Profile on Success – Dick Benson

By many accounts, Dick Benson was the most successful direct mail marketer of all time.

In a nutshell, Dick Benson’s take on direct mail marketing is pretty simple: The promoter’s goal is to get prospects to raise their hands and say they’re interested in what you have to sell. Secrets to Successful Direct Mail emphasizes this lesson and everything Dick Benson has learned in more than 40 years in the business.

Benson never gave a seminar and never advertised for clients. Actually, he didn’t need to. Most of his clients put him on permanent hold. Clients included Time Inc., Dow Jones, Hearst Magazines, and World Book, to name a few.

Benson advised on effective tests, creatives, timing, pricing, and prizes. One of his main tenets was that direct sellers spend too much time on package appearance and not enough on listings or testing. He also highlighted the power of effective creativity, noting that even minor changes to the offer, text, envelope content, or letter appearance can make a big difference to the response and should be tested more than once before each new release.

And while he focused on ROI from direct marketing, it wasn’t his only goal. He emphasized that marketers also test to learn. The more you learn, the better you can market to segments that emerge as marketing programs evolve. To that end, he encouraged marketers to place value on the information they learned through testing and direct marketing campaigns.

Benson’s 25 principles

The following are Dick Benson’s 25 basic principles of direct marketing, demonstrating the central ideas he proposed in his writing and consulting efforts with clients:

1. A two-time buyer is twice as likely to buy than a one-time buyer.

2. The same product sold at different prices will result in the same net revenue per thousand shipped.

3. Giveaways will improve results by 50 percent or more.

4. A credit or billing offer will improve results by 50 percent or more.

5. Tokens or stickers always improve results.

6. Memberships renew better than simple subscriptions by 10 percent or more.

7. “Department store” prices always pay, except on membership offers.

8. You can never sell two things at once.

9. Mail autoships almost never work.

10. The more credible a special offer is, the more likely it will be to succeed.

11. Adding installment payments for an item over $15.00 will increase results by 15 percent.

12. Dollar for dollar, premiums are better than cash discounts as incentives.

13. It is more profitable to add items to a mail package than to make the package cheaper.

14. For magazines, a “soft” offer (“Try at our risk”) is better than a hard offer.

15. A Yes-No option will increase orders.

16. FREE is a magic word.

17. Often two cousins ​​are better than one.

18. Long copy is better than short copy.

19. Custom letters work better for internal lists than for cold lists.

20. Brochures and letters must be independent and each of them must contain all the information.

21. Direct mail must be scrupulously honest.

22. Subscriptions sold at half price for at least eight months will convert at renewal with the same force as subscriptions sold for a full year at full price.

23. Lists are the most important ingredient for the success of a promotional mailing.

24. The offer is the second most important ingredient.

25. Letters should look and feel like letters.