41 Test Ideas for Better Response

In search of ways to boost your response rates this year? Look no further. Here are a host of test ideas for you to consider. #1 Add the word FREE to your outer envelope teaser copy or to the subject line of your e-mail sales message. #2 Focus on "selling" your offer, not your product or service. Give your targeted audience a good reason to respond. #3 Let your customers choose how they want to respond (phone, mail, online, fax), and use this information for future two-way communications. #4 Study customer complaints as a source of breakthrough response-generating ideas. #5 Use double envelopes to reach multiple audiences at the same address and at the same time (meaning: glue/tip a smaller envelope on the outside of a larger one, or put one envelope inside the other; i.e. To the Lady of the House, To the Man of the House or To the Business Owner). #6 Eliminate or shorten voice mail menus and customer waiting time. #7 Focus on one major benefit that differentiates you from your competition. If you have several major benefits, create a series of mailings, ads or e-mail messages that focus on one major benefit at a time. #8 When you're budgeting for advertising remember that 20 percent of your customers produce 80 percent of your sales—identify that 20 percent, then budget and communicate accordingly. #9 Segment your customer and prospect audiences and create targeted messages to each audience (keeping in mind that the same product or service may have different benefits for different audience segments). #10 Know where the "hot spots" for highest readership are in your direct response advertising and use them effectively. #11 Studies show that ad headlines draw 28 percent more attention when placed in quotation marks. Why? Because it appears more important. #12 Never assume the decision-maker is the only individual with whom you need to communicate; decision-influencers can be door-openers to big sales. #13 Test a phone follow-up to non-respondents (especially within your customer base). #14 Offer a free sample to overcome the "I don't believe it" objection (i.e., soft as cashmere, look and feel of genuine leather, washable wool that doesn't shrink). #15 Keep it simple to respond whether by phone, fax, online or mail. #16 Create an off-season event (i.e., a Super Bowl Sunday Phone-Only Sale for "football widows"). #17 Use a two-step sale (lead generation and lead generation fulfillment kit for sales follow-up) for complex and high-ticket products and services. #18 Provide a special 800 number to your best customers to put them at the front of the queue with no voice mail menus and a real, live person to talk to right from the start. Promote it as a special Preferred Customer Only privilege. #19 Give people a reason to visit your Web site or pick up the phone and call NOW—use offers to create urgency and response. #20 Say "thank you" to gift-buyers with a no-strings-attached gift certificate for them to use. #21 Use the unexpected: Transform the flap side of an envelope into the addressing side, print your message on the back of an 8˝ x 10˝ photograph, run extra copies of the jacket of a book you're selling and print your sales letter on the back side, etc. #22 Offer and promote choices for payment; never assume your prospect or customer knows you accept purchase orders, money orders or five different credit cards. #23 Resurrect popular products from the past and sell them at a discount. #24 Always include your guarantee—and make it a benefit to your prospects and customers (helps fence-sitters hop off the fence!). #25 Put your deadline on the outside of your envelope or in the subject of your e-mail—especially when writing to customers. #26 Don't let the excitement of new technology divert you from what you know works. Instead, integrate proven ideas into new applications. #27 Make it fast and easy to respond by pre-filling response cards and order forms with as much information as you can. #28 Make sure to include a business reply envelope (BRE) whenever you ask for confidential information. #29 Reactivate catalog sales by sending a postcard with a reminder photo of the most recent catalog mailed and a strong offer for orders placed by a quickly approaching deadline. #30 Print your Web site address and 800 phone number on everything. #31 Change the color of the outer envelope of your control mail package (leave everything else the same). #32 Dramatically minimize time required to download sales information and graphics at e-commerce sites. #33 Send immediate cross-sell and/or upgrade bounceback offers after making a sale; happy, satisfied customers are more likely to buy again. #34 Use stores, online and print catalogs to reinforce each other—you never know where your customer may start window shopping, or through which medium he or she will ultimately buy. #35 Include a deadline in your offer (along with a believable explanation for it). #36 Invest in saying, "thank you"—every customer communication doesn't have to generate a sale. #37 Always follow up on returned merchandise and customer complaints whether by mail, phone, fax or e-mail. An unhappy or dissatisfied customer is your worst advertising. #38 Use direct mail to generate Web site traffic; use e-mail to pre-announce important customer mailings. #39 Product photos with a human or human element in them attract more attention and generate more response than those without. #40 Update e-commerce sites often; 80 percent of Web site visitors are repeats and timely information is the number one reason people give for visiting Web sites. #41 Develop a memorable direct response message and reinforce it in all media. For ideas, check out how Martha Stewart does it through her magazines, TV shows and catalogs. She's a master (or is it mistress?) at integrating her advertising message into all media in an interesting and useful manner.

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41 Test Ideas for Better Response

Pat Friesen

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