Tony Attwood’s Blog

Question: how can I double the response rate in my direct mail?

Answer: there are at least 50 different things you can do

Question: OK let’s not bother with all 50. Just tell me the most important.

Answer: Use the 70% theory.

The 70% theory of direct mail says that around 70% of people who receive direct mail at work glance at it for a few seconds – and then throw it in the bin. If you want to get your message across to people you have to consider how to get more than 30% of the people you mail to look at your work.

In fact you have to focus on getting attention.

It seems a simple statement, but most of the direct mail and email advertising I get does not do this.

If it seems of interest to you, there’s an article on the subject at http://www.theory.bz/factor1.html

Alternatively you can send me a copy of your advertising and I’ll give you a call back to tell you if it grabbed my attention. If it did not, I’ll tell you how I would have done it. Of course you don’t have to take any notice of what I say, but it might just give you an idea.

No charge, no obligation.

Tony Tony at hamilton-house.com

By 2014 the average user of email will get over 9,000 email marketing messages a year, according to a report from Forrester reported in Advertising Age.

This number excludes all the junk that we get - these are proper adverts for real things that exist. That’s getting on for 40 messages for each working day of the year - at the moment the number is around 10.

A lot of these messages will never arrive because they will be stuck in dubious message folders or just deleted on their way in. Many more will never be read.

The only ways I can see to get through this clutter will be

a) to make sure the emails reach the right people directly (which means ever better email lists)

b) to make sure the subject line and the opening line really grab attention (as we have always had to do with sales letters)

c) the link to the web site takes the reader to a totally relevant page, not a general page

d) the message is lively, attractive, interesting, and (to use the old phrase) “grabs the reader by the throat).

If you are producing emails and want to run them by me any time, please do forward it to me, with a covering note saying you are asking me to review the piece. Email Tony@hamilton-house.com

Tony Attwood

20% of adults who don’t have online access at the moment will get it in the next six months, according to a survey from Ofcom.

The survey analysed why 30% of UK adults do not have the internet at home and what stops them signing up in the future. Recently the Communications Consumer Panel research that revealed that many people already regard broadband as an essential service at home similar to gas and electricity.

Those intending to get the internet in the next six months are more likely to be younger and working, use the internet already outside of the home and have children.

The main reasons cited for getting internet access is for information or to source information (36%) followed by social networking (26%), keeping up with technology (25%) and because friends and family recommended it (25%).

The Government’s Digital Britain report which is due out shortly will advocate the idea of universal broadband in the UK.

The research also identified two main groups of people without the internet who do not plan to access the internet at home. Some have no interest or desire to sign up (mostly older and retired although including some who do not want to be on line for religious or philosophical or life-style reasons), and those who simply can not afford it.

Tony Attwood

PS: If you want regular news and information on the creative side of direct marketing please send an email to CreativeDirect-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

I have written a number of times in the past few months that advertising has changed and that adverts in the old style of a few years ago no longer work so well. Only the people adopting the new approach are really getting the message across and making the sales.

I was therefore interested to hear an interview on Radio 5 yesterday afternoon, while driving, in which a man who used to be a journalist but now trains politicians to be able to talk effectively on radio and TV, argued much the same - but for the political world.

His view was that in the past 2 years politics has changed so radically that the old refusal to answer a question and just blame the other party approach, which has dominated political interviewing for years, is no longer tolerated by the public.

It struck me as an interesting parallel. What the speaker was saying was that people now want real conversations with real questions and answers. What they still get is the old yhaaboo politics.

In advertising I am arguing that the recipient of email and direct mail no longer wants to be shouted at with BUY NOW!!! and ONLY FOUR DAYS LEFT!!! and 50% discount!!! - they actually want to be treated like adults and have products and services explained, with the benefits set out, and a clear analysis of the situation.

The proof that this approach has value comes from the fact that three years ago it was hard to rent an email list (i.e. a list of potentially interested people, but not a lists of your customers) and get much over 0.3% response rate in terms of sales. (You could get more with give aways, and of course the number of people going to a web site could be higher, but directly attributable sales have often been around that level).

Now it is possible to get 10 times that level of response rates with carefully crafted text that is conversation based.

If you would like to discuss this, or indeed if you would like me to review an advert of yours without any cost or obligation, do get in touch - Tony@hamilton-house.com or 01536 399 013.