Siegfried’s ideas pre-date Gary Halbert’s… but they sound a lot alike

Siegfried’s ideas pre-date Gary Halbert’s… but they sound a lot alike

P.S., signature, non justified right hand side….

Gary Halbert preaching to us about getting results from our direct mail? Or part of the results published in German in 1984 by Siegfried Vogele?

I like to think two masters both on top of their games.

After being reintroduced to Siegfried’s material through an article, I decided I had to reread his book called the “Handbook of Direct Mail.” You might want to too. But if you’re short on time, I can sum it up for you.

SILENT DIALOGUE

Unlike most direct mail experts, Siegfried has conducted research where he or people working with him are actually monitoring the people opening mail directly. To gauge what catches their eye. What stops them. What makes them nod ‘yes’ subconsciously.

Very interesting. I actually felt like I was reading more of a textbook than a direct mail course like I’m used to… the translation of the book to English is nearly flawless and it’s not classroom stuffy (which I know well). But the layout and precision and detailing of results is reminiscent of a biology lab book.

In his research he found that people seem to have a silent dialogue with their mail pieces. Where they ask questions (which we of course can’t hear) that flow from their initial reaction to the piece.

A few of them that might pop up:

“Who sent me this?
Can I throw it all away?
Should I even bother to read the letter?
What will I get out of this for myself?
How will it help me?
What would happen if I don’t do anything?
Who can prove that?
Who has bought this before me?
What would my wife say?
What would my family think?
Must I make a decision?
Can I put this off until later?”

Going from the idea of dialogue and silent questions, we’re led to “little yes’s” as amplifiers and “little no’s” as filters.

While reading, the reader makes many predecisions and rejections.

Examples of “little yes’s”

“Carefully opening and unfolding
Reading on
Not letting yourself be distracted
Leaning back
Closer reading
Widening of the pupils
Rereading
Looking for more enclosures”

Looking at this list, I vaguely recall purchasing a performance auto part that may or may not have been a good decision. I read and reread the text. I leaned back in my chair. My pupils were probably as big as saucers. And I reread everything multiple times.

In the end, what I was trying to do is justify my decision and sell it to myself. And I did! More on this later.

“No one is ever prepared to read the individual pages of a brochure and enclosures slowly line by line, beginning with the first line.”

Siegfried then talks about the first 20 seconds which I mentioned in that last post. In it, a person’s eyes tend to scan and only stop at certain points. Headlines, photos, captions, underlining, signature, P.S.

We must use these to guide the reader’s eyes to the biggest benefits.

Important:

“None of us enjoys throwing things away if we sense a benefit in them.”

Back to my impulsive purchase, I was really rereading to convince myself. I was also making sure the information would help justify my buying decision to someone else.

Once someone has decided to buy, very often they still need to have enough details about the benefits that they can defend their decision in the future. Otherwise, they may hesitate to lay down that credit card.

There are a few more stages our offer must run the gamut through. Archiving and putting it to one side.

It was pointed out that a person’s name and the correct target group (through careful list selection) are all pre-amplifiers that improve the odds of success. Of course, we knew that already and never failed to take it into account.

And of course….

Don’t right justify (usually), no sans serifs, write to 12 year olds, and short paragraphs....

He has a nice little diagram and states that by using short sentences, paragraphs, we can ‘indirectly say to the reader, “You can read this letter very quickly and easily. It won’t take long.” ‘

Interesting what he says about PS’s. He says that 90% (!) of readers will take a look at the PS first and actually read it relatively slow, word for word.

The best idea from the whole book:

Siegfried’s dialogue outlining

“Read your letter, using only pictures, headlines, underlining, signature and PS, and ask yourself, critically, whether the benefit is clear for the reader to see.”

I just sketched out a layout for a test I’m going to be running in early May and Siegfried’s ideas are now remixed in with everything else in my aching head.

Success,

Erik Lukas

P.S. There’s also a few diagrams of ideas for guiding the reader’s eye down the page. I think they’re pretty good. But I’ll try to sum that up too: not too cluttered, not too spread out, clear direction from the top to the bottom. Simple.

from direct response marketing.

By the way, Erik, thanks for alerting us to Siegfried Vogele's research results. I had never heard of him, but his research seems incredibly important if you plan to do any kind of advertising at all....

For those who may not know, Erik also linked to two important articles in a couple of his posts further down the forum... The links to those articles are

http://www.cdmdirect.com/eyestudy1.htm

and

http://www.cdmdirect.com/eyestudy2.htm

One thing Vogele's research shows is that, when considering whether to read direct mail or throw it in the wastebasket, only 11 seconds of preview are used to make this decision. Just 11 seconds! In that 11 seconds, you have to get their attention, or blam! all your hard work drafting that letter gets thrown in the trash.

This helps to explain possibly why Gary Halbert puts so much emphasis on "grabbers" (I think he calls them).... Things which can be taped to the top corner of the letter. Here are some examples.

It could be a coin such as a penny, or it could be a dime. It could be a dollar bill. It could even be a foreign coin. It could be a piece of plastic that changes color with temperature. Whatever it is - something unusual like that in the top corner of your letter will help influence your prospect in that vital 11-second window. It will determine whether they actually READ your letter, or throw it in the trash.

Thanks for pointing this out, Erik! I find it's always better to understand WHY things work, and this part of the article really helps to explain why the "grabber" idea works!

Another important thing to consider are highlighted words. The reason why is this helps you make people read what you're writing. Especially if you underline the benefits. That's how you can get your writings read, and not thrown in the trash.

Another important point is that people read the PS first, even before they read the start of the letter! The P.S. is the real start of your letter! This is true with letters printed on paper and sent through the mail - I suspect it is probably less true online.... (But I guess that's something which would be good to test!)

Anyhow, Erik, thanks for those articles - there were a plethora of fascinating and useful ideas there. :)

In your post, you also wrote....

> In his research he found that people seem to
> have a silent dialogue with their mail
> pieces. Where they ask questions (which we
> of course can’t hear) that flow from their
> initial reaction to the piece.

> A few of them that might pop up:

> “Who sent me this?
> Can I throw it all away?
> Should I even bother to read the letter?
> What will I get out of this for myself?
> How will it help me?
> What would happen if I don’t do anything?
> Who can prove that?
> Who has bought this before me?
> What would my wife say?
> What would my family think?
> Must I make a decision?
> Can I put this off until later?”

I thought this was a very important thing to point out.... Joe Sugarman says it is important to "anticipate objections", which seems similar. Then, of course, you must resolve them in your advertising. Unlike selling face-to-face, in direct response marketing people cannot ask you questions. So you have to anticipate what these questions will be beforehand.... That way, you can make more sales.

> The best idea from the whole book:

> Siegfried’s dialogue outlining

> “Read your letter, using only pictures,
> headlines, underlining, signature and PS,
> and ask yourself, critically, whether the
> benefit is clear for the reader to see.”

I agree - I think this is a great idea.... And I don't recall having seen it elsewhere.

Thanks Erik, I really value your posts on Vogele. As I said, I had never heard of him before - but I agree with you, his studies are important for us to learn from, if we want to improve our response rates in direct response marketing. :)

- Dien Rice

Hi Erik,

Thanks so much for taking the time to post such great information. I haven't posted much lately...have my fingers in too many pies, I guess, but I do scan this board as much as possible, and I always zero in on your posts.

Anything Gary Halbert related, especially, catches my eye. But your latest posts are especially intriguing. Hope to put some of it to good use.

Sure do hope that you'll stay around and keep posting. Really good stuff!

Cheers! Amber

> Thanks so much for taking the time to post
> such great information.

You're very welcome, Amber.

> I haven't posted
> much lately...have my fingers in too many
> pies, I guess, but I do scan this board as
> much as possible, and I always zero in on
> your posts.

> Anything Gary Halbert related, especially,
> catches my eye.

Mine too. I check his site 3-4 times per month hoping for a new issue of his MONTHLY newsletter!

> Hope to put some of it to good use.

So do I :)

> Sure do hope that you'll stay around and
> keep posting.

I plan to. I like it here. Best group I've found on the net.

Success,

Erik

> By the way, Erik, thanks for alerting us to
> Siegfried Vogele's research results. I had
> never heard of him, but his research seems
> incredibly important if you plan to do any
> kind of advertising at all....

I wouldn't have ever heard of him either. It was just one of those browsing the bookshelves accidents. He's not really a publicized direct mail guy I guess. More interested in his research. Maybe he's more well known in Europe. Not sure.

> Just 11 seconds! In that 11 seconds, you
> have to get their attention, or blam! all
> your hard work drafting that letter gets
> thrown in the trash.

The trash bin mail sort. I think we all know it well.

> This helps to explain possibly why Gary
> Halbert puts so much emphasis on
> "grabbers"

I agree. I also think that grabbers are probably very overlooked as a tool, even after Gary Halbert, Peter Sun, and other direct mail experts tell us how well they work. Maybe I should get it through my thick head that I need to do more testing of them.

I had purchased about a 1,000 foreign banknotes from the educational coin company a few months back and was ready to roll. But then my order was delayed, slow to get here, sent back once or twice, and finally I just got fed up and asked them to cancel my order.

I went with another grabber type idea I used and that produced a 200% ROI.... BUT with intensely personalized pieces. And it wasn't worth my time to continue, as crazy as that sounds. Even if I streamlined the process and cut down.

Besides, I wasn't overly enthusiastic about that project like some of the other things I'm working on.

(I know I just found lumpymail.com where Jon Goldman advocates the usage of grabbers. He sells a $500ish package on them and also sells the actual novelties. He has that message in a bottle we were both searching for. If I recall, it was around $2.25 per piece.)

> Another important thing to consider are
> highlighted words.

I think so too. But then there's the Gordon Pope pieces that go overboard (maybe I'm just not his exact target market).

> Another important point is that people read
> the PS first, even before they read the
> start of the letter! The P.S. is the real
> start of your letter! This is true with
> letters printed on paper and sent through
> the mail -

> I suspect it is probably less
> true online.... (But I guess that's
> something which would be good to test!)

I wonder...

> Anyhow, Erik, thanks for those articles -
> there were a plethora of fascinating and
> useful ideas there. :)

I think some of them have a lot of possibility.

> I thought this was a very important thing to
> point out.... Joe Sugarman says it is
> important to "anticipate
> objections", which seems similar. Then,
> of course, you must resolve them in your
> advertising. Unlike selling face-to-face, in
> direct response marketing people cannot ask
> you questions. So you have to anticipate
> what these questions will be beforehand....
> That way, you can make more sales. I agree
> - I think this is a great idea.... And I
> don't recall having seen it elsewhere.

I need to check out some of those Joe Sugarman books.

Talk to you more soon, Dien,

Erik

I'd like to re- emphasize this for anyone reading this thread.

“Read your letter, using only pictures, headlines, underlining, signature and PS, and ask yourself, critically, whether the benefit is clear for the reader to see.”