Today we know he was right: to break through the clutter and generate a profitable response, direct marketing must make a big promise.
Some examples of big promises from recent direct mail packages:
“Retire overseas on $600 a month.”
“Free money reserved for you.”
“John F. Kennedy had it. So did Princess Diana. Michael Jordan has it now. It’s the reason why millions of people adore them. Look inside to find out what it is and how you can get it.”
Testing shows that, at least in consumer direct marketing, small promises don’t work. To get attention and generate interest, you have to make a large, powerful promise.
But there’s a problem: What happens if the reader is skeptical … because the big promise is so fantastic, it sounds too good to be true? In that case, use a “Secondary Promise.”
The Secondary Promise is a lesser benefit that the product also de...(register to read more)