The big impact of small changes

Branded Response integrates best practices from branding and response marketing. One best practice from response marketing is to pay attention to detail. That’s because little changes can make big differences.

Here’s an example. One of our clients wants investors to register for further information and newsletters about their company. Active, sophisticated investors are legendary information hogs. Timely knowledge is how they make money. These investors have some of the highest rates of opt-in agreement for online offers and information. So we recommended that they include email as a way to engage with this otherwise expensive to reach audience.

As smart communicators, we tested and tested again. One surprising result was that even a subtle difference in the email subject line created a significant difference in open rates.

Here are the two subject lines:

1. Private equity for any investor
2. Private equity for every investor

One simple word was the only difference between the two lines; “every” vs. “any”. And yet the difference in people opening their email was dramatic. Can you guess which line performed 49% better? Follow the link to see.

Billig Versus Best Practices – #1

When I became a copywriter, in the last quarter century of the last millennium, I was well prepared by advertising giants like David Ogilvy, Claude Hopkins, John Caples, and of course Jerry Della Femina. And while I was motivated by a crusade against what I considered dumb ads, I was – and remain – more motivated by a passion to win in the marketplace. To make my clients successful. To outsmart the competition.

After a few months in the business, it had become clear to me that the cause of what I considered bad ads was not necessarily untalented people, as I assumed, but people with a rational commitment to results. They were practicing what was then called formula advertising, gleaned from a “scientific” approach: