Interview with Drayton Bird

I've mentioned Drayton Bird a few times on my blog. Drayton is one of a few individuals that most influenced my thinking in my marketing career.

For anybody not familiar with Mr Bird, he is best-known for his massive contribution to the discipline of Direct Marketing.

Let me give you an idea of scale here. A few years ago, I read an article in Precision Marketing, naming him as the person who has made the biggest contribution to direct marketing in the previous 15 years.

Campaign Magazine also named him one of the 50 most important individuals in UK advertising during the previous 25 years – "the only universally acknowledged point of creativity in the direct marketing world”.

So I am very grateful that he took some time out of this day to answer a few short questions for my blog....

Me: What is the single biggest change you noticed in direct marketing industry in the past 15-20 years?

Drayton: More people are doing it, less well.

Here are some of the things that have had significant effect on the marketing industry over the last four decades:

• The computer and particularly the speed with which data is available.
• Databases. Now all organisations want databases because they realise the value they hold. They have seen how easy it is to capture data via a website.
• Direct marketing attracting more investment than general advertising
• Personalisation and customisation has allowed more relevant communications to be produced.
• The decline in educational standards, especially literacy and numeracy
• The internet
• The way in which the idea of the brand has come to seem important, even to people who have nothing to do with marketing – and who misunderstand it
• Inflation, especially in media costs, where it has far outpaced general inflation, leading people to seek new ways of marketing
• The greater desire for individual expression, frustrated by the move among those in power towards ever more centralisation. This mirrors what has happened in politics – e.g. the European Union.
• Compliance – and the obfuscation of language in the pursuit of covering the corporate rump.
• Changes in attitudes to sex – greater openness, particularly in advertising imagery.
• The increasing use of marketing techniques – usually badly and often dishonestly applied – by government.

Me: There seems to be a blur between direct marketing, ATL advertising and digital marketing. Do you find this?

Drayton: Yes there is. This is a good thing. This is not a difficult business to master and people should be able to understand and practice all three, since customers switch happily between them. Customers and their motivations do not change even if the media do. Actually as I point out in the new edition of Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing, the word “digital” is a misnomer. We have digital TV and radio, but marketers don’t think of them as digital.

Me: Is the future of direct marketing looking bright?

Drayton: Yes. My former colleague Shelley Lazarus, now CEO of Ogilvy Worldwide said at the DMA conference not long ago that today, all marketing is direct. This is because of the internet, which is accelerated direct marketing.

Me: What are the common mistakes made by marketers?

Drayton: Here are some I listed recently for another interview...

• Too many amateurs in a business that calls for professionalism.
• They fail to study the past – or read.
• They “seek applause instead of sales” – Claude Hopkins said that over 80 years ago.
• They forget it’s just salesmanship and imagine it’s a branch of the entertainment business. Entertain, by all means, but make sure it’s relevant.
• They invest before testing – why guess when you can know?
• They don’t measure. If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. What sane person invests in anything without measuring return on investment? Marketers do every day. Why? Because firms see it as an expense, not an investment. That’s why they cut marketing expenditure in recessions.
  
• They believe research will supply the answer – when it is only indicative.
• They don’t study business as a whole - all they think about is marketing.
• They fail to explain clearly to their colleagues what they are doing – maybe because many don’t really know.
• Over-optimism and a naive belief that marketing, especially advertising will solve business problems.
• Hiring marketing directors and senior agency people without checking their credentials. There is too little due diligence in our industry.
• Uncritical acceptance of “gurus” who are often just recycling old truths. Me, for instance.

Me: What advice would you give anybody starting off in marketing?

Drayton:

• Read. It’s a very agreeable feeling when you walk into a meeting knowing more than anyone else.
• Study people. They are the only profit centre in your business. If you really understand your customers you multiply your chances of success.
• Constantly ask yourself: “What if?” - that is how ideas are born. You need an inquiring mind to succeed in this business.
  
• Take an interest in as many things as possible outside marketing, which is a very dull subject. If you think about nothing else you will end up a tremendous bore – to others and yourself.
  

Drayton is author of several excellent marketing books, including Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing and How to write sales letters that sell? and he also blogs.

Companies don't write letters. People do.

Image courtesy of LarimdaME

"A mailing with a letter, but without a brochure will almost always outpull a mailing with no letter" - Denny Hatch

Last week I wrote a short post 'Direct Marketing Tip' acknowledging the many learnings available from DM tests. While these little nuggets are widely available, I'm not sure if they are widely used. For a nice example of how not to do it, read the "Dear valued customer" letter here.

So apologies if this is old hat. But if you are new to direct marketing or have not trained in it, I'm hoping this is a useful DM tip:

If you are posting stuff to your customers - include a letter.

Not everybody will read it. But some will. Some will skip the brochure and go straight to the letter. Denny Hatch, a DM author, suggests that the letter is actually more important than the brochure. And if I had to dump one for cost reasons, I'd dump the brochure.

Of course, the brochure and the letter serve different purposes. Your brochure is often the glossy bit from your company but the letter is the personal note from you.

Also, remember that companies don't actually write letters. People do. And I'd recommend that the name at the end of the letter should be a real person's at your company. The days of putting a fake name at the end of a letter so customers can't contact you must be coming to an end.

Direct Marketing Tip

"Even if small is less beautiful, it is more efficient" - Graeme McCorkell

One of the great things about direct marketers is they test all sorts of stuff. They test offers, lists, formats, creative, media and lots more. So we have loads of learnings available.

Graeme McCorkell is a highly regarded direct marketing professional and author. The above quote refers to press advertising sizes. Tests show that smaller ads are more (cost) efficient than larger ads.

Sure, you will get higher responses if you make the ad bigger, but the additional responses will not be in proportion to the size increase. So for example, if you double the size of your ad, you won't double the number of responses.

A good rule of thumb is to expect 40% more responses if you double your ad size. But good to test for yourself.

Email marketing metrics: free report

Some new research available on email marketing metrics based on 300 million opt-in newsletters and campaigns in 2007.

There is some good stuff here. For example, the best days to send are Mondays, Tuesdays and weekends. Also, open rates are down by a couple percent, partly due to consumers opening emails on handheld devices.

There are a couple of good case studies here too worth a read (in particular the one on morebusiness.com).

Original post from Dave in Clientwell, who has also given his quick summary of it.

Download the free report from here.

The real power of one.

When advertising, a photo of somebody looking directly out of the page can increase your response rates.

This was the advice of David Ogilvy (or may have been Drayton Bird, I can't remember). Anyway, some recent fundraising research supports this.

Paul Slovic, of 'Decision Research', has demonstrated this by measuring the contribution levels from people shown pictures of starving children. Some subjects were shown a photo of a single starving child while others were shown a photo of two children.

Those shown two children donated 15% less than the one child. In a related experiment, photos showing a group of eight starving children contributed 50% less money than those shown just one. This research makes sense to me. People can relate to individuals and their stories.

The original post is here

Image courtesy of Children at Risk Foundation (CARF) - www.carfweb.net

RSS Marketing

I wonder if 'RSS Marketing' will overtake 'Email marketing' as a real marketing communications tool for brands?

I think it should.

All marketeers know the benefits of email marketing - relatively cheap, quick to deliver, often with decent click-thru rates. But the marketing guys sending out the emails are in charge - they decide when and how often they will 'target' you with their email.

Email marketing is generally a one-way communication. Usually you can't click on the reply button and email them back. I bet that most emails are signed off with a fake name. God forbid you try and contact back the people that fill up your inbox.

Unfortunately marketing people are thinking mostly about the 2% or 3% of people that respond, not so much the 97% that didn't. Sure you can unsubscribe but this can be a hassle. Instead, I personally just delete the mail.

But RSS Marketing would be very different. As any blogger knows, if you want people to read the stuff you have to say - you have to work hard. Content is king of course. You have to put the time into it. I don't think there is any substitute for time. Persuading people to subscribe to your feed is just the first step. You need to be interesting, relevant, insightful or entertaining if you want them to take time out of their day to hear what you have to say. And you have to be ready to respond to personal comments. They can unsubscribe anytime - without even telling you.

With RSS Marketing, your subscribers are clearly in charge.

How many brands and marketing teams are including RSS Marketing as an element within their communications mix?

Don't make me think.

Because I've been in so many debates about this over the years, I'm guessing others have too. It's a small thing - tactical and executional but worth getting right.

When deciding on discounts and promotional offers, don't talk in percentages - unless you really have no other way of doing so. People are busy and most do not have time to figure out percentages.

For example, I know "20% off" sounds high and the argument is that consumers may not do the maths but they appreciate or feel that this is a good deal. My view is that you are better off explaining this in real absolute amounts. So if 20% works out as €1.50, then say "€1.50 off" in your advertising or point of sale.

Just because I say it here doesn't mean it is true - instead seek out the real experts such as Drayton Bird, Bob Stone, Axel Andersson and Denny Hatch. I dug out this quote from Axel - "The only percentage most people understand is 50%, and is that case I prefer half price or buy one, get one free."

Better still - test it.

One quick and cheap way to test the way offers are communicated is to do some quick Google adword tests. You'll have enough analysis within days (or hours sometimes) to allow you to roll out the higher-pulling headline in your other media.

Finally, I once even heard a suggestion to offer a 3% discount for a consumer offering. Our group spent a few minutes trying to work out if this was good value or not...

"The most useful book about advertising that I have ever read"

I'm pretty sure I first heard about this while reading Drayton Bird's Commonsense Direct Marketing. If I remember correctly, he made that point that many marketeers are simply not trained in the basics and his advice to anybody starting out would be to read everything possible. His first book recommendations were Claude C. Hopkin's Scientific Advertising and this.

As you can probably guess by the title, this is a practical book. John explains very simply why one advertisement will outperform another. His statements are bold because they based on tests. If you don't already understand the importance of headlines, you will after this. There are three chapters (ch.2, 3 + 4) written entirely about headlines.

While this was published in 1932, it is still very, very relevant today. It has been suggested that some of his advice is not as important as as it was in the 30's. Perhaps, but I had a quick look over at amazon and wasn't surprised to see that it has a five-star rating from 42 reviews.

The copy I have has a foreword by the late great David Ogilvy. I just grabbed it off the shelf to read his quote directly - "This is, without doubt, the most useful book about advertising that I have ever read".

This is a keeper. You won't give yours away.

What about the ones that don't respond?

I seem to have a lot of conversations about typical response rates. A few things come to mind...

While typical rates are useful to know, my view on this is that it really is difficult to predict a response if you haven't tested the campaign in advance. Needless to say the response will be better if you are talking to the right people, whom ideally you have some sort of (good) relationship with, at the right time, about something they are interested in.

And while we sometimes get caught up debating what response is considered good, it is just as important to understand what response you can afford. If you're advertising expensive cars, you can probably tolerate a lower response than if you're advertising a car hire. Again, as long as it is still profitable.

On saying that, a chart like this does help predict a possible range of responses. I know many people often seem surprised how few actually click on online (display) ads - so this is good to manage expectations. I found the chart here.

Finally, in our digital age, I honestly feel it is important to think about the vast majority of people that do not respond. If the chart above is correct, and only .1% are responding to your email shot - what do the other 99.9% feel about you interrupting their day?

They may not mind if they like your brand and feel you actually thought it was relevant - but I wouldn't count on it.

Commonsense Direct Marketing

I'm planning to add lots of my favourite books to this blog over the next couple weeks. I thought I'd start with this one...

'Commonsense Direct Marketing' was one of the first direct marketing books I read. Drayton Bird is one of the most respected marketing professionals around and is responsible for igniting my interest in reading about marketing in general. It is a very practical book and covers the principles and key areas of direct marketing. What surprises me still is how much of this stuff marketing folk still don't know. It may look a bit textbook-ish from the cover but it is not. There's no bullshit here. I'd highly recommend it to anybody and everybody involved in marketing.

"We value your business"

"We value your business" - these four words appear on websites, in customer service centres, in emails and letters...and of course, while waiting on hold.

I hate these four words.

It's not the sentiment that actually bothers me. Hopefully the company does value my business and the company telling me this is about to prove it somehow. It just lacks any evidence of a human being. It is either lazy or misguided. Either way, it misses a great opportunity to show that your brand (and the people working there) have some personality.

While searching for examples of brands using these four words, I found this lovely bit of writing here from Shaun McIlrath - a creative director at Hurrell and Dawson, London. You can't argue with any of this, except to say that real direct marketing professionals (the likes of Drayton Bird and the late David Ogilvy) would never start with 'Dear Valued Customer' either. In fact, quite the opposite.

Anyway, it's so good, I've literally pasted the entire piece from Scamp's blog (well worth visiting)....

Dear Valued Blog Reader,

How does that introduction make you feel? Like a piece of shit, would be my guess. And yet, there are thousands of well-paid Direct Marketing professionals starting pieces of communication like this every day.

So, the first thing you need to know about Direct is that any advice you might get from a Direct ‘expert’ should be treated as deeply suspect.

This is how companies speak:

Dear Valued Customer.

As part of our ongoing improvement initiative we are centralising data, in order to provide a more streamlined service. We are also taking this opportunity to realign customer sales and are, therefore, in the process of updating our information. Enclosed you will find a Customer Satisfaction Questionnaire. Complete the FREEPOST form and send it back before June and you could WIN A HOLIDAY FOR TWO.

That is a real letter. From a company. It says only one thing: companies don’t give a fuck about you, they want your money and, at the end of the day, you are nothing more than a name on a list in a huge numbers game.

People, on the other hand…this is how people speak:

Dear Bob,

Since I was promoted to MD, I’ve noticed that no one tells me bad news any more. Now, I may just be paranoid, but I’m harbouring the suspicion that parts of our service aren’t as good as they could be. So, who better to ask than someone who uses it every day? Are we as good as we could be, or are there areas where we’re dodgy? Go on, give it to us right between the eyes – because, ultimately, my job depends on you being happy.

Know your audience

Just picked this up from (the legend) Drayton Bird. It's a letter sent to Procter and Gamble about their feminine products. It's PC Magazine's 2007 editors' choice for best webmail-award-winning letter.


Dear Mr. Thatcher,

I have been a loyal user of your 'Always' maxi pads for over 20 years and I appreciate many of their features. Why, without the LeakGuard Core or Dri-Weave absorbency, I'd probably never go horseback riding or salsa dancing, and I'd certainly steer clear of running up and down the beach in tight, white shorts. But my favorite feature has to be your revolutionary Flexi-Wings. Kudos on being the only company smart enough to realize how crucial it is that maxi pads be aerodynamic. I can't tell you how safe and secure I feel each month knowing there's a little F-16 in my pants.

Have you ever had a menstrual period, Mr. Thatcher? I'm guessing you haven't. Well, my time of the month is starting right now. As I type, I can already feel hormonal forces violently surging through my body. Just a few minutes from now, my body will adjust and I'll be transformed into what my husband likes to call 'an inbred hillbilly with knife skills.' Isn't the human body amazing?

As Brand Manager in the Feminine-Hygiene Division, you've no doubt seen quite a bit of research on what exactly happens during your customer's monthly visits from 'Aunt Flo'. Therefore, you must know about the bloating, puffiness, and cramping we endure, and about our intense mood swings, crying jags, and out-of-control behavior. You surely realize it's a tough time for most women.

The point is, sir, you of all people must realize that America is just crawling with homicidal maniacs in Capri pants... Which brings me to the reason for my letter. Last month, while in the throes of cramping so painful I wanted to reach inside my body and yank out my uterus, I
opened an Always maxi-pad, and there, printed on the adhesive backing, were these words: 'Have a Happy Period.'

Are you f------ kidding me? What I mean is, does any part of your tiny middle-manager brain really think happiness - actual smiling, laughing happiness, is possible during a menstrual period? Did anything mentioned above sound the least bit pleasurable? Well, did it, James? FYI, unless you're some kind of sick S&M freak, there will never be anything 'happy' about a day in which you have to jack yourself up on Motrin and Kahlua and lock yourself in your house just so you don't march down to the local Walgreen's armed with a hunting rifle and a sketchy plan to end your life in a blaze of glory.

For the love of God, pull your head out, man! If you have to slap amoronic message on a maxi pad, wouldn't it make more sense to say something that's actually pertinent, like 'Put down the Hammer' or 'Vehicular Manslaughter is Wrong',

Sir, please inform your Accounting Department that, effective immediately, there will be an $8 drop in monthly profits, for I have chosen to take my maxi-pad business elsewhere. And though I will certainly miss your Flex-Wings, I will not for one minute miss your brand of condescending bullshit. And that's a promise I will keep.

Always. . .

Best,
Wendi Aarons
Austin , TX
~~~~~~~~

Will text emails work better?

I don't have any research (yet) but I bet that the old-style text (ascii) emails now could pull a higher response than HTML emails.

Sure, there was a time (circa 2001) when beautifully formated HTML email shots would have been the obvious choice for any marketeer. The emails would look good, have colour, with lots of images and links back to the brand's website. They got my attention in an inbox of grey text emails.

The problem is that now every email shot in my inbox is HTML, colourful and possibly animated. There is nothing interesting or exciting about them. They are not personal. I'm suspicious that the person signing off the email is not a real person. If it is, why am I asked not to reply directly to the mail.

However, if I get an ordinary text email from a person working for a brand - I think I'd take more notice. Even if it is an email shot, it still feels less like an 'ad' than HTML so I'm at least more likely to read it, which as we know, is the first step towards a higher response.

Brands want a dialogue but not ready to talk

So many brand people talk about building relationships with customers, creating a dialogue with them and turning them into advocates or fans. Yet it's difficult to find many brands that actually hang around to have a dialogue (to talk).

Take Xbox Ireland's bebo page. This looks good, is well branded and has lots of potential. They even have 1200 friends on the page who leave regular comments. Clearly people are interested in Xbox. The missed opportunity is this - there seems to be no interaction or conversation from the people behind Xbox. I scrolled through three weeks of comments and didn't find a single comment from the people behind the page. Now, they could be replying through mail but from looking at the comments, I'm guessing they are not.

Why invest in a branded presence on bebo if you are not going to talk with your customers there?