I was chatting with someone about insurance direct marketing the other day, lamenting the fact that most insurance offers are hideous exercises in jargon and corporate speak.    The person I was talking to wondered whether it was OK to use corporate-style language when marketing business-to-business, as opposed to business-to-consumer. I said no. How come? [...]

Freelance copywriting – Mini direct mail test campaign

Freelance copywriting direct mail test campaign, July 2011 Rummaging around in the musty underbelly of my blog, I discover I haven’t tested direct mail for four years. Blimey. It just shows you how powerful DIY SEO can be if you plug away for years on end. I’ve been on page one of Google for my [...]

Direct marketing classics: What is segmentation?

What is segmentation? Segmentation means splitting your prospect or customer data into chunks – segments – so you can send a specially tailored marketing message to each. How can you segment your data? Here’s a few examples: customers / prospects recent buyers / frequent buyers / people who haven’t bought for ages marketing responders / [...]

Direct mail makes a comeback

Once upon a time direct mail was seen as the lowest of the low. Endless poorly-crafted bank, credit card and insurance offers. Cheap and nasty. Avoided by posh brands. Derided by the media as wasteful, profligate and poorly targeted. But the evidence is stacking up for a real direct mail revolution. Once the poor relation, [...]

It takes us three goes to ‘get’ an advertising message…

A useful piece of direct marketing wisdom… … it tends to take us three goes before we ‘get’ an advertising message. On TV, the first time we see an advert we get a fleeting impression of its meaning. The second time we flesh the idea out a bit. The third time everything falls into place. [...]