Americans age 45+ earn more than 50% of U.S. discretionary income That amounts to $756 billion. They make from 45% to 75% of annual purchases of new cars and trucks … non-business computers … personal-care products … food … and airline travel, says the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The fastest-growing U.S. demographic segment is age 50+ Every seven seconds, an American turns 50, according to the Census Bureau. Most older Americans experience vision deficits They have difficulty

Here are 9 tips from Ted Kikoler for Making Graphics Sell: Zoom in on the product Use large-as-possible photos and illustrations Crop them to cut away unnecessary material Show the product in use—by a human being, if possible Control eye flow Most readers naturally shift their attention from dark to light areas, and from large to small objects The eye focuses on things that look out of place Use copy captions and call-outs with graphic elements Use “handwritten” copy—but disc

Involve your reader Gain your recipient’s attention by making him or her a participant in your mail advertising—not just a passive set of eyeballs gazing at a TV screen. For instance, urge your reader to use involvement devices such as a sticker, with enticing instructions to scratch it off to reveal a freebie. Keep your message relevant Every potential customer silently asks, “What’s in it for me?” Your promotion had better answer that question fast and strongly. To do that,

Marketing consultant Kevin Nunley writes that long letters of up to 12 pages are increasingly popular with advertisers who want to make sales—and for good reason. Long sales letters do best when they wind up in the hands of genuinely interested prospects (hence, list selection is even more important than your offer and how you articulate it). Reason: The person most likely to be ready to buy from you wants all the information he or she can get to bolster the decision to purch

Here are 7 pointers for profitablew advertising from Joseph Sugarman: Involve Your Reader Once Sugarman ran an ad in The Wall Street Journal for an expensive spelling computer. He littered the ad with orthographic errors. He told his readers to circle the spelling mistakes, return the marked-up ad, and take $2 off the computer’s advertised price for every mistake they found. Orders poured in. Talk Turkey In an ad for a thermostat, Sugarman promoted its features and benefits,

Writing in “Copywriter’s Digest,” consultant Mike Jezek revealed 11 often-neglected postscript techniques that can lift mail response by up to 300% (postscripts are read more than any other element in a letter except for the headline): Restate your offer Never shy away from a final opportunity to burn in your offer—especially since many sales prospects do not read body copy carefully. Stress the guarantee Repeating your guarantee in telegraphic language bolsters customer conf

Sell benefits, not features Your reader doesn't care how many teeth are on your machine's gears. He only cares that your machine will grind his rocks into cement. Sell, don't tell Your reader doesn't have the time to peruse the history of your company. If you feel compelled to tell your company’s story, couch it in terms of a reader benefit. Make your copy conversational A good rule of thumb is to write your copy like you'd say it, then go back and take out the cuss words. Ge

No surprise, sales prospects have grown increasingly distrustful of advertising. The big surprise is that their skepticism — in an age when one enterprising advertiser offered contest participants a free Toyota, then delivered a toy Yoda doll to the “lucky” winner — seems to astonish so many marketers. Here are 10 pointers on making your advertising credible: Never try to pull a fast one More than your reputation is at stake. Your bottom line is bound to suffer. It costs 10 t

The Small Business Administration says that a small business should devote 5% of its gross sales to advertising. Using the SBA formula, a business that grosses $500,000 yearly — which many a growing company does not — should plow $25,000 a year into promoting sales. That is chump change compared with the $2.4 million the average 30-second Superbowl television commercial cost for time alone. Yet many small businesses have to scratch hard to come up with $25,000 to pay for the

Structure your copy Bob Stone, who wrote the classic book, “Successful Direct Marketing Methods,” says that this architecture makes for an effective letter to power up your direct mail: First Paragraph: Identify your product and present its main benefit for the reader Second Paragraph: Expand on the main product benefit Third Section: Detail the product’s features Fourth Section: Present testimonials Fifth Section: Call to action End with a P.S. that sets a time limit f

“Good copywriters are not usually the most imaginative people,” writes nationally respected marketing consultant Terry Dean. “They don’t just instantly dream up winning headlines out of thin air.”Research, he says, is the key to at least 75% of copywriting success. It makes you sound as if you know what you are talking about— which goes a long way toward neutralizing the BS-detector that most of your customers use to screen out marketing-ese. And it is easier to accomplish th

Legendary ad man Frank H. Johnson 60 years ago tested if he could boost response to his sales letters by a device known today as...

Herschell Gordon Lewis, the famous marketing sage of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and the author of 27 books, once published an article in Direct magazine on legalistic qualifiers that deter response to advertising. Headlined “Up To No Good,” his article pinpointed how mealy-mouthed phrases such as “up to” damage an advertiser’s credibility, trigger complaints, and water down sales pitches. Lewis cites these 6 examples: You may have won a cash prize of up to $4,500! Maybe, and m

K*I*S*S — “Keep It Simple, Stupid” — long have been watchwords in direct mail. Now, research by Daniel M. Oppenheimer, a Princeton University psychologist, shows scientifically that texts using hifalutin language and unusual graphics actually diminish the reader’s perception of the writer’s intelligence and, by extension, the value of paying attention to his offer. Oppenheimer, then at Stanford, polled 110 undergraduates and found that a vast majority purposely used million-

Individual Americans now give more than $100 billion a year to nonprofit organizations. Most of their donations come from letters they receive in the mail, the Association of Direct Response Fundraising Counsel reports. However, the Association observes, many nonprofits are unrealistic about the results direct mailings can generate for them.“If their mailing doesn’t make a profit, or doesn’t make at least a 1% return (as they have always heard a mailing should), they conclude

Your readers—especially those most likely to buy your product—want to know what it looks like. Remember Jay Leno’s quip about the Infiniti’s arty launch campaign, which showed natural beauties, but not the automobile: “Rocks and trees are selling like hotcakes, but not cars.“

Here are eight questions to ask when you want to evaluate copy without watering down its magic

Almost every direct-mail authority urges advertisers to close letters with a postscript — after its headline, the most-read element in any letter. A P.S. next to the signature gets the sales message across succinctly. If the letter lacks a signature (experts advise one printed in blue), chances are good that many recipients will toss the letter right away. Now, according to noted mail expert Lee Marc Stein, it appears that, sometimes, it is a bad idea to finish your letter wi

Legendary mail-order copywriter Joseph Sugarman thinks that psychological triggers can “increase sales and response beyond what you would normally expect,” as he wrote in an article in The Copywriter’s Digest. He provided three examples that bear out his ideas: Positive Trigger 1: Guilt Any factor that causes your sales prospects to feel guilty if they do not buy your product is likely to boost sales, Sugarman says. One example: the stickers carrying your name and return mail

“If your position requires you to do any formal writing – and nearly every position does – you’ve felt the terror of the blank page.” “You’re not alone,” copywriter Robert Lerose wrote in an issue of DM News. “Professional writers,” he says, have developed procedures that get them over that hump. Specifically, he notes, they: Define copy goals Before you type a single word, Lerose advises, define exactly what you are aiming to accomplish with your copy. Know your audience Get