09/07/2007 by Tony Attwood.

There is strong evidence from the Media Lab of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that if there is one factor that correlates with a business person or a professional about to make a positive decision, it is excitement.

Whether this involves two business people exchanging business cards or whether it is someone getting ready to agree to make a purchase, the situation is the same.  What’s at the heart of each situation is excitement.

A business person getting ready to make a positive decision acts “like a kid who’s excited and bouncing around,” according to Media Lab (New Scientist, 7 July 2007).

The implication is clear – if you want to get a sale you have to generate excitement.  

Now for the telephone sales person this is simple: speak invitingly, vary the tone and volume, be really interested.  (Isn’t it amazing how many people don’t do that when selling on the phone!)

But the implication for direct mail is less obvious – simply being excited about the product and saying in gushing prose how wonderful it is doesn’t work, any more than a bland and boring description of the facts works.  

However that should not surprise us because that’s not the approach of the good tele-sales person, nor was it ever the tactic of the good door-to-door salesperson either.   They empathise, they listen, they reflect your concerns, but still somehow through all of this get you going.   That’s what good direct mail does too.

In doing this we are helped enormously by the fact that there’s a lot of recent research to suggest that far more human behaviour is automatic and determined by instinct than we ever previously imagined.  We like to believe that we make rational decisions, weighing up all the issues before jumping in.   But the fact is, most of the time this is a gloss put on our own account of what happened.  In fact 80% of our mental processes seem to be simple and automatic.

Just as the greatest footballers and jazz musicians respond automatically to what is going on around them in order to score a goal or play a riff, so all of us who drive cars or ride bikes put much of the decision making involved in such events onto auto.   And that’s not because the brain is in overload.  It is because unconscious automatic thinking can be more effective than conscious thought.

So, back to the business of selling stuff.   It looks more and more as if the best way forward is to ignore the logical, rational, consciously generated actions of individuals, and instead think of the way in which we unconsciously move together and respond to each other.   Which means, forget all the logic and boring detail.   Generate the enthusiasm, and see what follows.

If you want to know more, take a look at our latest web site, www.mailings.org.uk - or to see details of our mailing lists and mailing services go to www.hamilton-house.com/10%20Gateways.html  Or call me on 01536 399 000, and we can talk about how your mailing could be changed in order to gain a higher response rate.Tony Attwood

Posted in Uncategorised | Print | No Comments »

03/07/2007 by Tony Attwood.

There is an ever growing trend on the internet for people who claim to know about direct mail to post incredibly simplistic pieces which appear, within a couple of hundred words to tell you exactly how to make more money through direct mail.

 
I spotted one such today which said “Nothing Pulls Response like Emotion”.   This is at best half-true, at worst misleading. http://www.directmarketingnet.com/dmnviews/2007/06/adding_emotion_to_the_marketin.html
 
Like so many other statements in direct mail it gives you an insight into a possibility, but it suggests that this is the answer – do this and your troubles will be over.  At the heart of the article is the thought “Does your audience KNOW what it will feel like to accept your offer?”
 
It is a valid question – but it is left as having an obvious answer – there is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that it is helpful if your audience know how it will feel if you accept the offer.  There is no appeal to any psychological research – all we get now are bald statements.
 
At this point I am going to appear to be doing nothing but banging my own trumpet, because I am about to cite one of my own pieces – sorry if that seems disingenuous, but it seems the simplest way to make the point.  My article on emotion in direct mail point 3 in the article on http://www.theory.bz/psychology%20ofadvertising.htm includes this
Emotions are good - sometimes
The comments at the end of section 2 [the previous part of the article from which this extract comes] should not be taken to mean that emotions should not be used as part of selling.  Indeed it can be argued that when you make up your mind about something then what happens is that your emotional system gets involved.  
The problem is that emotions don’t always allow us to make the right choice.  Emotions can make us impetuous and risk prone - and indeed selfish. 
Thus a person looking to launch a business, but who has always been an employee, might feel that she needs to “push the boat out” - and have the feeling that she has always been too cautious.  In such a state of mind being cautious becomes associated with failure - the real winners (the rich, the successful) are seen as people who go out there are do it.   Following such a scenario successful business people are not seen as those who carefully weigh up the options, consider alternatives, look at fall-back positions in case something goes amiss, but simply as those who go out and do it.
This emotional state leads a person to be very vulnerable to advertising that suggests that there are easy ways to make money, in the same way that advertising of certain clothes styles can lead one to be more attractive, or more successful. 
Source: Daniel Fessler, University of California.    LA.   Organisational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes    vol 95 p107
 
My point here is that direct mail has descended into alchemy – it is just a mass of mumbo-jumbo without proper explanations.    My piece above is part of a long article which examine ten different issues within the psychology of advertising, each drawing on a different source.  
 
That at least makes an attempt to be scientific, rather than just saying “hey guys I’ve got a way to make you a fortune – cross my palm with silver and then go and get a drop of bat’s blood to sprinkle on your key board…”
 
Of course my approach which replies on science is more boring, and takes longer – but I suspect it gets better results.  In fact, as I wipe the bat’s blood off my desk, I’m sure of it.
 
Tony Attwood

Posted in Uncategorised | Print | No Comments »