Internet Direct Marketing Tip of the Day

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Whether you’re trying to be #1 in organic search results, or in paid search results, it may not be direct response nirvana. Here’s why:

Many practitioners of both organic and paid search marketing report better conversions when they’re not at the top. Lots of people searching don’t just click willy-nilly on the first thing they see and buy right away. Many people dig deeper to compare and perform due diligence on whatever it is they’re searching for.

Typically, the further a searcher drills down into search results, the more intense they are about that for which they’re searching. So if you’re positioned a little ways down, and you have a compelling proposition that compares well with the offers above you and below you, you could have a winner. LC

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In this give it to me now, don’t waste my time medium know as the Internet - and especially email - don’t overpromise. Keep it real. Keep it credible. And for most purposes, keep it short.

This isn’t to say you shouldn’t talk up your strong points. But it doesn mean you’re more apt to be better received when you get to the point sooner rather than later. LC

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During the years of publishing this newsletter, I’ve noticed some advertisers swap out their creative each and every time it runs. The thinking is the same offer will draw fewer response rates the second and third time out, otherwise known as “offer fatigue”.

On the other hand, many savvy advertisers in this newsletter will run the same offer repeatedly, especially if it worked well the first time out. Typically, it pulls well continuously for a good few weeks. Why?

Well, there are hotliners who haven’t seen the offer before. These are people who subscribed to the newsletter in the past 30 days. There are also people who saw the offer previously but weren’t ready to click just then, and now they are. There are also repeat clickers who respond to the offer a second time because they are very interested in what’s being presented and want to inspect it again.

The lesson here is to not retire offers before their time. If you have a winner, stay with it until the rates decline, then invest in a new offer, or new copy for the same offering. LC

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Many companies have cranky customers. Dealing with them is just part of the cost of doing business. But often enough, customers who complain are some of your most loyal and passionate customers. If they didn’t care so much, they wouldn’t complain so loudly.

Highly-evolved marketing operations are now viewing cranky customers as an opportunity to be turned into positive and possibly even passionate advocates. The traditional line of thinking was to put them on hold forever - or at least to give them some sop so as not to lose them. But this critical crossroads in the relationship is more often now used to bond with them and keep them in the fold for a very long time.

Sure, people complain about a firm many more times than they praise it. But it is much better to have people occasionally praising you rather than having teeming hordes of disgruntled customers complaining about you f2f, in blogs, or in print. LC

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Good direct response copy seeks to make you take action. Simply writing “Now” or “Don’t Delay” may help. But it seems people are less easily manipulated in this media-saturated world. Yes, many are still affected by the power of suggestion. But more is the case that you need a bulletproof reason for people to take action.

Too often I see offline ads telling me to go to a website address with absolutely no incentive to do so. Why should I? If you’re going to spend real money advertising offline, go the extra distance and prepare a campaign that rewards me for taking action. Seems obvious, right? Then how come so many ads lack this incentive? LC

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Recent research shows that over 50 percent of email applications now default to not loading graphics into HTML emails. Most users do not change defaults. Keep this in mind when designing graphics for solo emails and email newsletter ads. If there is critical information in the graphics, it should be restated in text elsewhere in the ad unit to make sure your target audience is getting your complete message. LC

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You already know you can no longer blow hot air advertising at people and have it work. Today’s media-saturated consumer is far too sophisticated for that. In fact, they’re often more sophisticated than the lummox marketers who think they can convince them of anything. In addition to sophisticated consumers, today’s media mix allows for more and more customer feedback, reviews, recommendations and referrals. You don’t just have to take this seriously in order to placate prospects and customers; you’ll also find in it a huge learning curve that’s worth having. “Send-to-Friend” appearing on websites (to take a dated example) gives you an idea of what articles are most popular on your site. What videos are looked at the most? What are people saying about you or your competitors? What keywords are they searching for? And so forth. It’s all worth knowing in order to better understand to whom you are talking. My dad always told me to listen before talking. It seems to make good sense in this realm, too.

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As you know, not all direct sales happen “bing bang boom”. Some sales leads need to marinate. This is particularly the case with many considered purchase items and b2b sales where lots of money and commitments are at stake.

Often the buyer offers the lead or prospect something of value in order to open up a relationship culminating in a sale, hopefully. On the Internet, that value offered is often a piece of information the lead finds helpful. That information is often directly or indirectly related to the eventual sale.

So, if you’re looking for a way to open up a dialogue with a sophisticated group of leads or prospects, try telling them something they don’t already know. They just may thank you for it by giving you the sale down the road. LC

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