Cross-channel writers are more than wordsmiths

First, we're psychologists that understand what motivates our audience to act. We're also general contractors responsible for building strong messages that encourage people to respond by making it easy for them. Fortunately, we have a variety of tools to help us. 

To create successful direct response marketing messages across all channels, we need to understand how, when and why to mix numbers with words. (Are you noticing a numeric trend in my current blog posts?) Numbers are a writing tool that can make a significant difference in open, clickthrough and call rates, as well as bottom-line sales.  

Here are 8 tips for making your writing more engaging by including numbers. I originally wrote about them in my July/August 2013 column for Target Marketing magazine.