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By Pat Friesen
What's the difference between direct response copy and creative for front-end prospects vs. back-end customers? In a nut shell, it's the credibility you have with your audience—or how you establish it and then use it to your advantage.
Your customer knows your company and hopefully trusts it. He or she has a relationship with your company. You've already met or surpassed your customer's expectations. But a prospect is daring you to: "Show me."
What does this mean as you're developing the creative strategies for your direct response advertising? To answer that question, start by defining your objective, including the audience(s) you want to reach. Are you targeting customers, prospects or both? To reach both effectively and efficiently, create at least two versions of your direct mail piece, e-mail, etc. Otherwise, you're missing one of the greatest opportunities to maximize response and return on your advertising investment.
Which type(s) of media should you use to reach your objective? As an example, package and statement inserts are best for reaching customers, while Yellow Page ads attract prospects. With direct mail lists, you can rent or trade lists of prospects and use your house file to talk to customers. The same applies to e-mail.
After selecting the media, decide how you're going to capture the attention of your audience. It's especially important to understand and capitalize on the credibility you have with your targeted audience. A customer may recognize, seeing your company's name and logo. When that customer sees your return address on the outside of an envelope or your company name as the sender of an e-mail, hopefully there's automatic anticipation. The more times a customer has bought from you, the stronger your credibility and the more likely your message will be read.
Some Reminders
Following are some key points to keep in mind:
• Include your company name and logo on every component in a mailing. It doesn't need to be large; in fact, it should not be the focus of the piece but merely a "signature," a gentle reminder of who you are. You never know which piece(s) will get retained for later action.
• With a customer, you may not need to devote as much copy describing your company and why it's "the expert." At the same time, never assume. For example, many catalogers have a tag line that appears under the catalog name as a reminder of its area of authority (e.g., "Purveyors of Fine Food"). Even if you're not a cataloger, you may want to have a line of copy that reminds customers of the domain in which you're the authority—something to include in letters, brochures and other communications.
What's the difference between direct response copy and creative for front-end prospects vs. back-end customers? In a nut shell, it's the credibility you have with your audience—or how you establish it and then use it to your advantage.
Your customer knows your company and hopefully trusts it. He or she has a relationship with your company. You've already met or surpassed your customer's expectations. But a prospect is daring you to: "Show me."
What does this mean as you're developing the creative strategies for your direct response advertising? To answer that question, start by defining your objective, including the audience(s) you want to reach. Are you targeting customers, prospects or both? To reach both effectively and efficiently, create at least two versions of your direct mail piece, e-mail, etc. Otherwise, you're missing one of the greatest opportunities to maximize response and return on your advertising investment.
Which type(s) of media should you use to reach your objective? As an example, package and statement inserts are best for reaching customers, while Yellow Page ads attract prospects. With direct mail lists, you can rent or trade lists of prospects and use your house file to talk to customers. The same applies to e-mail.
After selecting the media, decide how you're going to capture the attention of your audience. It's especially important to understand and capitalize on the credibility you have with your targeted audience. A customer may recognize, seeing your company's name and logo. When that customer sees your return address on the outside of an envelope or your company name as the sender of an e-mail, hopefully there's automatic anticipation. The more times a customer has bought from you, the stronger your credibility and the more likely your message will be read.
Some Reminders
Following are some key points to keep in mind:
• Include your company name and logo on every component in a mailing. It doesn't need to be large; in fact, it should not be the focus of the piece but merely a "signature," a gentle reminder of who you are. You never know which piece(s) will get retained for later action.
• With a customer, you may not need to devote as much copy describing your company and why it's "the expert." At the same time, never assume. For example, many catalogers have a tag line that appears under the catalog name as a reminder of its area of authority (e.g., "Purveyors of Fine Food"). Even if you're not a cataloger, you may want to have a line of copy that reminds customers of the domain in which you're the authority—something to include in letters, brochures and other communications.
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