Why Offers are Key to Your Direct Marketing Success

You’ve probably gotten mailings that tell you things like:

• “You may have already won $10 million.”
• “Buy one - get one free.”
• “Free personal organizer when you subscribe to our magazine.”
• “Call today for your free cd.”
• “Bring in this coupon and save $25 on purchases of $75.”

Each of these is an example of an offer. In direct response advertising, your offer is extremely important to the success of your campaign. It is comprised of two parts:

• Something of value to the prospect
• What the prospect must do to receive it

The general rule of thumb is that the more valuable, risk free, and clear your offer is, the more people are likely to respond.

I often receive postcards from local real estate agents offering me a free home evaluation or to call for their free report. The line is usually tacked on as an afterthought, with the most prominent space on the postcard devoted to information about the agent, the agent’s company, or a home they listed or sold. These generally don’t get high response rates for the following reasons:

• The offer is not unique to them. Virtually everyone offers me the same free home analysis or free report. I have no incentive to respond to your offer when I can get this from anyone.
• The offer is not explained well. While you may know the contents of your free report, your prospects don’t. They won’t take the time to guess whether this is of value to them. It’s your job to clearly state why your prospect should request this report, why it’s worth her time to read it, why your report or analysis is better than what everyone else is offering and why there is little risk on her part to request the report (ie if she request it, you won’t bombard her with calls every day for the next 2 weeks to get her to buy/sell with you).
• The offer is not presented well. First and foremost, don’t give your prospect a reason to throw a way your mailing or turn the page. If your flyers print crooked, redo them - don’t send them out! (I’m always amazed at how many unprofessional looking mailers I receive.) Your offer or headline should be the first thing prospects see when they read your ad or mailer so make sure it grabs prospects’ attention. If you’re offering a free report or analysis, use a graphic of the cover page so people see something tangible. And make sure you clearly explain exactly what the prospect needs to do to request what it is you are offering.

In my next post, I’ll go into more detail about how to craft your offer.