A Direct Marketing Primer for the Fortune 500
Lead generation and sales costs can be reduced dramatically by direct mail and coupon-carrying print advertising. Direct mail can also help to convert leads to sales. Support advertising in broadcast media can serve to reduce the cost-per-inquiry and cost-per-order from direct mail even farther. Accurate projections about direct marketing’s effectiveness can be made quickly from small market samples at low cost. The mailing list, the offer, and the promotional approach must be tested and measured when preparing advertising for a direct mail campaign. Several prototype lists in different high-potential markets should be tested. A productive list is then used to verify results and produce more leads or orders. A variety of offer options should be tested. Responses can be measured to determine which offer will result in the best bottom line. The creative approach covers all details of the campaign from the physical format of the mailing to the type of envelope used.
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Tighe, John Francis
Full text: [Direct Marketing] Aug 1983
WACKY WOODY ALLEN? THAT’S WHAT YOU THINK!
“Zelig,” [WOODY ALLEN]‘s latest release that opens Friday at the Sack Paris, is a prime example of Allen’s business acumen. He screened the film in late July for selected critics to assure a certain pre- release word-of-mouth. The initial advertising campaign featured the title in various script styles and the names of the cast. After the initial reviews appeared, Allen hand-picked favorable review quotes and integrated them into the titles. It is a simple, direct advertising campaign aimed at those loyal Allen fans who supported his earlier work. “That’s the key to understanding Woody Allen,” said Mike Medavoy, executive with Orion Pictures and formerly with United Artists. “He needs the independence to make and market his pictures. He doesn’t see them as products to be produced and then handed over to marketing and publicity people. He believes that he understands his pictures and his audience better than anyone else, and he doesn’t want them advertised or promoted in a way that might be detrimental. He’s been successful doing it his way, so who’s to argue?” Medavoy paused. “You know [Annie Hall]‘ was the lowest-grossing film to ever win an Academy Award for Best Picture. It only grossed $20 million. But it only cost $4 million to make. Woody the artist knows the financial limitations of Woody the businessman.” Since Allen’s audience is basically more urbane and sophisticated than the crowd that lines up for “Porky’s,” he isn’t required to create a splashy advertising campaign. “People who see Woody Allen films just want to know that a Woody Allen film is in town,” said Mark Rosenthal, former field publicist for United Artists. “You don’t need a massive television campaign or publicity stunts with Woody’s movies. He keeps his advertising budget way down so there’s no waste.”
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Michael Blowen Globe Staff
Full text: [Boston Globe (pre-1997 Fulltext)] Aug 7, 1983
Telemarketing: A Sales Tool for Telecommunication Services
Canada’s major telephone companies are finding that marketing managers in the business community are using telemarketing to confront challenges posed by keener competition and rising marketing costs. Telcos also acknowledge the benefits of telemarketing to sell their own telecommunications services. The TransCanada Telephone System (TCTS) is the focus of much telemarketing activity, and its members sell telemarketing to the business community via the TCTS Phone Power sales group, whose consultants operate from telco offices across the country. In Ontario and Quebec, Bell Canada operates 2 telemarketing centers, and the TCTS central staff, located in Ottawa, conducts marketing, advertising, and sales campaigns for all members of the TCTS group. Recently, telemarketing techniques have been incorporated into several national campaigns, such as the direct response advertising program called ”35 ways to become more effective with long distance.” In the sales support area, telemarketers qualify leads received in response to various methods of advertising.
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Maher, G. R.
Full text: [Telephony] Aug 12, 1983
Agents Find Strength in Numbers
The typical New York agency has trouble competing against the huge advertising campaigns and pervasive branch office system of the direct writers, or with the major brokerage houses. Empire Associates thinks it has the key to survival in this environment. Empire is a limited partnership of 7 independent agencies with a combined premium volume of $50 million. Michael Keyes, managing partner of Empire Associates and president of Amsure Associates, feels that the partnership can open up new markets and allow for better coverage and prices for clients. The differences among the 7 participants was one of the factors that brought them together in a partnership. One of the members, Weghorn Agency of New York, has provided the agents of Empire Associates with many additional options, while helping broaden the group’s prospect base. Empire, looking to expand its service capabilities for clients, plans to develop a captive program for those looking to self-insure. In addition, Empire plans to put into effect a target marketing program, computerize its processing operation, and offer clients computerized risk analyses. As a group, Empire Associates currently represents about 40 carriers.
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Friedman, Sam
Full text: [The National Underwriter] Aug 19, 1983
Firm Commitment Aids Agency’s Account Growth
The Colgan Agency Inc. (Monongahela, Pennsylvania) averages 130 new personal lines accounts per month, with an estimated $500,000 in new premium volume annually. In 1979, a separate personal lines department was established. The success of this department is due to the company’s marketing plan, which is aimed at direct writers, as they write over 50% of the market in personal lines. It stresses the importance of sales techniques. Comparative advertising campaigns have been used. Prospects are given a 20-minute presentation by a sales representative. Once the policy has been written, the customers are asked for the expiration dates of the coverages written by other agencies, and for referrals. Cross-selling is emphasized to ensure that new customers will not remain monoline accounts.
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Svrcek, Thomas C.
Full text: [Rough Notes] Sep 1983
Telemarketing – How to Launch and Test Your Efforts
Publishers can launch telemarketing campaigns to improve advertising or subscription sales. Such marketing can be conducted in 2 ways: 1. inbound calls or 800 service, or 2. outbound calling. Asking a qualifying question is the key to success of telephone marketing efforts, and this question should determine the propect’s need for the product or service. The question must be tailored to fit the people who are being called. The phone survey can serve a variety of purposes, such as following up on non-buyers and gathering information. The professional phone operation should keep outside noise to a minimum, and the script that is used by the telephone salespeople must be geared to lead to a sale. Pre-writing research should reveal the best approach to selling the product or service. After the script has been written, it should be tested by reading it into a tape recorder. A good script is one that people will listen to from start to finish.
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Januz, Lauren
Full text: [Publishing Trade] Sep/Oct 1983
Targeting Your List to Increase Business, Sales (Part 1)
A symposium of 5 presidents of mail order companies recently discussed how to boost mail order business during difficult economic times. Generally, catalogers are beginning to see themselves as a distinct industry that is part of direct mail. More people are getting into the catalog business, the full life of catalogs is getting shorter, and there is more price competition in the field. In addition, catalogers are becoming more flexible to accommodate rapidly changing consumer tastes. There is a trend today in catalogs toward both generalization and specialization. However, catalogs should not become too specialized because this limits the new types of products that can be included. Catalogers cannot sell products in retail stores to test the price at which to sell their items, as there is no relationship between the 2 modes. Competition accounts for the wide range in prices for the same product from one catalog to the next.
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Edmund, Robert
Flaxenburg, Eric
Hahn, Alan
Schwartz, Harold
Teufel, Robert
Full text: [Direct Marketing] Sep 1983
Impact of Database Technology on List Life and List Usage
Database technology, using information overlays, can pinpoint high response segments in direct mail lists with poor or average response rates. Lists in a database format share information, making them smarter, more efficient, and less costly per response. Currently, lists are composed based upon multibuyers, value, sex, ZIP code, etc. Once a list has been used to the point where it is only of marginal value, a new list based upon ZIP code segmentation can be developed to locate high income census tracts within a ZIP code area. The old list can be rejuvenated by: 1. eliminating non-deliverable addresses, 2. making address corrections, or 3. adding telephone numbers. Common demographic overlays that can be added to these lists to boost the mail response rate include: 1. family member individual age ranges, 2. length of residence, 3. dwelling unit size, 4. multibuyers, and 5. individual wealth ratings.
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Dresden, Phillip N.
Full text: [Direct Marketing] Sep 1983
Customer Feedback Leads to Better Direct Mail
The art of writing effective direct mail lies in saying what the readers want to hear based upon feedback from years past. For example, one insurance company wanted to boost its mailing response rate. It did so by examining correspondence from policyowners. It found that they often mentioned their surprise that all insurance companies did not charge the same amount for the same coverage. The company used this message and quickly boosted its response rate. To get customers to air their views, several tactics can be used: 1. Send an after-the-sale questionnaire with an impressive cover letter and a stamped return envelope. 2. Use a similar telephone survey to query business customers and to draw out their opinions. 3. Visit the customer occasionally and interview him indirectly. 4. Use salespeople to discover what customers want. Customer research should be a continuous process because the market is constantly changing.
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Brock, Luther
Full text: [Direct Marketing] Sep 1983
How to Boost the Rate of Return on Direct Mail Surveys
The Bank of Wisconsin (Janesville) conducts at least 2 major research survey projects and numerous smaller ones each year on a $3,500 research budget. The bank’s major projects are done via direct mail. Response rates to the bank’s direct mail projects have ranged from 43% to 72%. The bank improved its direct mail project response rates by ensuring customer anonymity and by enclosing a gift with each questionnaire. Survey questions get better response when they are kept simple and when the survey itself does not exceed 3 pages. A space for comments should be left at the end of the survey. Segments should be separated by color. Mail surveys can be done without the bias and reluctance to provide information that often occurs in other types of surveys.
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Eastman, Jack B.
Full text: [Bank Marketing] Sep 1983
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