by Kristina Mills 

The easier you make it for the reader to respond, the more responses you will get to your ads, your sales letters and all your marketing material - it’s as simple as that.

If you make the reader jump through hoops before they even hand over their cash, chances are they’ll be thinking to themselves, ‘If it’s this hard to deal with them before I become a customer what will it be like afterwards?’

Give people a number of options and more people will respond. Why?  Simply because some people don’t like replying by telephone. Others like to order by phone only and the remainder like to deal person-to-person.

7 Ways to Make it EASY for People to Respond

1. Always include the telephone number in the advertisement

If doing business with interstate or regional customers, responses will dramatically increase if you include a toll free number and you ask for orders by telephone.

Anyone who is worried about spending money on an STD phone call will have no hesitation in calling a toll free number.

2. Fax details

If you deal business-to-business feature your fax number and if you have multiple interstate orders consider a toll free fax as well.

3. Postage details

For replies by mail always include a FREE post/reply paid number. A reply paid number is affordable to register at your local Post Office. You merely pay for the responses you receive. For the price of a postage stamp it is well worthwhile when you consider the number of extra responses you receive.

4. Physical address

When asking people to visit it’s very important to make it easy for them to find the premises. Include the physical address and if it is difficult to find, include street directory coordinates or a mud map, or mention major landmarks that are nearby.

5. Email address

Include an email address, especially for advertising enquiries.

6. Website address

In some situations it’s a great idea to promote the website address. In other situations it may actually detract from responses.

Look at your ad or direct mail piece as a carefully engineered sales process. As a writer you put prospects on a sales track and you want them to follow a certain path. The design and format of the corporate website may actually encourage respondents NOT to respond to your offer.

If there’s too much irrelevant information on the website, there is no reason for the reader to respond and leave their details (in the case of a lead generation ad).

If the website is poorly constructed it may be too difficult for the customer to purchase and they may go elsewhere.

Scary thought, isn’t it!  Your client has spent a bomb on advertising and the ad you write sells up a storm for them, but all of those respondents get turned off once they visit the company’s website. OUCH!!

If – on the other hand, you promote a special URL which has been purpose-built as an enquiry mechanism for offline advertising, you’ll find responses go through the roof. You see, (if written correctly) that mini-website is a natural extension of the sales process.

For instance, let’s say that you run an ad or a direct mail piece that suggests readers respond to receive a free report.

If readers are given a special website to visit and when they arrive there all they see is further information selling that free report plus an online request form, there’s a very high chance they will respond. There is no other information on the website to distract them.

7. Include a coupon in ads and in direct mail

First up, a coupon makes it that much easier for people to respond but did you also know about the surprise psychological effect that a coupon has on a reader?

You see, the visual element of a coupon has a psychological effect in the reader’s mind. The reader believes that if they see that dotted line there’s something FREE or of value on offer.

4 Ways to Make it Easy to Purchase

1. In one-step promotions tell the reader ALL the different ways they can purchase. Spell it out to them in simple language.

2. Let them know all the methods that you offer including all of the credit cards you accept, Paypal or other online payment methods, Money Order, Bank Check or Electronic Funds Transfer.

3. If online purchasing is an option tell the reader about the security features that are on the website to protect their private information.

4. Include an order form with a dotted, cut-out line around it.

If you would like help with your marketing campaign, call us on +617 3353 1107 or send an email to This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it