Level2wo

DM Copywriting 

Improving Response: From Headlines to Your P.S.

When writing Direct Mail (DM) copy, there are a few necessary steps to making sure you’re writing compelling copy, effective copy, and copy that drives your audience to take the action you want them to take. Following a guideline each and every time will ensure you’re going at it in the right way, and maximizing your DM ROI.

1. KISS. Keep it simple stupid. Keep your offer and the language you use clear, compelling, and if you use industry-specific jargon, make sure it’s relevant.

2. Headlines. Your headline is responsible for approximately 75-80% of your response, so if you have a weak, ineffective headline, chances are you’re going to have a campaign that fails. Three things that make a good headline include:
a. Posing a question that your audience can’t help but want to answer
b. Telling your audience what they should do—people do what they’re told
c. A credible testimony from a subject matter expert of a competitor

3. Keep to the facts. Don’t make statements and declarations that you can’t back up. Make sure you’re able to deliver what you promise.

4. Benefits are key. Make sure your audience gets the benefits up front. The benefits are what’s important to your audience, and they need to see that before pretty much anything else.

5. Differentiate. Make sure your audience knows why you’re better than your competition—be it better services, products, etc.

6. Test your copy. One DM piece does not an effective campaign make. Test everything from the copy to the offer to the creative. And then test again.

7. Build your Brand. If nothing else, your brand should get stronger with each DM campaign.

8. Make it easy to say Yes. The more hurdles that you create in your copywriting, whether by accident or on purpose, the less response you’re going to get. Short lead generation forms are better than longer forms—but they’ll likely produce less qualified leads to your sales team.

9. Signatures and the P.S. are often the first place readers look at when they first come across a DM piece. The P.S. is where you can get a vital piece of information across, such as a final selling opportunity or where you highlight the offer, the order form, another testimonial, or state the contact information.

At Level2wo we follow strict copywriting guidelines to maximize your effectiveness, and to drive maximum response from your direct mail pieces. Give us a call or send us an email with your questions.

Trade Shows – Stick Out

If you’re part of the road warrior crew–and you know who you are if you are, trade shows are a double-edged sword for you and your company. I did trade shows for a while, mostly financial services trade shows, and I have to be honest: I enjoyed them. I liked eating in restaurants on the company’s tab, socializing with other road warriors over cocktails (also on the company tab), and staying in hotels I probably would not have stayed at otherwise. But then there’s that other aspect of the trade shows–the actual working part of them.

I was employed by a SaaS (Software as a Service) company during my time as a road warrior, targeting financial services companies like banks, mortgage lenders, insurance companies, etc. We attended a decent amount of trade shows, with the obvious ‘drumming up business,’ awareness, blocking and tackling, etc. But in my opinion they were rather expensive for the amount of business we actually did.

I won’t go into exact numbers, but with T&E, and the actual booth costs for renting the space, as well as creating the actual booths, etc., we’re talking cars paid in full. Nice cars. And that’s only after the booths are created–some of them being the price of small houses.

But the question, always on my mind and on the sales guys’ minds, was: Are these tradeshows worth it? Do they bring in the bucks? The answer was that we really didn’t know.

Tradeshows were/are a place to mingle with customers and prospects, and sure, I guess that’s part of what leads to sales and continued business. But we always complained about the booths, never complained about the booth babes, and always talked about how much productivity was lost by being at the events we so loved to hate.

So let’s get to the ‘Sticking Out’ part of trade shows.

There are big companies and small companies, and large budgets and small budgets, and if you’ve been on both sides of that dichotomy, you appreciate what both have to offer.

Small companies with small budgets means that you’re playing with the big boys at the tradeshows, but you’re likely not doing any deals, feel a little inadequate with your old PowerPoints shining through that outdated projector. On the good side, though, is that while your competition is breaking down their booth, you’re already on your third complementary Jack and Coke (which, by the way, was probably paid for by those guys and gals at company X who are still breaking down their booth).

Large companies enjoy all the benefits of not worrying about money. They have the big, pretty, expensive booths, but if you’ve ever been to a trade show, you know they all tend to blend in together after a while. Really, it becomes all about the relationships.

Sticking out, to me, means having a great product that is better than your competition’s product, and it means hiring the top talent–Marketing, Sales, etc., to drive the business. It isn’t about fancy booths, and always making a splash–although that does have its place. When you’re the leader, everyone wants to be a part of your business. When your product or service adds more value to your customer’s business, they’ll do business with you. Making sure you have the right people and the right offerings, that’s where you want to focus your money.

 Level2wo doesn’t attend trade shows. Really, we don’t have to. It’s not something we want to spend money on, but it all depends on the industry you’re in, and if the show will bring more value than not. Good luck if you do attend them.

For a listing of trade shows, check out TSNN.

You can also check out the Trade Show Marketing blog for news, opinions, and more.

What A Creative Agency Should Be

There are a few reasons that Level2wo is succesful as a creative agency, and we’ve decided to list them below, in no particular order.

But they are points we live by. They are how we succeed, and why we succeed. And they all have to do–directly or indirectly with you–because without you, they would not have any value to us.

1. Your needs come first. If we don’t know what you want, and if we don’t put forth our best efforts to understand your needs, then everything from that point on is not worth doing. Your success is our success.

2. Teamwork. We are a team of creative people who may not think alike 100% of the time, but our goals are the same, and teamwork makes sure that we achieve those goals. We are dependent on one another, but it’s also what makes us shine. Yes, it’s synergy.

3. Focus. We focus as a team on what needs to be done, and don’t get sidetracked by the chaos of action around us. We thrive on chaos, because we know how to control it. We focus on the tasks at hand, and we complete those tasks. And we complete them exceedingly well.

4. Accountability. No one gets a free ride at Level2wo. We’re tough, but we’re tough with a smile. We don’t ever deliver excuses–we deliver results. And we do that by making sure that processes are in place to make sure everyone is doing what they should be doing, and that they are doing it better than the competition. We hold our people responsible, because you hold us responsible. And that’s how we like it.

5. We are a close team. We don’t believe in silos. We believe in collaboration. We believe in putting our heads together to create better ideas, cool websites, compelling creative. There is no hierarchy at Level2wo. Everyone is equal. Creativity is universal.

6. Respect. Within Level2wo’s walls, there is always respect. Respect for each other, but respect for the client first and foremost. There are no dumb questions. You know your industry, and we know ours. Of course, we’ll always learn more about your industry when we work with you. But that’s how it should be.

7. Creativity. That’s the business we’re in. We push walls down to make creative websites, and marketing messages stick out. We get adventurous. We see how far we can go. And when we find that magical path to a great new world, we take you with us.

8. We’re optimistic. We believe we’re going to outshine the competition, in marketing, creative, and customer service, and our approach is to take you with us, or at least take the ride with you. Do good. Thrive. Succeed. We’re all about it.

Mobile Marketing

Mobile Marketing is when marketers market on or through a mobile device, be it a smart phone, mobile phone, I-phone, or other similar device. At least that is what mobile marketing refers to these days. Before the prevalence of mobile phones and mobile devices, mobile marketing most commonly referred to marketing using moving billboards, or road shows that were meant to drum up awareness.

If you’d traveled to Europe or Asia earlier this decade and in the late 1990s, SMS, or Short Message service, was everywhere. I lived in spain during the early 2000s, and it was much more cost effective to simply send SMS messages rather than paying for phone calls. Marketers soon jumped in on the technology, and began sending off blast SMS messages marketing their product or service. While the early days provided less than pleasing ways of receiving marketing messages, recent standards and guidelines have improved the way marketers can communicate with their target audiences.

The Mobile Media Industry, the IAB, or Interactive Advertising Bureau, adn the Mobile Marketing Association, are just some of the groups who ensure and regulate and set the standards for acceptable marketing messages that are allowed to be sent to consumers.

If you’ve ever voted on American Idol, or any other show that allows consumers and viewers to vote, you know first hand the power of SMS. SMS typically uses shortcodes, which are becoming more like mobile domain names. Short codes are five or six numbers that are assigned by mobile operators for the use of consumer services and brand campaigns. Acquiring shortcodes is not the easiest task to do, but once they are acquired they are a great way to reach customers–as long as the provisions set forth are followed.

Consumers are able to opt out of receiving SMS messages by typing “Stop” or a number of other one-word action terms that trigger the opt-out action.

A few blogs to check out if you want to learn more about mobile marketing and the technology related to mobile marketing are:

The Mobile Weblog
Technorati
Mobivity
The Pondering Primate