Good ad: raising response rates in direct marketing

I ask that question in the subject, because it really doesn’t actually do very much to me.

I don’t really get the point of the opening (“Hello Mr Anthony Attwood”). “Dear Tony” does indeed make me think this might be from a friend or a company we have dealt with before, or indeed a reader of this news service. So that does draw me in.

But then, with those “Dear Tony” letters and emails which are just sales chit chat, I get rather annoyed because I have been tricked.

And as for “Dear Anthony” that doesn’t work because no one calls me Anthony although it is my full name. And “Hello Mr Anthony Attwood”… well, it just falls dead flat.

The rest of the piece goes down hill from this point on. If you have been reading the series on the DMS news group (also reproduced on www.blog.hamilton-house.com) you’ll know that I really do think we need to grab the reader and excite the reader. Does this do it? Not for me.

I have taken out the sender’s name to avoid any thought that I am attacking a single company. I am not – emails like this arrive every day. Meanwhile if you want to know more about how we would do this, call 01536 399 000, or take a look at www.hamilton-house.com which has a review of our services.

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Hello Mr Anthony Attwood

My name is xxxxxx xxxxxxxx, and I run a company called xxxxxxxx xxx xxxxxxxx in Milton Keynes. For many years we have created software systems for businesses in this area, and we have created some very exciting programs which I would like you to know about.

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Hamilton House Mailings Ltd reg number 2444392 VAT 354907535GB. Phone 01536 399 000.

The organisation that day after day produces the best subject lines I ever seen on emails is…

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Each day they send out an email highlighting an update from their research, and each has the most fabulous subject line.

Here are a few recent ones

Contempt without Coarseness
Lean may be mean
Live while you live
Friendly advice, nursery discipline
Pawky, dour, charmless
MGeorgicks and Bucolicks
Glamour with bonnets
White Horseman, Apocalypse
His finch wit did clinch it
Mrs Yelverton, she presumed
Good, average
Jigs and jests
With steely indentation

To show just how good these are, consider this. I get the Oxford DDNB update each day, and to create my list above I just searched my email backlist for “Oxford”. Inevitably tucked among those emails were emails from other companies with Oxford in their name. Their subject lines included…

Winter menu “dine out” promotion
Make today your lucky day
Free drinks for our loyal customers!

I think that shows the difference. Even if the headline has little to do with your product or service, go for the unusual, as it will get the email opened.

If you would like to talk about how Hamilton House works, please call us on 01536 399 000 or see www.hamilton-house.com There is a record of our past posts on this news group on www.goodad.co.uk or you can follow us on Twitter @HHMailings.

Hamilton House Mailings Ltd reg number 2444392 VAT 354907535GB. Phone 01536 399 000.

Welcome to 2012 – the start of a new year.

The fact is that although it looks a bit silly in isolation, it was sent out by a fairly large organisation.

Not only does it say nothing by way of drawing the reader in, exciting the reader, and making the reader want to go further, it just makes the reader think, “there’s nothing here for me,” and the delete button is hit.

The fact is that you have to work hard to get people to read your emails. There is a whole series of articles on how you can do this appearing on the Hamilton House blog at www.blog.hamilton-house.com – I hope you find them helpful.

If you would like to discuss any element of your marketing, please do call 01536 399 000.

Hamilton House Mailings Ltd reg number 2444392 VAT 354907535GB. Phone 01536 399 000.

I do love the way spammers announce to me that they are spammers by using silly language. Here’s an extreme example…

Hello dear member,

Your account is suspended due to the number of incorrect login attempts.

Of course I would know that the message was a fake since I don’t have an account with the bank that they quote, but even so, it is nice of them to be so overt in the fact that they are a bunch of (not very bright) crooks.

You can go back and read some of our other reviews on www.goodad.co.uk Broader direct marketing matters are covered on www.blog.hamilton-house.com and you can follow us on Twitter @HHMailings

Tony

Hamilton House Mailings Ltd reg number 2444392 VAT 354907535GB. Phone 01536 399 000.

This text first appeared on www.blog.toppled.info

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At social gatherings it is common to find that the way your fellow guests treat you will always follow how you respond to the question: “and what do you do for a living?” Depending on your answer you will either end up being ignored, lambasted, pitied or lionised for the rest of the evening.

If tired out from a hard day’s golf and you simply want to eat yourself under the table in silence, being ignored will be your modus operandi of choice. I have found that offering myself as the curator of a small local history museum at least 50 miles away does the trick. If someone else pinches my selection I gracefully move over to being a manufacturer of trouser presses.

If one fancies a fight on the other hand, then the role of either traffic warden, or being the local official responsible for setting the region’s council tax usually works, while to be pitied, perhaps with the intent of cadging a lift home with one of the more dominating members of the ensemble, one might opt for the role of dog walker or junior assistant of a children’s nursery.

But for most of us the fun really starts when one wishes to be the centre off attention. If you are stunningly good looking, phenomenally rich, a film star or a popular recording artiste with several number 1 hits to your name, then invention is hardly necessary – but in case not, here are a few inventions that are currently doing the rounds on my dinner party circuit.

Claiming to work for military intelligence is a good one (but avoid slang terms like MI5 or MI6 – its a dead giveaway). For maximum effect dismiss the interest your confession creates with an indifferent wave of the hand while pointing out that the current North Korean situation is really rather dull fare, and you are sure much more exciting things happen at the Membury Axminster Heritage Centre, and anyway shouldn’t we be discussing the latest MRSA outbreak at the local general hospital?

Working on the team for the next British unmanned space probe to Titan is a possibility if you’ve read enough Arthur C Clarke, especially if you can do a good narrative about underwater creatures the size of power stations. I heard a lady in Bournemouth add that the moon’s sea life was the least of their worries on a world where it “regularly rains lighter fuel” which I thought was a nice touch.

Closer to home, working for Prince Charles as stunt manager can put you at the head of the table all night especially when you point out that so many of the projects never get off the ground, either because of media interference, political considerations of the fact that His Royal Highness simply didn’t fancy six months in a peat bog in Guatemala.

Tony Attwood

PS: Working in a direct marketing company that is considered something of an expert in the world of blogs, emails and postal campaigns puts me at the boring end of the list – but still, we can’t have it all. So any other suggestions for how I might overcome my dinner party difficulties are always welcome. For work related issues please call 01536 399 000.

Hamilton House Mailings Ltd reg number 2444392 VAT 354907535GB. Phone 01536 399 000.

Many firms use bold in odd places in their adverts, perhaps around their concept or around their company name.

I am not quite sure why they do this, but I suspect it is because there is a belief that somehow people will get the name hammered into their heads and so remember it as a brand.

Unfortunately it doesn’t work this way – in fact what it does is distract the reader and actually encourages the reader to hit delete or turn away from the advert.

What skimmers do when reading an ad is not look for the bold, but rather look at the first four words of each line, which is why this advert below does not work.

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A credible website design and development is must for a potential business process that looks forward to grow and stay competitive. But what makes your website such a winning tool for your business? In short, it should be informative, user friendly and attractive to the end user. So, it is essential to exercise much prudence in finding a competent website designer and developer to reflect your service and/or product esteem to the web pages.

Now, where to get the best website designers? As money is always the prime factor in considering upon some deal, most likely the cheap website designing companies are in demand to the market. But the same time a common notion is that, the word “Cheap” never goes along with “Quality”. Then should you essentially compromise with the one? Not really. There are a number of affordable website developers doing business online to support their global clientele with superior service quality.

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It goes on at some length – I won’t bore you with the rest, but you can see what the writer is trying to do. It looks reasonable, but it actually has the opposite effect from that which you wish.

You can read more adverts on www.goodad.co.uk or follow us on Twitter @HHMailings

Hamilton House Mailings Ltd reg number 2444392 VAT 354907535GB. Phone 01536 399 000.

Look at this for an opening to an email, which arrived today. (It wasn’t in italics – that is just me showing “this is the ad I am talking about”).

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Are you generating enough business from your email campaigns?
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It is simply dull. And so it is not surprising if people switch off at this point.

It is a very simple rule: in marketing you just can’t afford to be dull.

Hamilton House Mailings Ltd reg number 2444392 VAT 354907535GB. Phone 01536 399 000.

At last an advert I really like. I started thinking it was no good because I thought the original stat was wrong, and in fact I still think it is wrong. But I kept reading.

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Did you know that we spend 60% of our waking hours at work? That’s a lot of hours! This means that in order to reach our 5 a day fruit and veg eating target, we should be eating 3 of our 5 a day at work.

We work with businesses across the country who have found workplace fruit to be an easy, low cost but highly beneficial employee health and wellbeing initiative. Making fruit available at work means that we are more likely to reach for an energy boosting banana than something full of fat and calories from the vending machine helping everyone towards a more productive and fruitful day.

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A different approach, and I think it works.

Tony
Hamilton House Mailings Ltd reg number 2444392 VAT 354907535GB. Phone 01536 399 000.

This ad, despite everything, really does work – so I thought I would put it here as well. Apologies if you already subscribe to Creative Direct, as you will see this twice.

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This advert appeared around all sorts of images that were blocked by my computer – in short it was the only part of the page that was visible.

Normally such adverts, which are totally dominated by the blanked out illustrations, don’t work at all. This one (although I am dubious about the product, in the extreme, and the claims – on the grounds that the only way to diet is to eat less and exercise more) actually made me interested. (But not enough to click the button!)

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Beyoncé uses it and the American College of Nutrition swears by it..but what is it?

It is of course the Lemon Juice Diet. However the main draw back of this diet was drinking all that sour lemon juice…that is until now. What’s changed? Find out by clicking here…

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So why does it work? Because at the start it is enigmatic in the way that “Are you looking to lose some weight this year?” would not be. It draws you in.

The using of the name of a pop start and organisation that I have never heard of are helpful, but not nearly so much as that opening enigma.

Enigma, I think, does a huge amount for any ad.

You can read all our advert reviews on www.goodad.co.uk

Tony Attwood

Hamilton House Mailings Ltd reg number 2444392 VAT 354907535GB. Phone 01536 399 000.