ARTICLES

Understanding perturbation is important for direct marketers. When things are calm in a person’s life they are content with the status quo. They see no reason to change their habits. This makes it difficult for marketers who want people to shift allegiance.

On the other hand when someone is disturbed or upset they are significantly more open to look at alternatives to every aspect of their lives. Among the most stressful things in life are selling your home, dealing with a new mortgage (the bigger it is the higher the stress level), buying a new home and moving. When you add them together you have a high level of perturbation. Continue reading “Perturbation – Mental Disquiet, Disturbance or Agitation”

Not every offer justifies a telephone follow-up call. If you’re sending out a catalog, it will never be profitable.

But many offers do justify an outbound follow-up phone call. Continue reading “Outbound Calls After a Mailing Has Been Received”

Most companies have spent tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, building their house list. This list is usually comprised of several sub-categories:

1. Active Customers: traditionally a customer that has made a purchase within the past 12-24 months. Continue reading “Maximize the Revenue From Your House List”

Most people involved with direct marketing do not expect to make money from a mailing … unless they are mailing to an established customer.

It is very costly to send out mailings to generate new customers, new donors and sales leads. Look in your mail today. You might see a mailing from an insurance company offering a month’s insurance for $1. Lots of non-profits ask for very small donations to get you started, and a great many offer free premiums … name and address labels, greeting cards or other items. Continuity clubs typically make wonderful upfront offers — receive volume 1 free, get 5 cds for 99 cents, etc. Continue reading “Swap Names with Non-Competitive Companies”

Families who have had a child in the last 12 months are three times more likely to take out Life Insurance. That’s the conclusion of a research project recently conducted in the UK.

But there’s more. New parents are three times more likely to get a mortgage. They are twice as likely to change cars and 20% of them will take out new homeowners insurance and/or new auto insurance.

And first time parents are seven times more likely to buy a house. Continue reading “Don’t Underestimate the Importance of Mailing to New Parents”

Years ago many direct mailers, especially insurance companies, would use LOR (length of residency) as a critical element in their mailing list selection criteria.

Statistics prove that the longer a person has lived in their house, the older they are. And for most mail-order insurance offers, age is critical. Continue reading “Length of Residency”

Deluxe versions are not applicable to every product. But we have found they (a) increase the total number of orders (b) increase the average order.

The easiest way to offer a deluxe version is to change the packaging. If you’re selling a book for $19.95, a deluxe version might be a hard cover version for $24.95. Or a hard cover book in a sleeve. Or add a ribbon bookmark that’s attached to the binding. Continue reading “Increase Your Sales with Deluxe Versions”

For years there has been a strong demand for pre-movers … people planning to move. This was prompted by moving companies, who wanted to pitch the pre-mover on their upcoming moves. When online surveys became popular, companies started asking “are you planning to relocate within the next three months?” Those names became the first pre-mover lists.

Unfortunately, too often these were young people to whom moving meant getting a couple of friends, a pick-up truck, a pizza and six-pack. Continue reading “How to Market to Pre Movers”

I previously wrote about risk reversal. When a prospect buys your product or service, he is taking a risk. Maybe it won’t work. Maybe it isn’t as described. Maybe he won’t like it.

If you want his order, you must assume the risk. After all, you’re the company that stands to profit from the transaction, and you know the quality of your product or service.

There are other ways to entice prospects into becoming customers. When you go to the local boutique and buy something … take it home and decide it isn’t what you want … you can take it back and get a refund or a “store” credit. Continue reading “Guarantees and Incentives”

With over 20 million households moving every year, it’s impossible to ignore this direct marketing opportunity. It equates to around 50 million potential new customers per year.

New Movers represent an incredible market for thousands of companies to grow their businesses by gaining new customers. Continue reading “Everything You Wanted to Know About New Movers”