by Bob Stone

Excerpt from Successful Direct Marketing Methods by Bob Stone
(c) The Direct Marketing Association, New York


· All customers are not created equal. Give or take a few percentage points, 80% of repeat business for goods and services will come from 20% of your customer base.

· The most important order you ever get from a customer is the second order. Why? Because a two-time buyer is at least twice as likely to buy again as a one-time buyer.

· Maximizing direct mail success depends first upon the lists you use, second upon the offers you make, and third upon the copy and graphics you create.

· If, on a given list, ‘hotline’ names don't work, the other list categories offer little opportunity for success.

· Merge/purge names--those that appear on two or more lists will out pull any single list from which names have been extracted.

· Direct response lists will almost always out pull compiled lists.

· Overlays on lists (enhancements), such as lifestyle characteristics, income, education, age, marital status, and propensity to respond by mail or phone will always improve response.

· A follow-up to the same list within 30 days will pull 40% to 50% of the first mailing.

· ‘Yes/No’ offers consistently produce more orders than offers that don't request ‘No’ responses.

· The ‘take rate’ for negative option offers will always out pull positive option offers at least two to one.

· Credit card privileges will out-perform cash with order at least two to one.

· Credit card privileges will increase the size of the average catalogue order by 20%, or more.

· Time limit offers, particularly those which give a specific date, out pull offers with no time limit practically every time.

· Free gift offers, particularly where the gift appeals to self interest, out pull discount offers consistently.

· Sweepstakes, particularly in conjunction with impulse purchases, will increase order volume 35%, or more.

· You will collect far more money in a fund-raising effort if you ask for a specific amount from a purchaser. Likewise, you will collect more money if the appeal is tied to a specific project.

· People buy benefits, not features.

· The longer you can keep someone reading your copy, the better your chances of success.

· The timing and frequency of renewal letters is vital, but the product is the factor in making a renewal decision.

· Self-mailers are cheaper to produce, but they practically never out pull envelope enclosed letter mailings.

· A pre-print of a forthcoming ad, sent with a letter and response form, will out pull a post-print mailing package by 50% or more.

· It’s easier to increase the average dollar amount of an order than it is to increase percentage of response.

· You will get far more new catalogue customers if you put your proven winners in the front pages of your catalogue.

· Assuming items of similar appeal, you’ll always get a higher response rate from a 32-page catalogue than a 24-page one.

· A new catalogue to a catalogue customer base will out pull cold lists by 400% to 800%.

· A print ad with a bind-in card will out pull the same ad without a bind-in up to 600%.

· A direct response, direct sale TV commercial of 120-seconds will out pull a 60-second direct response commercial better than two to one.

· A TV support commercial will increase response from a newspaper insert up to 50%.

· The closure rate from qualified leads can be two to four times as effective as cold calls.

· Telephone-generated leads are likely to close four to six times greater than mail-generated leads.