May 11
23
Direct Response Marketing
Direct marketing, also known as direct response marketing, are sales copy that asks for a direct, immediate response from the prospect.
While copywriting in general is a respected profession, it is within the direct marketing world that copywriters enjoy tremendous respect. It is the copywriter who make direct marketers money.
One of the primary benefits of direct marketing is that it is 100% measurable. With a branding campaign, you never know what brings in the sales.
But since direct marketing is completely quantifiable, the best direct marketers are rabid testers. Once they have a sales letter that sells, that letter becomes a “control.” Then another letter is produced and split test to try to beat the control. The new salesletter may be entirely different, or may just be a tweak of the original letter. Testing different headlines, length of copy (number of pages) and color of buttons or headlines are common tweaks. If the control gets beat by a contender, the contender becomes the new control.
There is no time to fall in love with copy when profits are on the line. With large mailings, even a small increase in conversions – say from 2% to 3% can mean millions of dollars in additional profits.
People tend to love or hate direct marketing – but even people who SAY they hate it have often bought something as a result. Most of the hate comes from being inundated with “junk mail.” However, if you are getting junk mail, it usually means that you have purchased something by direct response in the past.
Direct response marketing often looks “hypey” to someone who isn’t a prospect. If you don’t have back pain an infomercial about a device that cures lower back pain looks like a lot of hype and slick selling. But if you have back pain, you view it as potentially life-changing information. You get engaged and start an internal conversation as to whether or not this will help you. The direct marketing didn’t change you into a back pain sufferer – it simply identified one of your needs, and drew you in to a potential solution.
Remember, no matter what you think about direct marketing, it works. Companies wouldn’t continue to send the “junk mail” unless it made them a profit.
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