Articles by Marcus Johnson
Blog Archive
Reading vs. Scanning: Sidebars Can Engage Any Kind of Mail Recipient
Are you a reader or a scanner? The world is full of both. That matters to those of us who include direct mail and direct response advertising as part of our marketing mix. If we don’t create direct mail designs that account for both of those information intake preferences, we risk losing a big chunk of our audience and their potential to respond.
Play by the 3:33 Rule for Direct Mail Success
You just launched a big direct mail acquisition campaign. Close to a million pieces are fanning out to carefully segmented audiences in areas where your research indicates high concentrations of verified prospects. Will it be a hit or a miss? Grab a stopwatch (or your mobile phone with its many timing apps) and let’s consider. […]
The Outer Envelope is Key to Getting Your Direct Mail Opened
Fair or not, your audience is always going to judge your direct mail by its outer envelope. Their three-second assessment of your outer envelope (part of the 3:33 rule of direct mail—a topic in itself) will make or break your mailing. If they’re not moved to open the envelope, you don’t get to talk to them [...]
Four Questions to Ask Before Using Humor in Marketing
Is using humor a good tactic—or strategy—for selling your product with direct marketing? Depends. That’s a good place to start. It depends on the product. If you were creating a direct marketing campaign for Depends Adult Incontinence products, humor might not be your strongest approach, a) because a certain sensitivity is called for in this category and b) it’s off brand. A humorous campaign for Huggies diapers? Different story.
Tips for Creating a Call-to-Action that Can’t Be Ignored
From time to time, in direct marketing writing and design, we need to focus on the fundamentals to help us stay sharp in conveying the purpose and value proposition of what we’re selling. Why? Because so many direct marketing packages fail to answer these basic questions: Do we give our audience a reason to open? […]
