What Are The Most Important Parts Of A Direct Marketing Campaign?

> By "most important" I mean, which
> parts have the biggest effect on the success
> of your campaign?

> If you ask many people about this, you'll
> probably get several answers.... As Jim
> Straw says, everyone is right, and everyone
> is wrong.... But it's still interesting to
> know what people think.

> An example of what I mean is something Jeff
> Barker posted earlier .... He said
> "The best sales letter in the world
> won't sell very well if it's sent to the
> wrong market and if you really have what
> your targets want, then a very ordinary
> sales letter will do the job."

> Clearly he says the target market is more
> important than a good sales letter....

> I'm still testing all this out for myself (I
> don't pretend to be the Wizard of Web
> Marketing, but I DO keep on going and learn
> as I go along)....

> However, here are some snippets from my
> reading....

> Benjamin Suarez says that the success of a
> promotion comes down to one formula -- here
> it is (from "Seven Steps To Freedom
> II" p. 2-27 to 2-28):

> Rate of sales in direct marketing =
> Demand for the product x Selling
> effectiveness of promotion x Quality of the
> prospect x Efficiency of the media

> Or for short it's due to "PPPM"
> (that's how I remember it)....

> That is, you need
> - a good product that people want
> - a good promotion (sales letter,
> advertisement, etc.)
> - the right target market (prospect)
> - the right media to reach them (direct
> mail, magazine ads, newspaper ads, TV,
> radio, internet, etc.)

> I think this is a great formula, because I
> agree, you do need all these elements for a
> blockbuster promotion. But it ranks all
> these elements equally.... It doesn't say
> that one is more important than the other.

> Here's another viewpoint.... This is called
> the "40-40-20 rule", and it was
> developed by the great direct marketer Ed
> Mayer.

> Before I go into the rule, let me share
> something about Ed Mayer....

> This comes from an issue of The Gary Halbert
> Letter (I'm quoting this paragraph under
> fair use).... From the Sept. 3, 1987
> issue....

> Gary Halbert writes about Ed Mayer....

> "Ed was known as the Dean of Direct
> Mail. He was a short, wizened, bald little
> man who could keep me fascinated for hours.
> He taught a 5-day course on the basics of
> direct mail for the DMA's educational
> foundation and his course was easily the
> most powerful I've ever attended."

> Gary goes on to say that you still might be
> able to get some of tapes of Ed Mayer's
> course from the Direct Marketing Association
> (DMA), and recommends them if you still
> can....

> Back to Ed Mayer's 40-40-20 rule. I found
> this in an interesting book, "Direct
> Marketing Success" by Freeman Gosden,
> Jr., published in 1985 (p. 9).

> The 40-40-20 rule states that the success or
> failure of your direct marketing effort is
> due to:

> 40% - The Audience
> 40% - Who You Are, Your Product or Service,
> Your Offer
> 20% - Creative, Format, Postal

> Here's what this means....

> 40% - The Audience This is your target
> market. Your "starving crowd." If
> it's not targeted at the right market, it
> makes success difficult.

> This means picking the "right"
> list for your product, for example, or the
> right magazine, or the right ezine, and
> targeting the right group of people.

> 40% - Who You Are, Your Product or Service,
> Your Offer This is a combination....
> "Who You Are" means things like,
> have they heard of you before? Is your
> audience "familiar" with your name
> already in a positive way? It could also
> mean third-party endorsements.... Even if
> they haven't heard of you, but you are
> endorsed by someone or a company they trust,
> it can go a long way to winning their trust
> too.

> Your Offer means your price or the deal you
> are offering.

> The offer is sometimes (but not always)
> encapsulated in the headline....

> I've done my due diligence and studied
> headlines, and I do have a stack of
> headlines which I refer to. Here are a few
> which help to clarify the offer....

> "Save Over 40% Off Retail And Receive A
> Travel Kit ($50 Value) Free With
> Purchase"

> "Released At Last - 137 Perfectly Legal
> Ways To Get A Check Out Of Uncle Sam!"

> "The Secret Of Making People Like
> You"

> "How To Reap Unbelievable Profits As
> The Dow Jones Soars To Over 4000 In The Next
> 18 Months, And Then Crashed Like A Lead
> Balloon!"

> "How I Started A New Life With $7"

> "Give Me 5 Days And I'll Give You A
> Magnetic Personality... Let Me Prove It -
> FREE"

> "$80,000 In Prizes! Help Us Find The
> Name For These New Kitchens"

> In a nutshell, the "offer" means
> what will you get -- both what products and
> what benefits -- and for how much?

> All those ads, where they offer you all
> those "free bonuses" -- that's
> part of sweetening the offer.

> Anyhow, according to Ed Mayer, the offer,
> combined with who you are and your product,
> is 40% of your success.

> 20% - Creative, Format, Postal This is the
> part everyone sees -- the copy, graphics,
> how the envelope looks (in direct mail), how
> a web site looks (online), etc. This is
> probably the most analyzed part, yet it is
> only worth 20% of your success, according to
> Ed Mayer's formula.

> Probably people spend TOO much time on this,
> time which could be better spent on choosing
> the right target market, and improving your
> offer....

> Well, those are a couple of points of
> view....

> I'm not an expert in this area, just a
> student. But I like to think I'm starting to
> delve deeply into direct response both in my
> study and in my tests....

> I noticed one element was missing from these
> two discussions -- the timing. As Gordon
> pointed out , this may be the most important
> element of all. I suppose it might show up
> in that the right elements - the audience,
> the product/offer/who you are, and the
> creative elements - could change over time.

> Are these percentages the same today? Some
> say they have changed over time, or that
> they change for different types of
> promotions.... Freeman Gosden, Jr. says that
> in telemarketing, the list or audience
> becomes 60% (p. 10). That's because each
> call, when you count people's salaries you
> have to pay, is much more expensive in
> telemarketing than in direct mail, making
> the fact that a call is not wasted more
> important. Hence, the audience importance is
> increased....

> Any comments on this? Do you know of other
> viewpoints I haven't mentioned? I'd love to
> get your comments....

> - Dien Rice

Dien,

You see "timing" is tied to both the audience 'do they want your product at this point?' and with the product itself 'is it wanted by the market'.

If your product is not wanted it does not matter what audience you select or the the price-point you choose or the marketing tool you employ, DM, space ads, TV, radio, Internet or just dropping flyers out of a plane.

Without good timing, your campaign is DOA...the better your timing the more money you'll make.

The second biggest mistake I see (and have done myself) is 'falling in love' with one product and service. Instead of giving it a fair shake and saying 'next'...we continually try to force a round peg into a square hole. What any business needs are various products or services, hoping one will be grasped by the market and your bank account fills.

Take care,

Mike Winicki