Your website must be a direct response marketing website

By Craig Huey

You may have heard publishers say that they have been disappointed in the web, that response has been low or the competition is too intense. But most of those complaints come from publishers who are not using a direct response marketing website.

Most websites fall into two categories that kill response:

Unfortunately, those are not the kind of marketing sites that sell a newsletter. This often happens because:

• By taking the brochure approach, ad agencies design sites to win awards,
  not to generate a response.
• Similarly, technical web people design sites that are antimarketing in copy and graphics. They know the technology, but not marketing.
• Editorial web people design sites that have features and free information, but editorial types aren’t marketers.

Just as a direct mail piece designed by a traditional ad agency, a printer or an editor will fail, so will a marketing website.

More can be done to increase your response by making your site a direct marketing site than anything you could do with improved email, banner ads, higher positioning with search engines or any other media improvement. This can be accomplished by using direct response strategies and tactics in your copy, art and offer.

If you are dissatisfied with your results—if you want higher conversions to subscribers—then your key to success must center on your website. The number one reason for less-than-desired results is poor website strategy.

 A direct marketing site will have this strategy:

1. Use direct response copy only

If your site is a marketing site designed to sell your newsletter, your copy must follow the direct response copy rules. That includes “you”-oriented copy, benefits (not features) and all the techniques that can make or break a direct mail piece.

2. Use only direct response graphics

Just as with other media, your graphics must be designed to help people read the copy. Graphics must guide the eye and encourage readership. On the web, graphics must not slow the prospect down.

3. Use a direct marketing offer

Many newsletters understand these principles in direct mail, but they ignore them on the Internet—to their own harm.

As with any media—direct mail, ads, TV and so on—the offer on the web is critical to a newsletter’s success. That includes using a discount, premium(s) and a guarantee.

Many newsletters understand these principles in direct mail, but they ignore them on the Internet—to their own harm.

Don’t settle for poor or mediocre response. Examine your current website from a direct response marketing perspective. Are you falling short?

Don’t waste more time and money. NOW is the time to apply proven direct marketing rules to the web.
The results: Watch your subscriber base grow and your responses dramatically increase.

I’ll be glad to talk to you about these powerful marketing tools. One of them could provide you with the marketing breakthrough you’ve been looking for. Please call me at (310) 212-5727 or e-mail me at craig@cdmginc.com.