Contents
Acknowledgments xiii
Part 1
Direct Marketing That Gets Results
1 Direct Mail and the Small Business 3
What Direct Mail Can Do for You 4
Direct Mail Creates a Response 4
Direct Mail Grows a Customer Base 4
Direct Mail Can Be Tailored to Your Business 5
Direct Mail Can Be Measured 5
Direct Mail Can Be Tested 5
Direct Mail Can Fit Any Budget 5
Direct Mail Is Personal 6
Direct Mail Is Hot 6
Direct Marketing: Fact and Myth 7
OK, It Isn’t All Great News 9
Higher Postage Rates 9
Higher Production Costs 10
Privacy Concerns 10
The Industry Itself 10
Is Direct Mail Right for Your Business? 10
How Microsoft Office 2000 Can Help 12
2 Plan Your Way to Direct-Mail Success 13
First, a Reality Check 14
What to Sell? 14
Writing Your Game Plan 16
Writing the Offer 18
The Four Kinds of Offers 18
Strengthening the Offer 19
An Offer Isn’t Always Just a Deal 22
Creating an Analysis Worksheet 23
Putting It Together 26
3 Using Mailing Lists Effectively 29
The Best List in the World 30
How to Build a House List 31
Rental Lists 33
Compiled Lists 34
Response Lists 35
Where to Find the List That’s Right for You 35
What Can a List Broker Do for You? 36
Database Mining 40
Other List Tools 41
The Bottom Line: Did It Work? 42
4 Direct-Mail Copy That Sells the Goods 43
Direct Mail—The Word Is the Message 44
Focus on the Customer 44
Turn Customer Motivation into Action 47
First Drafts 50
Writing a Direct-Mail Letter 51
Write a Powerful Headline 51
Draw Readers in with the Lead 52
Grab Readers with the Hook 53
Make Your Offer in the Body 54
Don’t Forget the P.S. 54
How to Strengthen Your Writing 55
Use Words with Power 55
Include Testimonials 56
Keep It Friendly 57
Put on the Polish 58
First, Walk Away 58
Read It Aloud 58
Trim, Trim, Trim 58
Using Word to Improve Your Writing 59
New Features in Word 2000 59
5 Producing the Direct-Mail Package 61
Start a Cheat Box 62
The Envelope 62
The Letter 64
Typographic Matters 66
The Brochure 67
Brochure Basics 69
Publisher 2000 and the Brochure Wizards 69
The Cover 70
The Inside Spread 70
The Back Page 70
The Response Card 71
Self-Mailers, Postcards, and Catalogs 72
Self-Mailers 72
Postcards 73
Catalogs 74
Catalog Basics 75
Designing a Catalog 77
6 Printing and Mailing 79
How Much Time Is Needed? 79
Preparing Your List 80
Making a Mock-Up 81
Choosing Paper 81
Weight and Thickness 81
Coatings and Brightness 82
Choosing Ink and Colors 84
The Final Steps 84
Saving Money on Printing 84
What’s Your Break-Even Point? 85
Working with the Postal Service 87
Sorting Mail for Fun and Profit 87
Paying to Mail Your Piece 88
Business Reply Mail 89
Using Microsoft Direct Mail Manager 91
7 Test for Success 93
What Does It Mean to Test? 94
How to Start 94
What to Test? 96
First, Test Lists 96
Next, Test the Offer 97
Test "the Creative" 97
The Right Way to Test 100
Bob Hacker’s "Power
Test" 101Testing Smaller Samples 103
Common Testing Mistakes 104
Part 2
Customer Management That Builds Sales and Loyalty
8 The New World of Customer Service 109
Customer Service—A New Era 111
The Changing Competitive Environment 111
The "New Entitlement" 113
What You Get and How You Get It 113
The Costs of Poor Customer Service 114
How to Bug the Customer 116
The Gains from Good Customer Service 117
Creating the Customer-Driven Company 118
What Does a Customer-Driven Company Look Like? 118
Microsoft Customer Management Tools 121
What Customer Manager Can Do for You 121
9 You and Your Customer 123
Customers Come in Different Flavors 123
Define Yourself as Your Customer Defines You 124
All Customers Are Not Equal 126
The Butterfly Customer 127
OK, Now What? 128
Creating a Customer-Service Vision 129
Involve Everyone 130
The Three "C"s of a Great Vision Statement 131
Now, What to Do with It? 132
Setting Standards for Service 132
Barriers to Good Customer Service 133
10 Hiring and Training a Customer-Oriented Staff 137
Find the Great Customer-Service Employee 138
The Values Factor 138
Traits of Customer-Service Winners 139
How to Find Great Customer-Service People 140
Hiring Is a Verb 141
Training a Great Customer-Service Staff 143
Training for Maximum Performance 145
Training for the Job 146
Motivating Your Customer-Service Team 146
The Motivational Triangle 147
The L.L. Bean Approach 148
Is the Customer
Always Right? 149Taking Tough Measures 150
Showing the Way 151
11 Keeping the Customer Satisfied 153
Why You Want Complaints 155
Why Don’t More People Complain? 156
What Customers Hate to Hear 156
DiSC: The Four Personality Types 157
D Is for Dominance 157
I Is for Influence 158
S Is for Supportiveness 159
C Is for Conscientiousness 159
The Demographic Wild Card 160
The Angry Customer 163
SAVE an Unhappy Customer 164
The Fairness Factor 165
Follow Up 168
12 The Pulse of the Customer 169
Survey Your Way to Customer Understanding 170
What Do You Want to Learn? 171
You’ve Got the Data; Now What? 177
13 The Client Connection 179
Developing Your Own "Brand" 180
Learning to Listen 180
Be a Resource 184
Put the Client First 185
Nice Touches 186
Using Technology to Keep Clients "Top of Mind" 187
14 The Web and Your Customer 195
A Web of Possibilities 195
With the Web, the Bar Gets Higher 196
Understanding the Web Customer 197
Things the Web Can Do 198
E-mail 198
The Virtual Community 201
The Personal Touch 203
A Tale of Two Sites 204
REI: A Community of Outdoor Buffs 204
eTAC: A Total Customer Support Site 206
Principles of Good Site Design 206
FrontPage 2000 Helps You Become a Webmaster 207
Part 3
Appendixes
A Direct-Marketing Resources 211
Books 211
Periodicals 212
Directories 213
Postal Service Guides 214
Organizations 214
B Customer-Service Resources 217
Books 217
Periodical 218
Directory 218
Organizations 219