Anritsu

Direct Response Copywriting – Anritsu shows the right way to launch a new product

Anritsu’s challenge was to convince its audience that a new handheld measurement instrument could do as much as a benchtop unit — and be used in more places. We used a tease. On the outer envelope of our direct mail promo asking the question “Where’s the Benchtop Analyzer in this Picture?” This headline is juxtapositioned with the photo of a technician working on top of an antenna tower. This is a field testing situation where a heavy benchtop unit could never be used.

The tease very quickly takes the reader into a folding “tent card” brochure. The inside quickly pays off the envelope tease with a headline “Here it is! The handheld 7 Ghz Spectrum Analyzer that thinks it’s a benchtop.” The tent card would be reprinted and used as an insert under the polywrap in a couple of major trade publications. The headline also worked as a stand-alone promotional piece. It included a Business Reply Card to make it easier to reply if the recipient happened to be reading these publications while working out in the field.

Personalized URL

Each recipient of the direct mail promo was given their own URL. It was laser personalized onto the mail piece and took them to a landing page. The URL looked something like this:

www.anritsu.com/spectrum/laurie.beasley

We think the personalized URL made it easy for them to remember and type in the URL. The novelty of it perhaps made the curious want to see what their personalized landing page would look like. Indeed, when they clicked through to the landing page and registration form, it had their name at the top. It was also pre-populated with their name and address in the data fields. All they had to do was answer two qualification questions and hit submit to get to the Thank You page.

This campaign also included an email that went out to mostly the same recipients as the direct mail campaign. We asked them to meet the new product and get a chance to win an iPod Mini.

The results of this integrated direct mail, email and print insert campaign surprised us. While the email campaign met expectations and garnered industry average response for business to business email — the direct mail campaign had nearly 3x more response. We think that the combination of a strong, benefit-laden tease on the outer envelope, combined with the chance to win the iPod Mini, and the personalized URL all combined to make this direct mail campaign garner killer response. Additionally, the print insert performed nearly 100x better than industry average response rates reported for computer and software inserts, as documented in the DMA 2004 Response Rate Report.