Your product or service entices, but what’s to prevent your reader from flagging your email, or filing your latest offer away “for later” and then…forgetting about it?

Simply saying “act now” is not enough. The best headlines convey not only a sense of urgency, but the benefit of taking immediate action. Here are four classic headline phrases that motivate readers to click through — plus one brand-new type of headline that’s all the rage with email marketers.

The Classics

1. Limited offers. The phrases “limited time only” or “while supply lasts” can light a fire under an indecisive customer.

2. “Filling up fast” is a term that does a great job of conveying an event’s popularity. (“Selling out fast” will do the same for a product.)

3. “Don’t miss out!” is a good phrase to end a headline. (Though there’s a headline-writing school of thought that says you should avoid negatives.)

4. “Be the first” is a bit tricky (not everyone wants to be the first). It will, however, pack a punch with an audience of early adopters or customers who follow trends.

What’s New

Take a look at your own email inbox and you’ll see that email marketers, equipped to quickly blast to a list, are taking advantage of headlines that convey time-sensitivity by using attention-grabbing numerals and dates.

• “Cruise to Sunny Cancun — Only 7 Cabins Left!”
• “Last 2 Days to Enjoy Free Shipping!”
• “Buy 2, Get 1 Free Offer Ends Tomorrow”
• “Summer Footwear Special, 3 DAYS ONLY!”
• “20 Percent Off — Coupon Expires Friday”

Whether you’re doing postal direct mail or email marketing, this new headline style is well worth exploring to maximize the effectiveness of your next campaign.

ISPs are increasingly motivated to stem the tide of email to their servers—and email blasts from direct marketers as well as spammers are on their watch lists. That’s why Marigold works with major ISPs such as AOL to make sure our clients’ mailings make it through to the opt-in recipients.

We can’t blame ISPs for being vigilant. Their customers complain when servers, swamped with email, are slow. And customers complain even more when unwanted email (spam) makes it through the servers to clog individual email boxes.

Unfortunately, over-vigilant ISPs often err on the side of rejecting completely legitimate email because it matches one or more of their many criteria for catching and blocking spam.

To ensure the success of our customers’ direct marketing email campaigns, Marigold is working with major ISPs. Before a large email blast, Marigold contacts the ISPs with information that allows the servers to identify the emails and let them go through to the opt-in recipients.

While opt-in email customers are a highly desirable target audience, the involvement of ISP intermediaries adds a logistical challenge. Unlike the USPS, which reliably delivers direct mail offers to any valid postal address, private ISPs can bounce direct marketing email back to the sender, or divert it to spam folders no one looks at.

Marigold is committed to helping clients succeed in the email marketing environment, and that includes clearing the way for your offers to get safely through the major ISPs to your recipients. Please contact us for more information about our email lists and extensive list services.

With the strict requirements of the federal CAN-SPAM act, email marketing can seem tricky. But done right, it’s a powerful and highly cost-effective channel. Marigold works with hundreds of companies on successful email marketing campaigns, all of them beginning with our rich databases of fresh, opt-in addresses.

If email marketing is the next step in your direct marketing strategy and you’re wondering what to expect, please take a look at our new online guide. Email Marketing Campaigns: The Basics takes you through the steps involved in a typical email marketing campaign. It includes links to the CAN-SPAM regulations and to tips for complying with CAN-SPAM.

Of course, every email marketing campaign has its own special requirements, and we can help. Please contact us for assistance with your next direct email campaign.

Hearing a lot these days about Web 2.0? Wondering what the implications are for direct marketing and direct mail?

Let’s start with Web 1.0. That was the era, not so long ago, in which you created a “web presence” simply by putting your company brochure online. Perhaps you added basic e-commerce and an email contact feature to your site, and developed or rented email lists. The offers you sent out via email or the postal service were pretty much the same as always, just adding your web address for those pioneering customers who wanted to make a purchase online instead of calling or placing a mail order.

Then came Web 1.5 — the space most commercial websites exist in today. Web 1.5 companies have added bells and whistles to their websites. Metadata and keywords are employed to push a site to the top of Internet searches, and tracking has been added to most sites. Customers are asked to accept “cookies” so they can be recognized on future visits, and their preferences are used to generate customized shopping experiences (wish lists, recommendations). Online purchasing is streamlined and more and more consumers are comfortable with using it. Customers are given the opportunity to “opt-in” to receive email from certain companies, or certain types of companies. (You’ll hear this called “permission marketing,” or what the recent “Invisible Marketing” white paper from Marqui calls “marketing the known to the known.”)

Just as direct marketing is getting very savvy about Web 1.5, Web. 2.0 has appeared on the horizon, and it’s coming at us fast. Searching is at the the core of Web 2.0, but it’s taking consumers well beyond passively searching for content (your marketing message, your website) to actively creating and sharing it. Meet your new marketing staff, and take a look at their powerful tools: Online consumers use blogs and photo- and video-sharing sites, and increasingly they are using them to respond to your message, amplify your message — and even to attack your message. In the online world, the consumers’ voices are loud, and their customized interpretation of your marketing message can move extremely rapidly.

It’s not to soon to begin shaping your direct marketing and direct mail strategies to harness the power and the potential of Web 2.0 — and to avoid the pitfalls. The Marqui white paper has some thought-provoking examples of how companies such as General Motors are stepping up to the challenges. Another excellent resource is the MarketingProfs.com analysis “What Does Web 2.0 Mean for Your Business.”

Over the next few days we’ll be examining some approaches to direct mail marketing in the Web 2.0 environment.

2005 was a banner year for Marigold Direct. Among other significant accomplishments we completed the following:

• Moved corporate headquarters from NYC to Seattle.
• Completely revamped the www.marigolddirect.com website.
• Published 60 list properties.
• Started the Marigold DM Newsletter.
• Started the Marigold Direct Marketing Blog.
• Hired Colleen Roberts, a 13-year industry veteran.

The bottom line is that Marigold Direct is better positioned now than ever before. Look for new products and services coming in the near future. I want to personally thank our clients, vendors, partners, consultants, and staff who have made 2005 the best year in Marigold’s history.

Blake Sitney
President
Marigold Direct

Marigold Direct is developing a comprehensive direct marketing glossary. We already have over 50 terms and are frequently adding more. Please let us know if you think of additional terms to include or have other suggestions. We look forward to your input.

Welcome to the Direct Marketing Blog, published by Marigold Direct. The direct marketing industry is experiencing rapid change as a result of technology and the shifting sands of the business environment. Here we will discuss news and events that impact direct marketers, examine various direct marketing techniques, and provide case studies of successful and not-so-successful practices that we can all learn from.

Our primary goal is to serve you, the direct marketing community. We welcome comments and suggestions for future content, and we may occasionally solicit or accept outside submissions. Please let us know if you have questions or topics that we can address.

Thank you,

Blake Sitney
Marigold Direct