The other day one of my subscribers asked me, “Bob, do you read novels?” The answer, of course, is yes.

Here are my 10 favorite novels (the list includes a play widely published in book form and a “nonfiction novel”):

1–Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller.
2–A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving.
3–Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.
4–The Shootist by Glen Swarthout.
5–Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny.
6–To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
7–In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.
8–South of Broad by Pat Conroy.
9–The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
10. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien.

What’s your favorite novel?

Most people, when discussing direct mail response rates, think in
terms of percentages.

For years, 2% was viewed as an “average” response rate.

The problem is that percentages don’t take into account things
like the cost of the mailing or the price of the product being
sold.

A much better measure of direct mail response rates is
“break-even.”

“Break even” means the sales generated by a mailing is equal to
the cost of the mailing.

For a mailing that generates 150% of break-even, you make $1.50
in sales for every $1 you spend on the mailing, including printing,
list, and postage.

Here is a free online calculator you can use. It calculates the
percentage response rate your mailing must achieve to reach break
even. That way, you know whether your 1% response rate is good,
fair, or terrible in terms of ROI.

The online response calculator is free ? there’s no cost to use
the calculator as often as you like:

www.dmresponsecalculator.com

In 1961, Rosser Reeves published his classic book Reality in Advertising in which he introduced the notion of the Unique Selling Proposition, or USP.

Today the book is out of print and difficult to get. As a result, most practicing direct marketers don’t know the original definition of a USP. Their lack of knowledge often produces USPs that are weak and ineffective.

According to Reeves, there are three requirements for a USP (and I am quoting, in the italics, from Reality in Advertising directly):

1. Each advertisement must make a proposition to the consumer. Each must say, “Buy this product, and you will get this specific benefit.”

Your headline must contain a benefit — a promise to the reader.

2. The proposition must be one that the competition either cannot, or does not, offer.

Here’s where the “unique” in Unique Selling Proposition comes in. It is not enough merely to offer a benefit. You must also differentiate your product.

3. The proposition must be so strong that it can move the mass millions, i.e., pull over new customers to your product.

The differentiation cannot be trivial. It must be a difference that is very important to the reader.

In general advertising for packaged goods, marketers achieve differentiation by building a strong brand at a cost of millions or even billions of dollars.

Coca Cola has an advantage because of its brand. If you want a cola, you can get it from a dozen soda makers. But if you want a Coke, you can only get it from Coca Cola.

Intel has achieved a similar brand dominance, at an extraordinary cost, with its Pentium line of semiconductors.

Most direct marketers are too small, and have too strong a need to generate an immediate positive ROI from their marketing, to engage in this kind of expensive brand building. So we use other means to achieve the differentiation in our USP.

One popular method is to differentiate your product or service from the competition based on a feature that your product or service has and they don’t.

The easiest situation in which to create a strong USP is when your product has a unique feature — one that competitors lack — that delivers a strong benefit.

This must be an advantage the customer really cares about. Not one that, though a difference, is trivial.

But what if such a proprietary advantage does not exist? What if your product is basically the same as the competition, with no special features?

Reeves has the answer here too. He said the uniqueness can either stem from a strong brand (already discussed as an option 95% of marketers can’t use) or from a claim not otherwise made in that particular form of advertising — that is, other products may have this feature too, but advertisers haven’t told consumers about it.

An example from packaged goods advertising: “M&Ms melt in your mouth, not in your hand.”

Once M&M established this claim as their USP, what could the competition do? Run an ad that said, “We also melt in your mouth, not in your hand!”

One more point: As direct marketers, we — unlike most general advertisers today — are compelled to create advertising that generates net revenues in excess of its cost.

Reeves believed all advertising had to do this. He defined advertising as “the art of getting a USP into the heads of the most people at the lowest possible cost.”

“The real danger with social media is in marketers expecting too much from it,” says Linda LoRe, President of Frederick’s of Hollywood.

According to an article in Deliver magazine, 65% of marketers say they have not increased revenue or profited using social media.

And more than half of the adult population doesn’t use social media at all.

1) How to Write a Good Advertisement by Vic Schwab (Wilshire Book Company, 1962). A common-sense course in how to write advertising copy that gets people to buy your product or service, written by a plain-speaking veteran mail order copywriter in 1960.

Best part: 100 ?archetypal? headlines that people are still using in various forms today to create new controls (e.g., ?When Doctors Feel Rotten, This is What They Do?).

Availability: Still in print (Wilshire Publishing) and available on amazon.com.

2) My First 50 Years in Advertising by Max Sackheim (Prentice-Hall, 1970). Another plain-speaking, common-sense guide that stresses salesmanship over creativity, and results over awards. The author was one of the originators of the Book of the Month Club.

Best part: The oversize format allows full-size reproductions (large enough for the copy to be legible) of many classic direct response ads (e.g., ?They Thought I Was Crazy to Ship Live Maine Lobsters as Far as 1,800 Miles from the Ocean?).

Availability: Out of print and difficult to find.

3) The Robert Collier Letter Book by Robert Collier. While Schwab and Sackheim concentrate on space ads, Collier focuses on the art of writing sales letters, of which he is a master. You learn how to write persuasive sales letters in a friendly, natural, conversational style.

Best part: While some of the letters may seem old-fashioned and dated, Collier?s timeless principles still apply.

Availability: Comes in and out of print. Somewhat difficult to get.

4) Reality in Advertising by Rosser Reeves (Alfred A. Knopf, 1961). The book in which Reeves introduced the now-famous concept of USP (the Unique Selling Proposition).

Best part: The idea that every successful ad must (a) offer a benefit, (b) the benefit must differentiate your product from the competition, and (c) the benefit must be big enough to motivate buyers to purchase your product instead of others.

Availability: Out of print and difficult to get.

5) Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Schwartz. A copywriting guide by one of the greatest direct-response copywriters of the 20th century.

Best part: The notion that advertising does not create desires; rather, it focuses already existing desires onto your product.

Availability: Available from Boardroom Books.

6) Tested Advertising Methods, Fifth Edition by John Caples, revised by Fred Hahn (Prentice-Hall, 1997). An updated version of John Caples? classic book on the principles of persuasion as proven through A/B split tests.

Best part: The A/B split headline tests with the results (e.g., for an air conditioner, ?How to have a cool, quiet bedroom ? even on hot nights? pulled 2 ? times the response of ?Get rid of that humidity with a new room cooler that also dries the air?).

Availability: In print. Available in bookstores and online.

7) Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy (Atheneum). Charming autobiography of legendary ad man David Ogilvy, packed with useful advice on how to create effective advertising.

Best part: Chapter 6 on ?How to Write Potent Copy.?

Availability: Out of print and difficult to get.

8)-Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins (Bell Publishing, 1920). A book on the philosophy that advertising?s purpose is to sell, not entertain or win creative awards ? and how to apply this philosophy to create winning ads.

Best part: His observation that ?specifics sell; superlatives roll off the human understanding like water off a duck?s back.?

Availability: Since the copyright has expired, this book is now in the public domain and is available as a free downloadable e-book on several Web sites.You can also buy it as a paperback on amazon.com.

9) Method Marketing by Denny Hatch (Bonus Books, 1999). A book on how to write successful direct response copy by putting yourself in the customer?s shoes. Packed with case histories of modern direct response success stories, including Bill Bonner of Agora Publishing, and Martin Edelston of Boardroom.

Best part: The introduction of the concept of method marketing, which states: ?You cannot write copy without getting inside the head of the person to whom you are communicating and becoming that person.?

Availability: In print and available on amazon.com; also on Denny?s Web site www.methodmarketing.com.

10) Advertising Secrets of the Written Word by Joseph Sugarman (DelStar, 1998). How to write successful advertising copy by a modern master of the space ad.

Best part: The 24 psychological triggers that get people to buy.

Availability: In print and available on amazon.com.

Did I leave out any of your favorites? (I know I left out a dozen or so of mine!)

by, Brian Berg,President/CEO ? BB Direct, Inc

No two list brokers are the same. Yes, they are all compensated by earning a commission in the form of a discount for their data, but not all list brokers live up to the compensation they receive. Many provide little more than a list industry vocabulary. A good mailing list broker starts with an account summary of previous campaign successes and low or no response. They attempt to involve the mailer in the process of target audience selection and how their list recommendation is developed. Ultimately, they attempt to improve response and response measurement, as well as reducing cost.

Often asked, ?Why utilize a mailing list broker when you can go direct to the source?? The answer to this question can be found in the flexibility provided by a list broker. A good mailing list broker can access many sources of data, put the ?target-ability? of the list before cost, and properly set the expectations of the mailer in terms of deliverability and response.

Mailers that go direct to the database compiler should expect to pay a standard retail price point that?s higher than what you?d pay with a broker. But even more so, going directly to the database source will limit their options. Owners of the database will only sell their own data while brokers will have options. And since no two databases are the same, knowing the strengths and weaknesses of a particular database is a quality that good list broker can deliver.

When shopping for a mailing list, it only makes sense to get more than one quote. Like anything you shop for, consider experience within your industry, price, and general ?gut? feeling about the broker/consultant. Ask for references and call those references. The time put into this type of research will always return favorable results. The importance of partnering with a good mailing list broker is vital to the direct mail investment and the return on that investment.

What do you do when a customer says, ?Your price is too high??

The best way to handle this is to prevent it from happening in the first place.

Your best chance of making the sale is if your price quotation is within the prospect?s budget. Your best chance of having that happen is to know the budget before you give your price.

And the best way of knowing the budget before you give your price is simply to ask.

Here?s a comfortable, nonaggressive way to get this information: Instead of just coming out and asking what their budget is, which makes some prospects uncomfortable, ask them this nonthreatening question instead:

?Do you have a budget??

The prospect will answer either yes or no. If they say they have a budget, the conversation goes like this:

YOU: Do you have a budget?
PROSPECT: Yes.
YOU: Would you mind sharing what that is with me?

If the prospect does not have a budget, this conversation might go as follows:

YOU: Do you have a budget?
PROSPECT: No.
YOU: Well, did you at least have a dollar figure or range in mind of what you?d like it to cost?

About half the prospects will give you an answer so you can tailor your price quote accordingly.

The other half won?t, so you just have to go ahead and make your estimate without this knowledge.

According to an article in PR Daily Newsfeed, the average Facebook fan is worth about $136.38.

In addition, Facebook fans spent an extra $71.84 they would not otherwise spend on products they describe themselves as fans of compared to those who are not fans.

I haven’t made a dime from my Facebook fans. If anybody can show me how, I’ll pay you!