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Here are seven myths in direct response advertising
that could be causing you to "under cook" your direct mail.
"Why do you cook with the oven door cracked open?"
It seemed like a logical thing to ask, but my wife gave me one of those "that's a stupid question" looks, as if I was wondering why she breathes or shops. "Because that's the way I've always done it, that's why."
Not that it mattered, but I was curious. And hungry. It was Thanksgiving, she had been cooking all day, the oven was billowing heat like mad, and it was taking forever for that bird to cook! She patiently informed me that her mother cooked with the oven door ajar. That's the way she learned.
"But why?" I persisted.
"Well," she admitted, "I really don't know. My mother was a good cook, and that's the way she did it."
When the relatives came over later, I asked about it and someone said, "Oh, that? Her mother had this tiny little oven. Her pans didn't fit, and the door wouldn't close. Took all day to cook a turkey."
Even though my wife's oven was big enough, the open-door cooking technique was passed down mother to daughter, though the reason for it was forgotten.
Now don't laugh.
You may be doing the same thing in your direct mail. Because we're such a rule-happy industry, and we pass down our wisdom from one generation to the next, we're especially prone to follow the leader without thinking things through ourselves. This often leads to ideas and traditions that are just as meaningless or counterproductive as cooking your turkey with the oven open.
Here are seven myths in direct response advertising that could be causing you to "under cook" your direct mail:
Myth #1:
Your goal is to sell to as many people as possible.
People talk about response rates as if the object is to achieve the highest percentage possible. It's not. Your goal is to maximize profits. The response numbers are tools for analysis and comparison. They are not a goal. It's relatively easy to pump up a response rate if all you want is a higher number. Just give away something free. But if your...