Product Description

Packed with insider secrets, rules, and wisdom from nearly 200 of the leading authorities on direct marketing, this is the essential tool for techniques that produce results. Experts Denny Hatch and Don Jackson cover all you need to know--from planning to implementation--and from target strategy to all aspects of the creative process.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #173322 in Books
• Published on: 1999-01-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

From the Back Cover
Every discipline--from brain surgery to auto making to marketing--is based on the work of those who have gone before. You study their tests, capitalize on their successes, and learn from their failures. In short, every art, science, and industry has a set of canons, caveats, codes, constants, considerations, codicils, constraints, criteria, and customs that have been developed over time. And so it is with direct marketing. To listen to some self-appointed marketing gurus who have recently "discovered" the discipline, you would think direct marketing is relatively new to the marketing scene. Nothing could be further from the truth. Aside from the fact that direct marketing is more than 400 years old (the first book catalogs were printed in Venice in the 1500s), it has been a hallmark of 20th-century commerce because it is the one knowable way of building a business. Direct marketing is the business of acquiring customers and donors and getting to know them--keeping track of their transactions and then continuing to delight them by serving their current needs, creating new wants, and, above all, persuading them to act . . . to respond to a proposition. Despite its long and profitable history, no one has assembled a single collection of all the basic secrets (or rules) of direct marketing. Until now. In these pages Denny Hatch and Don Jackson blitz you with the secrets, rules, and wisdom of nearly 200 of the great masters: from Claude Hopkins, David Ogilvy, and Max Sackheim to such modern greats as Jay Abraham, Dick Benson, Malcolm Decker, Bob Doscher, John J. Fleider, Jerry Gould, Bob Hacker, Dick Hodgson, Cecil Hoge Sr., Bill Jayme, Ted Kikoler, Jim Kobs, Herschell Gordon Lewis, Malcolm McCluskey, Don Nicholas, J. Peterman, Max Ross, Jim Rutz, Emily Soell, Lew Smith, Bob Stone, Joan Throckmorton, and John Yeck. So . . . what is this book's proposition? Simply that you can have, at your fingertips, the individual and collective wisdom of the greatest practitioners of this century about: Creative, Copy, Math, Space Ads, Direct Mail, Production, Management, Strategy, Lists, Testing, Offers, Fulfillment, Back-End Operations, Lead Generation, and (of course!) much, much more!

About the Author

Denny Hatch is editor of Target Marketing magazine and the Who's Mailing What? newsletter.
Don Jackson is a direct marketing consultant and editor.

Customer Reviews

Best compendium of expert advice out there
I've read many books about direct marketing and each has had it strong points. The problem is that each book tends to cover one or two areas and so to get a thorough understanding of all the options in direct marketing you have to read a lot of books. This book covers every area of direct marketing. Whether it is via the Internet, brochures, catalogs, headlines, testimonials, or whatever, it is covered in this book. The book is filled with tips for direct marketing no matter what method you choose. These secrets have been collected from the most successful direct marketers in history and is their distilled knowledge from years of experience. It is the collected knowledge of the greatest direct marketing minds and how to make your efforts successful. Thorough in coverage and detailed, it is the book to read first and understand before starting a direct marketing campaign. It will save you many times the cost of the book if it just helps you avoid even one mistake.

Another essential for the results-oriented marketer
Personally, I like lists. And this books gives you tons of lists to make sure that your marketing pieces are as good as they can be. Think of this book as an insurance policy. Well done, Denny.

Every marketer should own this book
The only way to really know how your marketing campaign is doing is to test it with real people in a real life situation. While focus groups and other research provide some kinds of measurement the true test of success is when you use measurable, direct marketing and watch what transpires.

This is where Denny's book comes in to play. Nobody, but NOBODY knows testing like Denny Hatch. He's seen it all, he's participated in more tests, he's got the archive of all archives with his Who's Mailing What ... and he's connected to the most successful marketers in the industry, to share insight, pick their brains and then translate the testing that is being done into something we can all use to improve our own discovery of what makes our own customers buy from us.

Needless to say, regardless of your role in the marketing world, from mangement to creative (yes, creative!) , every marketer should own this book. And a sign that you're learning from it is to observe how dog-eared it gets over the next 12 months.