A Copywriter’s Model: Direct Marketing = Fast & Accurate Measurement of ROI

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Are you still doing any kind of marketing that can’t be measured? 

If you are, I’d like to encourage you to stop it right now.

As the widely-acclaimed Dan Kennedy says, you should ask this question of your agency or marketing guru, “How will we know how many dollars were derived from this media or method?  If there is no good answer there’s only one good decision.”

If you’re still pumping money into branding ads or anything else that does not allow you to MEASURE results, you have no idea whether there even is an ROI or not, do you?

I’m a strong advocate of Internet marketing, such as email marketing, autoresponders, SEO and PPC.  Affiliate marketing, of course, allows the same kind of measurement.

And, if you don’t have a good in-house list of folks who have opted-in to receive interesting, relevant information, you may want to check out Tellman Knudson’s List Building Club.

When you’re at a place where you need specific, measurable marketing pieces, by all means hire a competent copywriter.  Whether you need B2B copy or B2C … find a good one and keep them!   

A real professional copywriter will get to know you and your audience very well.  She/he will learn all they can about your competition, too, in order to differentiate why/how you’re better.

She’ll craft your message to your specific audience, based on understanding the real reasons they want your product/service, and then she’ll compel them to take your desired action.

So if you have a web presence and sell products or services, you need an email campaign to drive traffic to a landing page that converts.  It’s as simple as that.    

Your email campaign, btw, can be just text or simple html.  Both can be successful.  It’s the sales message and the irresistible offer that matter most.

If you don’t have a viable autoresponder series in place, that automatically sends out a series of emails to new people on your list, as they come on board, you’re losing out on a BIG, measurable marketing opportunity.

And what about upsells?  Once you drive traffic to your landing page, via email, SEO or PPC and you get their ‘opt-in’ email address, in return for a valuable complimentary gift and …

are you also offering them some kind of compelling ‘upsell’ that makes sense to them?

If you’re not taking advantage of up-selling opportunities, you’re also leaving money on the table.

And, you must make sure that when you send out an html email promo, that the landing page they arrive at will have the very same graphics as the email.  (Congruence)

Studies show that the abandon rates are greater, when the landing page is not exactly like the email they just saw a second earlier. 

Yep, they say the responses are better, if there are some of the design elements repeated … just much better, when they’re exactly the same as they saw in the email promotion.

Why?  Readers will not even take .5 seconds to guess whether they’re in the right place.  If it isn’t immediately clear as glass, they’ll leave.

9 Steps to Ensure a High ROI on Measurable Marketing …

1. Know your audience.
2. Speak directly to their deepest, emotional triggers.
3. Make your message crystal clear & convincing.
4. Instill trust, credibility and believability in the copy.
5. Make your offer something they can’t live without.
6. Make your price very fair and believable.
7. Make the process/path they follow to buy very clear and easy.
8. Maintain the same graphic treatment everywhere.
9. Provide an excellent guarantee/return policy that makes sense.
10. Offer one or more up-sell items, when appropriate, and with good taste.

So, if you’re a business owner, CEO or in charge of marketing for a big corporation, I hope you’re using some of the highly measurable direct marketing avenues. 

I didn’t touch on direct response, using snail mail, which still does very well, of course.  (Just ask Dan Kennedy.)  You just have to wait a while to measure results, whereas with the Internet marketing methods, it’s much faster.

We’ve become so spoiled to the ability to test, evaluate and test some more online that some of us just can’t wait for the mail anymore.    

Here’s wishing you the BIGGEST, measurable marketing successes in 2008 and beyond.

Carolyn
http://www.kickasscopywriter.com