Tomicide Solutions, Aug 2011

17 Common Direct Mail Mistakes IT Companies Make Part 2

By Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan

Synopsis

Today we continue our journey to direct response marketing and what kind of mistakes many IT companies make to use direct response marketing. Now we look at the second set of nine mistakes.

Podcast: MP3 Version

Have you heard that in a desperate effort to win the Second World War, British scientists had come up with the brilliant idea of feeding Hitler with female hormones, so over time, he would have become docile and submissive just like his younger sister, Paula Wolf.

This great strategy, as explained in Professor Brian Ford's book, "Secret Weapons: Technology, Science and the Race to Win World War II", was that British spies would mix oestrogen into Moustache Dolfie's meals, and slowly but surely he would "calm down", so the Allies could reason with him.

The other piece of British warfare imbecility to win the war was by putting glue onto Nazi soldiers' boots and sticking them to the ground.

So much fuss for nothing. Or as good ol' Will wrote a few years ago, "Much Ado For Nothing".

And the interesting thing is that this is happening in so many IT companies as well. They hire the big fancy advertising agencies to come up with new slogans, including farting parrots or speeding flamingos.

Telus, the local phone company's creativity has gone a step further in their advertising. There is a dirty pig with its arse to the reader, and the caption says, "Share some dirty pictures".

But in spite of spending millions on advertising and fattening advertising agencies' purses, Telus's services are still blazingly inferior, customer service sucks and bureaucracy and the union are squeezing every chance of improvement out of the company.

There was a good spell of service a few years ago. The union people went on strike and Telus called in non-unionised contractors. Customer service almost instantly improved a good few notches. Then the union people got their demanded pay increases and better benefits, returned to work, and customer service quality instantly plummeted. And it's been lower than a snake's bellybutton ever since.

And will stay the same until the union orders a strike again for higher rewards for lower performance.

Anyway, the message is that selling expensive technical solutions to sophisticated buyers requires a bit more than singing pigs and farting parrots.

That requires some serious direct response marketing.

So, let's continue our exploration to see what other direct response marketing mistakes IT companies tend to make.

Mistake #9: Neglecting The Ins And Outs Of How The Brain Processes Information

Neuromarketing is the name of the science that focuses on how the human brain processes marketing messages. You can write messages that the brain either instantly accepts or rejects.

The idea behind neuromarketing is that it's the subconscious mind, not the conscious mind, that drives decisions and how to respond to marketing messages, brands, products and services. The subconscious mind is the decision-maker while the conscious mind is just a super-smart gatekeeper.

The reptilian brain that makes up the subconscious mind, can be influenced by using its six key characters...

Mistake #10: Missing The Postscript

Every marketing document has hot spots. Spots where readers' eyes rest a bit longer than on other parts.

One of these spots is the headline. After reading the headline ("Is this message relevant for me?"), readers eyes jump to the end of the letter to the signature ("Who is this message from? Do I know this person?").

So, that means that you should put some vital information right after the signature. Yes, that's the spot for the postscript (P.S.). Based on various tests, over 80% of readers go to the P.S. before reading the body of the document.

When you have a postscript, readers' eyes automatically go there after reading the signature. The postscript, after the headline and the signature, draws readers further into the copy, and starts engaging them at a deeper level.

After reading the engaging postscript, readers are ready to go to the beginning of the piece, and read what the P.S. refers to. By this time, there is increased level of curiosity.

Actually, the copy itself is the last thing to be read. First people read the headline, opening paragraph, subheads, image captions and the P.S.

Mistake #11: Engaging In One-Shot Mails

In an oddball way, direct mail is like dating. It means it takes a number of contacts to land new clients. The problem is that the whole direct mail concept requires something most IT companies don't have: Consistency to maintain campaigns beyond one-shot mail with long-term focus to achieve lasting results.

Instead of maintaining a good campaign, it's easier to hire an ad agency to write a sexy slogan and then distributing that slogan in the trade press.

Yes, it's expensive and it's useless, but it's also something that can be abdicated, so no one in-house can be made accountable for it.

And this is great because, most people hate being held accountable for anything. I think this is why copywriting genius, the late Gary Halbert, bluntly stated that most people are not players. They are spectators living in quiet desperation, envying the players' successes.

See the rise of global socialism. Moochers and looters, as Ayn Rand calls them in Atlas Shrugged, all over the world demand bigger slices of the "success" pie for themselves, but they absolutely refuse to participate in the making of the pies. They just want to eat but expect others to make the pies, serve them, do the dishes and clean up the kitchen.

This "Moochers and looters" mentality can be seen in many IT companies. They want more and better sales leads, but are not willing to put in the required work.

Direct response marketing doesn't have to be complicated, mind you it's complex. Here you can read and excellent comparison between complicated and complex as in human nature.

In a few short words...

"A complicated person is analogous to the tax code or the Windows Registry. This is to say that they are problematic, convoluted, torturous, difficult and inconsistent.

A complex person is like an iPod. That is to say that they are consistent, straightforward and 'user friendly' while also being rather sophisticated."

But read the whole article. I think you'll love it.

My interpretation is that if something is systematically complicated, that's complex. As a system, it produces consistent and predictable results. Also, it can be scientifically analysed and understood.

But if something is haphazardly complicated, that's complicated. It produces random results. It is almost or totally impossible to analyse and understand.

Direct response marketing is like a Swiss watch. It has lots of intricate moving parts, but it's a system that can be analysed and understood.

No, it's not easy, but it's worth investing the time and effort.

Mistake #12: Poor Or Non-Existing Follow-Up

This is an interesting topic and 100 marketers have 101 differing opinions about it.

Poor follow-up can fall into two groups: No follow-up and haphazard follow-up.

And here lies an interesting problem. Many IT companies are so busy running after brand new and stone cold leads that they don't have time to follow up on existing, lukewarm leads.

They may know it takes less time, energy and money to turn lukewarm leads into hot leads than turning ice-cold leads into lukewarm one, but they operate on the "it's not the kill but the thrill of the chase" mantra.

And while, in spite of the back-breaking hard work, the temperature of cold leads rises infinitesimally slowly, the temperature of the existing and now neglected lukewarm leads falls more quickly than the proverbial brick.

But sadly, both the company's philosophy and compensation system are set up in such a way that makes salespeople focus on hunting down new prospects.

There are sales trainers out there who actually look down on activities that have nothing to do with going after brand new leads. In their eyes, nurturing existing leads is a wasteful way of using salespeople's time.

So, let's look at some of the numbers...

It takes about 21 touch points to convert a new lead into a paying client. The problem is that 2/3 of the touch points get ignored, and only 1/3 is received and "consumed". By consumed, I mean read, watched or listened to and acted upon.

The problem is that sellers lose interest in going through all 21 touch points, change direction and start running after new buyers who already have purchase orders in their hands signed and approved, so all they need is one pitch meeting, a proposal and it's all done. The prospect is a now client.

The problem is that the later you join the buying process, the more likely you get messages from prospects like...

"Don't call us! We'll call you if interested."

"Send a detailed proposal and we'll tell you what we think."

"Thanks for the great presentation. Let me run it by legal."

By the time buyers reach such late stage in the buying process, they know exactly what they want, and they're looking for a pair of hands to do it at the lowest possible price. This is how the RFP process squeezes value out of the process.

Using RFPs, buyers are looking for cheap pairs of hands to do the work in a way that's dictated by buyers.

This is why the key is to enter the race as early as possible.

Mistake #13: Relying On Creativity At The Expense Of Principles

No I'm not against creativity per se, but I find it a tad problematic when people use the "creativity shield" to justify the ignorance of well-established principles.

It doesn't matter how creative I am, we know from the well-established principles of physics that gravity is 9.81 m/sec2.

All in all, creativity (design, colours, etc.) is a pretty small contributor in direct mail campaigns.

Direct Response Success Contributors

Yet, so many IT business owners are willing to pay top rates for creative people but haggle the living daylights out of copywriters. And when it comes to building their in-house lists and developing kick-arse offers, they fall shorter than a shortbread cookie on a wet and windy Sunday afternoon.

The other side of creativity is beefing up the copy by using shopworn buzzwords, like industry leader, best-of-breed, one-stop shopping, bleeding edge, etc.

Have you noticed in life that the more glorified the language that describes a product or service, the crappier it is? Not always, of course, but often enough.

And there are words and phrases that your English teacher may not approve, but decades of testing tell us that in the real world they work. And that's what matters.

So, if you offer a white paper as a gift, then emphasise that it's a free gift, even though a gift by nature is free. Actually, whenever "gift" vs. "free gift" has been tested, "free gift" has generated far more responses than "gift".

Some other good phrases are "No Obligation", "No salesperson will call", "Details inside/See inside" or "New".

And test everything you create. Marketing is like a swamp. One phrase can sink but its slightly modified version can swim rather well. Just think of the two phrases...

"Are You Making Mistakes In English?"

"Are You Making These Mistakes In English?"

One short word of difference between a loser and a winner.

Mistake #14: Writing To Much About Your Stuff

Reader's attention is the key in marketing. How are the readers likely to pay maximum attention?

Well, if we write about them. About them, their predicaments, frustrations, goals, dreams, afflictions and aspirations.

Most IT marketing materials are written in vendor-speak. Too much attention is placed on talking about sellers. It comes from the fact that most written materials are produced by employees, and they want to keep their jobs.

So, they often write boss- and company-glorifying content. Hey, they want to write good copy, but the term "good copy" is pretty relative.

For them good copy is something that the boss reads and says, "I really like this." And what the market thinks is irrelevant because the boss likes it. Of course, the boss is not a copywriter, so when he likes something, what exactly does that mean from the target market's standpoint? Not much.

The sad reality is that you or your stuff is irrelevant to your buyers. They read your stuff because they hope to find solutions to their problems. Yes, they want to read about you and your stuff too, but that comes later.

Remember what Claude Hopkins wrote in Scientific Advertising in 1923...

"Remember the people you address are selfish, as we all are. They care nothing about your interests or your profit. They seek service for themselves. Ignoring this fact is a common mistake and a costly mistake in advertising.

Ads say in effect, "Buy my brand. Give me the trade you give to others. Let me have the money." That is not a popular appeal.

The best ads ask no one to buy. That is useless. Often they do not quote a price. They do not say that dealers handle the product.

The ads are based entirely on service. They offer wanted information. They cite advantages to users. Perhaps they offer a sample, or to buy the first package, or to send something on approval, so the customer may prove the claims without any cost or risk."

Copywriting legend, David Ogilvy was known for saying that...

"Nobody, at any level, should be allowed to have anything to do with advertising until he has read this book seven times."

And if you hire a traditional advertising agency to write your marketing materials, then you're in deep yoghurt.

Most advertising agencies are NOT direct response focused. What they do is image marketing and advertising.

They focus on creating marketing materials that win creative awards and stroke their clients' egos and, to protect themselves, say that the effectiveness of marketing can't be measured.

And since they want to keep their operating costs to the minimum, they employ either low-grade copywriters or none at all.

Imagine a copywriter who spends two hours to write copy about washing soap one hour writing about recyclable rubbish bags and then another hour about your 6-figure IT solution which he knows nothing about.

Actually, do you know that subject matter expertise is the number one criteria buyers use to hire external professionals?

Actually, based on a 2008 study by Broderick & Company, here is a breakdown of what buyers of blazingly successful business are looking for when hiring in external professionals.

Mistake #15: Ignoring The Five Major Senses

While a newspaper ad is two-dimensional, a direct mail package can be three-dimensional. It can also appeal to senses that two-dimensional advertising can't touch.

In a direct mail package you can trigger all five senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. Yet most IT companies that use direct mail, use letters in #10 envelopes or postcards. At least you can use some objects to give "lump" to your mail.

Now, some people may say that bulk and addressing multiple senses can add to the price of the mailing, and they are right. But let's think like marketers. What are we seeking here? Low cost or high return? Let's go with high return.

You can send out 100 letters to 100 sales leads in 100 #10 envelopes at a pretty low price, and get 1-2 responses. Or you can send out 100 letters in 100 FedEx jiffy envelopes for $1,500, and get 40 responses.

Now, what is the lifetime value of one average client? Is it in five figures? Or maybe six or seven? The lifetime business that you can generate from that $1,500 initial investment can be in the range of tens of millions of dollars.

So, what's the problem with the $1,500 if it can give you a few thousand percent ROI?

As humans, using our five senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste, we digest information in three ways: 1) auditory, 2) visual and 3) kinaesthetic. The more senses your direct mail package can activate, the better chance you've got that recipients consume your information.

I've also used $100 banknotes on the top of my letters, indicating that many of these notes are waiting for the company if we do business together.

With some of them, I have done business. Some buyers returned the money and complimented me for my innovative approach (it was really invented, as far as I know, by the late Gary Halbert, Prince of Print and Self-Proclaimed Alpha Shitweasel) and some just took the money and have never got back to me.

Yes, I've lost a few hundred bucks on the exercise, but also have gained a good few thousands in new business.

Yes, we can be creative here, but we also have to make sure that creativity doesn't overshadow the main message.

As copywriter, Herschell Gordon Lewis, is fond of saying...

"Cleverness for the sake of cleverness may well be a liability, not an asset."

Mistake #16: Asking Readers To Take Too Big A Step To Respond

The whole idea behind direct response is that readers take a specific action after reading your message.

The problem is that the kind of action many IT companies require is as big as asking a person with a raging vertigo to go to the top of the CN tower in Toronto and do the EdgeWalk at 356m/1168ft (116 storeys) above the ground.

This is why in military training, new recruits don't even see weapons, let alone using them, for several months. Yes, physically they could use them, but morally and emotionally they are not prepared just yet.

So, the call for action must be pretty small.

Here are some retarded calls for action...

"Call for a free consultation."

Everyone knows that most free consultations are thinly disguised sales pitches.

"Request our free brochure."

What for? It's like responding to a personal ad by saying, "Request my free prenuptial agreement template.

"Request a free price quote."

Vendors do blind quotations. Respected authorities scope out possibilities jointly with buyers, and then document their verbal agreements in proposals. Yes, the name is a misnomer, but here we are and there you go. That's the name, and let's live with it.

"Request a free live demonstration."

Again, buyers are shit-scared that vendors come down on them like a tonne of bricks, and the demo turns into a sales pitch. Well, they almost always do.

Using the old saying, buyers don't want 1" drills but 1" holes. Don't talk to them about YOUR drills but about the art and science of making THEIR amazing holes.

Don't talk to them about YOUR solutions, but about their THEIR problems.

Don't ask them to request a demo of YOUR CRM software. Ask them to request your white paper on 10 ways of boosting THEIR salespeople's performance.

So, how how big of an action do you ask buyers to take.

In sports, you have to warm up before attempting to exceed your best performance. This is the same.

Mistake #17: Sending Out Anything Without A Specific Offer And Call For Action

The whole idea behind direct response marketing is that every piece you send out should be responded to in a trackable way. This expectation for response makes your whole direct mail marketing campaign quantifiable.

And just because recipients don't respond with the desired action, you still can track that inaction.

The key is not the response itself, but the trackable nature of whatever recipients do. If you get 100% inaction, you can improve it because you have a starting point.

When you send out a letter that needs a decision to be made at the end of reading, hence a yes/no response, so from the number of responses you know how successful the letter is.

Is it a problem if someone doesn't respond? No, not at all. Remember, in peddler-land it's all about persuasion. In respected authority land it's about self-selection.

You put out your stuff, and buyers decide what to do about it. It's like fishing really. You bait the hook, cast your line and the fish decides whether or not to accept your bait. If the fish accepts, then you have a nice dinner. If the fish refuse, you may need a Big Mac, which is really just one notch better than a hard wallop on the head with a frying pan.

You can't play the persuasion game with fish. And buyers are the same too. They decide.

But what we can do is to offer easy-to-accept action steps.

Mistake #18: Using Cheap Copy As A Filling Material

Your copy serves two purposes. It acts both as content to educate and inform readers and copy to facilitate the reader's decision-making. In a good direct mail piece we need both good content and good copy.

Copy without content is pure peddling. But content without copy is charity. The best choice is a healthy blend of both, depending where buyers are in their buying processes.

I prefer to stay away from persuasion because my goal with copy is to help readers to make Yes/No decisions regarding my offers. So, it's more like the facilitation of a decision-making process, and I'm not married to the outcome.

Persuasion, being married to the outcome, is just a form of manipulation, trying to flog my stuff in any which way possible, and not taking "no" for an answer. And that's a pretty unpleasant way of doing business. At last not for me, and as I've found most IT professionals hate it. As a former client has told me...

"Persuading people to do what I want them to do cuts right into my integrity, so I stay away from it. I show them what is and what could be and the choice is theirs."

And as long as there are enough people in her niche who are not happy with the status quo and are willing to do something about it, her firm has a preponderance of business at premium fees and prices.

Summary

It's true. Direct response marketing can be a company's proverbial brave knight, e.g. Sir Lancelot, in shiny armour on a white horse ready to save the day.

The problem is that by the time executives have finished fiddling with the moving parts of the direct mail campaigns, it's like a self-appointed squire wrapped in tinfoil, wielding a frying pan and riding an old limping donkey on the verge of final exhaustion.

Well Dear Reader, meet the proverbial Sancho Panza.

He has all the good intentions in the world, but unless intentions meet expertise, nothing useful happens.

And whatever industry pundits say that direct mail is dead or dying, in my experience, direct mail is a pretty effective way of generating high quality traffic to your website.

Yes, certain aspects of direct mail may well be a tad long in the tooth, so here and there, you may have to break from conventional wisdom.

Some people may criticise you, but the interesting thing is that the harsher the critics are, the more commercial bottom feeders they are, and the higher the likelihood that they would use the same method if they had bumped into it first. So, let's ignore critics.

Or as Douglas Adams wrote in Mostly Harmless, some of the things that live in the lower intestines of rats would disagree with the above statement, but most of the things that live in the lower intestines of rats are highly disagreeable anyway, so their opinion can and should be discounted.

People have their own ways of doing business and you have yours. And there are differences.

So, look at your past direct mail campaigns and see how you could improve the next one. Consider the 18 tips we've been through here and see where you can make significant improvements pretty quickly.

Come and let's discuss this newsletter issue on my blog...

Attribution: "This article was written by Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan who helps privately held information technology companies to develop high leverage client acquisition systems and business development teams in order to sell their products and services to premium clients at premium fees and prices. Visit Tom's website at http://www.varjan.com.