For each image, illustration, or photograph you use in your direct mail letter or package, be sure to use a caption to reinforce the benefits of the product depicted. A caption is a title, short explanation, or description that tells what the photo, illustration, or image is about.

Even though the intent of the image may seem obvious to you, it may not be obvious to your reader. You want to make sure the reader interprets the image the way you want them to. Otherwise, they’ll put their own meaning on it. That meaning may be counter to what you intend and, therefore, defeat your purpose.

So don’t leave anything to chance. Always be sure to add a caption to convey the exact meaning you want the reader to get.

For instance, say you included a picture of yourself in the sales letter. Don’t just include the photo. Instead, include a caption quote under the photo of you saying something about your product, or about what your company stands for, etc.

Another reason you want to add a caption is this…if the reader has to stop and wonder what the photo is about, you have broken the flow of the reader. When you break the flow, you increase the chance that he will stop reading. If that happens, you lose a potential customer.

So take adding captions seriously. Without them, your prospect-to-customer conversions will be low, compared to what it could be with the proper captions.

To read more great marketing tips, you can download a FREE copy of Ken’s “121 Tips Techniques and Ideas To Explode Your Marketing Campaign Results”. Just give Ken’s FREE e-newsletter a try and you’ll be given immediate access to download the 121 Tips e-book. Here is the link to these free resources: www.kenvarga.com/nj.html

While planning a mailing, write a dummy direct mail package, using identical materials to ensure that your package will mail at the price you have planned.

When weighing your package, include a dime and a paper clip to account for the weight of the ink. I bet you have never heard of this idea before.

If you don’t, here’s what’s likely to happen. Your mail might be delivered with postage due. And the last thing you need is your prospect to think, “Here’s somebody wanting me to spend money with them and they are asking me to put up money to pay for the postage on the envelope”. Not good. It just doesn’t make any sense.
So again, keep that critical tip in mind. Always add the paper clip and a dime to account for the ink if you don’t want your mailing to embarrass you.

To read more great marketing tips, you can download a FREE copy of Ken’s “121 Tips Techniques and Ideas To Explode Your Marketing Campaign Results”. Just give Ken’s FREE e-newsletter a try and you’ll be given immediate access to download the 121 Tips e-book. Here is the link to these free resources: www.kenvarga.com/nj.html

A good back end is where your real profits lie. Trying to make your fortunes from a front end product is very tough.

With a good back end, you could make plenty of money from a front-end promotion that barely breaks even, or even loses a little.

In fact, many top marketers and companies build the loss into their front ends just to get the prospect to become a customer. They know what the lifetime value of the customer is, so they know how much they can spend to get that customer.

A good case in point are computer printer companies. They’ll sell you a printer (the front end) for less than it costs them to make it and distribute it. Why? Because they know that once you own the printer, you are going to buy ink (the back end) for that printer for at least a year or two, or more.

Many people would think that the printer is the main product. In this case, the main product is the ink. The printer is the means to the income stream that follows.

With the knowledge of how much you’ll be spending with them for the life of the printer, it’s easy for them to sell you the printer at an inexpensive price to turn you into a customer.

So, a good back end is where your profits lie. Design it correctly, and watch your bank account swell.

To read more great marketing tips, you can download a FREE copy of Ken’s “121 Tips Techniques and Ideas To Explode Your Marketing Campaign Results”. Just give Ken’s FREE e-newsletter a try and you’ll be given immediate access to download the 121 Tips e-book. Here is the link to these free resources: www.kenvarga.com/nj.html

Never try to sell two separate products at once. This is definitely a no-no. When you do that, you are asking the prospect to make too many decisions. Too many decisions cause confusion. A confused prospect does not buy.

Once you have gotten prospects to respond and order, then and only then can you back-end another product to them. (For those of you new to the term, “back-end” means the products or services that come after the initial purchase.) In other words, once they become a customer, then you can try to sell them something else; not before.

“But”, you say, “how about having a listing of my many products on a single web page on my site?” “Should I have a separate web page for each?”

My answer is that it depends. I think it’s ok to show several products on a single web page. But in the sales process of a product, you should send the prospect to a landing page where his decision making will be about that product only; not about which to buy. If your ad or promotion sends the prospect to a display of all your other products, you complicate the buying process for the prospect and he’s less likely to buy.

So make sure that any particular sales promotion you are running relates to one and only one product for that promotion.

To read more great marketing tips, you can download a FREE copy of Ken’s “121 Tips Techniques and Ideas To Explode Your Marketing Campaign Results”. Just give Ken’s FREE e-newsletter a try and you’ll be given immediate access to download the 121 Tips e-book. Here is the link to these free resources: www.kenvarga.com/nj.html