your marketing efforts. Three basic areas to test often are the list, the offer and the creative. But you can test just about anything, including subject lines and preheaders in email, and envelope messaging in direct mail.

That covers our first five commandments. The next five will appear in Part 2 of this blog. I don’t want to preach, but it would be a direct marketing sin to miss it.

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Topics: Direct Marketing

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