Tony Attwood is chairman of Hamilton House Mailings plc, one of the few direct mail companies that actively advertises its ability to raise response rates in direct mail.

To some he’s the author of a long running series of bizarre sales letters in which products and services hardly get a mention as he focuses on the goings on at the Toppled Bollard – his mythical local.  To others Tony Attwood is the industry’s bête noir – not least for his infamous Bad Ad web site which celebrates what he sees as some truly awful direct advertising.  

But to most Tony Attwood is the guy who has transformed their direct marketing, adding hugely to their sales.

In recent seminars and articles Tony has focused on this latter aspect of his work, explaining his unique approach to raising response rates in direct mail.   Tony explains how easy it is to identify the bulk of readers who potentially can be turned into buyers, and then looks at what he sees as the dominant feature in advertising today – that the audience’s natural starting point is to disbelieve much of what we say.   “The key issue is addressing the tendency towards disbelief – once that is done, we can sell,” says Tony.   He explains the three routes to getting potential customers to be willing not only to read the direct mail, but also believe in it – and then shows how text can be used to exploit this approach and so lead on to higher response rates.

Tony Attwood’s last book: “Educational Marketing: the theory and practice of selling to teachers,” is now available from usual sources, and direct from Hamilton House .  His next book, “You are probably not reading this” deals primarily with B2B direct mail, and is published in 2006.