What Direct Marketers Can Learn From Fashion Designer
Jhane Barnes

While shopping with my family at a local outlet mall I happened upon a store called Jhane Barnes. For those who don’t know, and I was one of them, she is one of the most progressive designers of men’s clothes. She uses sophisticated mathematical algorithms to create her designs, then combines color, texture, weave and fabrics to make one-of-a-kind men’s fashions.

What struck me is how important this strategy is to direct marketers. E-mail gives us the ability to excite readers with color, sound and motion. Direct mail enables us to use the sense of touch to create a tactile experience.

That’s why I often recommend the use of unique paper stocks with patterns, and the use of more interactive elements such as pull-open windows. I also believe that mailers using unique shapes, colors and sizes to leverage the power of touch can garner more attention than those that do not.

In eMarketing, we’re moving to personalized streaming audio e-mail—the closest thing to one-to-one TV advertising the Internet currently offers. Using sound to create mental pictures and integrating data elements into the script —such as name, city or product—can create dramatic results.

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Using Offers to Improve Direct Marketing Success

One of the best ways to improve the results of your online and offline direct marketing campaigns is to change your offer to generate inquiries from the market.

There are three types of offers that can be used for lead generation programs:

• Hard offer: A hard offer invites the prospect to purchase before a certain date to receive a product discount, product add-on, free or discounted service or other product-related extra.
• Qualifying soft offer: Soft offers consist of free information related to the needs or interests of a target prospect group and are designed to identify a respondent as qualified if the information is requested. This can be a free booklet, guide, checklist, demo CD, video, etc.
• Super soft offer: This option is designed to force an immediate response to a message and to overcome the natural tendency to delay response due to other more pressing demands on time and attention. Super soft offers include free gifts such as a T-shirt, camera, key chain, entry into a sweepstakes, or other gift.

Your offer type is equal to the weave of a fishing net.
The harder your offer, the more loosely woven your net. It will generate fewer prospects, but those who do respond will be highly qualified. The softer your offer, the more response your program will deliver. Although some respondents will be highly qualified, the super soft offer can generate unqualified leads as well.

Offers are an important means to an end.
Your goal is to make sales, and to make sales, you must first build a database. The type of offer you choose for a campaign should be based on the value of a sale along with the lifetime value of a new customer. The more valuable or profitable your product, the more you can afford to invest to generate response. Today's near-zero-cost eRelationship marketing can be very profitable using a super soft offer to build a permission e-mail prospect database.

Make sure your offer aligns with your company's ability to qualify responders.
The capability of your systems to capture and qualify leads should also be considered when determining whether to make a soft or hard offer. More advanced and comprehensive systems are needed to handle the high-velocity lead generation that would result from a soft offer. Like every other aspect of direct marketing, appropriate offers should be tested.

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Strategic Essentials for Lead Generation Campaigns

The topic of strategic planning for sales lead generation campaigns is so broad that SparkSuccess could dedicate a dozen issues to the subject and not cover it all. However, here are five major types of information needed to start the process:

1. What are your (and your competitors') strengths and weaknesses?
2. What size is your market, and how easy or difficult is it to reach?
3. What are your sales objectives and product average sales prices (this is necessary to accurately back into your lead quantity goals and marketing budgets)?
4. How does your organization close sales, and why do you win or lose sales opportunities?
5. How can you develop a unique selling proposition that differentiates your organization from the competition?

Developing Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
A USP is an essential sales and marketing tool for your company. Deborah Henken, marketing director of IQ.com, provides this tool as a starting point for writing your firm's USP. Fill in the blanks and see if you can develop a compelling USP statement that is 30 words or less!

To: (Name your target audience)

Who are looking for: (Define the problem or pain to be solved)

Our product is: (Describe your product)

Which provides: (List your product benefits)

Unlike the competitive product that: (State the point of difference or weakness with the competitive product)

Our product: (Describe your product's unique strengths or advantages)

Final thoughts on strategic planning come from the words of General George S. Patton, who said it best:

I have studied the enemy all my life. I have read the memoirs of his generals and his leaders. I have studied in detail all of his battles. I know exactly how he'll react under any circumstance. So when the time comes, I'm going to whip the hell out of him.

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Focus Your Site on its Primary Purpose

Last year, 30 marketing leaders gathered to hear the wisdom of permission marketing guru Seth Godin, tucked away in his high-tech loft on the banks of the Hudson River in New York. Kern Direct President Russell Kern had the honor of reinforcing Seth's permission marketing principles by demonstrating how Kern Direct takes Seth's concepts and makes them a reality.

Here are some of the key points from his presentation:

Think through the real goal of your Web site. Focus on the single most important step you want your visitor to take. Don't confuse them or put up roadblocks to make them do more work than is necessary to accomplish your primary objective.

Make it easy for a prospect to provide a first permission. Since one of the most important goals is to capture an e-mail address for future communications, don't make your prospect fill out a thousand questions at the beginning or conclusion of your Web site.

There are only four marketing goals for any site:
1. Make a sale.
2. Gain first permission.
3. Deepen the permission to learn more about the customer.
4. Send to a friend.

What is your goal?

Make your splash page clear. Your splash page must motivate the visitor to look inside.

Keep headlines to a maximum of seven words. People spend only three seconds on a page, so use headlines to describe the benefit or action to be taken on that page.

Maximize the value of your "thank-you page" by including a secondary offer or redirecting a prospect somewhere else you want them to go to advance the sale.

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E-mail vs. Snail Mail

In spite of today's active focus on electronic marketing, good old-fashioned direct mail promotions continue to drive cost-effective results and produce high-quality leads.

In head-to-head comparisons of e-mail campaigns against direct mail campaigns, we have found a major consistency: Although e-mail is faster and less expensive, direct mail campaigns generate 25% to 50% better lead quality. In addition, direct mail leads are much more likely to convert to sales.

With that said, my advice to marketers is the same now as it has always been: Deploy a mixed media strategy since each media plays its own vital role in the mix.

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Q&A on the E-mail Marketing Process

At the heart of every direct marketing campaign is the list, offer, channel and creative. E-mail is no different. However, e-mail marketing presents some production and content issues that differ from other marketing channels. For insight into some of these issues, Kern Direct asked Glenn Freedman and Lisa Horder from L.I.S.T. INCORPORATED, an established postal and e-mail list broker and management company, to provide their expertise. Here are their answers to some commonly asked questions:

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Three Permission E-mail Models to Help Retain Customers

The 1999 publication Permission E-Mail: The Future of Direct Marketing includes a valuable list of permission e-mail models designed to facilitate customer retention and acquire new customers. Here are the highlights:

1. Customer Relationship E-mail. Broadly defined and widely practiced, customer relationship e-mail is utilized by a company to invite its Web visitors to submit their e-mail address in order to receive announcements and/or promotional offers (much like SparkSuccess!).
2. Corporate Newsletter. This differs from relationship e-mail in that it follows a regular schedule and focuses on editorial content. A corporate newsletter usually consists of advice columns related to a company's industry or product line, customer service tips, community involvement, etc.
3. Reminder Service/Scheduled Alerts. With these offerings, customers can choose from an array of personalized services, such as birthday reminders and gift registries, to increase revenue for an eCommerce site. A replenishment notice, designed to remind a customer about a product that may soon need replacing, is another service that can be introduced to enhance revenue.*

*"Permission E-Mail: The Future of Direct Marketing," IMT Strategies, Inc., 1999

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Five Permission E-mail Models to Help Acquire Customers

There are many prospects out there, and many ways to convert them into one of your customers. Permission e-mail marketing provides five effective models to get the maximum results you need.

1. Permission List Marketing. Permission list companies cater to the interests of both consumer and marketer. Consumers who register with the service can choose to receive any category of commercial announcement. In turn, marketers buy access to those consumers from the service.
2. Sponsored Newsletter. Independent e-mail newsletters (like SparkSuccess) are now a popular medium for Web and print publishers like MSNBC, Wired and many others. Offering an HTML version with banner ad capabilities conveys a more cutting-edge and appealing look.
3. Sponsored Discussion List. Discussion lists can accommodate thousands of members, allowing subscribers access to every message posted on their subject of choice. Since the advent of e-mail, cyber discussion has become a popular platform for various topics of interest.
4. Advocacy Marketing. Otherwise known as "viral marketing," this is basically a friend-referring-a-friend program. This type of strategy is very well received when executed appropriately.
5. Partner Co-Marketing. This model entails a company sending messages to its own customer base on behalf of a specified partner. For example, an Amazon.com customer can be notified about offers from a partnering site such as Garden.com.**

**"Permission E-Mail: The Future of Direct Marketing," IMT Strategies, Inc., 1999

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Marketing Strategies for Internet Seminars

If you're thinking about using Internet seminars to generate leads, upsell existing customers, or enhance customer relationships and aren't sure where to start, here is an outline of tactics we've used successfully at Kern Direct for a number of our clients.

1. Your title, content and speakers will impact your results by up to 100%. Your seminar title is your event headline. Your content and your speakers are your offer. These elements are the reason someone will take time to RSVP and then set aside time to attend. Your first step is to provide a compelling reason for people to participate.
2. Speaker choice enhances your success. People want to hear from peers as well as experts. One of the most successful event structures is to have an industry guru share cutting-edge information, provide a case study from a peer, then provide a company-benefit presentation. In each category, be sure to choose a speaker who is engaging, knowledgeable and has a clear speaking voice.
3. Use Internet seminars to advance prospects through the sales process as well as generate leads. Consider the cost and sales effectiveness of demonstrating your product or giving a tour of your Web site, right on the attendees' desktops! Prospects in your sales pipeline can learn more about you, hear about your successes, and increase their confidence in your company. A well-positioned event also helps bring in new sales opportunities.
4. Maximize response and attendance rates by providing a two-part offer. The content of your event is your primary offer. By promoting free "giveaways," you motivate prospects to RSVP immediately. We have found that using a small offer, such as an additional white paper to anyone who RSVPs, then providing a larger offer, such as a book to all those who attend, will significantly enhance success.

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Technical Strategies for Internet Seminars

Once you have conducted the marketing activities necessary to generate registrations for your Internet seminar, make sure you cover these technical bases to ensure that the event runs flawlessly:

• Give yourself enough prep time. Send out your paper mail invitations six to eight weeks in advance, and e-mail invitations four to five weeks in advance. Using both invitation methods will maximize results.
• Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. An online seminar is a show. It's imperative that you rehearse in order to confirm the length of your speakers' talks, test how they sound (headsets provide the best quality) and double-check their PowerPoint presentations for typos. Also, a rehearsal will verify that the presenters can connect!
• Send a confirmation e-mail and periodically remind your registrants. Each reminder should include where and when the event will take place, along with detailed instructions on how to configure their systems to successfully attend. Then be sure that registrants check in early!
• Check your bandwidth and audio capabilities. Make sure you have the bandwidth to handle the sudden onslaught of traffic that will be making its way to your seminar site almost simultaneously. Many events send data over the Internet and audio over the phone, so if you plan to do audio streaming, know that your audience may not have the technology to accommodate it.
• Thank you, thank you! Make sure your registrants feel important — thank those who attended and those who did not. For registrants who missed the seminar, apologize and tell them where they can view the archived event. Remember: Only about 50% of all registrants attend — but those who do not are still valuable sales prospects.
• Don't forget to record the event. Have your online event recorded on CD for your archives and for repeat presentations.

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No Spam Permission Marketing

Permission marketing is a strong and effective tool for customer acquisition and nurturing. By asking yourself the following questions, you take an important first step in articulating your company's goals and learning how to make them work within the framework of permission e-mail models.

1. How big an investment do we need to make?
2. How will we integrate permission e-mail into our overall sales and marketing mix?
3. What are our primary permission e-mail program goals and objectives?
4. How do we manage exposure and navigate the gray area between permission and spam?
5. How do we convert existing customers to e-mail?***

*** "Permission E-Mail: The Future of Direct Marketing," IMT Strategies, Inc., 1999

Once you have answered the above questions, you can use the following tips to begin your program successfully.

1. Active acceptance is more important than passive inclusion. Presenting your prospects with a negative option is an outdated practice that can ultimately lead to ill will. Avoid problems by allowing prospects to actively participate in the opt-in process. In the long run, your marketing will be much more effective because you have established willing and valuable relationships.
2. Monitor the frequency of your message-sending tactics. Keep in mind that just because your subscribers chose to opt in, the number of messages you send still matters. Frequent, impersonal messages can quickly take on the appearance of spam.
3. Proactively drive your prospects to your permission marketing program. Use opt-in eLists with a short text message to announce your permission marketing program. Your copy and link must provide an offer chosen to encourage prospects to click through to a sign-in landing page. Consider using a low-cost postcard with a strong offer to build your permission database offline.

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