Basic tenants of direct response marketing

1. Scientific advertising
   Marketing should be measurable, accountable, and we should be able to say if a promotion worked, at what cost per lead, at what cost per sale. In this way marketing and advertising can become a science of constant improvements, based on a benchmark of earlier performances.
2. Logic on fire
   Marketing messages should be emotive, speaking to primal emotions of the men and women we are targeting as customers. We should first understand their fears, frustrations and aspirations. We should be scratching a raw nerve (their problem), aggravating the nerve, then offering relief to the problem. Humans are firey bags of emotion, waiting to be triggered into an emotional state. Emotions throw spears into the jungle and logic is the search party sent in to find them.
3. The meaning of communication is the response you get
   Direct response marketing is based on eliciting a response. The response might be an enquiry form, order form, a telephone call, a subscription to a free newsletter or the like. This is what distinguishes direct response from other marketing. The response is easily measured.
4. Buying customers
   Direct response marketing is founded on the premise that you know your numbers. You have calculated the lifetime value of a customer. You have determined a fraction of that figure that you'd be willing to trade to attract a new customer. You may include freebies or a giveaway approaching that value as the "allowable" premium in a direct marketing promotion. Remember to test every step of the way, as sometimes smaller incentives deliver bigger responses.