Internet Direct Marketing Tip of the Day

You might have tens of thousands or millions in your audience. But, you really talk to only one person at a time, and your words should come across that way.

When you write to faceless thousands or millions, it comes across as superficial as a TV commercial. We all know how meaningful TV commercials are in our lives … not.

Pick an audience member or imagine one person, and write to that person. Talk his/her language and reflect the person’s thoughts and feelings in your copy.

Can you imagine talking to a friend or colleague in the language and terms of a TV or radio commercial? It’s so absurd; it could be a “Saturday Night Live” skit.

Talk with your audience instead of talking at them. Whether F2F, in print, online or in broadcast, no one likes to be talked at. It’s a turnoff and is bound to suppress response rates because you’re not coming across as sincere or relevant. In short, write real. LC

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If you want to stay a couple steps in front of your competitors, keep a sharp lookout. Very often, the next big thing is really a small thing, greatly magnified.

Look at Twitter. There’s not much to it. Only 140 characters, in fact. And that’s because the founders wanted to make sure you could easily interact with Twitter on your cell phone. They wanted it to be as easy as, well, texting … which is another one of those small things you see everywhere.

But, just because you’ve identified a small thing that takes off, this doesn’t mean you have a meal ticket for life. You might, if you played it right at the beginning of the Internet, but then other trends can burn right out. Remember Friendster? MySpace is shrinking fast right now.

Twitter looks like it might be plateauing at this time of writing. Still, even if Twitter shrinks a bit, it will probably always be part of our landscape. Moving forward, we will always see an endless parade of new, cool stuff that might or might not burn out. Your job is to identify those waves and catch one that has legs. LC

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