Your front office staff is smiling and cheerful as they collect payments and schedule new patients. Your office manager catches your eye and waves a card at you. It's your invitation to the Mayor's Annual Business Reception; you're being honored as Health Care Practitioner of the Year.

Before going out to greet the reporter, you allow yourself a little smile because finally you have the practice you dreamed about in dental school. Challenging work… loyal patients who refer you to their friends… an impeccable reputation...enough money to provide your family with a comfortable, relaxing lifestyle...enough free time to enjoy it.

Clearly, we’re painting a picture of success that most dentists would love—the true end results of a membership in Practice Builders. Can you see how this would evoke some emotional response within the reader — a dentist in this case? This approach is very different, and obviously much more effective than copy that reads: “Join Practice Builders and you will receive a monthly newsletter, special reports and other money saving benefits”.

Keeping these very important points in mind, let’s now look at some techniques to discover hot buttons…

Technique #1: REVIEW PAST CREATIVE AND OFFER TESTING

The beauty of direct marketing is that nearly everything you do is measurable, assuming you’ve properly isolated variables and tracked results. Through this first technique, you’ll learn a great deal from your past efforts in order to:

1. Create a new marketing platform that builds on proven success.

2. Avoid repeating the same mistakes of unsuccessful approaches.

Before getting started, if you have a very limited test history for the product of interest, then you need to consider if this first technique is worthwhile. If you have other similar products that have been sold to like target groups; you can use that product’s promotions for this exercise. If not, then save this exercise for another day. If you do have a significant history of testing, then I highly recommend that you perform this exercise before going forward with any of the other techniques that follow.

Begin by taking a look at actual samples of your past tests, both winners and losers. It’s your job to attempt to explain why each test did well or perhaps did not meet expectations. This is not a simple task and requires you to remain as objective and open as possible. Write down what you believe are the strengths and weaknesses of each promotion. Pay special attention to how each promotion presented the benefits. Consider:

• Did the copy elicit emotion? Which emotions?
• Did it sell end results? What were they?
• What was your offer and how was it presented?
• Was your offer attractive and clearly spelled out?
• Did you build credibility through the use of credentials, track record or testimonials?
• Did you provide a strong guarantee?
• What was the primary message or big idea each promotion attempted to communicate? Was this message repeated on each component (if a direct mail package)? Was this message compelling, emotional, etc.?
• Did the design of the promotion accentuate your key copy points?

By the way, this is a great activity for a small group (no more than six individuals)—and not necessarily marketers only. Bring in a couple people from other areas of your organization. The only requirement is everyone should be very familiar with the promotions and products you’re going to discuss. Before your meeting, give participants a copy of each promotion and have them begin their lists. During your discussion, avoid any criticism of points that come up. You want to create a friendly, informal atmosphere where everyone’s thoughts and ideas are welcome and no one feels intimidated. If you are an upper level executive, you should consider having a marketing manager (or an outside facilitator, like myself) organize and conduct this important exercise.

Once the lists have been completed, you should review them and decide which comments are valid. Also, go ahead and combine similar points for each promotion. After you’ve honed each list, you should already begin to see some interesting findings. Now try to complete the following:

My customers tend to respond to promotions that...

My customers tend not to respond to promotions that...

Using these completed statements, draw up a checklist—I’ve seen them as long as 25 points. If any of these points are more or less important than others, you can assign weighting factors. Use your checklist or score sheet as a starting point when creating new promotions or evaluating new promotion concepts that are presented to you.

Sidenote: You really should be performing what many refer to as post mortem discussions after the results are in on every promotion you implement. Don’t let these opportunities slip by because you’re too busy with ongoing activities – they’re much too valuable a learning experience. It’s a great way to be sure that everyone in your organization understands what worked, what didn’t, and why. Of course there are many other factors that impact the results of promotions, which we will discuss later on. For now, we are focusing on copy points.


Technique #2: TALKING & LISTENING TO YOUR CUSTOMERS

This activity will not only help you discover response hot buttons, but can be a most profound and eye-opening experience for those of you who have never spoken directly to one of your customers (and I know there are plenty of you!). In the next section of this report, I will guide you, step-by-step, through the process of contacting some of your customers and opening up a valuable dialogue with them. Here I will explore several other ways to “talk with customers”.

When most marketers think of talking and listening to customers, they are referring to the use of focus groups. Unfortunately, because of the bias that enters into many group situations, I usually do not recommend conducting focus groups. There is definite bias when customers hear the opinions of others and even in the selection or recruitment process, not to mention the typical high cost. However, I always encourage marketers to get to know their customers, so for this reason alone, focus groups can be valuable, especially if cost is not a concern (maybe you can do them in-house, instead of hiring a marketing research firm). If you decide to conduct some focus groups, I urge you to concentrate on very broad, qualitative issues. Don’t expect to gain detailed attitudes and opinions to extrapolate to the rest of your customer base.

There are several other ways you can gather opinions and preferences from your customers. Every contact you have with a customer is an opportunity to do so. It starts with your promotion. Don’t be afraid to ask a prospect to share some information about themselves when responding. Record clubs have done this for years, i.e. Do you prefer: easy listening, pop, jazz, rock, rap, etc.? Prospects are happy to share information about their preferences, because they expect to be treated in a more personal way. Marketers then get a better picture of who their customer is and what they desire. A word of caution how-ever—it’s important to test the addition of questions on order forms, as they can lower your response.

If your prospects phone in their response, you then have an excellent opportunity to ask questions (after the order is secured). It’s a perfect time to gather information about why customers respond – which is extremely valuable. Start by asking this in an open-ended fashion, then offer up some choices. Be sure to include the emotional reasons. After all, we know the decision to respond is fueled by emotion rather than logic. Yet responders are more apt to tell you the logical and rational reasons they responded, so you’ll need to probe with your emotional reasons and capture their reactions.

Another opportunity to open a dialogue is in conjunction with your fulfillment activities. Don’t hesitate to include surveys or questionnaires whenever you send something to your customers. Also, prepare your customer service reps with important questions to ask customers when they call in. Of course, they should proceed with questions only after the customer has been properly serviced. You will not only gain valuable knowledge, but it’s been proven that by demonstrating your interest in their opinions, these customers will become more loyal and will buy more! (Be sure to read the section, My 5 Step Formula for Building Loyal Bonds with Your Customers, for more details on this phenomenon.)


Technique #3: TEST ENVELOPE OR HEADLINE COPY

If you’re an experienced direct marketer, then you know how much leverage is involved with changing envelopes, headlines or catalog covers. It’s not uncommon to see the response vary as much as 30%! And remember, don’t just accept your test results at face value, it’s important to gather opinions about why your changes affected response—involve your colleagues, customers, or possibly someone from the outside. If the ideas for these tests were the result of applying the techniques I’ve shared with you, then you should already have a good understanding of why you were successful. The important thing to do now is incorporate your new approach, or hot button(s), into the rest of your promotion for maximum impact.

By the way, a successful trend I’m seeing more often these days is what I refer to as the anti-sell approach. Because direct mail buyers receive such a large number of solicitations, they are becoming somewhat jaded toward incredible claims. For this reason, you’re seeing more plain envelopes without copy, and headlines like, “Get Rich Slowly.” You may want to explore the anti-sell approach yourself. Start with one of your proven hot buttons and turn it around—you never know how prospects may react until you test!

Technique #4: TEST NEW OFFERS

Every marketer knows that “FREE” sells. However, it doesn’t mean that you have to give away your product or service. You should surround your product with other ‘things’ that you can afford to give away.

Premiums are a great way to build an emotional desire to respond—never forget about greed! If one premium helps response, you should try two or even more, especially if you’re successful with print-related or paper premiums, which are very inexpensive. I’ve created promotions for subscription marketers that have offered as many as 10 paper premiums. The cost to print and fulfill these was under one dollar, while the average order was $50. Consequently, the response increase needed to pay for the added cost of all 10 premiums was less than five percent.

Sweepstakes are simply another form of premium. You’re offering a free chance of winning a prize, which clearly goes for the emotional response. Responders fantasize about what they would do with the prize money if they win—or if you have good copy the fantasy will be clearly described. (For more tips on offers refer to the section, Developing Breakthrough Offers)

Always Keep in Mind...

Be cautious, the tendency is to oversell the premium(s) in these types of promotions. While it’s important to focus heavily on what will bring out the emotional response—and usually that’s the premium—it’s also important to sell the direct benefits of your product or service in order to qualify your new customer. If responders are only interested in what you’re giving away, you won’t build a loyal base.

I simply cannot emphasize enough how important it is to focus on desirable end results. Think about it in terms of offering solutions. What is the valuable solution your product or service provides? This approach will guarantee that your responders are qualified to become loyal buyers.

NOTE: If you’re serious about developing breakthrough approaches that will ensure your long-term success, I urge you to give me a call so we can discuss your particular situation.


Technique #5: PERFORM QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

There are many different types of quantitative research, but the one I prefer to use in order to discover response hot buttons is called Problem Detection Ranking Research. The essence of this type of research is to get your customers or prospects to give you a ranked list of the things that are real problems for them and those that are not.

This is done by putting from 75 to 150 problem statements on individual cards and asking customers or prospects to sort them into piles ranging from “this is definitely a problem for me” to “this is not a problem for me”. Depending on your goals, you can substitute problem statements with headlines or other marketing platform statements that you would like ranked.

The results of this type of research are almost always a surprise to marketers and product developers. Whenever I embark on a Ranking Research project, I have people in the organization try to predict the outcome.

CASE IN POINT: I recall one such study in which we all thought that the timesaving benefit of the product was one of the most important solutions (being busy folks our-selves). When the results came back, all the problem statements related to time were not highly ranked, while another benefit area, which we had actually planned on eliminating from the product, ended up occupying 8 out of the top 10 problems! This result caused us to make big changes to both our product development and promotion plans. This product went on to do $25 million in sales in its first full year and well over $100 million during its lifecycle.

Often the things we think are important to our customers are not and visa versa. That is why this technique is so valuable.

If you’re interested in performing Ranking Research, let me know. There are a few special procedures you should follow to insure your results are comprehensive and unbiased.

Technique #6: CONDUCT BRAINSTORMING SESSIONS

There are many books and articles available on brainstorming and you’re welcome to study up to improve your group’s effectiveness. However, I have conducted a number of brainstorming sessions and have boiled the process down to five key steps —

Before you tap the creative juices in your organization, you must be prepared. First, it’s imperative that you complete Techniques #1. Review Past Creative and Offer Testing and #2. Talk & Listen to Your Customers. In addition, I highly recommend that you perform Ranking Research. Once you and your fellow participants have completed these projects, and you’ve established a clear objective, you’re ready to begin your session.

If you performed Technique #1 as a group activity, then you’ll already be familiar with some of the important keys to creating the proper atmosphere. Once again, keep your group small—five to ten people is ideal. I’ve conducted successful brainstorming with groups as large as 40, but it’s quite a challenge and not recommended. Be sure to include non-marketers in your group to provide different perspectives.

Create an atmosphere where everyone’s ideas are encouraged and welcomed. Do not evaluate during the idea generation stage and don’t allow negative statements! If some participants continue to say things like, “We’ve tried that before and it didn’t work,” then send them out in the hall for ten minutes, just like in grammar school! Of course, this should be done in a joking manner, and usually the mere threat of banishment will get this important point across to participants.

It almost goes without saying that an experienced group leader should conduct your brainstorming session. This individual should know how to:

• create an informal, positive and lively atmosphere
• draw individuals into the discussion
• build on even the strangest of ideas
• keep the discussion on track
• contribute to the discussion

You will also need a scribe to list every idea that is mentioned. Sometimes the group leader fills this role, but it’s more important for your leader to concentrate on keeping the ideas flowing.

Once you’ve exhausted your ideas, it’s time to move to the next step—evaluation. There are many ways to go about this, but your ultimate goal should always be to —Identify a handful of ideas that the group judges to have the greatest chance of helping you to achieve the identified objective.

The final, yet most important, activity to do during your meeting is create action plans for each of your top ideas. Remember that an action plan should contain clear objectives. Be sure you have set up a way to monitor the progress of each action plan. Let’s say that Action Plan #1 is to test a promotion that utilizes a new offer the group came up with. This action plan could be worded:

“Marketing Manager ‘A’ will be responsible for getting this test in the mail by ‘date’. To meet this mail date, copy should be final by ‘date’. The success of this action will be measured by meeting the planned mail date and the response rate against the control offer.”

It’s extremely important to develop action plans and follow up on their progress so your efforts have been worthwhile. I always like to remind participants that:

“It’s not a good idea until you do it!”


Technique #7: WATCH YOUR COMPETITION

This is a great way to discover new hot buttons. Let your competition find them and then try them yourself! Of course, be careful not to infringe on any copyrights that may exist. Generating ideas this way is as old as business itself, and I’m amazed how often marketers are not keeping a close eye on their competition.

I suggest you become a customer of your competition. In addition, to receive the greatest number of promotions, you should be a good customer! After all, whom do you solicit the most on your database? If you exchange names with your competition, be sure you have properly seeded your list rental file so you will receive their promotions. However, this may be a moot point since anyone who rents your list must clear the actual promotion with you first. One thing that you must always be mindful of is whether a promotion is a test or a rollout. You certainly don’t want to repeat the mistakes, only the winners!

Proceed to Chapter 2...