19/06/2007 by Tony Attwood.

For several years I have argued that the way to use the internet as a method of marketing is not to use Google’s Adwords and the like, but instead to put up lots of relevant content on the internet and so capture the passing reader.
 
As an example I have tried to do this myself by creating some 20 or more separate web sites to do with different aspects of direct mail, while running this blog, and the four newsgroups (Direct Mail Secrets and the like).
 
Now in one of the most excellent pieces of research I have ever seen relating to selling on the internet MarketingExperiments.com have compared the hiring an employee to blog, create content, and in general work to drive traffic to sites, with the much simpler approach of using Google Adwords to drive targeted traffic to the web site.
 
The research took place over 12 months and in summary the research showed that the blogs / text / discussion approach yielded more than 93,000 visits to the site.
 
This was compared with a 30-day test of Google Adwords, bidding up to 75 cents per click on a variety of keywords related to the test websites which drove 2,047 users to the site at a cost of $1,250 (£625). So this compares with the “word-of-mouth” efforts which yielded 93,207 unique visitors at a cost of $3600 (£1800).
 
Thus as Marketing Experiments.com points out, the word of mouth approach yielded a 1427% greater return on investment than the GoogleAd approach.
 
As the report says however, pay-per-click advertising was a much easier to run and was much quicker, but it was much more expensive and gave a much lower return on investment. It doesn’t say it, but in essence, all you need to do is hire someone to do the work - so its not that much harder. I personally think this is a really informative piece of research and I would urge everyone to look at it.
 
I am so grateful to Marketing Experiments Journal because at last we have some firm evidence for the notion that maximising content is the way forward.
 
Mailing Information Service (range of web sites created by Hamilton House Mailings plc): www.theory.bz - scroll down the home page.
 
Marketing  Experiments (who undertook this research)
 
http://www.MarketingExperiments.Com
 
MarketingExperiments.com
Digital Trust Inc. 412 First Street North Jacksonville Beach, FL 32250, USA

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08/06/2007 by Tony Attwood.

Most of our decisions and judgements get attached to arbitrary facts and figures and become anchored to our perceived reality by completely irrelevant detail.  This is particularly true when we are working with very limited information..
The most common example of this is the word: “Reduced”.   Wine in supermarkets is often seen to be reduced from £7 to £4 and this can enhance sales.  What we don’t know is that this is a £3.50 bottle of plonk which has been advertised at £7 for a month or two, and is now “reduced” to £4.
This linking of reality to irrelevant facts is known as “Anchoring” and is virtually impossible to shake off once it is implanted in our brains.
Much of the time these anchored facts are not facts at all - as in the case of the bottle of wine which was never “really” a £7 bottle of wine at all.   In one of the most famous examples President Eisenhower in the US asked his advisers to report to him on the best ways of overcoming poverty and deprivation in order to make the United States a more just and equal society.  His advisers told him to look at Sweden, a country with limited natural resources which had done wonders for its population through a programme of social democracy based around high taxation.
The left-leaning Sweden was not the model he was looking for however, and so Eisenhower told his advisers to stop talking about Sweden.  Suddenly he said, “look what good that socialism did them - highest suicide rate in the world”.   The statement was completely untrue, but the slur stuck and for many years anyone who wanted to denigrate European social democracy trotted out this made up statistic.
Of course in advertising one cannot simply make up facts about one’s rivals, but opinions do need to be anchored somewhere.   Beer makers have used the approach by calling some brands “Export” while spreading the rumour that beer for export is stronger beer than the weak stuff sold on the home market.  (This plays on the notion among some Britain’s that Britain is an over-regulated country while on the continent everyone is free to do as they please).
This article is taken from a series of pieces on the psychology of advertising which appears on the Theory of Direct Mail web site – probably the largest collection of serious articles on direct mail that is available anywhere.   It’s available on www.theory.bz

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06/06/2007 by Tony Attwood.

Most of us look to prove what we already believe to be true, rather than consider alternatives that might overthrow our current beliefs.  Which obviously means that we should try to stay with the current views of people rather than overthrow them.  Thus it is easier for me to sell direct mail advertising services to people who believe direct mail is a good way to sell, rather than for me to go out and convince someone who is prejudiced against direct that direct mail can work.   Likewise if one is selling a high risk investment strategy then it is easier to work with people who are friendly to risk, rather than change the attitudes of those who are risk averse. 

The trouble with this is that sometimes we do want to change people’s thoughts.   If the general feeling is that Apple computers are better for design work than PCs and you want to sell PCs to graphic designers you are going to have to face this issue.   

Taking another example, we can see how this can work.  Some people re-fill their laser printers using toner supplied by the manufacturer of the printer.  Others prefer the cheaper generic brands.   Getting people using the manufacturer’s own supply to change to the generic brands is difficult, and a simply appeal to cheapness may not work since the preconception of the reader is that this cheap stuff is second rate, and may cause damage to the machine. 

To overcome this one might write in an advert: 

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the manufacturer’s own brand toner in a laser printer? 

Such a question can raise interest even among the most committed, because it is not openly challenging their views but rather leading into what looks like an even handed debate.   You might start, in this example, by saying that it is true that manufacturers can claim that their warranty is invalidated if you use someone else’s toner.  You could add that this might not be enforceable in law, but then you don’t want to wait for a court case before you get your printer repaired.  But it is also true that manufacturer’s toner is much more expensive than alternative brands.  So what is the way forward… 

Thus the debate moves on and you gradually bring it round to the fact that your toner is guaranteed to give the same service as manufacturer brand, and that if it ever were to be the case that the manufacturer refuses to repair the machine, you’ll replace the machine.      

In other words, you work with the prejudices and gently turn them around, step by step.  This approach means that the reader doesn’t notice that persuasion is going on and so you are allowed to get your message across.