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FAQ
- The TOUGHEST QUESTIONS our customers ask

• "What is direct response marketing?"
• "How does direct marketing work?"
• "Is direct marketing an efficient way to sell?"
• "We're a retail business. Is that a conflict with direct marketing?"
• "How do I know if my advertising is working or not?"
• "Can I use direct response advertising on my website?"
• "What is EdwardsDirect.net?"
• "What's your specialty?"
• "Who've you done work for?"
• "Have you increased your clients' sales?"
• "What's your background?"
• "Tell me more about your Troy-Bilt experience."
• "So... EdwardsDirect.net is a copywriter and a graphic designer team?"
• "How can a copywriter and designer help my business? I'd go to a numbers guy first."
• "You write copy and design ads.....that's it?"
• "You're a consultant group then?"
• "What are your USPs (unique selling points)?"
• "What awards have you won?"
• "Why should I do business with you?"
• "What's your fee structure?"
• "What's the next step?"
• "Anything else?"

• A. Direct response marketing (also known as direct, targeted, mail order, or internet advertising or marketing) is a sales approach based on action. Image advertising (ads for Coke, Nike, etc.) asks you to remember a product or brand when you next go shopping; direct response advertising asks you take action NOW. Today's e-commerce is the most direct-response marketing venue of all time.

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• A. Small ads invite the reader to request information on a product. The seller sends information ASAP and follows with several more offers over a period of time - 3 to 5 years or more.

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• A. Yes, it is extremely efficient because everything is measurable. You can target likely buyers by advertising in places they go -- hunters read ads in hunting magazines and websites, for example -- so your ad dollars are concentrated on likely buyers. Further, those who inquire are added to your mailing list, so you spend your time, energy, and advertising dollars converting only those who've qualified themselves by requesting information.

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• A. Not necessarily. There's no conflict if you sell direct-to-consumers in areas where you don't have retail presence. Where you do have stores, you can use direct marketing techniques to gather leads or drive store traffic.

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• A. You can't measure image advertising but every dollar you spend on direct response advertising is measurable. Using simple financial analysis, you can know definitively which magazine, card deck, webpage, or offer produces the best inquiries...what offers work best...how often to mail or e-mail sales leads...and when to stop mailing/e-mailing them altogether.

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• A. Your website IS ALREADY a direct response marketing venue! After all when people visit your site, you're giving them information...you're making them an offer...you're (hopefully) capturing names and making regular contact with more offers...and they're ordering directly from you.

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• A. We are your outsourced direct marketing department; a small direct response advertising & marketing agency, founded in 1997, based on 30+ years of mail order and direct response advertising and marketing experience.

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• A. Our specialties are COPYWRITING and GRAPHIC DESIGN. We use these skills to increase sales and profits for manufacturers of unique hard-goods sold direct-to-consumer via mail and internet direct response selling programs.

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• A. You'll recognize some of these companies: Mitsubishi, Endless Pools (exercise pools), Troy-Bilt (tillers), Tempur-Pedic (mattresses), Mantis (mini-tillers), SunSetter (retractable awnings), DR Power Equipment, Vita-Mix (food blenders), Sea Eagle (inflatable boats), PBM Group (gardening machinery), Snorkel (wood-fired hot tubs), TimberKing (sawmills), Woodmaster (planers & sanders), Smithy (machining equipment), Rainhandler (gutter systems), Vermont Country Store (catalog), Struck Mfg. (homeowner bulldozers), Excalibur (food dehydrators), and many more.

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• A. The only way we've stayed in business is to add value well in excess of the cost of our services. Our efforts commonly increase business 10 to 15%; a 25% lift is common and we've boosted sales as much as 50 to 75%.

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• A. Steve has 30+ years in direct response advertising and marketing. He worked for small advertising agencies then Troy-Bilt Mfg., makers and marketers of the Troy-Bilt Tiller -- one of the greatest direct marketing companies of all time. Steve's a COPYWRITER who's also been an agency VP, salesman, marketing manager, account executive, associate creative director, and graphic designer.
• Rick has 25+ years experience providing outstanding graphic design and creative services for a wide variety of companies. He worked at Troy-Bilt Mfg. for many years and has a deep direct response advertising and marketing background.

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• A. Troy-Bilt (Garden Way Mfg.) was one of the most remarkable mail order companies in America, selling over 2 million, 300-lb. garden tillers direct-to-consumers from the 1960s to the late 1990s. We worked there and learned mail order from 1980 to 1997. Steve worked as a product manager, account executive, and, most especially, as a copywriter. Rick worked as Art Director and Creative Director. We had the privilege of being tutored by some of America's savviest old-time mail order gurus. See What a Way to Live and Make a Living by Lyman Wood, founder, Garden Way, Inc.

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• A. Yes. Steve's a copywriter; Rick's a designer. We are both direct response marketers who know how to structure effective online and print direct marketing programs and create highly compelling advertising materials.

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• A. Numbers are absolutely essential - that's why most businesses have lots of numbers guys. What's often lackluster in a sales program is salesmanship -- the inspired ability to tell a product's story; build its mystique; add to its value; make buying attractive; and make buying now irresistible. That's what a good direct response copywriter/designer team does.

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• A. No. We handle all the online and offline copywriting and graphic design plus concepting, client contact, marketing planning, account management, and scheduling. We subcontract web design, print production, lettershop, mailing, analysis, illustration, photography, customer interviewing...and call on other talented associates as needed.

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• A. No, EdwardsDirect.net is your outsourced marketing department. A consultant is someone who comes in and does a study, makes recommendations and lays plans to help your business, then goes away. We do all that except the "go away" part. We make the marketing plans then create the advertising materials to support it.

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• A. We know how to sell high-end tools, equipment, and hard goods -- 300 lb. rototillers, $24,000 sawmills, wood-fired wooden hot tubs and so on. Experience - most notably nearly 20 years at Troy-Bilt and a decade and a half running EdwardsDirect.net. Value - top level advertising support at a fraction of the cost of a large agency. Proven Results - we couldn't have survived in business if we hadn't made significant contributions to our clients' bottom lines. Quality - see for yourself by visiting our Portfolio page. A+ Customer Service -- We handle only a few clients at a time and each one receives impeccable, personal service. See what our Clients Say.

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• A. None. We've never entered any contests because we're interested in sales, not industry pats on the back. The awards we receive are in the form of long-term, mutually beneficial working relationships with exceptional companies.

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• A. We don't necessarily know that you should. Our creative & marketing services don't fit every company. After all, we have a limited client list and you may or may not be "our kind of company." Our best fit is with mid-size manufacturers who are already marketing their hard-goods products direct-to-consumer, online and in the mail. Our clients are companies who have had some success, but who suspect there's more out there and long to increase sales, or profits, or selling efficiency, or all three.

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• A. We generally work on an hourly or project basis though there are times when a client wants a quote for a specific project first. Either way works. The bottom line is that a new client knows pretty quickly if what we have to offer is more than paying its own way or not.

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• A. Simply Click Here and shoot us an e-mail. That starts the ball rolling and the rest will take care of itself.

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• A. Yes. We're glad you're interested in boosting your business. We look forward to talking with you soon!

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