The 12 Most Common Direct Mail Mistakes ... And How To Avoid Them

1. Ignoring The Most Important Factor In Direct Mail Success,
2. Not Testing,
3. Not using a letter in your mailing package,
4. Features vs. Benefits,
5. Not having an offer,
6. Superficial copy,
7. Saving the best for last,
8. Poor follow-up,
9. The magic words,
10. Starting with the product -- not the prospect,
11. Failing to appeal to all five senses,
12. Creating and reviewing direct mail by committee,

Mistake No. 2: Not testing

Big consumer mailers test all the time. Publisher's Clearinghouse tests just about everything...even (I hear) the slant of the indicia on the outer envelope.

Business-to-business marketers, on the other hand, seldom track response or test one mailing piece or list against another.

As a result, they repeat their failures and have no idea of what works in direct mail--and what doesn't. A mistake. In direct mail, you should not assume you know what will work. You should test to find out.

For example, copywriter Milt Pierce wrote a subscription package for Good Housekeeping magazine. His mailing became the "control" package for 25 years. That is, no package tested against it brought back as many subscriptions.

The envelope teaser and theme of that successful mailing was "32 Ways to Save Time and Money." Yet, Mr. Pierce says that when he applied the same theme to subscription mailings for other magazines--Science Digest, Popular Mechanics, House Beautiful--it failed miserably.

"There are no answers in direct mail except test answers," says Eugene Schwartz, author of the book, Break-through Advertising. "You don't know whether something will work until you test it. And you cannot predict test results based on past experience."

Mistake No. 3: Not using a letter in your mailing package >>

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