A New Decade for Direct: Marketers/Copywriters Embrace Change

January 7, 2010 by Ethan Boldt, editor-in-chief

multipage

Pat Friesen, copywriter and owner of Pat Friesen & Co., tells about one of her first email jobs. "When Paul Becker (who was at Hasbro at the time) first came to me to write the copy for his new email initiate for Hasbro brands, it wasn't because I was an experienced email copywriter. At the time, I wasn't. Instead, Paul told me he wanted a seasoned direct response writer who knew how to write copy that engaged readers and motivated them to take action. And as it turns out, I got to work with email guru Jeanne Jennings and the creative team at Grafica (N.Y. agency) from whom I learned much of what I know and still use in writing email copy," says Friesen, who also believes that writing for email has positively affected the copy she writes for traditional mail.

And while the medium of direct mail is different than for email or mobile, the dual purpose remains the same: engage with words and generate a measurable response. For Nancy Harhut, former SVP/managing director of relationship marketing at Hill Holliday and executive creative director of Harhut for Hire, she finds the recent emphasis on digital and social media not too arduous a switch from mail. "It's still about finding the right words to connect and motivate, regardless of channel. And with a journalism background, ‘saying it' in 140 characters is actually doable!"

3. Keep Direct Mail as the Multichannel Engine
Of course, for direct mail to remain relevant in the future, the multichannel future must be embraced. And that doesn't necessarily mean that direct mail becomes a minor player for the multichannel campaign. Quite the opposite, for email and social media and mobile may fade over time rather than mail, for example.

"I personally think that email, social and mobile media are here to stay. Of course, they, too, will change as technology changes," predicts Friesen. "What's uncertain is whether or not there might be some catastrophic occurrence that would dramatically change people's comfort level in using them. For example, if there was a huge security breach or some other security/privacy meltdown that made people leery of electronic/digital/social media, that would change the game overnight. Who knows?"

Indeed, just another reason to keep all channels lubricated and operational.