Readers Write
From LP re a common marketing idea that rarely works
“I had the opportunity to read an essay in which you discussed how to earn extra money by taking surveys. Do you have it available?”
My Response: I don’t remember writing about that exactly, and neither does my editor, so I can’t link you to it. Perhaps it was a speech or a paragraph that was part of a larger essay that was filed under a different topic?
That said, I’m guessing you are referring to a direct-marketing strategy that has been used in the past and gotten fantastic results. But it’s not without risk. And it must be done correctly (from a copy perspective). But when it works, it can work very well.
What you do is publish in a periodical or send out to a list (email or snail mail) a questionnaire on a topic that relates to your product. The people that answer the questionnaire, regardless of their answers, are prime candidates for receiving a second, more direct advertisement.
It’s an expensive way to build a prospect list because it begins with a survey that asks for nothing but answers in return. But because it is not asking for dollars, you can sometimes get a very high response rate. And that can translate into a dollar return on the second effort that more than pays for the costs of the first.
AS re “Famous Last Words” – one of the “Quick Bites” in the July 30 issue:
“You left out two of my favorites: Johnny Carson’s ‘I’ll be back, right after this announcement’ and ‘I knew this was going to happen.’ (Don’t know who was responsible for that last one.)”
My Response: I should have remembered “I knew this was going to happen.” That could be the best of them all!