Copy: how to sell harder; Boost response ten times with a fresh approach;Change your promotion to identify new demand;Seven-point bench-test to see where your promotion is under-achieving; What kind of uplift should an incentive bring? Why marketing should guide editorial; How to deal with a negative audience;How you can reduce consumer resistance, avoid blocking out potential buyers; The six big advantages of telephone orders

Dear Colleague,

Whatever they want, sell it to them.

 In this issue of Subscriptions Strategy we investigate how a huge organisation with 500,000 subscribers reversed a 10-year decline by discovering what people want.

 The new message in the promotions we show in this issue pulled in 10 times more response than the ones it replaced. Think about that when deciding if you have the budget for testing new copy.

 The lesson is clear. If you are not testing new approaches – headlines, copy, offer, content, methods of delivery etc – you will end up with a declining market share. In the case of Which? the loss came to around £11.25 million.

 Save time, trouble and money

Which? is a valuable product, worth around £48 million revenue a year.

 Which? is also useful to the consumer. By simply following the Which? ‘best buy’ tables a subscriber will save a great deal of time, trouble and money – there is no need to spend hours hunting around shops and Internet sites.

 To most, that truth appears evident. As there is little or no chance of finding any independent advice in a shop or website, the idea behind independent consumer reviews should be convincing.

 Unfortunately, the direct marketing was failing to sell the product.

 Was it the marketing or the product that was at fault? It turns out both needed a make-over. But as we explain, it was the marketing that revealed the problem.

 Read on to find out how Which? lost £11.25 million, slowly realised what was happening and took successful remedial action.

Peter Hobday

>>> members-only section Subscriptions Strategy issue 70