Direct Mail

Direct mail is one of the most underused yet also the most powerful marketing mediums available to any business owner (the myth that it doesn’t work for small businesses is just that – a myth).

The problem is, if you don’t get it right, it can be a quick way to lose large amounts of money – one business owner I know of spent £11,000 sending an untested mail to a “cold” list of 15,000 people… and he got not a single response.

That’s exactly how NOT to do it.

At the heart of direct mail success is testing – begin by sending a relatively small number of pieces and measure the response. Ideally, test between 500 and 1,000 pieces and, assuming you get more than 20 or so responses you can be reasonably sure you’ve got an accurate measure.

In other words, if you send 500 pieces and get 30 sales, you can reasonably estimate if you send 5,000 pieces, you’ll get around 300 sales, and so on.

BUT be aware this is just a statistical measure and is NOT a guarantee – many things can crop up to skew your results, so the rule of thumb is never to risk more on a mailing than you can afford to lose.

The second key to successful direct mail is writing it the right way. Probably the biggest mistake business owners make after not testing at all is testing direct mail they simply haven’t put together  the right way.

So now I’d like to share 5 of the main Direct Mail strategies with you that will increase your profits as rapidly as possible.

  1. Be clear about whom you’re sending the mail to. The best list to test is your list of existing customers and clients. You already have a relationship with them, so it’s going to be easier for you to sell to them than to anyone else.
  2. Create a compelling offer which perfectly matches the people you identified above. Imagine you’re a pet-shop owner… it’s no good trying to sell cat-scratching posts to dog lovers who can’t stand moggies!
  3. Include a clear unambiguous offer. Remember, the purpose of the mail is to make you money, so not only must you be sending a compelling offer to people likely to want to take you up on it, but you must also present the offer in a way to get them interested enough in it to respond. There is no point at all in going to the trouble and expense of sending a mailing which ends with something like “and if there’s anything we can do to help, please give us a call any time you want”. You must focus your mail on one thing and one thing only: getting them to respond to you.
  4. Make sure you get the letter delivered, opened and read. Use a live stamp, handwritten envelopes and don’t be afraid to put unusual and “bulky” items (called “grabbers”) in your letters to make them stand out, grab attention, and get opened!
  5. Write your letter following sound direct-response principles. By all means experiment (that’s why we test), but start with what we know to work most of the time: the first thing people will read in your letter is the headline (or the first line of the letter if there is no headline) and the PS. So make sure these convey your message in a concise way. You then want a strong first line of copy to draw them in to the early paragraphs, then the rest of the copy should be personal, personable and friendly. You’re writing to maintain a relationship, not cite charges in court, so be nice and not stuffy! And odd as it might seem, it’s NOT enough just to be a “good” writer. In fact, that can actually make it harder for you to learn to write good sales copy, simply because you’ve got to unlearn some habits which might make for great prose, but which don’t serve you well in trying to make sales.