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Connecting With Customers
One key to successful direct marketing is to make each individual customer feel special as though you share a special bond with one another. “In the marketplace as in theater, there is indeed a factor at work called ‘the willing suspension of disbelief,’” wrote legendary copywriter Bill Jayme.
For example, if you use direct mail, heed the advice of the late Harry Walsh. “The tone of a good direct mail letter is as direct and personal as the writer’s skill can make it,” Walsh wrote. “Even though it may go to millions of people, it never orates to a crowd, but rather murmurs into a single ear. It’s a message from one letter writer to one letter reader.”
When I was running Target Marketing, I frequently received calls from eager, young newbies asking, “What is the ideal number of times to contact a customer during the year?”
“Only when you can make a great offer should you bother the customer,” I would always respond. “Your job is to make every customer interaction seem like Christmas morning.”
And, as Throckmorton wrote, “Whatever you say, however you say it, however you present it, first ask, ‘Does this make sense to the customer?’”
Denny Hatch is a freelance direct marketing consultant and copywriter. Visit him at www.dennyhatch.com, or contact him via e-mail at dennyhatch@yahoo.com.
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