Mail Can Boost Home Services Contractors--If Done Well

Changing seasons signal a burst of direct mail from clients in home services contracting, especially HVAC promotions. And we've seen some great and some not-so-great examples. So we'd like to pass along a timely article from Contracting Business by Matt Michel, CEO of The Service Roundtable, who draws on his experience to create a helpful list of common direct mail pitfalls for contractors. To whet your appetite, we'll pass along just five of the first points in his series of 21 tips on direct mail mistakes. Michel's focus is HVAC contractors, but we think his tips have wider application to a range of consumer mailings. The No. 1 mistake on his list is leaving out a main headline. Yes, some mailers still forget that that they have only seconds to grab consumer attention in the pile of junk mail. But just any headline won't do the job. Marketers need to work hard to summarize appeal in compelling, clear, attention-grabbing text. And that doesn't mean trying to hedge bets with multiple competing headlines; a confused message is the same as no message. Second, remember to play to emotion in the copy and the images; emotion, not logic, moves people to buy, and research has found leading emotional motivators include greed, fear, guilt, exclusivity and need for approval, with convenience and pleasure as icing on the cake. If the images and words in your piece don't touch a nerve, it will get tossed. Third, choose images with people, not product arrays, Michel advises; a parade of boxes, which is all consumers see in pictures of condensing units and furnaces, has little marketing power. Plus, the people pictured should fit the target audience and evoke motivating emotions along with the copy. Fourth, consider the gender of the target decision-maker. Since many HVAC contractors are male, they often make the mistake of marketing to a male audience, but research shows that women make the service and replacement decisions in most households. In that case, images should feature women, and copy should recognize the different emotional triggers of female buyers. And fifth, whether the target audience is male or female, speak directly to the consumer in a conversational and engaging tone. A dry recitation of facts and figures is more likely to bore than persuade. For the rest of Michel's tips, read http://contractingbusiness.com/residential-hvac/21-direct-mail-mistakes-avoid-part-1

Want Your Mailer Opened? Check These Envelope Teasers

An envelope "teaser" is one way to win attention in the critical seconds determining whether a direct mail piece is opened or tossed. We've watched clients struggle with teaser copy, so we thought it might be useful to offer recent examples that won marketing praise. First, we note that the best teasers often tap into marketing's proven emotional drivers for spending on a product, service or cause. Various marketing pros have identified those drivers as exclusivity, fear, flattery, greed and guilt, and others have expanded the list to include anger and salvation. Recently, a Target Marketing magazine article by Paul Bobnak, director of Who's Mailing What! global mail monitoring, highlighted his selection of the top seven envelope teasers of 2015. Agree or not, they provide food for thought and may inspire imitation. Here is a sample of just four. GEICO leads with the greed-driven "GEICO just made it easier to help you SAVE MONEY on auto insurance," plus a QR code on the envelope for those who don't want to waste a second to hop on the deal via mobile device. California College San Diego uses a teaser to flatter, along with a monetary lure, in "earn your degree and the income you deserve." Lifelock taps into fear, the fear of identity theft, with "Attention: Major Health Care Breach Could Affect Up to 80 Million." Quantum Wellness Botanical Institute knows lots of folks are angry at "big pharma" and their prices, so it teases with "Big Pharma Sparks OUTRAGE Trying to Patent This POWERFUL HERB" (which also implies pharmaceutical value), and then sells the herb curcumin inside. A caveat: A teaser can spark an open, but response requires the rest of the mailer to fulfill expectations! For all seven envelope teaser examples, including nonprofit appeals, go to http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/post/the-7-best-direct-mail-teasers-2015/