I work for a company that sends salesletters for its products.
Our standard practice is to end each page of a salesletter with ellipses like this … [page break] to encourage readers to turn the page.
I find this technique to be “of questionable value”, shall we say. I’d like to write and test some materials without it, but my boss isn’t up for butting heads w/ other departments over it, which is understandable.
The justification is that it was tested at some point, and that it’s fairly standard practice in DM marketing.
Thing is, I don’t see any of our competitors using it anymore.
So…
Does anyone know of any valid testing that’s been done recently on the effectiveness of this technique?
And/or, does anyone have current cites for best practices in DM that address this issue?
Sorry, no cite or studies. However, as a customer who has received many sales letters in the past, I find the “device to keep you reading” ellipsis obnoxious. I associate it with the junkiest of junk mail letter I have gotten, like the one I got yesterday that included a paper prayer rug I was supposed to kneel on and send back with my prayer requests. But, I digress. My point is, I don’t like that sort of condescending “trick.” I don’t like it even when I do read the whole letter.
If there are any studies regarding the best practices of direct marketers, they might be available from The Direct Marketing Association.
I do some work in the field, and I find that most recipients of DM are smart fellows who don’t like to be condescended to. Piss 'em off and they aren’t likely to buy what you’re selling.
The most reader-friendly approach, IMHO, are to put (more) or (over) at the bottom center of the first page.
(If no research exists, do your own. Simply send your next mailing out with several variations, and see which one gets the best response.)
So far no dice from the DMA. It’s a pretty picayune topic, so I’m not surprised.
As for testing, we test everything, but getting the test approved, scheduled, and funded – that’s another very political story. And actually, a green light to test it is what I’m looking for, so I gotta have justification.
I’m w/ y’all as far as the impression this little gimmick leaves. Might as well write at the bottom of the page <does Beavis voice> “Hey, dumba–, turn the page.”
The thing is, they also use something similar to the (over). (Could you call it over-kill? :rolleyes: )
We make a fine product, and it sells well, very few returns or complaints, and you can’t beat the people who work at the company. I just feel like we’re probably getting zip from this, and alienating potential customers besides. <closes vent>
This is a real narrow topic, so it’ll likely get buried immediately. If anyone else out there has something to add, please do. If I find anything or we run the test, I’ll post to MPSIMS with a similar subject line.
Two things.
A) Challenge the people who are saying that testing shows the ellipses work to show you the tests. If they can’t, there’s your political justification for testing it.
- C’mon. Who cares? Customers alienated by three little dots? If there are such people, they’d be the loonies who’d drive your customer service people nuts with bizarre questions and complaints. You don’t need them, anyway.
Yes, some of us care a great deal about tiny little punctuation marks, and some of us worry about the possible effect of every little detail that goes into our sales letters (I’m a newsletter editor, and my spring DM piece is at the mailshop right now–really!), but let’s face it: 90% of the packages are tossed out unopened; half of the remainder are tossed after a quick glance at the letter. Of the remaining 5% that are looked at for more than 30 seconds, I find it hard to believe that anyone who was on the verge of buying decided against it because of three little dots at the bottom of the page.
Yes, the ellipsis is redunant. Yes, it may be pointless. Yes, it may have no proven value. But doing harm? Not bloody likely, IMO.