Category : Databases and related files
Archive   : PROP.ZIP
Filename : DM-WRKBK.PRP

HERMAN HOLTZ
c/o -----­ -­ ------, Agent
----------------------
New York, NY 10016
(212) 889-0637

PROPOSAL

for a book tentatively titled:

EVERY MARKETER'S DIRECT-MAIL IDEA-BOOK AND WORKBOOK

Practical Tools and Guides for Copywriters, Marketing Executives,
and Managers Generally


Even the most experienced direct-mail specialists run
dry and need some pump priming. Here is a complete bag
of tricks to help everyone, beginner and veteran alike,
succeed in the direct-mail field. Even on bad days.


THE NEED

Mail order has enormous allure attracting over 2 million newcomers to it
every year, drawn by many factors: One can begin on a small scale, even at
home, it produces amazing, almost incredible successes, and it looks [decep-
tively] easy to get into and find success.

It's also big business, with such major firms as Sears, Montgomery Ward,
Fingerhut, and Spiegels among practitioners. There are relatively few items
not sold by direct mail, and those not sold directly by mail are often
marketed with the help of direct mail for such things as generating leads.

It's far more specialized than most beginners realize, and it is a demanding
field: success requires more than good luck. It requires at least an active,
creative talent for writing copy, and conceiving fresh and different ideas
for products, promotions, and marketing packages.

There is an abundance of published information on the subject--newsletters,
trade journals, books, even magazines--and seminars too, as well as consult-
ants who write copy, design campaigns, and offer other services. But both
the beginner and the expert in this field need something more, and that is
what the proposed book is to be: Not a text nor a quickie course in the
subject but a set of practical tools to be put to work immediately. And
chief among the important assets is the fact of its being an idea book, a
direct support in the generation of fresh and new ideas. That alone would
justify this book. But that is only part of the value.

APPROACH AND CONTENT

Ideas:

Direct mail demands fresh and different ideas in a constant stream. It uses
up new ideas faster than TV does, and the direct-mail specialist who becomes
jaded and has difficulty finding new and fresh approaches to direct-mail
copy and promotions is in serious trouble. That is why a considerable por-
tion of the proposed book will be directed to supplying ideas and stimuli
for ideas, ideas for copy, ideas for promotions, ideas for packaging, pro-
viding the precision of an absolute science, taking all or nearly all the
guesswork out of it.

Forms:

Among the kinds of tools will be many forms for conducting tests, recording
results, and evaluating the results, checklists and do's and don'ts for
writing copy, and sundry other such items, ready for use, either on paper or
in a desktop computer. There will be forms for laying out copy, for ordering
advertising and for many other uses. Many of these will be models of useful
items that can be "swiped"--copied and used directly or with only minor
modification.

Graphs and Charts:

A number of graphs, flowcharts, milestone charts, CPM diagrams, and other
tools for managing the development and conduct of a campaign, as distinct
from the creative work of developing the campaign, will be provided also.
Most of these will be useful as swipe files too.

Finally, it will include a resource directory of such important items as the
most important mailing-list brokers, consultants, suppliers, and other nec-
essary support, as well as general guidelines in some of the details of
mailing requirements.

THE MARKET

The market for this book has been defined in earlier paragraphs. It includes
all those marketing executives in companies large and small whose marketing
ought to include direct-response campaigns, but who may or may not have the
required knowledge. But even those who do know how to put together a direct-
response campaign, the proposed book will have great value as a time-saver,
as a means for systematizing direct-response marketing and bringing consis-
tency to it, and as a set of useful tools and an in-house manual to place
into the hands of subordinates.(This can create some volume buyers, since
this is a book for permanent retention and use by each individual.)

AUTHOR'S CREDENTIALS

The author is a proposal consultant, author of many business books, includ-
ing several on management and marketing, including mail order marketing,
with a general background as an electronics engineer, director of market-
ing, general manager, and independent entrepreneur, including a successful
enterprise as a mail-order publisher. Following are the titles of some of
his books:

Government Contracts: Proposalmanship and Winning Strategies, Plenum.
Directory of Federal Purchasing Offices, John Wiley & Sons.
How to Succeed as an Independent Consultant, John Wiley & Sons.
The Winning Proposal: How to Write it, McGraw-Hill.
2001 Sources of Financing for Small Business, Arco.
The $100 Billion Market, AMACOM.
Successful Newsletter Publishing for the Consultant, Consultant's Library.
Mail Order Magic, McGraw-Hill. Persuasive Writing, McGraw-Hill.
Profit From Your Money-Making Ideas, AMACOM.
Beyond the Resume, McGraw-Hill.
The Secrets of Practical Marketing for Small Business, Prentice-Hall,
Profit-Line Management, AMACOM.
How to Buy the Right Personal Computer, Facts on File.
Word Processing for Business Publications, McGraw-Hill.
The Advice Business, Prentice-Hall.
How to Make Money With Your Micro, John Wiley & Sons.
Computer Work Stations, Chapman & Hall.

OUTLINE

1: A BRIEF ORIENTATION TO THIS BOOK AND ITS PURPOSE

Some basic definitions about direct-mail/direct-response marketing,
with inherent problems and truths, and how they relate to the approach
taken by this book to create and place into the reader's hands the
right tools. The advantages of having a set of tools to use in a
consistent, systematized approach to direct marketing. Some suggestions
for making most effective and most profitable use of this book and its
contents, especially the ideas and idea-prompting features.

2: FIRST STEPS: DECIDE WHAT THE OFFER IS TO BE

Forms, charts, tutorials, models, and guidelines for analyzing the
market, profiling the prospects, and deciding what the offer is to be.
Lists of and ideas for offers (promises)--e.g., saving money, making
money, attracting the opposite sex, feeding the ego, etc.

3. TESTING DIRECT MAIL OFFERS

Forms, charts, tutorials, ideas, models, and guidelines for devising
tests for direct mail offer.

4. TESTING MEDIA OFFERS

Forms, charts, ideas, and tutorials for devising tests for media adver-
tising--print, radio, TV.

5. TESTING SPECIAL MEDIA OFFERS

Forms, charts, tutorials for devising tests for special direct-response
marketing via seminars, trade shows, contests, other special media/
methods.

6: COPY PREPARATION AIDS

Layout forms, lists of keying aids, checklists, do's and don'ts.
Guidelines, checklists, tutorials for copy writing, headline writing,
preparing the package. Forms for order blanks, credit-card orders,
response envelopes, letters, broadsides, other items.


7: SIDE-BY-SIDE TESTING

Guidelines for side-by-side (multiple, simultaneous) tests; do's and
don'ts. Forms, ideas, and models for tracking results versus time,
season, medium, other parameters.


8: FINDING THE PEAK

Forms, guidelines, tutorials for finding the peak and rolling out.

9: FREE ADVERTISING (PUBLICITY)

Forms, guidelines, ideas, models, and tutorials for publicity releases,
articles, other methods for getting publicity.

10: SPECIAL OFFERS

Ideas (lists), guidelines, tutorials for "special offers," special
enclosures, gimmicks.

11: RENTING THE RIGHT MAILING LISTS

Checklists of criteria for choosing mailing lists for various purposes;
do's and don'ts.

12: COMPILING YOUR OWN MAILING LISTS

Checklists, sources for compiling mailing lists; segregating your own
customer list as a high-priority list, your inquiry list as a lower-
priority list, ideas for other methods of building/acquiring house
lists.

13: BUILDING MAILING LISTS VIA INQUIRY ADVERTISING

Ideas for drawing inquiries to build prospect lists, compile mailing
lists. Do's and don'ts.

14. MANAGING THE CAMPAIGN

Forms for planning the schedules and events (CPM, flowcharts, milestone
charts); tutorials; do's and don'ts; checklists.

15: COMPUTERIZING THE WORKBOOK

Suggestions, guidelines, checklists for utilizing a desktop computer in
the work, especially in keeping records and making evaluations.

16: REFERENCES AND RESOURCES

Sources of mailing lists, advertising novelties, support services,
other aid and assistance.