Eye on Copy

Why you absolutely must proofread your copy before hitting "send."

 

That's Steve Ballmer, CEO of a little company called Microsoft. Powerful, yes. Black leader in Chicago, no.

Seven steps to a 22% response rate

There’s an interesting story in BtoB Magazine about a direct mail campaign from security giant Symantec. It seems the sales pipeline was drying up, so the marketing folks rolled up their sleeves. Their FedEx’d package logged a 22% response rate. How did they do it?

1. Talk to sales/account management.
2. Analyze customer data.
3. Diagnose the pain point.
4. Segment your audience.
5. Stand out from the crowd.
6. Offer useful information.
7. Follow up.

It seems so basic, but I’ll bet that 95% of companies (me included) drop the ball on at least one of these elements. And their response rate suffers likewise.