Want a never-ending course in direct mail fundamentals that’s accessible 24/7? Turn on QVC, the most successful of the home shopping channels. Whether it’s “Diamonique,” designer sheets, or Dell computers, the formula is the same.

Voila! Direct mail live!
QVC’s “direct mail laboratory” is available 364 days a year (they shut down for Christmas). In any 15-minute period you’ll see all the copy elements that give successful direct mail its sizzle:

• Offer(s)
• Benefits and features
• Testimonials
• Celebrity endorsements
• Guarantees
• Data and research
• Response devices
• Personality
• “Pictures”
• Descriptions
• Personal involvement
• Target audience

Cleverly camouflaged by low-key pitchmen (pitchwomen? pitchpeople?) in cozy settings with neighborly, “across the back fence” sales approaches, QVC is a $5 billion sales behemoth. While sales also are split between the Internet and several small retail locations, live television forms the foundation. If you’re developing a mailing, QVC can be a study in rhetoric and style.

Personality is primary
Direct mailers can learn a lot from the QVC hosts. These “oh-so-friendly” personalities move gracefully between presentations of 18K gold jewelry to household cleaning products without missing a beat. But unlike their exuberant infomercial pitch-cousins, QVC hosts ooze credibility and sincerity. You come away believing that they actually use everything they’re showing. These hosts have fan clubs and write books. The buyers love them! Live phone calls often lead off with, “I love you! You’re my favorite host,” followed by praise for the product.

Many of the QVC personalities have a special line that they regularly host…Bob Bowersox is the cooking expert, Steve Bryant the computer guru, Judy Crowell the exercise aficionado. People trust their expertise.

Look at your direct mail package. Better yet, listen to the copy. Is there a personality behind it? Or is it just hollow marketing rhetoric? Are you writing to impress yourself or make sales? If your letter and brochure sound like they were written by the same person, you have a problem. The letter is the oh-so-friendly and credible host. The brochure is the demonstrator.

Direct Mail Theater-In-An-Envelope
Try as we may, we can’t make direct mail live. It’s two-dimensional. Gimmicks that add sound and smell can be expensive. To be cost effective, direct mail has to be flat. It’s words and pictures on paper jostling for attention against not only other pieces of mail, but cell phones, faxes, emails, telephones, busy schedules, etc. Your mailing needs a powerful presence and a strong voice. It needs to be a star!

Think of your mailing as mini-theater or a mini-broadcast. Imagine your product or service being demonstrated on QVC. Remember, the hosts are always enthusiastic and sincere…however, not psychotically so. They never sound phony or affected.

For example, they may be presenting Gateway computers, but you don’t feel like they’re paid by Gateway to say nice things. The host (the letter) guides the Gateway representative (the brochure) through a demonstration of how these computers will make life better or solve problems. The company representative is always personable and smart and makes using Gateway computers look like the easiest thing in the world for anybody. They provide data and research. The host, on the other hand, names the target audience frequently.“If you’re thinking of buying or upgrading your system.” “If you’ve been shopping around for a computer…”

The host puts all technical information in perspective for viewers and adds the personalized “wow factor.”

• “You’ve got plenty of room to store family photos.”
• “Managing the household budget will be a breeze.”
• “The kids will be able to do their schoolwork.”
• “I could use this to burn my own CDs and watch DVDs.”
• “You get so much with this computer that you don’t get in stores.”
• “And as always here at QVC, trying it out is risk free for 30 days. If it’s not the computer for you, send it back.”

The QVC host eases buyer anxiety by repeating the guarantee, the “extras” only available here, the easy payment options, etc. The QVC host and the Gateway representative need each other to complete the sale. They’re compatible, yet different personalities.

To mirror this success, direct mail copy needs to be more dramatic, but not hokey. Create a voice for the letter (the host) and for the brochure (the company representative). The copy shouldn’t be interchangeable. Information may overlap at times, but make sure each piece keeps its personality and word choice.

Enthusiasm and credibility need to leap off the pages and panels. Successful direct mail copy doesn’t read like an inter-office memo. When you read direct mail copy out loud, you should hear more:

•  Emotion
• References to you and your
• Repetition of key messages that relieve anxiety