What marketing tools don't work for you?

We ask this question when we welcome subscribers to our zine. Their answers are consistent: "We sent out a mailing and got no response," they may say. Or they tell us, "Our letters, postcards, or brochures failed."

What went wrong?

You may be surprised. The reasons you find here may not be what you suspect. You may be thinking, "Direct mail letters (or other marketing communications such as a Yellow Pages ads, brochures, newspaper ads, etc.) just don't work for someone in my business."

Because you and your 3-fold brochure, sales letter, or other marketing message are not in front of us, we can't pinpoint exactly why it fell short. We can, though, give you five of the most common errors that may be shutting the door on the results you want.

And just by reversing these mistakes your marketing communications can become winners!

One of our clients, a leading networking company, relied heavily on seminars for its sales. To boost attendance at one seminar, it placed an ad in the local newspaper inviting anyone and everyone to attend. With its wide-open y'all come approach, the ad attracted students looking for information and a free lunch.

Instead of desperately trying to fill seminar seats, the company would have done better to more precisely identify its target -- the information technology managers and executives who make decisions about networks.

Even if your message is the greatest, it will fail if it doesn't reach the right people.

A new video producer we interviewed for an article told us this story. After creating a video about dog training, he developed a marketing strategy -- to place a $600 ad in TV Guide. After all, he reasoned, there has to be a pack of dog owners among its 20 million readers. Perhaps. But only one of them ordered the video.

He would have a greater chance of success by trying out an ad in a publication geared to dog lovers or, perhaps, purchasing a list from one of these publications and testing a mailing.

The better you can describe and understand your market, the more likely you are to find them. And the more you zero in on exactly where they hang out in groups (such as readers of specialized publications or newsletters), the less you risk choosing a time-and-money-swallowing marketing medium.

Sometimes business people write marketing communications with the belief they should, above all else, be clever. (Or, worse, they pay others to concoct these witty or whimsical messages for them.) As a result, their main message becomes clouded. Another frequent fault is to obscure their message with jargon.

Or they may bury their message beneath a display of sensational verbal or graphic fireworks. Think of the number of Web sites you've seen where the message is submerged or nonexistent.

Be alert! Don't let anything come between you and the message you want your prospects to remember and respond to.

By image we mean marketing communications with the sole purpose of creating an image and awareness of your firm, product, or service. They attempt to be a work of art. Watch out! Sometimes they take the form of a glossy brochure with slick photographs and attention-grabbing layout.

The problem is they do not produce measurable results, nor do they provide feedback to guide you in improving your marketing message.

If you have $10 million to spend on marketing, your image brochure (or ad) may work for you . . . some day. It's unlikely that it can prompt your prospects to act now.

Read on to find out exactly what goes in your brochure or ad to grab your best prospects and urge them to respond at once.

What is marketing leverage?

Controlled studies by successful advertising experts have measured the impact of headlines, offers, copy, and graphics. By testing -- changing these elements one at a time and comparing results from direct response ads -- the experts discovered the following differences between responses to the best and worst versions of each element.

The champions, please...