Decent marketing - still out there

With the Pareto Principle applying to the Freeman Christie postbox (80% trash), it's a delight to get a piece of DM like this from Yellow Pages.

From a design point of view there are better looking DM packs, but this one's functional and sound.  It's the copy that's the best bit...

The writer sounds as though he's read his Claude Hopkins, Drayton Bird (lunch be upon him) and David Ogilvy.  It's an absolute bloody joy.

There's a key, single, simple proposition.  "Get a Yellow Pages entry and we'll bring business to your door."

The proposition is quantified. "We'll get you five new leads a week." and it's backed up with data.

The opening acknowledges that small business owners are strapped for time, and it recognises that sales are the key worry area for all of them.

It's clear what I'm supposed to do - it would be hard to miss that massive yellow response device.  And they've even completed it for you.  

Gorgeous.

It's unusual to see a DM piece this good nowadays. Most agencies have forgotten the function of direct mail is to SELL.  Yes, done well, it enhances the brand too, but the primary function of DM is to sell something.  That means anyone writing DM needs to have read the masters (Drayton, Claude and David) and be able to think their way into the mind of the prospect.

I still love writing DM.  It was my first job in advertising and it's informed everything I've done since.  It's a bit like learning Latin - not glamorous, hard work and slog but excellent discipline and a good foundation.  If you're used to people having 12 seconds to evaluate your mailpack (8 are spent opening the envelope and unfolding the contents), you start cutting all the puff from your writing.  You need to get to the benefits quickly, and sell them in a way that shows you understand the prospect and what makes him buy - thoroughly.

Years ago, I worked in direct mail for Nationwide Building Society.  The week before I started, I spent Saturday morning sitting on the wall outside my local branch, watching people go in and come out.  I saw the shopping bags they carried, the clothes they wore, the other shops they visited.  And I learned more in that morning about my customers than I learned in pages of research and focus groups.  It's only by meeting and talking to your clients and customers that you can understand what drives them.  And that's the only way you can communicate with them.

Try it - go and meet some of your customers and find out what really makes them buy.