BY DREW NEISSER

Social media hastaken the industry bystorm, and many directmarketers are wonder-ing where to invest their

time and energy. To help you and yourclients get started, here is a social media to-do list to focus your efforts.

Social Media StrategyThough more than half of all large com-

panies claim to have a presence onFacebook and Twitter, less than 25% claimto have a clearly defined social strategy.Since there is such a thing as a social strat-egy (http://slidesha.re/icNAub) completewith CEO-pleasing metrics, I urge you tobegin here.

A Dedicated Social ChairIn 2010, social media was assigned to

the junior staffer who just happened tohave the most friends on Facebook but washardly an expert. For 2011, you need toassign at least one dedicated professionalwho can champion social strategy internal-ly, while coordinating execution across allthe departments it can and should touch.

A Metric SystemGiven all the roles social media can play

– from customer service to new productdevelopment, word-of-mouth to lead gen-eration – putting precise metrics in place ischallenging, even for those with well-defined strategies. But tools are emergingfrom software as service companies likeHootSuite and ArgyleSocial that shouldmake measuring results easier and wellwithin your budget.

An Aggregation PlanOne of the unexpected benefits of a

strong social program is its potential to sig-nificantly improve organic search results.But in order to turn social content into thegift that keeps on giving, brands need toaggregate and archive the content on theirown websites. Small brands will want tolook at Hubspot (http://bit.ly/Drew_HS);large brands, IBM (http://bit.ly/cFXGCx).

Customer Feedback LoopWhile listening to the customer has

long been an important business credo,it is only lately that marketers are turningto online tools like Get Satisfaction(http://bit.ly/fu7B8p) that truly enable andtrack instantaneous feedback. In 2011,offering customers the ability to engagewith fellow customers right on their web-site will become more the rule than theexception.

Social Business EnlightenmentIn the brave new world of social busi-

ness enlightenment, all businesses aresocial – and all social is business. Evenlarge companies will want to present alltheir employees with unfettered access tosocial media tools. These employees willquickly realize that social marketing candrive sales, service customers and evenhelp with new product development, notjust now but for the future. �

Drew Neisser is the CEO and founder ofRenegade, the NYC-based Social Mediaand Marketing Consultancy. Drew is a fre-quent contributor to MediaPost.com,FastCompany.com, TheDrewBlog.com andTwitter.com/DrewNeisser.

Your Social Media To-Do List

Direct Marketing Club of New York | www.dmcny.org

To bring our vibrant DM community clos-er, POSTINGS is happy to launch a new col-umn from you, our members. Let us knowwhat you and your company are up to!Send your news to Donna Baier Stein atdonna@writesontarget.com. Noticeswill be placed in the newsletter and onlineat www.dmcny.org/page/postingsnews.

Let’s start our new column by con-gratulating Leon Henry as he preparesto celebrate the 55th anniversary ofLeon Henry Inc (www.leonhenryinc.com).Leon has been a DMCNY member since itwas called the HundredMillion Club “probably45 years and counting!”Kudos to a master directmarketer and long-timeclub friend!

Leon Henry: Leon@leonhenryinc.com� � � � � � � �

ALC (www.alc.com) harnesses innova-tive web-crawler technology to pro-duce unique e-business database. 3DBIcurrently contains unique data sets onsome 10 million key executives at approx-imately 4 million U.S. based companies,who have made an investment in andcommitment to their digital presence.

Annemarie Swingle: annemarie.swingle@alc.com | Phone: 609.580.2754

� � � � � � � �

Eric B. Mohr of EBM Direct MarketingServices LLC (www.EBMdirectmarketing.com) announces that he was awardedGoogle ProfessionalCertification for AdwordsSearch Marketing. Inaddition, EBM DirectMarketing Services LLC,having met the neces-

DMCNYMember News

vol . 2 , i ssue 1 | M arch 2011

d i r e c t & d i g i t a l n e w sf r o m d m c n y

(continued on page 5)

www.dmcny.org http://bit.ly/dmcnyfacebook

Dear Member:

It’s been a long, cold, snowy past few months, but nothing was going to stop our club

plans and programs from going on this winter. In fact, we had record breaking atten-

dance this season at our various functions—a testimony to the strong support of our

members and club participants in spite of the many impediments Mother Nature

attempted to throw in our way. The Social Media Half-Day Intensive Seminar held at Pace

University attracted a sold-out crowd of 80 professionals and 80 students. And at the

February luncheon we seated over 90 attendees. You just can’t keep a good DMCNY club

member down!

The DMCNY board has also been busy at work focusing on 2011 as “the year of the

member”. We are in the midst of an aggressive membership renewal campaign—and I

want to say “thank you” to all who have rejoined our ranks. We now have over 500 DM

professionals actively involved in the club—

and we are about to launch a major acquisi-

tion effort to attract vibrant new members to

our ranks. For years, DMCNY has encouraged

our young students to be a part of our activi-

ties. I am proud to announce the creation of our “young professional” member level—

designed for people who are recently graduated from school, starting in the industry,

under the age of 30. This lower-priced membership is aimed at expanding our profes-

sional mix—to ensure we bring together new and nimble as well as experienced and

seasoned DMers into our community. We intend to attract practitioners across every

aspect of direct response: traditional, new media, print, mail, electronic, mobile. They are

all a part of our DMCNY world!

We’ve also ramped up our club benefit offerings. This new set of deep discounts now

includes Dell computers and electronics, Target Marketing Group publications and

reports, Zipcar rentals, Boardroom’s “Bottom Line Personal” magazine, DMA membership

and conferences, MarketingProfs memberships, 1-800-Flowers and Popcorn Factory

orders. Keep an eye on our website for the latest updates (www.dmncy.org) as we are

continuing to expand our club partnerships to bring other member services at substan-

tial savings to you.

I look forward to seeing you soon at our upcoming events—join us at Red Sky Bar for

networking on March 23, our luncheon with the DMA leadership on April 14 and a new

breakfast series on digital marketing beginning in May. Get out and enjoy the warm

weather and our friendly informative gatherings!

Pegg Nadler, President

Editor: Ruth P. Stevens (212) 679-6486 • ruth@ruthstevens.comAd Sales: Cyndi Lee (203) 825-4620 • clee@rmidirect.comArt Director: Cheryl A. Biswurm (201) 485-2023 • cbiswurm@turnerdirect.usPrinted by Impression Point, Inc., Stamford, CT • impressionpt.com

BOARD OFFICERSPRESIDENTPegg Nadler – Pegg Nadler Associates, Inc.212-861-0846; pegg@peggnadler.com

1ST VICE PRESIDENTPam Haas – Lyris, Inc.516-802-3533; pamhaas99@yahoo.com

2ND VICE PRESIDENTCyndi Lee – RMI Direct Marketing203-825-4620; clee@rmidirect.com

TREASURERArthur Blumenfield – BMI Fulfillment Services, Inc.203-663-6011; arthur@bmigroup.com

SECRETARYDiane Petruzzelli – Fosina Marketing Group203-546-5548; dpetruzzelli@fosinamarketinggroup.com

BOARD MEMBERSIMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENTReggie Brady – Reggie Brady Marketing Solutions203-838-8138; reginabrady@att.net

Danielle Brooks – Data Management Inc.212-337-0732; dbrooks@data-management.com

Lori Collins – Focus USA603-635-1842; lori@focus-usa-1.com

Scott Ellis – Rocketseed609-843-0522; scott.ellis@rocketseed.com

Sara Ezrin – Experian - Cheetahmail212-863-4615; sara@cheetahmail.com

Rich Kirshberg – Early AM Digital917-572-5644; richkirshberg@gmail.com

Jeff Kobil – LDSGroup Inc.646-390-5701; jkobil@ldsgroupinc.com

Kirk Kozak – Zeta Interactive646-834-9400; kkozak@zetainteractive.com

Peter Malamas – eWay Direct201-735-7082; peter@ewaydirect.com

Chris Masagatani – eROI646-794-4195; chris@eroi.com

Tricia Reyes – Consumers Union914-378-2483; treyes@consumer.org

Ron Sichler – Data Services Inc.203-661-4910; ronsichler@verizon.net

Rick Witsell – Alliant845-276-2600 x218; rwitsell@alliantdata.com

EXECUTIVE DIRECTORStuart W. Boysen – Stu Boysen Associates, Inc.516-746-6700; stuboysen@earthlink.net

BOARD ADVISORSCheryl A. Biswurm – Turner Direct, LLC201-485-2023; cbiswurm@turnerdirect.us

William Denhard – The Lee Epstein Fund212-790-1583; billdenhard@aol.com

Chet Dalzell212-725-2294; chet.dalzell@yahoo.com

JoAnne Dunn – Alliant845-276-2600 x216; jdunn@alliantdata.com

Richie Lokay – Wingtip Marketing347-635-4373; richie@wingtipmarketing.com

David Lord – David Lord, CPA914-241-8365; jabspd@aol.com

Christine Slusarek – Time Consumer Marketing Inc.212-522-7708; christine_slusarek@timeinc.com

Ruth P. Stevens – eMarketing Strategy212-679-6486; ruth@ruthstevens.com

Letter from Our ClubPresident

We now have over 500DM professionals activelyinvolved in the club.

March 2011 | 3

vol . 2 , i ssue 1 | M arch 2011

direct & digital newsfrom dmcny

4 | March 2011

BY SCOTT HORNSTEIN

Without doubt, themost profitable cus-tomer relationships arethe longest. Happiercustomers stay longer

and buy more. Customer loyalty is rein-forced, or possibly eroded, with each indi-vidual customer interaction.

For the past 10 years, my company hasconducted a survey among leading com-panies, to gauge their responsiveness toemail inquiries from customers. We com-piled a database of top firms from theFinancial Times’s Most RespectedCompanies, Fortune’s Most AdmiredCompanies and The Reputation Institute’sMost Respected Companies. The listincludes such well-known firms as Apple,Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bristol Myers,Microsoft, Berkshire Hathaway, Nordstrom,Google and more.

Every year, we send each company anemail with the subject line Customer Serviceand body copy saying “What is your corpo-rate policy regarding the turnaround timefor emails addressed to customer service?”

Our purpose is to see which companieswalk the CRM talk. Answers are the onlythings that count. Tell me your policy and I

put a check next to your name.Here are the results, over time:In 2002, the high water mark, 86% of

companies replied. The year 2009 was thelow at 45%. This year, it was 51%.

Looking at response speed, 63% of com-panies answered us within 24 hours in2002. In 2009 the figure was 29%. This year,it was 35%.

But there is an interesting developmentwith this year’s survey. Fully 24% of thecompanies in our original database wereno longer participating in the conversationat all. Of these:

• 9% do not publish or post an emailaddress.

• 9% had a form that required informa-tion we did not have, like a flight number.

• 6% of the emails we sent via the formprovided bounced.

Among those who did answer, here aresome interesting points to note:

• 20% have a 24-hour response policy.• The web forms provided by P&G, Coke,

General Mills and Kraft require age.• AMA’s stated policy is to respond with-

in 24 to 78 business hours. (We wonder:how does a business hour differ from a reg-ular hour?)

Do You “Walk the Talk” onResponsiveness to Customers?

• GE could not disclose the informationbecause of privacy regulations.

• IBM, HP and Target asked that we call into discuss our question.

The fastest answer came fromNordstrom, in a mere 29 minutes. Their pol-icy is asap. The slowest responder wasDisney, at 11 days. Their policy is 2 – 7 busi-ness days. The oddest answer came fromsar.Imceachern@protocolgs.com whowrote,“We like to respond within a 24 hourperiod” but never identified the company.

So, if we are all committed to “CRM”, whatwent wrong here? A colleague once toldme, “It would be such a nice business if itweren’t for all those annoying customers.”

Research from Accenture says 61% ofcustomers stated that poor customer serv-ice led them to change a supplier withinthe past year. Our conclusion from thisstudy? Treat customers with trust andrespect, and they will reciprocate. Treatcustomers like commodities, and they willsurely return the favor. �

Scott Hornstein is a marketing consultant,specializing in strategy, research and imple-mentation. Reach him at scott@hornsteinas-sociates.com.

March 23, 2011 – Networking Event: Join DMCNY friends and colleagues to celebrate Spring’s arrival at the spacious, 3-level Red Sky Bar. Meet and network with the direct marketing industry’s best. Sponsored by Prompt Mailers and Wiland Direct

April 14, 2011 Luncheon - Legislative Update: From the DMA, Larry Kimmel, CEO will talk about the current and future stateof direct marketing, and Linda A. Woolley, EVP, Government Affairs, will update us on legislative issues. The Boardroom Prizeswill be awarded by Brian Kurtz. Sponsored by RMI Direct

May 12, 2011 Luncheon - Digital Topics of the Day: David Daniels of The Relevancy Group; Kirk McDonald of Time Digital;and Ramsey McGory of Yahoo! NA will speak on the digital topic of the day. Sponsored by Return Path

June 2, 2011 Luncheon - “The Intersection of Offline, Online and Emerging Marketing Channels in Retail”:Moderated by Jared Blank of Tommy Hilfiger and former Jupiter Research analyst – a panel of four retailers will discuss the changing roles of direct mail, email, SEM/SEO, social media and mobile marketing in today’s marketplace.

September 15, 2011 Luncheon - Social Media’s Impact on Political Fundraising: Michael Slaby of Edelman will discuss social media’s impact on political fundraising. He was Chief Technology Officer and Deputy Director of New Media at Obama For America and was Technology Director at Obama-Biden Transition Project. Sponsored by Alliant

For updated information, event dates and registration, please visit www.dmcny.org.

http://bit.ly/dmcnyfacebook

Club Calendar

©iStockPhoto.com/GodfriedEdelman

www.dmcny.org | 5

BY NADER ASHWAY

Banner ads may notbe at the top of the DMmedia consideration list,because most of usthink of them as best

suited to display, versus response. But givebanner a try. Used properly, they can be astrong ROI contributor to any integratedcampaign.

Here are my top five recommenda-tions for how to engage with bannerssuccessfully.

This gets com-plicated, fast.Not only do

you have to have the right sites, but youmust also determine the right pages, andin some cases, the perfect content for youradvertising messages. Key targetingparameters: Audience makeup, site popu-larity, the content/context connection,other advertisers, and the “tent,” meaningthe ad category. For instance, if you’re mar-keting financial services, your ads may findan audience on virtually any site under the“financial tent,” like real estate, insurance,and credit cards.

Working handin hand witht a r g e t i n g ,

choose the right message for the site. Godeeper than a simple category creative.Use banner ads to sell product featuresand benefits. If you’ve done your target-ing correctly, you can get down to realproduct specifics.

There are manyexcellent toolsand formats

available.• Animated GIFs provide a simple and

kilobyte-friendly platform to getlonger messages in through multi-frame refreshes.

• Flash is the platform choice forsmoother, graphic-rich transitions, and

you can add interactive tools like cal-culators, radio buttons, rollovers,music, etc.

• Video is even better: Give a productdemonstration, take the user for a test-drive, tell a story.

If you don’t have rich media available, tryadding it through a provider like Linkstorm.And don’t forget to inquire with the site(s)you’re considering whether certain mediaoptions are available, like page takeovers,pull-downs, and page morphs. Before youstart creating, check IAB’s (InteractiveAdvertising Bureau) rich media creativeguidelines.

Where yourad appears onthe page can

be critical to its success. Go to Google’sAdSense help articles to see a “heat map”that indicates likelihood of viewership andresponse. But much depends on the typeof site on which you’re advertising. If it ismostly editorial, then embedding the adwithin the content may perform betterthan a standard leaderboard or bannerunit.

Banner adver-tising is effec-tive, when

done right. But remember, it’s only the firststep in a contextualized conversationbetween you and your prospects. So makesure you have the tools and the structuresto continue the banner ad conversationboth online and offline. That could meandriving click-throughs to landing pages, orto your website; from data capture forms todownloads; or to more content that tellsmore of your brand story. �

Nader Ashway is Executive Vice President,Creative Director, at CGSM, Inc. Reach him atNaderA@cgsm.com.

sary corporate criteria, was awardedGoogle Partner Certification status.

Eric Mohr: sales@ebmdirectmarketing.comPhone: 516 874-7839

� � � � � � � �

Jay Bower, President and CEO, ofCrossbow Group (www.crossbowgroup.com) is working with these new clients:Bloomberg, New York PresbyterianHospital, Office Environments (a sub-sidiary of Steelcase) and the Westport Y.

Jay Bower: jbower@crossbowgroup.comPhone: 203.222.2244

� � � � � � � �

Norma J. Goodwin, M.D., Founder,President & CEO and Christine Burgess,Executive Administrator, of HealthPower for Minorities, LLC® (HealthPower®), www.healthpowerforminorities.com, implemented three new websitefeatures: (1) a new blog; (2) a “LatestMinority Health News” feature, and (3)direct e-mailing from any site page to“Spread the Word for Minority Health.”

Norma Goodwin: njgoodwin@healthpowerforminorities.com | Phone: 718.434.8103

Christine Burgess: cburgess@healthpowerforminorities.com | Phone: 718.434.8103

� � � � � � � �

Ruth K. Sheldon(www.ruthsheldon.com)announces she’s helpinga NYC-based printer whowants to get beyond theimage of just providingprint. To position thecompany as a multi-channel marketer sheand her team are providing a new website,new mission statement, and on- andoffline promotional campaigns thatdemonstrate his expanded capabilities.

Ruth K. Sheldon: shelru@aol.comPhone: 212.873.0496

� � � � � � � �

Stacey Girt, 24 year DM Veteran, joinsV12 Group (www.v12groupinc.com) asSVP of Business Development. V12 Grouphelps clients deliver relevant DM commu-nications by offering direct and digitalmarketing services: email, mobile, phone,postal addresses at both consumer(including demographics) and businessaddresses (including firmagraphics).

Stacey Girt: sgirt@v12groupinc.comPhone: 239.471.7705

Member News(continued from page 1)

Five Routes toBanner Ad Success ���

6 | March 2011

BY RUTH STEVENS

Did you know thatthe great Martin Baier,DMA 1989 Hall ofFamer, and “Father ofZIP Code Marketing,” is

now living in the New York area? Postings ishappy to update DMCNY members on thehistory here, with a personal story fromReggie Brady, and some facts aboutMartin’s career. We also welcome DonnaBaier Stein, daughter of Martin andDorothy Baier, to active participation inDMCNY, where she is editing Postings’snewest feature, Member News.

Martin has been honored for his work indirect marketing and DM education, withmany accolades: the DMEF Ed Mayer Awardin 1983, Best of Industry Award from TheDMA in 1950 and 1951, Marketing Man ofthe Year from the Sales & Marketing Execsin 1974, Direct Marketing InsuranceExecutive of the Year in 1983, Miles KimballAward from the Mail Advertising ServiceAssociation in 1990, the Ed Sisk Award fromthe DMAW in 1994, a Lifetime AchievementAward from the NEDMA in 1996;International Fellow of the Institute ofDirect Marketing (UK) in 1995, and the AndiEmerson Award from the Direct MarketingCreative Guild in 1995.

He authored three classic books ondirect marketing: Elements of DirectMarketing (McGraw-Hill, 1983, andPrentice-Hall, 2004, also translated intoJapanese by Nikkei McGraw Hill in 1985),How to Find and Cultivate Customersthrough Direct Marketing (NTC BusinessBooks, 1996), and Contemporary DatabaseMarketing (Racom Books, 2001).

He has given seminars on direct market-ing mathematics around the world. In 1967,he published an article in Harvard BusinessReview called “Zip Code—New Tool forMarket Segmentation.”He also founded thefirst certification program in direct market-ing at the University of Missouri at KansasCity where he invited Bob Stone, JoanThrockmorton, Ted Spiegel, and our ownReggie Brady, among others, to speak. Wewelcome Martin Baier to New York.

Ruth Stevens is a past president of DMCNYand consults on B-to-B marketing. Reach herat ruth@ruthstevens.com.

BY REGGIE BRADY

I had the opportu-nity this week to re-connect with a directmarketing industryicon – Martin Baier.

For those of you who don’t know Martin,let me take you back to 1963, when thepostal service announced a brand newconcept they called “ZIP Codes.” Thismandated protocol sent everyone into atizzy. Consumers and marketers allviewed the thing as a royal pain.

But Martin, a dyed-in-the-wool data-base marketer, was the first to recognizethat the ZIP code was actually a wonder-ful thing. Now, marketers could startsegmenting customers or prospects in awhole new way. It took a while to amassthe right data, but Martin Baier was thefirst to figure out that a specific geo-graphic location based on ZIP codeopened up a new route to analyze,model, and evaluate marketing resultsand potentially fine-tune prospectingefforts.

I first met this legendary direct mar-keter in 1987. I’d just re-located to Ohioto work for CompuServe, one of the veryfirst ISPs. One of my responsibilities wasto figure out how to use direct mail toacquire new customers. I started devel-oping direct mail efforts. Initial results

worked well. I expanded. Soon, I wasspending significant dollars in direct mail.

Little did I know that CompuServe hadbecome nervous about the money thatwas going into the mail channel. At thetime,CompuServe was owned by tax spe-cialists, H&R Block. And Martin Baier wasinvolved with one of Block’s other sub-sidiaries. So, they all agreed to send himin to do a “Reggie check” to find out if Iwas spending all this money prudently.

Long story short, Martin quickly fig-ured out that I knew what I was doing. Inthe process, we became fast friends.And, for me, it was great fun to work withsomeone who had additional insightsand ideas to share.

Martin is one person whose contribu-tions have made the direct marketingindustry what it is today – not throughslow incremental change, but by figur-ing out the right idea to capitalize on. Atone point the industry gave him theaccolade “Mr. ZIP Code.” It was great tore-connect and know that this extraordi-nary industry icon is just a stone’s throwaway from us, over in Bernardsville NJ. �

Reggie Brady is a digital and direct mar-keting consultant with a particularemphasis on email. Reach her atreggie@reggiebrady.com.

A DM Legendin Our Midst

www.dmcny.org | 7

8 | March 2011

a) things they felt they had to dealwith immediately b) things they could deal with later ifthey had timec) things they felt they had permis-sion to ignore entirely.I call this the “Urgency Index.”Experienced

copywriters know that the closer yourpiece is to thetop of the firstcategory, thebetter your chances for a sale. The resultsof this particular study supported thatmaxim: Most proven controls were sortedinto the first category, and most losing testpackages fell lower on the index.

When market realities, competition forattention, and the time constraints all con-sumers face were introduced into theprocess, the usual behavior found in focusgroups changed. Instead of gushing overexpensive, photo-rich packages and poeticbut vague taglines, we found that lowercost, official-looking packages, with clear,highly relevant, benefit-oriented messages,

rose to the top. Those are the packagesthat work in the mail.

While the results were extraordinary fora focus group, they were no revelation for aseasoned copywriter. But they underscorethe importance of eschewing some con-ventional, general ad agency notions ofconceptual creativity and asking yourself,

objectively,“Does the message of my mail-ing fight its way to the top of the mailboxfor attention?” Your audience will tell youwhat works best with their responses, butyou need to maintain courage to testthings some people might find “ugly” com-pared to your most recent brand-focusedprint campaign.

As David Ogilvy himself said,“If it doesn’tsell, it isn’t creative.” �

Scott Calame is a freelance direct marketingcopywriter and consultant in Austin, Texas.He can be reached at (512) 697-9127 orscott@calame.com.

How to Make Focus GroupsReally Predict Market Winners

BY SCOTT CALAME

Conventional focus groups are notori-ously ineffective at predicting winners ofreal life direct mail tests. But I led a groupof graduate level marketing research stu-dents in a study to see if we could increasethe effectiveness of focus groups in mim-icking market results.

The first step was to simulate the realityof the mailbox experience. One of ourhypotheses was that most mail is sortedfiguratively, if not literally, over the trashcan. So rather than showing the groupsone or two pieces of creative nicely dis-played on boards, we put a realistic pile ofa day’s mail in front of each member.

Along with the packages we wanted tostudy (including proven controls as well astest packages), we included things like gro-cery store fliers, coupon books, credit cardstatements, bills, and personal letters andcards. The group was asked to quickly sorttheir piles into three categories:

“If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative.”[ ]

www.dmcny.org | 9

10 | March 2011

BY DONNA BAIER-STEIN

Start strong.Use a bold,

attention-getting head-line. One challenge with

web sites is that they often have multiplefunctions. But from a marketing stand-point, you want to lead with your strongestbenefit or most informative and provoca-tive item.

Know what NOT to do.- Don’t burden your homepage

with large, slow-loading graphics.- Don’t fill up the top half of your screen

with your logo.- Get the reader off the first screen and

into the narrative click-through flow ASAP.- Don’t require your reader to scroll down

to find your offer and benefit. Everythingimportant must be above the fold.

Include a letter.Put a short introductory letter on your

homepage. Add intimacy and human touch.Create hyperlinked benefits statements.

Use clickable words, phrases andsentences to inspire action.

Think of underlined, blue links asinvolvement techniques. Phrase them asbenefit statements or headline type state-ments. (For ex: “Your investment can be aslow as zero dollars! Earn income from foursources. ”)

Each page needs a call to action.Even if you’re not asking for the

order outright, there should be some sort ofaction requested, for example, giving visitorsa reason to call your company.

Put your online address & phonenumber on every screen.

Create intimacy.- Write to the prospect using “you.”

- Use the language of your prospects’interest group or industry.

- Keep the prospect involved.

Keep the reader surprised &engaged.

Predictability is deadly in copywriting. Ifthe prospect can anticipate what’s next,

they’re going to be bored and disengaged.- Be bold and inventive with words and

images.- Provoke action or ask a provocative

question.- Give information.- Promise a giant benefit.- Provide value (Don’t be trivial).

Use commands to give instruction.Examples may include “Click here,”

“Experience the wonder…,”“Take an amaz-ing trip to…,” “Delight your senses,” or“Challenge the status quo.”

Use images to break up the copyand sell.

Don’t overwhelm visitors with a tidalwave of words. The eye is first drawn to theimage, then the caption, so use the captionto state a benefit or important feature. Useimage maps with clickable graphics to sellor to give more detailed information. �

Donna Baier Stein (www.writesontarget.com)is a direct marketing copywriter and DMAseminar leader on copywriting.

10 Tips for Persuasive Home Page Copywriting

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