Inside Direct Mail

By Mal Decker
Every direct mail professional, even before the days of Max Sackheim, has established his or her own rules based on continuous testing. Few, however, have tested as much on their own account and been as heavily involved in their client's testing as the late Dick Benson. Most of America's leading publishers were his clients and, at the same time, Benson built the highest circulation newsletter of any in the world through his genius in testing. His 31 rules ("ignore any of [them] at your own peril") were published in 1987. Are they still valid? I selected 14 of them and asked 10 top professionals for their comments. The October issue of Inside Direct Mail dealt with the first seven rules. Here are the next seven.

Rule 8. Dollar for dollar, premiums work far better than cash discounts.

Everyone on my panel has a preference for premiums over cash discounts. Copywriter Peggy Greenawalt says "cash discounts cheapen perceived value"; fellow copywriter Mark E. Johnson points out that "a $5 cash discount always costs you $5," while a premium with a perceived value well above $5 often can be produced for $1. Bryan Judge, president of a home-study school, likes premiums because "you can sell harder against them." Consultant Grant Johnson says premiums work because "people prefer tangibles."

Decker's Digest: Keep on looking for and testing new premiums.

Rule 9. Two premiums are frequently better than one.

All 11 of us agree with the "frequently" conditional, although Greenawalt is hesitant because "premiums can be distracting," and consultant Kurt Medina finds two or more premiums work better with impulse and low-price offers

than they do at the higher end. But Judge uses two premiums in his high-priced, home-study course offers, and Mark E. Johnson says three are better than two, five are better than three, and 10 are better than five. Speigel catalog, in its heyday, kept on testing and adding premiums of inexpensive merchandise until it reached five.

Brian Kurtz, executive vice president of publisher Boardroom Inc., is a flat-out premium fan. One of his all-time favorites is 50 premiums (50 special one-page reports) bound together as a 50-page volume. Incidentally, Benson's tests proved, "Desirability is the key element of a premium. The relationship of the premium to the product isn't important." Two of his favorites were calculators and watches for unrelated publishing offers. Kurtz has had success with an offer of free gasoline for Boardroom, yet editorial premiums seem to work best for him, as they do for copywriter Ken Schneider and Judge. And Mark E. Johnson, unlike Benson, his late mentor, emphasizes "the need to maintain a logical connection between the premiums and the product if you want a good, long-term customer."

Decker's Digest: The discipline of testing premiums, in number as well as variety, can pay off handsomely.

Rule 10. Long copy is better than short copy.

Everyone agrees with this rule, at least under some conditions. Medina finds that long copy can hurt response in generating inquiries for two-step mailings but helps in one-step selling. Copywriter Tom Gillett says long copy isn't always better, although he recognizes that longer magalogs seem to work better than shorter ones, and the long-copy Economist package, among other classics, is a perennial winner.

Otherwise, if Benson had said that long copy in letters is better than short copy, there might be full agreement. Kurtz says the rule should be rewritten as "Great long copy beats great short copy." Mark E. Johnson agrees with Benson, "provided the copy is packed with compelling benefits." Judge has achieved dramatic increases in inquiries for his three-step proposition by turning a four-page letter plus brochure into a six-page, full-color letter with no brochure: longer letter but fewer words in the total package. However, every test he's made of adding instructors with 100-word biographies to his fulfillment brochure (step two, now 32 pages and 15,000 words) has been successful.

I've written and tested hundreds of letters, maybe more than 1,000, and long letter copy always beats shorter copy on response, but not always on cost. I remember one six-page letter that beat a four-pager on pull but lost narrowly on cost. Two sides of one page beats one side of one page, slam dunk. Copy on all four pages of a booklet letter format beats three unless you can get all the sell you need on three, in reasonable comfort. Then you have magalogs, double and triple postcards, and other formats.

Decker's Digest: My overall experience is that longer copy within any given format works better than shorter copy—except vouchers and order cards, which should be lean, pithy and crystal clear. My four-page booklet letter for The Wall Street Journal beat the 29-year, one-page, two-side control by 24 percent, despite the added costs of paper, printing and full color. As David Ogilvy said, "the more you tell, the more you sell"—as long as you know how to sell. Test it!

Rule 11. Personalized letters work better to house lists than to cold lists.

Invariably, a personalized letter to someone with whom you've had a relationship of any kind—including a response to an inquiry—works better, costs more, but pays out. That prior relationship gives you the "right" to address him/her by name. A personalized letter to a stranger is actually impersonal (How did they get my name?) Everyone was in the boat on this rule with the exception of Grant Johnson, who agrees, in general, but has tested and insists "the opposite is true with nonprofit membership mailings."

Decker's Digest: If there's any truth in the old saw, that's the exception that proves the rule. Use personalization if you've had any prior relationship, but don't expect it to work wonders with those who don't know your client from Adam.

Rule 12. Lists are the most important factor in the success of direct mail.

Total agreement, yet Benson said, "Lists are the most overlooked area of direct mail. You can never spend too much time on lists."

Decker's Digest: True then, true now. All that work on the front end gathering great lists will garner better response on the back end.

Rule 13. The offer is the second most important ingredient of direct mail.

Again, total agreement. But no one offered a method for testing either this dictate or the prior one.

Decker's Digest: Also true then, true now. A carefully crafted and positioned offer can make or break your direct mail.

Rule 14. The jury is in: FREE is a magic word.

Everyone accepts this pronouncement as a truism. Only Prescott Kelly, publisher of the Children's Writer newsletter and self-improvement books, has actually tested it against other alternatives, including "complimentary," to solve the "free" conflict when offering a 12-month subscription. (The comp copy is free if you decide not to subscribe—otherwise, you pay for it as one of 12 issues.) He now offers 13 issues, you pay for 12, and the comp is free either way because, as he expected, "free" won handily.

Decker's Digest: Still holds true. Use the word "free" and get a prospect's attention, immediately.

All in all, Benson comes out looking very good after 20 years of dramatic change in the direct marketing business. My panel of colleagues—all of us with at least 20 years in the business—totally or largely agreed with 12 of his 14 rules, and only disagreed with two. For Benson's 17 remaining rules and many other valuable insights, I recommend his book: "Secrets of Successful Direct Mail" (to order, visit http://bookstore.napco.com/tm). Meanwhile, remember to practice the two sacrosanct rules of direct mail: Rule #1, Test everything; Rule #2 (see Rule #1.)