Direct Marketing - 5 Steps And 3 Concepts That Make Your Copy Sell

Writing successful direct marketing copy is a multi-step process. Before writing any direct marketing copy, most professionals first go through a five step conceptualization process. They (1) identify the problem, (2) describe what's possible, (3) establish why that particular problem hasn't been solved yet, (4) determine what has changed that could solve the problem, and (5) decide on what actions they will recommend that their prospects take.

Once that has been accomplished it is then time to sit down and write. Your goal is to have your prospects trip over themselves trying to buy whatever it is you're trying to sell. There are three things you can do to help make that happen and here they are:

1. Make your copy emotional
2. Offer bonuses and guarantees
3. Build credibility in your company and your product

Make Your Copy Emotional

No matter how good your product is, if you bore people to death you're not going to make any sales. People buy based on their emotions. You have to inject emotion into whatever problem your product or service can fix. For example, if you company specializes in loan modifications, you could use copy such as, "What would life be like if you wiped out all your debts and had an AAA credit rating?"

The more you can appeal to the right hemisphere of your customer's brain (the imaginative, creative, emotional, intuitive side), the more sales you will make. The words you choose can make that happen.

For instance, use "big" instead of "large". Use "rich" instead of "wealthy". Use "tough" instead of "difficult". I think you get the picture.

Offer Bonuses and Guarantees

It's an accepted fact that you will make significantly more sales with your direct marketing campaign if you offer bonuses. Ironically, people often buy things because of the bonuses rather than because of what the product offers.

You can make your free bonus gifts even more attractive if you attach a deadline for ordering. The deadline is a significant call to action that compels your reader to respond now instead of "tomorrow". In direct marketing tomorrow's sale rarely if ever happens.

In addition to a bonus, keep in mind that the number of sales made with copy that offers a guarantee is substantially higher than the number of sales made with identical copy that doesn't offer a guarantee. That's because your guarantee gives your prospect a feeling of comfort. And, don't worry about returns. Unless a product is really terrible very few people actually take advantage of a guarantee, so using it should make you money rather than not cost you any money.

Build Credibility in Your Company and Your Product

You can say all you want to about your company and it can fall on deaf ears. However, if you have interesting third party stories, testimonials, or case studies that quote significant statistics and facts, you should treat them like gold because they can fill your pockets with that shiny metal.

Use these three concepts in all your direct marketing pieces and I'll bet dollars to donuts that you'll see your sales skyrocket.