{"id":4370,"date":"2010-03-05T07:53:10","date_gmt":"2010-03-05T12:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/37d57f8fa2.nxcli.io\/blog\/?p=4370"},"modified":"2010-03-04T10:02:10","modified_gmt":"2010-03-04T15:02:10","slug":"direct-mail-marketing-strategies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marketingforsuccess.com\/blog\/direct-response-marketing\/direct-mail-direct-response-marketing\/direct-mail-marketing-strategies\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Ways to Lose Money In Direct Mail"},"content":{"rendered":"

1. Dash off a letter, then photocopy it on cheap bond, and send it with a business card\u2026 and call it a direct mail campaign.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Or worse yet – photocopy your old brochure and send it with a business card and call it direct mail. \u00a0Then, when it doesn’t work call me up and complain, \u201cYea, we tried direct mail and it doesn’t work.\u201d\u00a0 Real direct mail letters and literature are created from scratch with their original purpose defined as \u201cto use as a direct mail solicitation,\u201d and the objective of \u201cTo generate a phone call.\u201d<\/p>\n

And BTW, a real direct mail \u201ccampaign\u201d isn\u2019t a single mailing of anything.\u00a0 Campaign = more than one mailing.<\/p>\n

2. Expect a response of oh, 5 to 8 percent, and the orders to pile in.\"direct<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Direct mail is a game of numbers, the difference between loss, B\/E, $$$ and $$$$$ can be as small a 1\/4 of 1%. \u00a0If you’re lucky – you break even. \u00a0If you’re good, you make money. \u00a0If you’re really good, you do this time after time, mailing after mailing, and year after year.<\/p>\n

Any mailing that makes you money is successful. Here are the figures you need:\u00a0 If you mailed 5,000 pieces and they cost 50\u00a2 each ($2,500) how many clients do you need to B\/E?\u00a0 How many calls do you need to generate to get that many clients?\u00a0 Now, is that percent of response realistic?\u00a0 Hint: If it\u2019s over 2%, it isn\u2019t.\u00a0 More likely response will be \u00bd of 1%.\u00a0 Yup.<\/p>\n

3. Crank up your direct mail campaign and expect to get orders.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sure, you can get lucky, but\u2026 Our profession is like a marriage – it all starts with a relationship. Then you get orders. \u00a0Well at least in my marriage\u2026\u00a0 And everything starts with a phone call.\u00a0 Every relationship starts with a phone call.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what you need for your direct mail campaign to be successful: a phone call.<\/p>\n

So ask for people to call you several times in your direct mail piece.\u00a0 Don\u2019t be shy – tell people what you want them to do: Call = success.\u00a0 No call = failure.\u00a0 Any questions?<\/p>\n

4. Sell your services directly from a post card.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Post cards aren\u2019t long enough for a selling proposition in the financial and insurance communities.\u00a0 The correct – and only – objective for a post card is to \u201cGenerate a phone call.\u201d\u00a0 Then YOU close the sale.<\/p>\n

The best way to do generate a phone call is to offer something for free.\u00a0 The least expensive free product with the most power to generate phone calls is a free informational booklet.\u00a0 And the title determines the number of calls.\u00a0 Mediocre title = mediocre number of calls.\u00a0 Awesome title = awesome number of calls.\u00a0 Use the Jeff Dobkin 100 to 1 rule for creating great titles: write 100, go back and pick out your best one.<\/p>\n

5. Just use the mamby pamby mailers from the parent company.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We all know those don’t work in these tough times. \u00a0Heck, they didn\u2019t work when times were good.\u00a0 By the time their compliance department finished ripping anything, everything out – there\u2019s nothing left to make people pick up the phone and \u201ccall now!\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead send a \u201cThank you\u201d letter – just thank people for their business, and offer a FREE analysis of their current policies.\u00a0 Offer a FREE quote of any new business.\u00a0 Send a post card saying you have 7 new products that may be of interest to them.\u00a0 Offer a FREE \u201cPerformance analysis\u201d of their portfolio.\u00a0 Ot ask them to call for your new FREE INFORMATIONAL BOOKLET. \u00a0 Just make the phone ring.\u00a0 Any questions?<\/p>\n

6. Tell everyone to go to your website.<\/strong><\/p>\n

No offense, but your website sucks.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t make me order directly, and it doesn\u2019t make me call you = lost sale.\u00a0 So besides blocking any sale, putting an additional deterrent between you and the customer and creating more friction slowing down the sales process \u2014 what exactly does it do?\u00a0 Better yet – just tell everyone to call you in your direct mail piece.<\/p>\n

Because if your website worked perfectly, which it doesn’t, that’s what it would have people do.<\/p>\n

– Jeffrey<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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