35 things I have found to be almost always true

35 things I have found to be almost always true

1. Relevance matters more than originality
2. The most important element in any creative endeavour is the brief
3. Most clients focus on the wrong things
4. The urgent takes precedence over the important
5. The customer you want is like the customer you’ve got
6. The product and positioning matter more than any other element in marketing
7. Who you are talking to matters more than what you sell
8. Database is the heart of marketing
9. The internet is just accelerated direct marketing
10. Emotion matters more than logic
11. The simple letter or email gives the best ROI
12. Long copy beats short
13. Incentives always pay
14. Segmentation is almost invariably worth it
15. Hardly anyone budgets for marketing intelligently
16. The customer you’ve got is 4 – 5 times more likely to buy from you than someone identical who is not a customer.
17. A previous enquirer is about twice as likely to buy
18. A past customer is usually your next best bet.
19. After that comes someone who’s recommended
20. It pays to say thank you
21. Marketers are suckers for magic bullets
22. Marketing experts complicate things needlessly
23. If you say why you are writing, response goes up
24. Questionnaires almost always pay
25. Making people choose increases response
26. Few marketers use enough testimonials
27. Almost all meetings waste time
28. Flattery and greed are the two biggest draws
29. All successful messages solve problems
30. Sincerity always pays
31. Few messages ask forcefully enough for action
32. Repetition pays
33. People’s faces raise response
34. The more you communicate, the better you do
35. Research rarely predicts results accurately

Drayton Bird is a renowned direct marketing teacher, speaker and author. Find out more about him on his profile.

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