Why Ugly Beats Beautiful in Direct Mail

Written By Ted Grigg
DMCG Results

Art and CopyFor those of you who have tested hundreds of direct mail packages across multiple industries. Have you ever noticed how often ugly packages outpull highly refined and attractive direct mail?

One would expect this in fundraising where donors do not want their donations to pay for extravagant collateral. But this holds true for many other industries as well. Banks, insurance companies, pre need funeral planning, newspaper subscriptions... the list goes on.

One of the most successful direct mail formats in history is the official and inexpensive looking Snap Pac.

The sensitive graphic artist may begin to think of direct marketers as their enemies.

Art directors should remember, however, that successful design is not always aesthetically attractive. 

What is good design or excellent direct mail package engineering? It's design that leverages the copy to sell. The expert artist knows how to get attention and make the copy easy to read and skim. They know that their job is to support the copy to increase response, not win awards.

Marketers and creative people should remember that the most significant response predictors have little to do with graphics.

Here are the priorities.

First, target the message to the right audience that has the recognized need and wherewithal to pay for the product. The second is the offer. The third is the channel. The fourth is the creative execution.

The question is why are we so focused on graphics with diminishing attention attention to copy? Here are my opinions as to why this is happening.

  1. Response generating copywriting is hard and requires discipline throughout the organization. Companies often don't know why some people buy their products while others don't. Many don't have a clear understanding of their value proposition. Graphics, on the other hand is fun to create and visually appealing. Snap judgments about graphics make us feel like we've done the job.

  2. Most marketers do not test because they don't track sales directly to the creative work. They also don't test the significant things because they make testing decisions based on popular myths such as the "keep it brief" illusion.

  3. In this Internet age, the demand for content has far outstrips the availability of expert copywriters. So the volume goes up and the quality goes down.

In spite of all of this, great direct response copywriters and art directors work every day to create winning creative work. But they may find a less knowledgeable market place as more and more companies scramble to find trained direct marketers to run their programs. 

Ted Grigg

Ted Grigg is a direct response strategist who helps growth-focused companies reduce risk by identifying weak assumptions before they become costly mistakes.

Over the course of his career, Ted has evaluated several hundred million dollars in direct response testing across direct mail, digital, print, television, telephone, and other channels. His work combines direct response strategy, acquisition economics, customer analysis, creative evaluation, offer development, and disciplined testing.

Ted has worked on both the client and agency sides of the business. That experience gives him a practical understanding of the pressures facing executives, marketing teams, agencies, and service providers—and of the problems that arise when activity, media volume, or creative preference replaces a clear economic objective.

His consulting work helps organizations examine such questions as:

  • Are acquisition goals economically realistic?

  • Is the allowable Cost Per Sale supported by customer value?

  • Are targeting, offers, creative, media, and response paths working together?

  • Are tests structured to produce reliable business decisions?

  • Are unproven assumptions being treated as facts?

  • Is the organization measuring sales outcomes rather than convenient proxies?

Ted’s experience includes the development of direct mail and multichannel acquisition programs for insurance, healthcare, financial services, technology, nonprofit, manufacturing, retail, transportation, communications, government, and business-to-business organizations.

For a national direct-to-consumer insurance company, he developed a direct mail format that defeated established controls and helped expand the productive use of compiled prospect lists from less than 10 percent to more than 30 percent of total direct mail circulation within one year. He also planned Medicare lead-generation programs for more than 60 regional and national HMO and PPO organizations, with some programs exceeding sales projections by as much as 60 percent.

Ted founded Wyse Direct, a direct marketing division of Wyse Advertising in Cleveland, where he developed acquisition programs and helped launch a new technology product for Seiko Instruments by generating a predictable flow of qualified sales leads for its national sales organization. As vice president of new business development for the Grizzard Agency, he helped broaden the agency’s strategic capabilities and pursue new commercial and fundraising opportunities.

He is the author of The HMO/PPO Marketing Plan—A Step-by-Step Guide, published by Executive Enterprises, and has written numerous articles and conducted webinars on direct response strategy, testing, creative development, and marketing economics.

Ted earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Abilene Christian University and completed two years of graduate study at Texas Tech University. He is the founder of DMCG, LLC.

http://www.dmcgresults.com
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