
19 Principles of Success from the Father of Direct Marketing
In case you’ve been too busy to check the calendar, Father’s Day is this Sunday. Hold on; before you rush out to mail a card, be sure to read this post.
Last week Mike Dietz described a few best practices for direct mail copy and design. That got me thinking about best practices we employ. In honor of Father’s Day, it seems appropriate to salute Lester Wunderman, who is widely considered the father of direct marketing and who invented many of the techniques we take for granted today.
Wunderman outlines these 19 Principles of Success in his book, Being Direct: Making Advertising Pay:
- Direct Marketing Is a Strategy, Not a Tactic
- The Consumer, Not the Product, Must Be the Hero
- Communicate with Each Customer as an Audience of One
- Answer the Question “Why Should I?”
- Advertising Must Change Behavior, Not Just Attitudes
- The Next Step: Profitable Advertising
- Build the “Brand Experience”
- Create Relationships
- Know and Invest in Each Customer’s Lifetime Value
- “Suspects” Are Not Prospects
- Media Is a Contact Strategy
- Be Accessible to Your Customers
- Encourage Interactive Dialogues
- Learn the Missing “When?”
- Create an Advertising Curriculum That Teaches as it Sells
- Acquire Customers with the Intention to Loyalize Them
- Loyalty Is A Continuity Program
- Your Share of Loyal Customers, Not Your Share of the Market Creates Profits
- You Are What You Know
These considerations can guide not only your next direct marketing campaign, but your overall direct marketing strategy. OK, now you can rush out to mail that Father’s Day card.
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