High Five
of Direct Mail
with Lewis R. Elin, 9 June 2004
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Getting direct mail to produce business results requires
addressing five qualitative issues according to Lewis R. Elin. He
is the former owner of Topps Mfg. Co and successful user of direct
mail and catalogues in building businesses. These are Benefit, Verisimilitude,
Seduction, Why, and When. The following is from his notes and makes
a good read for any salesperson or marketer.
"Benefit
Determine to whom you are selling what ultimate benefit that will
improve the prospects life. This defines both your target audience
and what will turn them onto your offer. In fact, the right combination
of list and offer is 80% of the success in direct response marketing.
Blow it there and you have blown the whole program big time. No
amount of creativity and expensive production will save your bacon
when this happens.
You’ve all seen and used a ‘Feature/Benefit’
chart. Now add a third column of ‘Ultimate Benefit.’
This will take you one step further.
Verisimilitude
It means the appearance of truth. All successful selling is the
delivering of a believable promise to the right audience. Like Lists
and Offer. You might be selling an exercise program and diet supplement
that will have anyone doing 50 military push-ups at the end of the
first week. Some suckers may buy into it and if that’s your
market, then that’s what you do. But most people won’t
believe it. Ten push-ups? Fifteen? Maybe. At least its believable.
It has verisimilitude. If there’s any doubt, they’ll
throw it out.
Seduction
All buyers, business to business and business to consumer, rationalize
the emotional decision to want to buy. Your job is to supply the
‘rationalization ammunition.’ Think of this process
as ‘The Anatomy of a Response.’ Your prospect sees your
offer. In his gut, in his heart, he wants it, but that’s not
enough. You’ve got to move this gut reaction up to the head
where he starts finding the reasons, making the excuses, rationalizing
why he really needs what you’re selling. He’s decided.
Yes! Now he moves his hand to his wallet for the money. Think of
the Seduction, the rationalization as a gut, head, hip sequence.
It happens when you supply the rationalization ammunition for the
prospect to convince himself/herself to respond to your offer.
Why
Why do people buy anything? Why do you buy? People buy to either
protect what they have or to get something new. The decision to
buy is based in fear, greed, or exclusivity. Think about your own
buying decisions. There may be 27 Human Motivators according to
Ed Mayer, but they all boil down to fear, greed and exclusivity.
When
When will someone buy something? People will buy only when they
conclude – or rationalize themselves into concluding –
that the perceived benefits they will receive by responding will
outweigh the value of the money saved by not responding. That’s
it. Perceived benefits versus value of the money.
Thus, the Selling Sequence starts by answering the
‘to whom’ question about the ultimate benefit and ends
when the prospect concludes that the perceived benefits outweigh
the value of the money saved by not buying. Everything in-between
is what I call the Creativity Chasm that must be filled in a manner
consistent with the profile and knowledge of the prospects and customers
and the marketing environment. All components must be compatible
and consistent with the message.
With the right offer and audience – the positioning
– and with the customers perceiving and receiving value, most
of the creative work has been done. Shun the urge to sound brilliant
and eloquent. Just be simple, clear, believable, and convincing."
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Mr. Lewis R. Elin is a consultant, speaker, and expert in direct
mail. He may be reached at lreconsult@aol.com
or (312) 527-2017
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