What makes the biggest difference to your response rate?

In many cases it is the product or service you are selling.  Try selling something that no one wants and it doesn't matter how good the advert is, you won't get too far.   

But assuming your product or service is one that can attract sales given the right advert, what really makes the biggest difference is what you say.

In short it is the text that counts.

A few changes can make all the difference - a phrase here, an opening line, a PS - these are the changes that can take you from a 1% response rate to a 3% response rate, that can take people from simply asking for the free sample, to buying from the catalogue.

There are only five ways of creating direct mail that really works.  The best direct mail takes one or at most two of these five ways and then uses it in accordance with the rules of direct mail (see Cover Letters for more information on this topic).

Text is complex stuff.  It contains far more information than we could ever imagine - normally far more than a picture, and in far less time.

So it needs to be handled with care and caution.  Most of the people I talk to admit that they write their adverts in the space of ten minutes or so.  They write it, make a couple of changes and leave it.   But it takes me around 3 hours even to write a simple covering letter.  A brochure can take several days.

I am slowly putting up examples of my copywriting on www.copy.ac - with links from the home page, and the message that I try to put there is that writing copy is a complex task.  But to keep you going here are ten key points that I think are helpful.  

1.  Write to the recipient.  You are writing to one person who has certain attributes, certain understandings, a way of looking at the world - a vision of reality.  You have to fit into that if you are going to convince this person of the need to read your text and buy from you.

2. Grab attention.  The regular message - if you don't grab the reader by the throat and hold him/her there then all is lost.  So you need a good opening message.  And if you are writing a catalogue you need to have a variety of headlines that will grab attention again and again.

3.  Deal with skippers.  Most people skip down the page, reading here and there.  So your piece has to make sense to someone reading the first few lines of each paragraph as well as someone reading it all.

4.  Have a PS or end message that throws the reader back in, and keeps them reading with you.  The PS is not the end - it is just another start.

5.  Never forget that huge amounts of direct mail are written by people who really don't have much idea of what is going on - so they copy each other and produce rubbish.  Just because you see you it on someone else's mailshot, that does not mean it works.

6.  Have a consistent tone.  If you decide that you want to shout like a guy selling vegetables in the market, fine.  But you are going to have to keep shouting all the way through.  If you are asking and debating an interesting question (one of my favourite techniques), stay with it.  Don't suddenly drop into heavy selling.   Most of all, avoid the dreadful grabby headline, followed by "Now I have your attention I want to tell you about...."

7.  Use short paragraphs - both in brochures and letters.  They always work best.

8.  Differentiate.  Make it clear from the start that this is your promotion, not a clone of a rival.  Do your own thing.

9.  Experiment.  People come to me and ask me to write for them, because I have a reputation for writing things that sell.  But also I have my own style - which I then adapt for each different audience.   If you want to write your own copy, don't be afraid of your own style.  Try writing as you want to write.  If it works, fine.  If it doesn't start taking note of what all the gurus say, and see if any of their comments might have relevance.

10.  The biggest mistake most firms make is to think that they can write copy in-house.  Time and again I am asked to write something quickly because the first promotion went out and it flopped.    So I oblige, and normally the situation is rescued.  But what is conveniently forgotten is the cost.   The cost isn't mostly my fee - it is the cost of the wasted first promotion. You can write in-house - if you have a good experienced copywriter working for you.  If not, you are liable to be wasting money every time you mail.  Good copy pays for itself a hundred times a day in extra responses.  But then I would say that wouldn't I?

Free analysis of your mailshot

This article is written by Tony Attwood, Chairman of Hamilton House Mailings Ltd.  If you would like to discuss the writing or design of your mailing campaign, or indeed a single mailshot, with Tony, without cost or obligation, just call 01536 399 000, or email Creative@hamilton-house.com   You can also send Tony a copy of your latest advert and he will call you back with his thoughts on how your response rate could be raised - again without cost or obligation.