Direct Mail Strategy: Ready, Set, Action!
Play up your call to action to boost response
July 2006 By Pat Friesen
|
How. Obvious as it may seem to you, you need to tell your readers exactly how to respond. For example, if you want them to call, tell them to call and provide the phone number. And make sure the phone number is easy to find, easy to read and easy to refer to later. Show it in more than one place and make sure to place it close to the call to action, if it’s not already part of it. Put it in at least one “hot spot.” Hot spots are where the eye goes first. Remember, response diminishes when your reader has to search for the information needed to respond.
For example, the call to action copy in the Southwest Airlines self-mailer, “3 Easy Steps to Take 15% Off” (shown on page 17), does an excellent job of explaining what could be a complex response concept. It uses a subhead and bulleted copy to explain how easy it is to book a reservation online and qualify for a special 15 percent discount.
Bonus
Here are four additional tips to make your call to action even more effective.
1. Start your call to action with an active verb such as rush, renew, register, call, visit, preview, check, reserve, mail, send, hurry, act, save, win, invest. Make it clear you want the reader to do something—the more persuasive and benefit-oriented, the better.
2. Make your call to action stand out so it’s easy to see and easy to refer to later. Use bold-face type, underlining, contrasting colored ink or a visual violator. Your goal should be to create a call to action that’s one of the first pieces of copy to get read.
3. Rephrase and repeat the call to action. Because you don’t know where your reader’s eye will go first, include your call to action in more than one place. You never know which page(s) get read, or where your reader will start or stop reading. Not everyone starts reading at the top, then reads to the bottom of the page, or begins on the first page and reads straight through to the postscript. Studies show 30 percent of the population read magazines and catalogs back to front and 30 percent read the P.S. first.
Similarly, put a call to action on both sides of a postcard.
4. Put a call to action on your outer envelope or the outside panel of a self-mailer, when appropriate. It helps set reader expectations for what’s inside. For example, if your teaser copy doubles as a call to action stating, “First 50 to Register Save $200,” there’s a good chance recipients opening and reading your mail piece already are thinking about being among those first 50 responders.
Don’t be shy, retiring or demure. An appropriately strong, specific, compelling call to action is the one that generates the most response.
Pat Friesen is president of Pat Friesen & Co. She can be reached at (913) 341-1211 or friesen_pat@hotmail.com.
Page 1 | 2
Companies Mentioned:
 |
|
|
Secrets of Direct Marketing Testing
PURLs for Profit