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Direct mail principles apply to a variety of marketing challenges. For example, direct mail can be used to make a trade show exhibit a success. If you are unknown to your attendees, you must give prospects a compelling reason to visit your booth. Let me show you how I helped one company—IPRO­—use direct mail to drive prospects to their booth.

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3-d · Direct Mail · Direct Marketing · Direct Response

You may remember in your last issue, I told you about embedding links in copy, the first of three key Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies that often get overlooked when developing websites and landing pages.

In this issue, we are going to talk about a second of these key strategies…

Commonly overlooked SEO strategy #2: Formatting your key words

Whenever possible, consider making your keywords and keyword phrases bold or italic.

By adding this extra formatting, you will help search engines like Google understand that the word in bold or italic is one of your key words.

However, be careful to do this while at the same time keeping your content editorially sound. In other words, don’t make it blatantly obvious to your readers that you are highlighting keywords or they may be turned off to it.

Formatting your key words may seem like a pretty simple idea, but it can make a major difference in where your site gets placed in the listings.

In your next full issue, I’ll share another highly successful but regularly unused SEO strategy.

My team and I have extensive experience creating SEO strategies that garner the maximum results. If you want to boost your response, email me at craig@cdmginc.com or give me a call at 310-212-5727.

Direct Marketing · key word · Search engine optimization · SEO · Web strategy

If you are like many readers, you haven’t read every word of this email. Instead you scanned it until something interesting caught your eye.

It works the same way for prospects reading your website. They don’t read your web pages word by word. They scan them and focus on individual words, phrases or sentences.

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Copy tip · copywriters · copywriting · Direct Marketing · primacy · saliency

In last week’s bonus issue, I discussed the importance of seasonality to the success of your marketing and how to plan for it.

Today, I want to talk a little about the idea of tying seasonality directly to your marketing and using it in your emails in order to boost sales by making your messaging and your offers more urgent.

The idea is to use holidays and other seasonal events as a tie-in to your offer and a reason to purchase your product now.

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Direct Mail · Direct Marketing · Seasonality

Looking to double sales for their Personal Choice program, Blue Cross and Blue Shield United of Wisconsin created a new direct response program. They tested two different direct mail options.

The first solution was a traditional mailing package. It made use of a 2-color, 2-sided, 9 x 6 envelope; a 2-color, 2-sided letter with a detachable response form; and a glossy 4-color, 3-panel brochure. The package also included a 2-sided lift note and a business reply envelope.

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Direct Mail · Direct Marketing · Testing corner

You know you need direct mail and you know you need email…but do you know how to make these channels work together?

Integrated campaigns boost response, increase sales and result in a higher average order value.

But the solution is not as simple as just redesigning your mail into email format. Here are 4 bright ideas for putting your email to work for better mail response…

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Direct Mail · Direct Marketing · Direct Response · email · Integrated Marketing

To make it easy for web searchers to find your site, you have to play by the SEO rules. The concept of SEO is designed to separate the spammers from the true content creators. Over the next few issues, we’ll take a look at simple but important tips to help improve your SEO.

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3 Commonly overlooked SEO strategies · Search engine optimization · SEO · web · Web strategy · websites

Your goal as a copywriter is to convince prospects that your product or service is right for them. You must leave no room for them to think, “I understand what this is…but do I really need to have this now?”

In other words, your copy must answer the burning question “What’s in it for me?”

A simple way to qualify your audience is to ask the question “Who relies on [Product Name]?” or “Who needs [Product Name]?” Then show photos of people in your target audience and list how certain groups benefit from what you’re selling.

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Copy tip · copywriting · Direct Marketing

I’ve written extensively on the potential conversion increase you can get by adding a floater to your website or landing pages. (Read past Direct Marketing Update articles: Little-known ways to double or triple your online leads and Do floaters really work?)

Here’s more proof that the floater increases sign-ups…

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Direct Marketing · floater · Lead generation · online marketing · pop-up · Testing corner · Web strategy · websites