ONE OF THE great advantages of direct marketing is that you can test out different headlines, approaches, offers and in fact anything else to see how you can fine-tune and improve it. If you have a direct mail letter which is currently generating a five per cent response rate, there are so many different aspects that you can change which could double or triple that response rate. Unfortunately most people don’t do this. They will take a letter that doesn’t work and stop sending it, or take a letter that does work and carry on sending it but not explore the other possibilities that it offers.
Look into different versions of a headline, for example. You would be surprised how much a response rate could be increased. I once changed just three words of the headline and doubled the response rate. Another time, I added a new offer to a letter, and tripled the response rate. By changing the name of a free report that was offered in a letter, I quadrupled the response rate.
How do you know which aspects of the change that you are making are effective? The answer is to be careful to only change one thing at a time. Change two things and you’ll never know which one has made a real difference. So only change one aspect of the headline, offer or a new PS, or change the main body copy.
With direct mail letters, there is a clear order of preference for the different components that can be changed. The biggest change you can make is to the headline. The second biggest change is to the offer that the letter is making. The third biggest change is the PS at the end of the letter and generally the fourth biggest change is to the main copy in the body of the letter itself. This is assuming that all aspects of the letter make sense, are clear and are reasonably well written.
You can test e-mails along similar lines and of course apply the results of the response rates you achieve from e-mails or direct-mail letters across other aspects of your marketing. If a particular appeal in a direct-mail letter worked well, then it can be adapted into the headline of a brochure, website, or even an article pitch to editors.
Never give up testing – use it whenever you can and see how you can fine-tune and improve your marketing results.
For marketing advice specific to your business, get in touch and speak with a marketing specialist on 01858 374 170 or email info@idealmarketingcompany.com
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MD & Head of Digital Marketing
Jessica has worked in digital marketing for over 10 years and has watched it evolve from an experimental marketing option to an essential tool for most businesses. She is driven to help businesses achieve their objectives using the best digital marketing resources available and recognises that each business is different. Jessica devours the latest news about digital marketing and is constantly learning in order to stay ahead of the trends for clients.
