Part 5: The Art of the CTA Ah, the ubiquitous—and critical—Call to Action. Great branding, sumptuous, emotional or humorous creative, a strong voice: they are the vessels that hold the CTA. The ask: to buy now; sign-up; get more information; go online; hurry, don’t miss this sale. For every response-driven tactic we create—from catalogs to […]
A client called me several years ago with a spectacular idea for his marketing program. “I love it!” I said. “It’s fresh, it’s different, it’s relevant to your customers, and it’s testable. Let me know how the CMO likes it!” He grew silent on the line. And then said quietly, “Um, could you bring the […]
How to gamble on new ideas without losing big I just spent this past weekend in Vegas. Nice little getaway. Saw a show, played a few slots, danced with a monkey (don’t ask). But as I contemplated how much to wager at the Blackjack table, it occurred to me that there are no sure bets. […]
By Chris Hayes, EVP Brand Strategy This 18th Century quote from my high school lit class got me thinking about a conversation I had with a marketing director from a well-known cross-channel brand a few weeks ago. He mentioned his company would like to do comparison research on their catalog covers to determine which ones […]
Sorry for the clickbait title. I see it all over the web, so I assumed it must get an AMAZING response, and I wanted to test it. Now you deserve a payoff, so I’ll share with you the most interesting test I helped conduct this year, in which we tested some catalog creative for a […]
An examination of classic A/B testing, a regular diet for all of us direct marketers, made it to NPR’s Morning Edition last week under the guise of a “real world field experiment” conducted by two economists. I guess direct marketing must then be considered unreal and out in left field? The story explored these economists’ […]
