This might seem obvious to you now, but virtually no one gets this basic concept. Advertising on radio, television, newspapers, and direct mail should all be created and then implemented in the same rigorous way that a salesperson constructs a winning presentation or pitch for a prospective customer.
Each ad should make a complete and compelling case for your services. The ad needs to support your service to the prospect in an educational, informative, and benefit-laden way. Your advertising needs to create visions of an experience in the mind of your customers, just like a salesman would.
A lot of marketers don't like "reader-type" ads or long, meaty commercials and try to create short, sweet, cutesy advertising. But remember, advertising is salesmanship. So would you have your salespeople stop their presentations in mid-stride? Would you tell them to make less than a complete sales presentation for your product or service? Would you tell them not to ask the prospect to make a decision - to take some kind action? Would you tell them to be cute, or oblivious in the way they communicate with prospects? NO WAY!
So, why would you let your advertising do this? When you learn the difference between salesmanship and "cutesy" advertising, you'll have an immediate advantage over virtually every one of your competitors.
Usually the longer a letter is the better for instance.
At first almost everyone thinks the opposite is true. They think shorter is better and say "that's too long, who's gonna read all that?"
This couldn't be further from the truth.
Let me give you an example.
If someone really wants what you have to offer they want as much information as they can get. If they aren't interested it doesn't matter how short or long your letter is, just like it wouldn't matter how long or short your salesman took.
So, if Mrs. Homeowner just sold her home last Thursday and she receives a letter from you on Monday - she probably won't be interested. It wouldn't matter if your sales message was 2 words or 2000, she probably wouldn't be interested (depending on the offer of course).
You don't worry about the ones that aren't interested. You're not trying to sell them. Worry about the ones who are interested!
The More You Tell The More You Sell
Two words won't be enough for the interested ones though, you need to give them tons of reasons why they'll benefit from using you instead of someone else or not doing anything and spending the money on a trip to Vegas. You need to answer every objection that they might have just like a salesman tries to do. If you do all this, you'll get a much higher response.
Longer Letters Almost Always Out-Pull Short Ones
In all of our tests, the longer letter has always had more response than the shorter one. My clients (and I) have made more profit from the longer letters to easily cover the extra postage and printing.
Believe me, for those that have done direct mail and have experience, this is a KNOWN FACT. It's not so much that I'm in love with long letters versus short ones, its just that I've tested them and the longer ones always work better. I'm in love with the "working better" part. The one thing that would make you right in the "it's too long, they'll never read that" assessment is if your letter is . Boring.
