Chapter 10.1 Direct marketing creativity – how to do it concerned here with the finer points of...

Chapter 10.1 : Direct marketing creativity – how to do it

10.1 – 1Author/Consultant: Terry Hunt

Chapter 10.1

Direct marketing creativity – how

to do it

This chapter includes:

�� Back to basics

�� What makes good direct salesmanship?

�� Don’t just do direct, think direct

�� Preparation before inspiration

�� Be clear about what you are selling

�� Be clear who you are talking to

�� Lead with the main benefit

�� Speak your brand

�� Make the creative sweat

�� Have one direction, one destination

About this chapter:

In this chapter we look at the special function of creativity in direct marketing

– above all, at the levers we can pull to produce a profitable response. We are

not concerned here with the finer points of copywriting or design, but rather

with what constitutes a response-generating communication; how it can be

planned and assembled. Most importantly, how direct response differs from other

forms of advertising. How can we make the most of the sales opportunities in

whichever medium by concentrating on those with a predisposition to respond to

what we are offering? How can we maximise the chances of our message being

noticed, read, understood, accepted and acted upon? The underlying principles

are applicable to all direct marketing channels, including the exciting new

opportunities in digital media.

10.1 – 2


Terry Hunt F IDM

Chairman, EHS Brann

Terry joined direct

marketing and

fundraising specialists

Smith Bundy as a

copywriter in 1978. After four years he left to

become Creative Director of DDM Advertising. In

December 1986, he set up ground-breaking direct

agency Evans Hunt Scott.

Under the creative direction of Terry Hunt and

Ken Scott, Evans Hunt Scott earned over 100 UK

and international direct marketing and

advertising awards. Terry also built one of the

most respected creative departments in the

business. In 1993 Terry was closely involved in the

development and testing of the Tesco Clubcard,

and was instrumental in the re-launches of the

Clubcard programme to wide media and City

acclaim during 1999 and 2004. In the two years

prior to The Labour Party’s election in 1997, Terry

led the agency team charged with raising £7

million plus - successfully exceeded - for the

Party’s election “war chest”

In 1996, Terry was voted Agency Direct Marketer

of the Year. He was elected a Fellow of the

Institute of Direct Marketing in 1997 - the same

year that Evans Hunt Scott was voted Campaign

‘Direct Marketing Agency of the Year’. In 2001

Terry led the merger of Evans Hunt Scott with

digital design agency Real Time, to create a

radically new direct-digital-data integrated

agency. In 2002 he led the merger with Brann to

create EHS Brann, one of the biggest direct

agencies in Europe. In 2004 he published

“Scoring Points”, the story of Tesco and its unique

success in customer loyalty. The book was named

as WH Smith Business Book of the Month in

February of that year. In 2005 Terry was cited by

Marketing Direct magazine as the UK’s “most

powerful” individual in the UK direct marketing

industry.

Chapter 10.1

Direct marketing creativity – how

to do itBack to basics

I think a ‘back to basics’ approach is needed in direct marketing, especially when

it comes to the words and pictures we use.

Having been a participant in direct marketing as it has grown in scale and

influence over the last couple of decades it’s been thrilling to see how major

companies and their brands have embraced all that DM has to offer. And as a

businessman I’ve benefited from the shift of budget to more accountable

marketing communication. In the same period I’ve seen the creative challenges

grow, from off-the-page to long-format DRTV, from mail order catalogues to email

marketing and everything in between. We’re working in direct response, brand

response, loyalty marketing, internet marketing, SMS, CRM, direct promotions,

customer experience, contract publishing, banner advertising and integrated

media campaigns. Oh, and we do some direct mail too. It’s an incredibly broad

canvas for our creative talent to cover. But faced with all this exciting innovation

we shouldn’t forget why we got the opportunities in the first place.


10.1 – 3

Marketing money is spent on direct marketing because it works; demonstrably,

measurably, controllably and profitably. And a lot of that is down to what we have

learned and relearned from creative testing over decades of investment.

So what follows is a deliberate attempt to talk basic DM. It’s based as much on

the experience of getting it wrong as well as right. I’ve also organised the argument

in short sections. For me it’s like unbundling the essential toolkit that’s available

to direct marketing creatives: propositions, offers, personalisation, benefits, the

fact base, persuasive copy and calls to action. Those sorts of things. And brand of

course, because strong branding is a very clever way to get a lower cost per

response.

But before we put crayon to paper let’s first consider what direct marketing is and

what it isn’t.

Strange but true

Direct marketing has to do a very different job to conventional advertising.

In fact you could say there are two sorts of marketing. There is direct marketing

and then there is indirect marketing. Both happen in every medium, from print to

TV to web. But while the latter measures success by influencing customers, the

former measures success by activating them.

Most advertising is written and designed to appeal to as broad an audience as

possible; direct marketing is aimed primarily at the small minority who are most

likely to be predisposed to respond immediately.

Most advertising seeks to inform, intrigue or entertain to gain interest; direct

marketing seeks to interest, justify and motivate to gain a transaction.

While most advertising starts from the product or the brand, the ’we’ and works

out to the market, direct marketing starts from the customer, the ’you’ and works

back to the product or brand.

Or look at it another way. If you want people to notice you, tell them a joke – just

make sure it’s really funny.

If you want people to respond to you, make them an offer – just make sure it’s

really compelling.

10.1 – 4


A checklist of direct differences

� Advertising seeks awareness, direct marketing seeks response

� Advertising aims to change minds, direct marketing aims to change

behaviour

� Advertising turns suspects into prospects, direct marketing turns

prospects into customers

� Advertising focuses on a product, direct marketing focuses on a

proposition

� Advertising talks to communities, direct marketing talks to

individuals

� Advertising creates disposition, direct marketing targets

predisposition

� Advertising is theatre, direct marketing is retail

In fact the retail analogy is a useful one in creating direct marketing. I’ll return to

it later, but first let’s think about what happens most in retail – selling.

What makes good direct salesmanship?

I was once asked to give a seminar at the sales conference of a large US business

services company. This company sold financial information to all sizes of

businesses in all sectors, and ran a highly successful, highly rewarded team of

fiercely competitive salespeople. My job was to talk to them about lead generation:

the lifeblood of their business. They were a pretty scary, egotistical bunch, so I

started by talking about them, which seemed to be one of their favourite subjects.

I asked them to tell me what made them so effective as individuals, and what they

believed in their experience were the main characteristics of successful sales

professionals. There was clear unanimity. Here’s a summary of what they said:

� Friendliness/accessibility/empathy

� Confidence/no hedging

� Authority/ knowledge/communicating benefits

� Clarity/brevity

� Ability to close the deal

Then with a theatrical flourish I revealed an almost identical list that I had

prepared earlier, describing the characteristics of successful direct marketing. My

point was that of all the disciplines in marketing communications, direct is the

closest cousin of face-to-face selling. David Ogilvy said that “advertising is

salesmanship in print.” I’m sure that in our more demarcated times he would

have revised his definition to attribute it to direct marketing.


10.1 – 5

When you consider where the direct marketing trade has come from you see that

it has its roots in a sales culture. In the beginning was mail order. Mail order

directly sells products from a catalogue, in the same way that a supermarket

directly sells tinned soup from the shelf.

All the knowledge that makes direct marketers successful in the early twenty first

century is the result of what was pioneered by the mail order companies in the

early twentieth. And that includes the design and messaging techniques used by

the most advanced digital brands like Amazon.com.

Just a few decades ago when this was an infant business being developed by

creative pioneers like George Smith and Graeme McCorkell in the UK and Lester

Wunderman in the States, this sales heritage would never have been questioned.

Now we work in a growing, multi-billion dollar industry employing thousands of

intelligent, well-paid people and more computing power than a dozen space

programmes. Direct marketers work with all the major companies in the world.

In fact they work with many of the major governments too.The budgets have

multiplied, the numbers have soared, the stakes are now enormously high. We

can’t afford to rely on raw creativity and sales bluff alone. Direct marketing has

grown up. We’re in MBA territory now.

But there’s the problem. The gentrification of direct marketing has brought with it

the baggage that weighs down every mature business discipline. There is the

abstract language. There are consultants. There are layers of managers and

analysts. There is interminable PowerPoint.

Yet underneath it all it is still selling. And creatively it is about salesmanship in

print, pixels and digits.

Recently I was talking to Tim Walton who heads up the company behind Telegraph

Readers’ Offers. It was great to hear that the entrepreneurial creativity of direct

marketing is alive and kicking. This will always be a great business for those who

want to trust their instincts. That’s a fine place to start if you want to create

successful marketing. Direct marketing will always be a business for natural born

sellers.

British Gas is one of the biggest direct marketers in the UK. To sustain their

market-leading status in energy and home services they constantly test and refine

their offers to customers. In this instance they are defending their central heating

service territory against new competitors. That means confronting the price issue,

and you can’t get more price-confrontational than this A4 press insert. It says that

if you thought British Gas service only came at higher prices, think again. Some

brands are shy of talking price, few customers are. A good example of

salesmanship in print follows:

10.1 – 6


Figure 10.1.1 British Gas £16 visual

British GasHomeCare Membership OfficeBridge StreetLeedsLS2 3YY

Ifyou would like this leaflet in an alternative format

such as large print,Braille or audio cassette,please

call 0845 600 1054.

Customers with impaired hearing who have a text

phone can call us on18001 0845 070 0178.

BUSINESS REPLY SERVICELicence No. NEA4922

£16Expert care for your boiler now starts from just £6 a month*

£6a month*

The standards you expect – now at a price you wouldn’tBritish Gas now has a range ofHomeCare services

for boilers and central heating systems designed to

suit different homes and different budgets:from a

simple yearly safety check†

to the complete peace

ofmind ofCentral Heating Care.

For advice on how we can help to care for your central heating,call now on

0845 600 1054 quotingPhone lines open 7am–11pm seven days a week.

Your call may be monitored and recorded for

quality assurance.

house.co.uk/gascareOffer ends 31st August 2005

DR16


10.1 – 7

A checklist for direct salesmanship

This could be a useful list of questions to use when judging its effectiveness to

sell:

� Is it clear why they are talking to me? Do I understand what they are

saying?

� Is what they are saying compelling to me?

� Does it show understanding or empathy for me?

� Am I clear about the benefits?

� Is it engaging and friendly or does it boast or take me for granted?

� Is it believable? Do they seem to know what they are talking about?

� Is the communication clear and honest, or are they using weasel

words?

� Do I feel confident about responding? Is this authoritative enough?

� Do they get to the point or waste my precious time?

� Do I know what to do next? Do they make it easy for me to respond?

So when creating any form of DM remember that its principal purpose is to sell. It

may be a soft sell or a hard sell, a subtle sell or a brash sell. It can be a one-stage,

two-stage, or twelve-stage sell. Whatever, if it is direct marketing it should be

unashamed about selling in some shape or form. And to succeed in selling, you

don’t merely need to know the right techniques. You need to think right.

Don’t just do direct, think direct

Selling is a state of mind, an enthusiasm, something you have to love if you’re

going to do it well. It has to come from the heart as well as the head. You need

belief in the product you’re selling, in the medium you’re using and in the

rightness of you selling it.

Belief, enthusiasm and confidence should ooze from every pore of your mailings

and ads. If you don’t believe in what you’re doing it shows. It gets through the

work you produce and sows seeds of doubt in the customers’ minds. Why should

they bother buying a product if you can’t be bothered to sell it?

Now this may sound rather unBritish, and it is. There is a deep-rooted distrust,

even contempt, in our culture for salesmanship. As a word it is often used as an

insult. With a few exceptions, salespeople are not respected here.

This explains why so much conventional British advertising, what I call indirect

marketing, entertaining though it might be, is shy about selling anything. It can be

oblique, subtle, subversive, ironic and charming. Anything but simple,

straightforward and determined to close a deal. We can’t afford such

squeamishness in direct marketing.

10.1 – 8


Just consider the word ’direct’ itself. Look it up in the dictionary. It can mean

’without intermediary’, a direct transaction with a consumer. But it has more

significant meaning – “not deviating …unambiguous …immediate …

straightforward”.

The language we use is important because it denotes how we think. Think direct.

A checklist for direct thinking

� Think about the customer first

� Think what’s important to that customer

� Think what the customer needs

� Think what that customer understands

� Think what the customer desires

� Think what language the customer uses

� Think how you can answer the customer’s needs

� Think what the customer will do

� Think like a sales professional

So direct marketing is not just a means of distribution; it’s a way of thinking

about how we engage with customers. So what’s next? Putting the thinking into

practice.

Preparation before inspiration

The first step in producing effective DM creative is not to do any. Don’t scribble

headlines. Don’t fold up paper formats. Don’t look at photographers’ portfolios.

Don’t brainstorm promotional gimmicks. The first thing to do is get prepared.

There are other chapters in this estimable manual advising you on how to gather

market information, do research, analyse competitors and understand response

data. So there’s no point me covering the same ground. Suffice to say that all

those are essential preparations if you want to produce relevant and effective

creative work.

Let me highlight a few preparations that should involve the creative people and

the people briefing them.

Creative briefing

A creative brief is the fuel that drives the machine. Pump in the refined high-

octane stuff and you should expect high performance in return. Use chicken

grease and don’t be surprised if it won’t get started.


10.1 – 9

A creative brief should be the distillation of all the understanding, thinking and

insight you could credibly be asked for before expecting a creative person to start

work.

A creative brief should be a springboard of opportunity based on customer

insight, not a statement of predicament based on ignorance.

A creative brief is 90 per cent of the job done; the creatives are paid to magic up

the final 10 per cent.

And finally a creative brief is not just a piece of paper. A creative brief is a

thought-provoking conversation between the briefer (who should know what

needs to be done) and the briefee (who should know how to creatively do it). In

fact, the best briefing is a creative experience itself. To inspire one of our teams

about the service offered by British Gas heating engineers the account manager

took them out in one of the vans for a day and briefed them as they observed the

engineer at work. Now that was preparation for a new big- budget DRTV

campaign, so the investment time was proportionate. But no matter how humble

the task, smart and inspiring briefing is always time well spent.

Figure 10.1.2 British Gas uses DRTV

10.1 – 10


Concentrate on the proposition

Any creative brief that deserves serious attention has a focal point. It’s the proposition. The

IDM defines a direct marketing proposition as a single-minded approach to an emotional

need supported by a rational argument that inspires people to act. I prefer to describe it as

the reason to respond.

As with all forms of advertising, the proposition is grounded in a product fact and

expressed as the answer to a customer need or desire. In direct marketing we

summarise this as the key benefit (more on this later). It’s the best answer you

can give to that ever-present question: “what’s in it for me?”

The benefit must be substantiated by facts. These facts will come from different

sources: the features of the product itself, endorsements from already satisfied

customers, comparative performance with competitor products, qualitative

improvements from previous versions and independent best buy tables etc.

Expanding on the relevant facts makes up the ‘supports’ for the argument and

forms the body of your communication – the way you justify your proposition.

So it is vital to successful creative work that there is a fact base to work from.

Direct marketing creative that is spun from thin air is never going to convince a

prospect to become a customer. In fact the dependency on a solid fact base is

greatest in direct marketing compared to sales promotion or general advertising.

It’s logical really. If you are trying to get someone to commit to making a

transaction that directly leads to a sale they’ll need sufficient facts to give them

the confidence to act.

Consider the example of a ‘flexible mortgage’:

The product fact is that it allows the customer to vary their monthly

payments.

The benefit is that it liberates them to pay more when they’re flush with

cash or take a payment holiday if they’ve built up some surplus.

The supports come from the ease of doing it, from the proven customer-

friendliness of the brand and from the typical example table that shows how

it might work for someone like you etc.

The proposition might be: “With our flexible mortgage you can take control

of your interest payments.”

And the compelling creative expression of all this good news could be: “Do

you want to pay your mortgage off 10 years early?”

Simple isn’t it? You can see from that example that the creative thought is the

logical outcome of a well-substantiated brief. If only it was always that

straightforward, but we can but try!


10.1 – 11

Be a junk mail junkie

Everyone involved in creating direct marketing should become a collector of

things that most sane people throw away. Get on every mailing list, cut out direct

response ads, Sky Plus the daytime TV commercials, save spam, enter prize

draws, complete questionnaires, irritate your family and burden your postman.

All the stuff you see from competitor direct marketers is relevant. You can follow

trends. You can pick up ideas. You can spot repeat usage. Think about it, if

something is repeated – an off-the-page press offer, a door-drop leaflet or whatever

– it’s working. Even the thickest marketer is unlikely to keep pumping something

out that doesn’t deliver a profitable response. So ask yourself why? What is it

about that ad that hits the spot for customers? What are they testing here? What

makes that mailing work?

The advice I give to companies with low budgets, possibly brands trying direct

marketing for the first time, is never, never innovate; always, always plagiarise.

The easiest way to blow a small test budget is to try to be original. The world is

littered with the brave corpses of mould-breaking ideas that didn’t quite make it,

because there wasn’t the money to cope with partial successes and to invest to

turn them into profit. Which would you prefer to be known for: Microsoft

Windows or the Sinclair C5? For every rich entrepreneur who never had an

original thought in their lives, there are a thousand original thinkers who saw

their infant ideas fade and die. So if you’re trying to make a modest marketing

budget work in DM your duty is to scour your market, see what’s working and

steal from it mercilessly.

Figure 10.1.3 First Direct space ad.

10.1 – 12


First Direct is widely respected for its quality of customer service. They should

also be credited with consistency and tenacity in their direct response advertising.

The proposition is straightforward: “Switch your bank to First Direct today and

we’ll pay you”. They’ve been running that one for 15 years so it’s probably a

banker. Strange how few brands find out what works and stick with it.

This is no more cynical than the methods of research scientists who start from

established theory before testing new hypotheses.

Learn to love creative testing

In fact best DM practice is scientific. That goes for the creative process too. In

general direct marketing is an expensive way to do business if you measure it by

cost per contact. Even in big media like the national press a direct response ad is

only targeting a small proportion of the audience – the predisposed – at any one

time. So direct marketers should be constantly testing, learning, rolling out and

testing again in order to increase incrementally the effectiveness of their

communications.

And what can you creatively test? Everything. But the main components worth

testing will be:

� Proposition 1 versus proposition 2

� Offer versus no offer

� Headline A versus headline B

� Format (large) versus format (small)

� Colour versus mono

� Illustration versus text only

� Call to action 1 versus call to action 2

� Response mechanic 1 versus response mechanic 2

The testing science should not be kept from creative people. And creative people

should not hide from it. It’s the job.

These days the best testing environment for direct marketing is online. It’s faster,

cheaper, more flexible and more reactive to customer response than any other

channel. In fact it’s the ultimate DM medium. These MPU (messaging panels)

campaigns for First Plus both ran head-to-head in early January, targeted at post-

Christmas debt sufferers. Each element was tested and the responses monitored

hour by hour to optimise the effectiveness.


10.1 – 13

Figure 10.1.4 First Plus MPUsO

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ISP

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ISP

10.1 – 14


A checklist for preparation

When you’re preparing a direct marketing piece it’s useful to use the AIDCA model

as a planning tool. This is the mnemonic used by salesforces throughout the

world – Attention, Interest, Desire, Conviction, Action.

AIDCA recognises that there are logical steps that you can plan to successfully

engage a customer and convert them to sale. You have to get a prospect’s attention

first; you then capture their interest, encourage desire, reassure them enough to

establish conviction and then culminate with inviting them to take action:

� Attention = headline/visuals/flashes/product flags/positioning/format

(big, small, different, colours)/pop-ups

� Interest = proposition/news/benefits/features/advantages

� Desire = offers/discounts/exclusives/design

� Conviction = tone/information/ empathy/demonstration/comparison/

testimonials/endorsements/guarantees/trial/helpline

� Action = benefits summary/early bird offer/call to action/response

device

And here is Chris Barraclough’s AIDCA response checklist:

� Attention: Are you talking to me?

� Interest: Why are you talking to me? What is it you want me to know?

� Desire: It’s a nice idea but do I really need it? What do you want me

to accept?

� Conviction: How can I be sure I’m not making a mistake?

� Action: What do I have to do? Is it easy to do?

Be clear about what you are selling

You won’t sell a loan to someone who doesn’t want to borrow money. Equally you

won’t sell a loan to someone who wants to borrow money but doesn’t understand

that’s what you’re selling.

Direct marketing talks to people who are more predisposed than the average to

respond to a particular offer. We can call them suspects (the broadly defined

target market), cold prospects (the smaller group likely to be ready to buy), or

warm prospects (the precious few who have somehow indicated they are actively

in the buying frame of mind). So it’s a game of diminishing numbers in which you

can’t afford to waste an opportunity.


10.1 – 15

The first requirement in direct marketing therefore is to make it very clear what

you are selling. You can’t afford to be overlooked by the predisposed minority in

your audience simply because they didn’t recognise what you were trying to sell to

them.

It’s important to flag up what the product category is. This is particularly true in

financial services direct marketing. People buy financial services on a product by

product basis. Because it’s generally a low-interest area, the most basic

signposting is needed to focus the reader’s mind.

For example, it is important from a cursory look at an off-the-page ad to know

whether it’s selling a unit trust or an ISA. A good technique is to ask yourself

whether, without a product flag or name in the headline, the messaging could be

misconstrued to apply to any other product. To take one example: “Act now to

secure our great rates” could apply to any type of loan (mortgage, unsecured or

secured personal loan or credit card). On the other hand, the same headline could

equally apply to a savings account – a completely different concept.

A potential borrower or investor grazing casually through the crowded money

sections of the national press will alight on the ads most clearly aimed at their

interest at that time. Product flagging is equally relevant when devising messages

on envelopes, subject lines on emails, landing-pages on the web, or intro screens

on DRTV commercials. People select what they pay attention to on the basis of

relevance. The creative work has to establish relevance as swiftly as possible. This

common sense also applies to classified and recruitment advertising.

A checklist for product knowledge

� Interrogate the product

� Talk to call centre staff and salespeople

� Handle it, read up about it, see it in action

� How does it work? Precisely.

� What’s the fact base?

� Where’s the proof?

� Do a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats)

� How do customers use it now? What do they think of it?

� What research is available? What does the data say?

� What features make the best benefits?

� Why is this good? Why is it different?

� What would make it a better product?

� If you were in the target market, would you buy it? Why?

10.1 – 16


Be clear who you are talking to

When you go fishing you use different tackle and bait depending on what you want

to catch.

It’s the same with any form of direct response advertising. Don’t try catching the

entire marine population; set out to catch marlin or trout.

So when you are creating a direct mailing, email, ad or whatever, you need to

think about the who. Who is most likely to be predisposed to buy what you’re

selling? Who has the most need or desire? Who is asking the question for which

you have the answer? Is it first-time homeowners? Past customers? Dedicated

clubbers? Disgruntled clients of competitors? Affluent retirees? Teachers? Sun

readers? Opera lovers? The residents of Romford?

The more specific you can be about your target audience the better, as long as

there are enough of them to go for. Of course it will define your media strategy,

your list choice and your data selection. It should also define your creative

approach. Because the more explicitly you state who you are talking to (and

conversely who you are not talking to) the more directly will you be

communicating to the predisposed audience.

It’s not unusual for people to spend longer planning the purchase of their next car

than choosing a partner for life. Up to 18 months of research and test driving is

not exceptional. Volvo has developed a smart prospecting strategy based on

attitudinal research and profiling data that highlights key opportunity groups and

targets them with highly relevant propositions. This exceptionally successful mail

pack is sent to young families, dramatising the relevance of Volvo design and

engineering to safety-conscious nest builders. There’s no doubt that Volvo cares

about growing families.


10.1 – 17

Figure 10.1.5 Volvo mums-to-be

Even if you don’t really know who is most predisposed to your proposition in the

market, you’ll get better results from testing, learning and then rolling out what

works, rather than persisting with a one-size-fits-all message.

Beginning from the customer’s standpoint rather than the product’s is a key

difference between direct marketing and general advertising. It explains why some

direct advertisers (charities, self-improvement courses, specialist mail order

companies, language coaches, and music and book clubs etc.) can successfully

continue to run the same ads for years and years, unthinkable in the general

advertising world. Because the customer need or desire does not change, the most

successful creative executions may not need to change either. If at the moment I

do not need to learn business German I will pay little attention to the BBC’s offer

to teach me, no matter how many times they change their banner ads. But if one

day I do have the need I will focus on their online advertising, and the familiarity

of the company’s consistent approach will work in their favour. Not unlike a

familiar shopfront that I seek out when I’m ready to buy.

By clearly defining your target group you will help readers or viewers self-select

themselves. The headline for a direct response ad in the Telegraph Magazine

simply saying “Want the cheapest broadband?” immediately draws out the

predisposed minority who will answer yes. A small space ad in the Daily Star

announcing “Have you been turned down for credit?” encourages prospects to

self-select themselves in the same way.

10.1 – 18


In fact I got into the direct marketing business through a fiendishly clever use of

this tactic. I answered a recruitment ad in the back of Campaign magazine. The

headline read: “Do you want to double your salary?” I was a graduate trainee at

the time, pulling in a princely £2,000 a year, which even in those distant days was

barely sufficient to fund a normal human’s beer consumption, so the question

pierced my heart. “Yes, yes I do,” I cried. It was my first real experience of the

power of direct response advertising. That headline, that offer, how did they know

so much about me?

Personalisation works

In general, the more you are able to tailor your communication to the person you

are talking to, the more effective it will be. Some of the media used most

successfully by direct marketers – direct mail, email and phone – can be tailored

to a very high degree, using profiled or transactional data to drive personalisation

that makes the communication more relevant. Why does direct mail succeed

better with a letter in the pack than it does without one? Because a letter is

personal and carries the customer’s name, and people focus on anything that has

their name on it.

Of course it depends on how sensibly you attempt to create personal

identification. A mailing saying, “Thank you Mr Hunt,” is a perfectly reasonable

start to a sales letter but “Dear Mr Hunt, as you sit by your fireside at 23 Station

Road, Balham … “ while far more personalised is just daft. I don’t need

reminding where I live, let alone being patronised while I’m there.

Personalisation can mean more than name and address and customers can be

impressed by how you use data they have given you to improve the relevance of

the communication. This clever B2B mailing, received by Chris Barraclough of

Barraclough Edwards Chamberlain, used the personal touch to sell him creative

services:

Figure 10.1.6


10.1 – 19

It uses all the customisation techniques available with the latest digital printing.

Not only does it feature his name, address and the name of the production

director at his agency, but to grab attention, it features photographs of his desk,

and the nearest cashpoint, restaurant and local pub to his office!

Such CIA-style witticism can be very effective if the target is a sophisticate like

Barraclough, but should be used sparingly to a general audience; you never want

to be careless with the demand for privacy.

On the other hand, your current customers are likely to expect you to know

certain facts about them and to use them in your communications with them.

That information might include what they last ordered, when they ordered, how

much credit they have left and what their phone number or email address is etc.

But there’s only one thing more annoying than being asked for information you

know the company already has on you, and that is for the information to be

wrong. So it’s best to play safe and only use personal information in the

communication that you can rely on.

Probably the finest example that I know of direct marketing personalised to the

individual customer is the Tesco Clubcard quarterly statement mailing, one of the

most consistently successful direct marketing programmes in the world.

One of the world’s most successful direct marketing programmes, Tesco Clubcard

has virtually achieved one-to-one marketing with the sophisticated

personalisation of its quarterly statement mailings.

10.1 – 20


Figure 10.1.7 Tesco Clubcard


10.1 – 21

Since its launch Tesco Clubcard has used direct mail to deliver offers to known

customers and create massive sales peaks. The premise of Clubcard is to

personalise the famous ’Every little helps’ brand promise to the needs and desires

of the individual customer. In the first mailings the ability to personalise was

quite basic, with1800 significant variations of offers and 100 different letter texts

targeting different customer segments, preferences and local details – nonetheless

the sales effect was remarkable. After just a year the incremental sales benefit

directly attributable to the statement mailing had reached around £20 million a

quarter. This success led the Tesco marketers to strive for better targeting with

every mailing while retaining simplicity of message and creative presentation. By

February 1999, the customisation of the mailing had risen to 145,000 versions.

Today, Tesco sends out between nine and 10 million mailings each quarter, with

personalisation so sophisticated that it is truly mass customised. By methodically

testing and tracking the performance of the mailing on a number of levels of

customer response (from redemption to attitude), every significant aspect can be

measured to answer the question: “are we doing the right thing for customers?”

What’s more the incremental sales effect is as strong as ever.

A checklist for personalisation

How can you most effectively tailor your direct marketing to appeal to the

predisposed customers?

� Can you use their name? Address? Telephone number? Email address?

� Can you refer to past transactions (account-based, sales or non-sales)?

� Can you recommend purchases based on past choices?

� Can you address a clear community (e.g. students, home workers or club

supporters)?

� Can you target them by postcode or region?

� Can you target by age or life stage (e.g. mums-to-be or birthdays)?

� Can you target by interest (e.g. day traders or golfers)?

� Can you select offers by predictive data (e.g. brand-switching coupons)?

� Can you prefill application forms?

Lead with the main benefit

When a new copywriter first attempts to write a direct response ad she or he will

spend ages anguishing over the headline. The kindest thing to do is to take the

result of their efforts, thank them and then cross it out. Direct response ads do

not need headlines; they need benefit propositions.

Put yourself into the customer’s shoes; for example, an unhappy current account

holder, and it’s obvious why.

“I know I’m getting a poor deal from my current account and I’m so irritated that

one of these days I might just do something about it”. If that’s the mindset of

your predisposed reader why say something anodyne like: “Make your money

10.1 – 22


work harder for you”? They’ve gone beyond that; that may have been where they

were years ago, but that was before they got angry. Offer them a good reason to get

off their backside and sort this out once and for all: “Switch your current account

and you’ll earn 3 per cent from now on”. That’s the difference between a headline

and a benefit proposition.

As a general rule, people don’t respond to direct response ads because they want

to, but because they need to. A reader has already got to be quite a way along the

road to a decision before they’re going to commit to calling or clicking. That’s the

main reason why response rates come in single figures; in direct marketing you’re

igniting existing interest and activating predisposition.

How does it work? First, the push. That is the eye-catching cleverness of the ad

itself, making the offer appealing and urgent. Second, and most importantly, the

pull. That is the predicament or the desire felt by the reader who demands

immediate satisfaction. So the best direct response ad expresses the main benefit

by swiftly showing how the product answers a defined personal problem or

overcomes obstacles to action. Take private health insurance. A wide variety of

people want it but different customer segments among them will have particular

needs and motivations:

1. Affordability:

“With Healthcure you and your family can enjoy the benefits of private

health care for just £30 a month.”

2. Security:

“With Healthcure you can protect your own and your family’s health against

delays in the NHS.”

3. Competitiveness:

“Here’s how Healthcure gives you the benefits of private health care without

the usual pain.”

It’s the same product but with distinct benefit propositions. Another version

could lead on speed of service, another on discounts for families, another could

target the over 50s and another could incentivise switchers who apply online.

There’s very rarely one answer that’s 100 per cent right for everyone. Once again

it’s about creative testing, and constant refreshing of your benefit proposition.

Why do we have to work so hard at this? Because in direct marketing it pays to

consider the territory you’re in as hostile. There was some research conducted a

few years ago by an international publisher. They used eyeball- tracking

technology to monitor how recipients read direct mail. The first finding was that

most people put the leaflets and such to one side and picked up the personally

addressed letter. But they didn’t read it, or at least not from the start and not

from the top left-hand corner to the bottom right. Instead the eyeball movements

flitted rapidly across the page, generally alighting on a few words or design

elements. The researchers called these the ’Fixing Points’ – and deduced that

there were a maximum of five per A4 page and that the reader gave less than a

second for each. So after just five seconds the communication is dead or alive.

And what keeps it alive is how quickly and how well you answer the question:

“What’s in it for me?” The answer is made up of three main components –

features, benefits and offers.


10.1 – 23

Features, benefits and offers

As you’ll have gathered by now, the main proposition and the supporting

argument you give to gain response, should be expressed in terms of

benefit to the customer, to their family or to their business. The more credible

benefits there are, the more reasons people will have to respond. Put simply,

benefits are features seen from the customer’s viewpoint.

The veteran DM creative guru John Watson in his book Successful Creativity in

Direct Marketing advocates the feature/benefit triplet. This is based on the simple

formula: because x then y, which means z. Here’s an example he gives:

There’s a snooze button (x), so you can give yourself an extra few minutes of

dozing (y), safe in the knowledge you won’t miss the alarm again (z).

Another way of looking at it is like this:

Buy this pair of socks for £2 (that’s price-led)

Buy this sock for £2, get this one free (that’s benefit-led)

When National Savings & Investments announced their first double million-

pound jackpot draw, they mailed 3.6 million current bondholders with this

upgrade. The novelty of the double window envelope and double letter text neatly

illustrated the news, prompting over half a billion pounds in new investment.

10.1 – 24


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10.1 – 25

So the most compelling reason to buy comes from the product itself, and the way

that is expressed comes from dramatising the features of the product as the

benefits of ownership. However, that isn’t the end of the story. In direct marketing

we also need to encourage a sense of urgency. Even after the most skilful

exposition of benefits, the easiest thing for a customer to do is nothing. So in

addition to the inherent benefit proposition we often need something concentrated

in responding immediately.

That’s the offer.

A checklist of offers

In essence there are eight species of offer:

� Product offers (e.g. unique or new)

� Free offers (e.g. free trial, free info, free sample, free gift or free

consultation)

� Price offers (e.g. discount, sale, two-for-one or introductory)

� Payment offers (e.g. buy now, pay later, credit or interest-free etc)

� Exclusive offers (e.g. limited edition, members only and gold status)

� Limited offers (e.g. early bird, close date or one-per-customer)

� Winning offers (e.g. prize draw, competition or everyone’s a winner)

� Guarantee offers (e.g. quality assured, money-back if dissatisfied, best-

buy tables or endorsements)

You should test product benefits and offers in different combinations to maximise

response. Think of it this way: the product is the gun, the benefit is the bullet and

the offer is the trigger.

Speak your brand

People buy from people. That’s as true in direct marketing as it is in retail.

The difference is that in press there’s no smiling, helpful member of staff. At best

there’s just a disembodied personality; a personality for the company that,

hopefully, people like, recognise and trust. In short, a brand.

In fact it is in direct marketing that all that investment in building a brand can

show a measurable payback.

If the brand is respected, understood and trusted, then the job of eliciting

response is so much easier. It gives the reader confidence to transact remotely. It

drives lower cost per response. So if you have no brand, or yours has no clear

values that customers admire, then it pays to build one.

That doesn’t necessarily mean spending millions on conventional brand

advertising. Think of a mail order pioneer like Boden or an online giant like eBay:

10.1 – 26


those brands were built through the customer experience and product choice, not

advertising. But building a brand requires belief and consistency on how you

communicate with and treat customers.

Heinz baby food is a brand with deep roots in British culture. The goodwill among

mums-to-be is the result of years of steady brand development and nurturing. The

success of the Heinz Tiny Tums mailing programme is a perfect example of taking

the brand promise and making it personal. The mailings talk to mums when their

babies are 4 months, 7 months and 11 months, reaching 80 per cent of total

potential prospects each year. Tracking research shows the programme has

significantly lifted spend, increased likelihood to buy and increased share of

market.

Figure 10.1.9 Heinz Tiny Tums


10.1 – 27

The subject is too big for this chapter, but let’s consider one aspect of brand in

direct marketing – the brand voice.

As I’ve already stressed, direct marketing is selling. The purest sales pitch

happens face-to-face. In DM we are trying to emulate that experience. The brand

you represent in creative work is the personality of the salesperson. The clearest

demonstration of that personality should be in the copy you write. This is the

voice of the brand, talking one-to-one to the customer.

If you think of it like that then the task of copywriting becomes more grounded.

You should not try to show off. You should not try to be clever. You should not try

to grandstand or be comical. You should try to be as persuasive as you possibly

can, in much the same way as you would if you faced the customer and made your

case. People don’t listen to idiots, bores or show-offs.

So when you write …

� Write like people talk

� Talk to not at the reader

� Talk sense

� Don’t ramble

� Use short sentences

� Use structure and logic

� Be an enthusiast

� But don’t gush

� Use the language that’s right for the brand personality

� Read it out loud to someone; does it make you cringe?

A checklist for direct branding

This might be useful. Think of your brand as a person. Imagine what that person

would look like. What’s his or her style? How would they behave in certain

situations? How are they with people? Then think about how he or she would talk

face-to-face with a customer? From all that you can distil a brand voice:

1. What’s your brand’s name?

2. Is it male, female or neutral?

3. Age?

4. What’s it like as a person? (Example for BMW: He’s an expert. European

but international in outlook, mid-forties but very fit. He has a scientific

background but loves the arts. He’s discreetly affluent and quietly

confident; he has sophisticated and contemporary taste, impeccable

manners and a wry sense of humour.)

10.1 – 28


5. Choose three characteristics from the following that most accurately

describe your brand’s personality (or add to the list):

Fun Honest

Energetic Authoritative

Traditional Sympathetic

Indulgent Cool

Smart Knowing

Straightforward Enthusiastic

Sophisticated Mature

Witty Supportive

Reassuring Expert

6. Here are three sets of vocabulary. Which one would your brand most

naturally use in conversation with a customer? If none of these, make up

your own set.

Impressive Fantastic Delightful

Furthermore Plus What’s more

Suggestion Deal Dream

Attain Get Possess

Ad hoc It’s up to you As you please

Decisive Hurry Unmissable

7. What does your brand voice sound like? (Example for Oil of Olay: soft,

feminine and confident. For Microsoft: casual, enthusiastic and optimistic.)

8. Your main competitor has just announced record bad results. The press ask

your brand for a comment. What does your brand say? It’s lunchtime, the

main course is served late and it’s undercooked. What would your brand say

to the waiter?

You may wish to add exercises to distil it further. However, the aim is to achieve

an agreed description of brand voice that can be used across your business and

by your suppliers. It’s important to clarify not only what it is, but also what it is

not.

Make the creative sweat

Retail success is measured in sales per square foot. Direct marketing success

should be measured in sales per square inch – or per second on radio or TV. This

imperative for space efficiency is particularly true in off-the-page advertising.

The least efficient direct response press ad format imaginable would be a colour

double-page spread in the national press. Too expensive, too big, too easy to pass

by. To get response, you want to be where the readers spend time; that is among

the editorial, not hidden away in your own expensive media ghetto.

It doesn’t necessarily follow that the most efficient format is a twenty double

mono, but that’s not a bad place to start. The trick in successful direct response

is learning what is the least you can spend on each insertion to achieve the most

efficient balance between volume and cost per response. So the creative challenge

is to make that limited space work as hard as possible. And keep refreshing and

testing to avoid wear-out.


10.1 – 29

Think ‘shop’ in direct mail

In direct mail it can be useful to take the retail analogy even further as it helps

define the role of the various elements of the pack. Think of what components

make up a successful retail format. There’s an appealing shopfront and window

display. There’s a welcoming entrance and easy-to-browse display area. There’s a

well-informed and helpful sales assistant. There’s a clearly signposted checkout.

You can apply the same roles in direct mail:

Shop front Envelope

Sales assistant Letter

Display Leaflet/brochure

Checkout Response device

British supermarkets are the masters of the customer journey. I spend unnatural

amounts of time in them looking at how they’re laid out, how they use POS and

promotions and how they guide customer choice etc. The best are inspirational to

anyone who looks to use design to sell. What comes across clearly is how

everything has to work to the full; everything has a clear purpose and role in the

shopping experience. In direct marketing the retail lesson is clear:

Make the pictures work hard and the words easy

Start with the pictures. What’s their job? Why are they needed? What can they do

that words can’t? Is their role simply to grab attention or to reinforce desire or to

add product detail? Do the pictures add a new dimension to the communication

or do they duplicate the message? Will the reader or viewer be more motivated to

respond because of what you are showing them? Remember in direct marketing

every square inch or second counts. So the illustrations have to work very hard to

justify their space.

Next, the layout. The best design enhances function. The function of a direct

marketing communication is to get a response. So the challenge for the designer

is to use format, type, space and colour to make it easier to respond.

And the words? Well who do you buy from? Someone who wastes your time with

fancy language, who boasts or who fails to explain? Or someone who talks to you

clearly and relevantly to help you decide? Not only is there no space to waste in a

direct response ad, there’s also no time to spare. Every word has to count.

Readers will only give you a few moments to persuade. If you abuse their precious

attention with poorly crafted copy you’re lost.

But that doesn’t mean that copy should always be kept to the minimum. People

who are predisposed to respond want to know more than the casual reader. This

means you have to go into detail. Copy should be as long as it needs to be and

when you have said what you need to say, stop.

In the UK, cat owners will lap up everything and anything about

their cats; the more the better. This Whiskas mailing has a long

brochure on caring for your new kitten. Every word will be devoured by kitten

owners who view their pets in much the same way that new mums view their

infants.

10.1 – 30


Figure 10.1.10

The exception to the ‘as long as it takes’ approach is in text emails, where

however worthy the copy, long chunks of text are very, very hard to read on screen

and you cannot rely on people taking the trouble to print them out. Perhaps the

best option here is to give people a PDF document containing all the relevant

information they need, and which they can then choose to read as they wish.

Use attention devices

People don’t seek out mail packs or direct response ads, so it’s our job to make

them unavoidable.

If I sneak up and blow a trumpet in your ear you’ll probably pay some attention.

It’s the power of disruption; something that jars and holds attention for a second.

Radio jingles do it. Package goods manufacturers use it to gain standout on the

shelf. The designers of website interstitials make a living from it.

Successful direct marketing will often have a disruptive, attention-grabbing

element. It could be video streaming in a banner, an odd photo or an unusual

word in the headline. It could be an elastic band-driven butterfly that bursts from

the envelope. It could be a cut-off date next to the phone number. It could be a

starburst shouting NEW! This is not to say that direct marketing should rely on

gimmicks or that it should rubbish brand guidelines; simply that if used

intelligently, disruption works.

Behold the masters of disruption. Every front cover of Britain’s biggest selling

daily newspaper is a lesson in attention grabbing. It may look like anarchy but it’s

seriously controlled anarchy. It works, and astoundingly it’s invented afresh every

day of the week.

Figure 10.1.11 The Sun


10.1 – 31

Overwhelm the ‘yes, buts’

As the master of direct response advertising, Graeme McCorkell observed: “Inertia

is the greatest enemy of response.” It’s the Hamlet Syndrome: faced with a choice

between action and inaction it is a natural human instinct to do nothing.

Even the small minority of the readership who are most disposed to respond to

your ad have plenty of ingrained excuses why they shouldn’t do it right now. Good

direct marketing meets their ‘yes, buts’ head-on.

A checklist for creative persuasion

When the customer’s question is: “yes, but…?” make sure you’ve got the answer.

“Yes, but why exactly should I respond to you?”

Because only we’re making this new/free/unique/cheaper/winning/extra/limited

offer

“Yes, but what’s the catch?”

None, we guarantee no commitment/satisfaction/independent proof/no sales calls/

money-back/free returns/best price etc

“Yes, but why not do it another day?”

Because this offer ends this week/month/Christmas

“Yes, but do I lose by waiting?”

You could miss out because of limited supply/access/period/bonus offers

“Yes, but isn’t it a hassle?

Couldn’t be easier to respond now, just call/click/send/visit

Have one direction, one destination

It was called the ‘greased chute’ by Joe Sugarman, one of the greats of direct

response advertising.

The idea is that everything about a direct marketing communication should lead

the reader in one direction to one action – response.

Bryan Halsey, another direct marketing pioneer, identifies five considerations

when designing responsiveness into a communication:

1. Plan for a response. Restate the chief benefit, the offer and any

incentives in the vicinity of the order device, if not actually on it.

Introduce additional benefits to ‘tip’ prospects into action, e.g. a

product benefit held back for the purpose, or inducements related

only to ordering, e.g. limited offer, early bird (gift for prompt

response) and discounts for volume.

2. Prospects must know a response is expected. Clarity and simplicity

applies to phone numbers, coupons, order/application forms, email

addresses, fax numbers, reply-paid devices and payment options (e.g.

credit card logos and direct debit mandates).

10.1 – 32


3. Ask for a response. Just as the good salesperson will attempt a trial

close early in the sales pitch, the good direct marketing creative will

introduce a ‘trial close’ onto the copy. Some confident marketers

bravely open with a trial close before a word about the product. Such

an approach requires a very powerful offer.

4. State response expected. The response device should be specific as to

what response is expected, what commitment (if any) it entails and

what will ensue. In the case of charities and financial services,

recommended donations/investment amounts will encourage

imitation.

5. Make it easy to respond. Ease may mean providing sufficient space

for writing, holding a phone number on the TV screen long enough for

prospects to jot it down, or other physical aids.

So the design and structure of a direct response ad leads your eye to the

invitation to respond. The persuasive copy of a DM letter leads the argument

there. The visuals and attention devices point your way there. The call to action in

a DRTV commercial flags you’ve arrived there.

The single-minded aim of a direct response ad is to prompt as many good quality

responses as possible. Anything else is at best a bonus, at worst a distraction.

And yet too few art directors start designing an ad from the response device and

work back to the rest of the sales message. In fact very few art directors care

much about the response device at all. Which is odd. You wouldn’t expect a retail

interior designer to site the checkouts as an afterthought.

That’s why good direct response creatives are a rare and prized breed; because

they look at response as the culmination of their design not a by-product.

A checklist for designing for response

The primary goal for direct marketing creativity is response. It means you should

consider things like:

� Making the call to action the main headline

� Directing the reader’s eye to the response device

� Allocating enough space to make phone number, web or email address

a star feature

� Headlining the response device with a call to action

� Incorporating offers to respond next to the response device

� Choosing a memorable number or address

� Explaining clearly what will happen when you respond and why that’s

good


10.1 – 33

The basics of direct marketing creative:

� Direct marketing persuades people to respond directly

� Direct marketing focuses on the needs of the customer

� Direct marketing targets defined groups of customers or known

individuals

� Direct marketing makes propositions that are most likely to activate

predisposed customers

� Direct marketing online should be as interactive as the medium

� Direct marketing demands simplicity and clarity

� Direct marketing needs to overcome inertia

These tips are just that. Not mandatories; not laws. Just some recommendations

based on what I and many fellow practitioners have observed and experienced

through trial and error over several decades in this trade. For further reading I

thoroughly recommend Advertising that Pulls Response by Graeme McCorkell

(McGraw Hill, 1990), still the best-written direct response practitioner’s manual.

All these tips are worth considering when creating advertising to gain a direct

response, but you’ll rarely see them all followed in any particular banner ad or

mailing. In fact you’ll see plenty of examples contradicting most of them in very

successful work. Nonetheless the axiom holds true:

It’s difficult to be a successful rule breaker if you never knew the rules in the first

place.

10.1 – 34


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