A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation. He is doing his best in everything he does and leave others to determine whether he’s working or playing. To himself he always seems to be doing both.
Learn the rules to break like a pro
Deeply understanding the principles that have come before you will allow you to innovate effectively.
Measure What Matters
Every time you run a campaign there has to be some way to measure it, whether it including a phone number, an email address or a web address to respond to, there must be some way to measure the response to the add.
Questions to Niche It Down
Who has the most RFM (recency, frequency and monetary) value?
Sometimes underutilized assets are right under your nose
Look everywhere and dig deeper.
5 key principles of direct response marketing
- Marketing is about psychology. What moves your market?
- There’s nothing wrong with shortcuts. If there’s a proven research and method, use it.
- If something is already working, don’t reinvent the wheel.
- Swipe files are your secret weapon.
- Rules and techniques developed back in 1900s are still relevant and effective.
Take calculated risk and build of previous success before you reinvent the wheel
Follow anecdotal evidence, remember consistency and discipline are everything in DRM.
9 Practices for Direct Mail
- Use content strategically.
- Deploy the best copywriters and designers.
- Find out what’s missing from your campaign.
- Sweat the small stuff.
- Use consequential thinking (how will your prospect consume what you send?)
- Can the prospect follow your logic throughout the promotion?
- Do you care about your customers?
- Give those customers and prospects a reason to care.
- Understand the language of customers.
40/40/20
40% of a campaign’s success relies on list selection, 40% on the offer, 20% on the creativity.
Never outsource your copy and creativity to amateurs. Instead find or develop these characteristics:
- Hunger
- Curiosity
- Smarts
- Passion
- Understanding direct marketing principles
- Humility
- How they share their success
Copywriters are like canaries in the coal mines; they know what’s happening in the market long before anyone else does.
The most dangerous number in business is “1”.
If you’re only marketing to one channel, you’re risking the long-term viability of your business.
A smaller channel with a higher LTV is always preferable to a larger channel with lower LTV.
Meet customers at multiple touch points.
Customers don’t just use one channel to get all their information. Market across different channels.
Key metrics of multichannel marketing
- LTV
- Customer acquisition costs
- Attribution
- Conversion
Customer service is the marketing after marketing
It’s much easier to keep existing customers and to increase their LTV than to acquire new ones.
Marketers sell subscriptions, customer service sell renewals
Listening and interacting with your customers face-to-face will give you more actionable insights than any spreadsheet or report could ever do.
Staying in business for a lifetime requires knowing your numbers.
LTV allows you to gauge how much you can afford to acquire customers
Relationship capital is an investment for lifetime
Beyond intentional dinners, there’re 5 simple ways:
- Embrace competition as coexistence
- Don’t make your lawyer rich
- Remember someone’s always watching
- Send Christmas cards in July (avoid the scripts)
- Stay humble, even when you think you’ve it all
Key Takeaways
- Treat people with care and respect they deserve.
- Make great offers that will truly serve them.
- Invest in world-class creativity that will communicate and resonate as individuals.
- Run your campaigns by numbers.
- Never be afraid to dip deep into original source material.
- Always keep RFM and LTV top of mind.
- Diversify your marketing across multiple channels.
- Play fair and play for the long run. You’ll sleep better this way.