A direct response marketing consultant who counts replies, not likes.

What is direct response marketing?

It's advertising built to make the reader do something you can count: call, reply, buy, book, give. Every piece carries an offer, a deadline and a way to respond, so you know what it earned.

Brand advertising hopes people remember you. Direct response asks them to act, today, and keeps score. It's the oldest form of measurable marketing, and the rules that made it work on paper are the same rules that make an email, a landing page or a mailed letter work now.

John learned relationship marketing at a level that earned this from a New York Times Publishing executive: "Of all the Relationship Marketing people I've worked with, there's only one whose standard is matched by John Seeliger's. That one is Lester Wunderman." (Wunderman is widely credited with founding direct marketing.)

What makes a direct response campaign work?

Three things, in this order: the list, the offer and the creative. The best letter in the world fails if it goes to the wrong people or asks for nothing.

1. The list. Who gets it matters more than anything else. We define the audience before we write a word.
2. The offer. A clear reason to act now, worth more to the reader than the effort of responding.
3. The creative. A surprise hook that earns attention, then copy that makes the next step easy.
4. The measurement. Every piece is coded so you know exactly what it returned.

Direct response works best as part of a bigger marketing strategy, and it pairs naturally with campaign development.