Articles by Larry Chase - Internet Publisher, Speaker, Author and Consultant

Larry Chase - Internet Marketing Consulting

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Revenge of the Direct Marketers

"Brand Marketers like to change what people think, while Direct Marketers like to change what people do," says DM consultant Ruth Stevens. She's right about that.

Brand marketers have always looked down their noses at direct marketers. "Those DM'ers are more interested in results than style," is a typical attitude. Well, guess what? Results are now very fashionable, the same way it's now in to shop at Wal-Mart and show how parsimonious you can be. That stylistic stuff went out with sock puppets and flying gerbils.

Yeah yeah, branding is still important and how you get there depends largely on what category you're talking about. But what little that will remain standing of Internet marketing efforts as we know them at this point in the horse race will and is most comparable to little ol' DM.

Now that DM is hip, you've got to toss DM words around. Liberally sprinkle in the below terms at will:

1. Lifetime Customer Value
2. RFM (Recency Frequency Monetary value)
3. OE copy (the teaser copy on an Outer Envelope designed to get you to open it -- think banner ad)
4. Cost of Acquisition
5. Lead, Prospect, Closure
6. Churn
7. CPM (cost per thousand: "M" is taken from the Roman numeral for "thousand")
8. Affinity Programs
9. Call to Action (this one eludes brand marketers above all)
10. Negative Option

Below are a few recommended books on the subject of DM. Thanks to Kevin Donlin, Mac Ross, and David Garfinkel for their suggestions.

1. "Tested Advertising Methods" by John Caples
2. "Triggers" by Joseph Sugarman
3. "Successful Direct Marketing Methods" by Bob Stone
4. "Business-to-Business Direct Marketing by Robert W. Bly
(and anything else this incredible guy has every written)
5. "Being Direct" by Lester Wunderman
6. "The Lazy Man's Way to Riches" by Joe Karbo and Richard G. Nixon
7. "The Greatest Direct Mail Sales Letters of All Time" by Richard S. Hodgson
8. "Getting Everything You Can Out Of All You've Got" by Jay Abraham

Just making up lists is a very DM thing to do. People love lists because it insinuates some semblance of organization, which people really want to believe exists. "Larry's Top Ten Tips for Starting an Email Newsletter" or "The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People" are examples of titles that telegraph an orderly system to get whatever it is you want. In this whirling dervish world we live in nowadays, we have little time for anything but quick cause and effect type pitches.