Testing. Nobody tests much anymore and that’s just dumb. 

          We actually had a prospective client back in New York say: “Testing? You’re supposed to be experts. Don’t you already know what works?”

          We could have replied “We were only kidding,”  and taken his money. But we didn’t. We tried the right answers which are:

• Sure we know what works. Testing works.

• The first thing direct marketing experts do is test inexpensively, then drop losing ideas and roll out cautiously with winners.

• Experts know what to test, how to read results and predict future results.

          How you test is another story; the point of this little screed is that it is insane not to test. I’ve seen one creative approach, letter only, improve results by over 1,000%! Our President once put together a list plan that beat the client’s house file by 170% and that’s unheard of.

          Changing the (soft) offer on a program we ran for Ford lifted response to a survey mailing from 18% (amazingly good) to 37% (just spectacular!) I thought the new offer was ridiculous, of course, but it was a cheap test so I let it go. Boy was my face red.

Quick aside: you can’t test direct marketing concepts with focus groups. In a real DM test, people get involved personally, usually by sending you money – they get committed. In focus groups, people respond by saying what they think – with no commitment and no involvement at all after they go home. A direct marketing test involves thousands of prospects. A focus group involves maybe a dozen.