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Welcome to the Talon Mailing & Marketing June 2012 Newsletter.
To view this newsletter using your Internet browser click here:
 Stimulate
Your Prospects' Brains For Better Direct Marketing Results
By Tim Riesterer, Corporate Visions
To improve your direct
marketing campaign, your messages and media choices need to change, and
probably dramatically.Brain research has proven that human decisions on whether to change or
do something different are more adaptive than rational. This means that
people are more likely to make a decision about something if it directly
affects their well-being.
Naturally this has major implications for the way you develop messages
and deliver them in your direct marketing campaigns. Many marketers
today are mistakenly messaging for information—that is, they're
providing support for a rational decision — instead of
messaging for a real decision.
People use their neocortices (new brain) to analyze information, but
they actually make decisions using the limbic system (old brain), which
is designed to make the fast, instinctual choices that ensure survival.
Therefore, people (and prospects) tend to move away from pain faster
than they move toward gain.
Many consumer marketers have figured this out. But b2b marketers'
campaigns tend to be driven by what their product is and what it
does — the features and benefits. The last time I checked, a b2b prospect
has the same brain as every other human. So to improve your direct
marketing campaign, your messages and media choices need to change, and
probably dramatically.
The old brain craves visual imagery that shows contrast and emotional
messaging that provokes its survival instinct. Here are the three
biggest old brain-driven changes you need to consider:
1. Video is the best medium. The old
brain prefers visual imagery to written words because there is no
language capacity in the old brain. To activate your prospects' old
brains and appeal to the true decision-maker, you need to transform your
traditional written-word messages into visual vignettes to deliver your
early-stage, status quo-breaking messages. As a result, the only job of
your email copy is to drive your prospect to watch a video.
2. Context creates urgency. Recent
research from the Corporate Executive Board's Marketing Leadership
Council found that prospects believe that almost 90% of marketing
messages fail to create commercial impact. In other words, your value
propositions don't cause prospects to want to do anything different.
If you want to create more demand, you need to put your solution into an
urgent context that gets your prospects to reconsider their current
state of affairs. Show them the threats, challenges and missed
opportunities that make their existing situation “unsafe” and put their
desired outcomes at risk.
3. Contrast creates value. Your
prospects' old brains need to see a clear contrast to make a decision. A
lack of perceived contrast between your solution and the status quo
means that customers will not see enough value to change. They'll think
they can solve the problems with their existing solution.
You must help them visualize the pain caused by their present
circumstance, identify the gaps in their current approach and show how
these gaps won't reduce the pain and allow them to realize the
significant gain promised by your more effective approach.
To convey your company's value to prospects, you need to replace
traditional approaches to creating value propositions with a new message
and medium for creating and delivering a distinct point of view. By
creating more provocative content that appeals to the old brain, your
direct marketing campaign will see greater success.
Tim Riesterer is chief strategy and marketing officer at sales and
marketing messaging company Corporate Visions (www.corporatevisions.com).
He can be reached at triesterer@corporatevisions.com.
 Seven Tips to a Successful Direct
Mailing
By Alice Brown
These top tips will increase response rates
and grow your revenue.
1. Use a Quality, Targeted
Mailing List
Every successful direct mail campaign begins with a quality, targeted
direct mail list.
Why? Because a ‘great’ direct mail list maximizes the number of people
who receive your offer, it increases your response rates and ultimately,
it helps boost the return on your investment!
Quality, up-to-date (correct) records help maximize the number of mail
pieces that get delivered to your customers and in turn, help maximize
the number of mail pieces that get seen by the people/businesses who are
likely to want your products and services. If your direct mail list
includes old or incorrect addresses, you will have a higher number of
undeliverable and returned mail pieces, and unfortunately a lower return
on your investment. That’s the last thing you want!
Targeted data gets your message/promotion in front of the people who are
most likely to purchase your product or service.
For example: If you own a yoga studio and are looking to mail a postcard
that offers a ‘free’ class to every new student, do you think it would be
better to mail the postcard to everyone in your state, or to people who
are living within 5 miles of your studio and who are women between the
ages of 18-65?
2. Write a Compelling “Call to Action”
A successful direct mail postcard/flyer/brochure etc must include a
compelling ‘call to action’ that drives the reader to ‘act’ and ‘respond’
to your mailing.
A ‘call to action’ can be anything from asking your customer to go online
to your website and fill out a form, to picking up the phone and calling
you before the end of the month, or to stopping by and visiting your
store.
No matter what your ‘call to action’ is, it needs to be obvious and
compelling, so there’s no doubt in the reader’s mind about what they need
to do to be able to take advantage of the promotion that you’re offering
them.
3. Give them an Offer they Can’t Refuse
Create a compelling offer that will drive your customers to take action
and respond to your message. Your promotion can be ‘buy one get one
free’, or ‘$20 off your first order’ or simply a discounted price for a
limited time.
The key thing to remember when you’re creating an offer, is that the more
valuable and enticing your offer is, the more likely it is that your
reader will respond.
Offers with ‘expiration dates’ yield quicker results and drive customers
to take action, sooner rather than later.
4. Use Bold, Simple Designs & Layouts
The colors, fonts and images that you use on your mail piece can impact
how your customer will respond to your message. After all, first
impressions are lasting impressions, and if someone has never heard of
your company before, it’s very important for your mail piece to
accurately reflect your business, and make you stand out (in a good way!)
and leave your reader with a positive, lasting first impression.
Use the ‘less is more’ principle when it comes to the design and layout
of your mailing and use simple bold fonts, hard hitting, punchy copy, and
clear appropriate images to engage your readers and keep them focused on
your offer.
5. Be Honest!
Don’t use gimmicks or ‘small print’ to trap your valued customers and
potential new clients.
Be honest with them about who you are as a company and what products you
offer. Honesty and transparency are paramount and can be the difference
between earning a good reputation and building a steady, loyal group of
repeat customers, and creating a bad reputation that’s hard to break.
6. Get your Timing Right
Watch your competition closely, learn from their mistakes and keep an eye
on their marketing and advertising efforts; boost your marketing
campaigns when your competitors are lying low and economizing, and take
advantage of the opportunities this creates to win over new customers.
Repeat mailings deliver higher response rates than one-time mailings;
when you increase the number of times a customer sees your offer, you
also increase the chance that your customer will respond to it. Think
about running repeat mailings and sending out one campaign once/week for
3 consecutive weeks to get maximum results.
7. Track your Results
Track your campaigns and the responses you get so that you know how
effective each campaign is.
Make sure you ask new customers where they heard about your services –
was it online, driving by, or from a postcard mailing? If you run several
different marketing campaigns throughout the year, keep track of which
campaign delivers the best results and boost the number of mailings on
the next campaign and watch your sales soar and your business grow!
About The Author
Alice Brown is the Editor in Chief of 'Be Direct', the monthly newsletter
for www.LeadsPlease.com. 'Be
Direct' is dedicated to providing direct mail industry news, trends,
updates and direct marketing tips and tricks.
 Can
Facebook Continue to Attract Advertising?
By Peter Collins, Epoch Times
A recent survey showed 44 per cent of Facebook users never click on ads; 3
per cent regularly click on ads and 10 per cent said they often did.
Facebook's floatation on the Nasdaq stock
exchange on Friday, May 18, valued the company at $104 billion. But a
2011-2012 global survey has found that 30 per cent of users do not trust
Facebook with their personal information, and 44 per cent never click on
sponsored ads.
Digital marketing agency Greenlight surveyed a cross section of 500 people
on how they used social networks and search engines, and what their
reactions were to online advertising.
The research indicated that Facebook was the most widely used website
after Google and YouTube, and was the second most popular site accessed on
mobile devices—about 30 per cent of survey respondents said they used it
on their mobile phones or tablets.
Fifty per cent surveyed said they use Facebook to keep in touch with
family and friends and that it was good for sharing photos.
Hannah Kimuyu, director of paid media at Greenlight, said in a statement:
“Facebook’s popularity doesn’t come as a surprise. However, with over 30
per cent of respondents saying they ‘strongly distrust’ Facebook with
their personal data, Facebook’s advertising program has an upward
struggle.”
Advertising on Facebook allows companies to reach more than 800 million
potential customers by targeting their personal data, Kimuyu said.
However, according to the survey, 44 per cent said they never clicked on
ads. In contrast, only 3 per cent said they regularly clicked on ads, and
10 per cent said they often did.
Commenting on the results, Kimuyu said: “Although 44 per cent say they
would ‘never’ click on advertisements or sponsored listings in Facebook,
it is interesting to see that those who do find the targeting effective
and engaging.
“Moreover, given the positive growth figures, we at Greenlight predict
that more of us will be advertising and hopefully ‘clicking’ on an
advertisement or a sponsored listing on Facebook this year.”
Last week, car giant General Motors added to doubts about the
effectiveness of Facebook ads by saying that it would no longer pay to
advertise on the site.
Online strategy consultant Atul Chitnis told the BBC last week that the
question was whether Facebook had a strategy to bring advertisers in.
“My belief is that Facebook does have a strategy, they are ready with
something they have not yet talked about. How effective it is we will have
to watch and see.”
Win Yankee Tickets!
Enjoy a great day at Yankee Stadium!
We are giving away two tickets to see the New York Yankees.
All
you have to do to win is be the first telephone caller (please don’t hit reply or send an email). Voice
mail messages count so it's fine to leave a message. Call Michael Borkan at
(631) 667-5500 x 11. These tickets are great seats and close to the field!
-
Monday June 18th, 2012. Yankees vs.
Braves 7:05
PM.
Do you know of anyone else who would be interested in receiving our
newsletter? Please let us know by email:
mb@talon-mailing.com
To learn more about our company, please visit our Web site:
www.talon.com or contact Michael Borkan at (631) 667-5500 x 11.
If you do not wish to receive the Talon Mailing & Marketing Newsletter
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In
this Issue:
Stimulate Your Prospects' Brains For Better Direct Marketing Results
Seven Tips to a Successful Direct Mailing
Can Facebook Continue to Attract Advertising?
Ticket Giveaway!
New Clients
Mike Borkan's Links - Web sites you probably
haven't
seen
View Samples of Our Work
Newsletter Archives
Direct Mail Humor!
New Clients:
Talon welcomes the following new clients this month to our growing roster
of customers:
Mike's Favorite Links:
Some interesting links...
wizcabulary.com - a free
vocabulary game for middle schoolers. It is a fun, interactive, vocabulary
website designed to engage students in learning words that are appropriate
for students in 5th - 9th grade.
mygrowth.com - This site has been
built by a team of dedicated professionals on the premise that all people
have the ability to achieve more in their lives. Join others like you,
that want to make a change in their life. Connect with those that make a
difference.
brotips.com - Life advice to the bros
(men) of the world.
thechive.com -
Random-but-interesting news. It is also a photo and video blog of the
wacky, the inane, the curious, the thought-inspiring, and the
preposterous.
dearblankpleaseblank.com
- Poignant written letters. Letters of all kinds of high emotion and
bizarre human experience. This site is absolutely mesmerizing as an
exploration of human experience and emotion.
despair.com - As an antithesis to
motivational posters, Despair.com takes inspirational photography and
captions it with negative and cynical slogans. The effect is splendid, and
is guaranteed laughter in offices everywhere.
Work Samples:
Did you know Talon offers the following services?
Click on the links below to see samples.
Newsletter Archives:
Click here if you wish to see past newsletters.
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