It’s a good idea in your marketing campaigns to encourage your prospects to take some sort of physical action.

For instance, a mail order marketer of pipes (the kind you burn tobacco in) told his buyers:

“If you are not 100% satisfied with the pipe, snap the stem off and mail it back to me in an envelope for a full refund.”

One reason this worked is that it was dramatic and unexpected: the marketer encouraged the customer to destroy his product if dissatisfied.

But it also made the guarantee more tangible by linking it to a physical action: the copy creates a mental image of breaking the pipe in two with your bare hands.

Another example is a successful mailing selling an annual directory of drug information, “Physicians Desk Reference (PDR).”

The challenge in selling an annual directory is getting your customers to buy every year.

To do that, you’ve got to convince them that (a) there are so many changes in the new directory, the old book they have is out of date, and (b) using outdated information is bad.

The PDR promotion included a sticker that said, in bright red letters, “WARNING! This PDR is out of date and should not be used for clinical decisions.”

Copy in the letter told the recipients to place the sticker on their old PDR until the new book was shipped.

It was a clever and effective way of dramatizing that the old directory contained dated and potentially dangerous data.

Another great use of physical action in marketing is to tell the prospect how he can test or demonstrate the product by himself at home.

One mailing for a nutritional supplement to sharpen vision told the prospect, “Measure your vision today with an eye chart. Take the supplement for 6 weeks. Then measure it again and note the improvement.”

To make it easier for the consumer to check his vision before and after taking the pills, the marketer enclosed a free optometrist’s eye chart in the mailing.

Another supplement mailing featured a pill for “oral chelation,” claiming that taking the pill could improve cardiac health by removing plaque from your arteries.

The copy brilliantly described a simple test the consumer could do at home to prove the supplement was working: after taking the pills for several weeks, urinate into a glass container and swirl it.

You will see a “white tornado” of sediment swirling in the urine…proving that particles of plaque have been flushed out of your body through your urine, as the product’s manufacturer claimed.

My all-time favorite “take action” marketing campaign is a magazine ad for a fireproofing compound.

The headline of the ad boldly stated: “TRY BURNING THIS COUPON.”

Copy tells the reader: “Hold a match to this ad. It will start to burn. Now take the match away. It will stop burning, because it is treated with our special fireproofing chemical.” (The ad was an insert sheet coated with the chemical, not a regular page of the magazine.)

Now here’s the thing: these marketers actually had no idea how many people, if any, were giving themselves a urine or eye test. Or peeling the sticker and placing it on the cover of their PDR. Or lighting their ad on fire.

But it doesn’t matter, because whether they did or not, these promotions were extremely successful.

The conclusion: telling the prospect to take a specific physical action—whether to demonstrate or test the product, request a refund, or for any other purpose—can increase response rates.

Why is this so?

Even if the prospect doesn’t take the recommended action, the fact that there IS such an action given—and that you are inviting him to take it—lifts your credibility enormously.

It also gives him confidence in ordering, because he knows he can test the product with your instructions—even though inertia, laziness, and lack of time will likely prevent him from doing so.

Finally, we know exercise—even mild exercise—releases endorphins that improve one’s mood.

Perhaps a small amount of endorphins is released by even a little physical activity…or even the idea of it…energizing the prospect and arousing him from the stupor in which he receives and reads most of his advertising mail.

Action step: think about an action you can encourage your prospects to take either to demonstrate how your product works—or that it works—or to boost their confidence in you in some other way, such as dramatizing a guarantee.

Example: you promise a customer that if they try your stress reduction program, their blood pressure will be reduced. Give them a simple log where they can record their daily BP for a month. Tell them they will see a definite improvement or you will give them their money back.

By the way, if they say their BP has not improved, take their word for it and issue the refund. Do not ask or require them to send you their completed blood pressure log. Consumers dislike and distrust conditional guarantees that require them to jump through hoops before getting their refund.

Bob Bly is the author of “World’s Best Copywriting Secrets” and has written copy for more than 100 companies including IBM, Boardroom, Medical Economics and AT&T. He is the author of more than 75 books and a columnist for Target Marketing, Early To Rise and The Writer. McGraw-Hill calls him “America’s top copywriter”.

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