Today I received a direct mail promotion from a company called Vocus selling a PR management system.

The offer: take a demo and get a $50 Barnes & Noble gift card.

Only problem is, I took the demo months ago and never received the card.

Each time a Vocus rep called me to follow up and sell me their product, I explained we had nothing to talk about until I got my gift card.

The reps told me they had no control over that and seemed totally unconcerned.

If you are going to make an offer in direct mail, honor it when you get a response.

As a writer, blogger, and online publisher, I am frequently visited by “the spelling police” — individuals who have found a typo in something I wrote and absolutely cannot wait to tell me about it.

Members of the spelling police vary in their reaction to finding typos.

Some are genuinely offended, and accuse me of not caring enough about my readers to proofread or edit carefully.

Others are incredulous that I allowed the mistake to happen in the first place — reacting with horror as if making a typo was on a par with original sin.

In this case, RG pointed out a typo in my latest book, and he was of the first category — genuinely offended by my sloppiness. He told me he was personally offended by the presence of a typo in a book he had paid $15 to own.

I pointed out to RG that the book contains 100,000 words. If only one of them has a typo — and he only found the one — that means 1/1,000 of 1% of the words in the book have a typo.

I can’t think of many human activities that have a lower error rate.

So next time you spot a typo, don’t get bent out of shape. Notify the author if you so desire, but do not take the attitude that the typo is the end of western civilization as we know it.

At least once a week, someone comes to me with a business idea ? typically a new product or service ? and asks, ?Will this work??

Perhaps you too have an idea for a new product or service ? but would like to know whether it has a realistic chance of success before you invest your time and hard-earned money in it.

I will give you the same piece of advice I give everyone else?.

*** Look around to see whether anyone else is doing what you propose.***

If you find at least one other person doing it successfully (i.e., making money at it), then it could work for you, too ? if you are smart and lucky.

On the other hand, if no one else is doing it, there?s no reason to think YOU can ? and I?d probably look for something else.

This may be somewhat counterintuitive. Then again, a lot of business success principles are.

?Isn?t it great that no one else is doing my idea?? someone asked me the last time I said this. ?That means I thought of it first and there?s no competition!?

Actually, it?s almost certain that many others thought of it before you.

What should trouble you is that these individuals ? some of whom may be as smart or even smarter than you ? evaluated the idea, and after careful consideration, decided not to proceed.

Or, they tried it and failed.

In other words, the reason no one else is doing your idea is because it won?t work!

Conversely, you might think that if others are doing your idea, there?s already too much competition.

That may or may not be the case.

But if others are doing the same idea, and making money at it, then that idea has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to work in the real world.

And if THEY are making money at it, there?s a good chance you can too.

After all, you are probably nearly as smart ? or even smarter ? than many of those people.

Most of the people you probably think of as innovators were actually not.

Bill Gates, for instance, is thought of as the creator of the first personal computer operating system, MS-DOS.

But actually, another programmer created MS-DOS.

Bill Gates bought it from him for $50,000 cash, made some modifications, and sold it to IBM for royalties that made him the wealthiest man in the world.

In fact, MS-DOS was not even the first commercially successful PC operating system.

That honor goes to CPM, a rival operating system that was invented and offered to IBM first (they didn?t take it, but the old Kaypro computers ran on it).

One other counterintuitive piece of advice?.

If you decide to market a new product or service, and your test campaign fails miserably, don?t keep pushing to make it incrementally better, in the hopes that you can turn a loser into a winner.

Much better is to cut your losses and abandon the idea — before you pour good money after bad.

Example: A reader came to me asking if I could save her business by writing a direct mail package.

I asked what her first mailing, which seemed competent to me (though not first rate), brought in. Did it break-even? Cover half its mailing cost?

Turns out, it pulled only a few orders with thousands of pieces mailed.

I reminder her, ?Even a great package might pull only double or triple a package that failed ? and even if we triple the response, you won?t even be close to breaking even ? so this just isn?t going to work.?

Needless to say, I did not write the package for her, though I am convinced I saved her from wasting many thousands of dollars on another test doomed to fail.

I recently listened to the CD of a talk given by Joseph Sugarman, founder of JS&A and widely recognized as one of the greatest mail order marketers of all time.

JS&A is the company that sells those Blue Blocker sunglasses you see advertised on TV and in magazines.

The glasses really work, by the way. Put a pair on, and everything blue is converted to a shade of gray.

Anyway, during the talk, Mr. Sugarman mentioned that he often tested three or four different ads for the same product ? and in some cases as many as 10 different versions!

?Typically, nine of the ads would fail but one would work spectacularly well,? said Mr. Sugarman, ?The profits from that one ad would more than cover the losses from the other nine.?

Do you do that ? create multiple ads and then test them to see which works best?

Or do you — like most businesses — create and test just one ad ? or one postcard ? or one e-mail ? or one sales letter or direct mail package?

If so, you are significantly reducing your odds of getting a winning promotion?.

The reason is that not all promotions work. In fact, most don?t.

Say one out of four promotions is a winner. And that?s being optimistic.

Jerry Huntsinger, a well-known copywriter in fundraising, once told me ?9 out of 10 of the things I do don?t work.?

And in his speech, Joseph Sugarman reported similar results ? sometimes having to write and test 10 ads to get one winner.

But let?s stick with the ?one winner out of every four tests? figure for now.

Based on those odds, if you run just one ad, or mail just one version of a sales letter, your chances of hitting a winner are only one out of four ? and the odds are 75% that your marketing effort will bomb.

What commonly happens is that a business decides to ?try? direct mail ? sends out a poorly written, amateurish letter or postcard ? and when they get no response, they proclaim that ?direct mail doesn?t work.?

Sure it doesn?t ? tell that to Nightingale-Conant ? or Boardroom ? or Publishers Clearinghouse ? or Day Timer.

On the other hand, if you create and test four different ads or letter versions, the odds are in your favor that at least one will work and be profitable for you.

My rule of thumb for improving direct marketing results is: Look at what the big players ? the successful direct marketers ? are doing. And do what they do.

And the one thing every successful direct marketer has in common is ? they test. A lot.

What do they test?

Headlines ? outer envelopes ? direct mail formats ? copy approaches ? sales appeals ? mailing lists ? prices ? offers ? guarantees ? terms ? anything with the potential to generate a big lift in response rates. Or even a small one, for that matter.

Does all this testing make sense?

On one such test, a marketer increased response to an e-mail marketing message by 50% ? just by changing the subject line.

In another test, a software company increased orders from a direct mail package tenfold ? simply by varying the wording of the offer.

And a computer school doubled the response rate to its newspaper advertising when they added the offer of a free career booklet.

Does all this testing make sense?

You bet it does!

Imagine ? just by changing a few words on a piece of paper or a computer screen, you can double your sales ? revenues ? and profits.

If there?s another area of business that gives you that kind of leverage, I?d like to hear about it.

One other point?.

In direct marketing, no one can predict with any degree of certainty which ad or mailing is going to work.

You only learn what works by testing and keeping track of the results.

You may have your subjective opinions about what you like and don?t like in advertising ? we all do ?.

But in direct marketing, you simply can?t argue with results.

At a recent meeting of the Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County ? a group whose members are like-minded humanists — a speaker said that a precept of the organization is:

?Every person deserves to be treated fairly and kindly.?

This is great advice especially if you are an Internet marketer. Because from what I see, there are many Internet marketers who don?t follow this rule.

I hear complaints all the time from people. They tell me they bought a product online, but when they called about returning it, the Internet marketer became abrupt and rude.

Or they tell me about Internet marketers who flat out refuse, on the flimsiest of excuses, to honor their money-back guarantees.

I hear horror stories of Internet marketers who recruit affiliates, let them generate sales, and then don?t send commission checks.

A lot of consumers are frustrated that Internet marketers are so darn inaccessible.

I mean, if you have a problem with your phone line, you can call the phone company and eventually get a real person on the phone, right?

But when you want to complain to an Internet marketer, there more often than not is no mailing address or phone number.

And when you send them an e-mail, you get a response from a robot ? an auto-responder ? and not a live human being.

The e-mail tells you how busy the marketer is. Sometimes it promises a return call from a person ? which usually never comes.

The collective sigh of all the Internet customers who despair at the treatment they receive from Internet marketers is palpable.

?But,? you argue, ?I can?t personally respond to each complaint. That?s what I have an auto-responder or an assistant for.?

First of all, assuming your products are a good value, you?re not getting all that many complaints to begin with.

Second of all, you probably could respond to all of them, if you wanted to.

SL, a major catalog marketer, writes a personal note of apology ? and sends it along with a small gift ? whenever his rather large catalog company gets an unhappy customer.

If SL can do it, you and I can do it too.

But let?s say you are busy, and can personally respond to only a fraction of the complaints you get. What should you do?

Well, I hired a part-time assistant in my Internet marketing business, and it?s her job to handle all complaints and special requests, which she does with sensitivity and common sense.

However, I see all the complaints first, and I pick certain ones to handle personally.

If you do the same, which customers should you give extra special attention to?

There are two types: (1) the excellent customer and (2) the extremely unhappy customer.

The excellent customer is someone who can?t stop buying your products, has been easy to service, and raves about you to everyone he knows.

Only now they are asking for something a bit out of the ordinary ? and have created a special situation that must be handled.

Since satisfied customers are your most important asset, you want to go to extremes to keep these extremely happy customers happy.

For instance, one wanted to substitute for the free bonus report I was offering one of my e-books ? something we don?t give away.

But he had bought tons from us, so I happily gave it to him.

The other type of customer you want to handle personally and with great care is the extremely unhappy customer.

Reason: unhappy customers tell other people. The more unhappy they become, the more people they complain about you to — and the louder they say it.

In the good old days, an unhappy customer told maybe 5 or 10 other people.

But with social networking, they can tell thousands with a few key strokes and mouse clicks.

I had a problem with a product I bought online, but could get no satisfaction from the seller, who refused to even take my call.

So I wrote about it on my blog.

Within 24 hours, the marketer called, apologized profusely, immediately fixed the problem, and begging me to remove the post from my blog.

I have heard of Internet marketers who blow their stacks at customers, particularly older customers, who aren?t that computer literate and have trouble opening and reading an e-book or downloading and listening to a podcast.

They may frustrate you and try your patience, but think about how frustrated they must feel. They just bought great content from you, and now they can?t access it.

Every person deserves to be treated fairly and kindly. Are you treating every customer and prospect fairly? Do you do it angrily or kindly?

One more thing: add unadvertised grace periods to your money-back guarantees.

For instance, if you have a 90-day money-back guarantee and the customer returns your product on day 92, should you give him his money back anyway?

Yes, because you want to treat him fairly and kindly ? just like you?d want to be treated when returning an item to a store.

And if you treat your customers fairly and kindly, they will deal with you in the same way.

YOURS FREE ? MY GIFT TO YOU!

Did the above headline catch your attention?

I wrote it to demonstrate this issue?s marketing lesson: The word ?FREE? is the most powerful word in direct marketing.

Always has been. Still is today. Will still be 10 years from now, in my opinion.

?I saw someone use FREE effectively on Ebay recently,? copywriter Charlie Byrne told me in an e-mail the other day. ?Rocker Jimmy Buffett is coming to town. His fans love to party ? especially with Corona beer, the one you squeeze limes into.?

There are MANY tickets for the concert on sale on Ebay. If you look at the listings, you’ll see:

?Buffett Tickets for sale!?
?Jimmy Buffett – Good seats.?
?Buffett Tix for sale.?
…ad infinitum…

But one clever person wrote:

?Buffett Tickets + Free Corona and Limes!!!?

If you buy the tickets, he throws in a $10 gift certificate for the local Florida supermarket chain.

Charlie adds: ?I noticed his ad got MANY more ?hits? than all the others ? another demonstration of the power of a FREE offer.?

In his new book, ?How to Turn Words Into Money,? millionaire entrepreneur and master direct marketer Ted Nicholas devotes quite a bit of space to discussing the power of FREE.

?I?ve never sold anything that didn?t sell better after offering free bonuses and gifts,? says Ted. ?Free is the most powerful word in the English language. If you?re not using gifts and bonuses in your marketing operations now, your sales in many cases will go up 2, 3, and 4 times.?

One of my friends worked in a medical ad agency. The clients were large pharmaceutical manufacturers targeting doctors with promotions about new drugs.

The agency used direct mail to invite doctors to free seminars (called ?symposia?) ? educational programs about the diseases the drugs treated, designed to get the doctors to prescribe the drug as treatment for the diseases.

The agency split-tested a straightforward invitation vs. a version that offered a free gift ? a pocket day planner ? as an incentive to attend the event. The wholesale cost of the pocket calendar, including imprint of the client?s logo, was about $1 each.

The invitations offering doctors the free $1 pocket calendar generated 6 times the response from doctors (all of whom back then were making handsome six-figure annual incomes) than the invitation that didn?t offer the free gift.

That?s 6 times the results ? just because of the offer of a little free gift ? something the doctor might very well toss in the trash if it arrived unsolicited in the mail.

I get asked at least once a week the following question: ?Bob, hasn?t free lost its power??

The person asking the question is concerned that, because of overuse and increasing sophistication of readers, FREE is not effective any more.

My answer is always this: FREE alone is not enough today to make a promotion profitable. In the early days of direct marketing, perhaps it was.

But now there are so many people advertising FREE, that simply saying FREE does not make you stand out. You need something more, like a powerful benefit or unique selling proposition ? or a masterfully written promotion.

But once you have those things, combine them with a FREE offer. Saying ?free? still, even today, increases response significantly vs. the same copy without stressing a free offer.

Bottom line: FREE still works in advertising. Use FREE for yourself and see!

According to an article in Direct Marketing News (11/10, p. 14), the majority of marketers use social media, on average, 6 hours a week.

How much time do YOU spend on social media?

Excerpted from my new book, How to Write and Sell Simple Information for Fun and Profit.

1. It?s easy to get started in how-to writing: ?How-to writing provides a quicker, surer entry into publication than many other writing categories. Vast hordes dream of writing the Great
American Novel, but the group of writers who dream of writing the Great American Guide to Growing a Greener Lawn is a bit smaller.?

2. How-to writing pays extremely well: ?Some of the best-selling books of all time are how-to books. If you follow the plan in How to Write and Sell Simple Information for Fun and Profit, I think you can realistically get to the $100,000 to $200,000 a year income level within 12 to 24 months.?

3. You don?t need to be the world?s greatest writer: ?To succeed as a how-to, do-it-yourself, or self-help author, you don?t have to be the next Shakespeare or even the next Stephen King. Can you explain something or teach a skill in a clear, organized, entertaining fashion? Then you can succeed as a how-to writer.?

4. You don?t need to be the leading guru in your field: ?You do not need to be the leading practitioner, scholar, or expert in your field to write a book about it. As noted by author and speaker Fred Gleeck, you only need know more about your subject than 90 percent of the people out there. ?Don?t worry about the other 10 percent; they?re not your market anyway,? says Fred.?

5. Whether you know it or not, you have unique knowledge to share with a paying audience: ?If you think you are not an expert in any subject, I doubt that?s really true. Every person has unique skills, training, and experiences. You are an ?expert? in your life and many of the things that make up your life.?

6. Even when information is free, demand for knowledge is high: ?Even in a world dominated by Google, the wisdom, knowledge, and guidance people are seeking are in short supply. As librarian Richard Yates once observed, ?We are drowning in information but starved for knowledge.? As a result, the public?s appetite for how-to material is insatiable, and?despite the Internet user?s mantra that ?information should be free??readers eagerly open their wallets to obtain it.?

7. The guided step-by-step plan in How to Write and Sell Simple Information for Fun and Profit shows you everything you need to do to be a success: ?By following the comprehensive plan laid out in this book, you can earn a comfortable six-figure annual income from your writing. And you can do it when and where you want, while writing what interests and pleases you. You can work at home?no boss, no commute, no suit and tie, no alarm clock.?

For more information visit:

www.bly.com/simpleinfo