Direct Marketing problem opportunity …
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="542"]
Are you utilizing effective direct marketing?[/caption]
You have got a great idea for creative! The printing will be great! You have a great idea for a promotional item to offer that will catch everybody’s eye! You have the budget to do it! You have got a great story to tell! How do you tell it???
The 10 Direct Marketing Copy Commandments
1. When in doubt, chop it out
Think back to school. Those wonderful essays we had to write – up to 2500 words on ‘What I did over the summer. If we wrote 2,501 words, we’d succeeded, right? If we wrote 2,499, we’d failed. What was rewarded was the amount of words. Lots of them. Fluffy, blah-blah text that filled up the page, made up the numbers. It’s fine to fill your teacher’s time up with more words than necessary, but not your audience’s. Delete, delete, delete, so that every single word has purpose. Then delete some more.
2. Thou shalt write in four letter words
Four letter words are polite. They break down complicated topics into easy to understand ones. So, look for words longer than four letters, and find shorter versions. Don’t ask people to ‘participate’ but to ‘take part’, ‘join’ or ‘try’. You shouldn’t be ‘enthusiastic’ about writing in four letter words, but ‘keen’. And never ‘utilize’ anything, but ‘use’. Write in simple, bite sized chunks, and the reader will thank you (hopefully, by opening their wallet).
3. Please your reader (not your boss)
It’s easy to fall into the trap of writing what you know will be approved. When you first start writing for that client/product/agency, you try to be fresh and innovative. Then you learn what the people signing off the copy like. Now, you write just that. But the person who pays your wages isn’t your boss: it’s your customer. Write to please them, and let the boss whine and complain: until they see the results. Bingo.
4. Use punctuation to control the read
You have no idea where someone is going to be when they read your direct marketing material. They might be in bed, or on a plane. You have no idea when they will decide to read it. Might be midnight, might be dawn. But the one thing you can control is the pace: make them go at your speed. Slow them down, with a comma. Force them to stop. With a full stop. When they pause, they think. If you’ve written something meaningful, they’ll want to reflect. Give them time to do so.
5. Know your product
Here’s one of my favorite quotes: ‘Working without facts means the work can only be
fiction.’ (Alastair Crompton). If you don’t know what you’re writing about, you’re making things up. If you want to write about things you’ve made up, become a novelist. As a copywriter (or direct marketer), it’s your job to understand what you’re selling better than the person buying it. Just remember: they’ve probably already paid out good money for the product or
service you’re selling. They know its weaknesses, as well as its strengths. So should you.
6. Avoid marketing speak
To see if you’re falling into the trap of writing marketing-speak, call up your mom and read her the copy you’ve just written. After she’s oohed and aahed about how clever you are, she’ll admit that she didn’t understand a word. Just like the real audience. Imagine talking to a real, warm, disinterested human being. Write that down. It’ll read a lot better.
7. Be invisible
A book has an author’s name on it. So does a piece of journalism. A piece of direct
marketing copy doesn’t. That’s because you’re writing on behalf of something or
someone else: the organization that’s paying you. Write in their tone of voice. Not yours. If the company could speak, how would it sound? The only place an advertising copywriter is going to be famous is in the numerous advertising watering holes and at award shows.
8. WIIFM: What’s In It For Me
What’s in it for your audience? Do you know anyone who sneaks off early from work just so they can check their mailbox at home, desperate for a piece of direct mail? Anyone who sits down and watches TV ads, then leaps up to put the kettle on when the main program starts? Sadly, no-one is interested in marketing. They avoid it. But we are all interested in ourselves. So, what are you (your product or service) going to do for me? Point out the problems your audience face. Then offer to solve them.
9. Believe in what you’re writing about
“It’s always useful to get yourself genuinely excited about a product or service that seems incredibly dull to everyone else. Find how to relate it to the larger world, and you’ll make yourself famous, at least in the copywriter’s anonymous fashion.” Steve Hayden. Enough said.
10. Have fun
If you’re bored with what you’re writing about, you’ll write boring copy. If you don’t believe in what you’re writing about, you’ll write unbelievable copy. If you’re passionate and excited, you’ll write passionate and exciting copy. And that’s a lot more fun, I can tell you.
Need help with your direct marketing copywriting? Let the experts at AlphaGraphics St. Louis show you how to speak directly to your customers using what you know about them to create customized, attention-grabbing messages that leverage our variable data capabilities. Partner with our marketing and design team to develop innovative and creative solutions using text, graphics, and personalized URLs that are uniquely suited to each individual you reach. Our multi-channel approach offers endless possibilities, but our in-house printing, finishing, and mailing capabilities make us your one-stop resource.