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Going the Direct Mail Route

Depending on the size, price, and complexity of your product, you may want to present your message in a traditional direct mail pack with these elements:

• Envelope
• Sales letter
• Brochure
• Response device
• Reply envelope

The envelope, properly used as a copy carrier with an intriguing teaser, can generate excitement and interest to see what’s inside.  The whole objective of using the envelope is to get the letter opened.

Your aim is to ensure that as many people as possible open your envelope, instead of the hundreds of others they receive on a daily basis. One way to achieve this is to put a short, powerful strapline on the lower left corner of the envelope.  This is referred to as a "teaser."

It’s also important to analyze on a daily basis the envelopes that you open, yourself. Many times the teaser on the outside will say something like “Free information inside” or “Limited offer - please respond within 10 days.”  If it got your attention, perhaps it will work with your prospects.   

You could write something as simple and generic as “Personal” on the outside of the envelope.  You can also put something distinctive in the upper left hand corner of the envelope such as “Office of the Managing Director,” “Executive Director” or “Treasurer.” 

Be creative. The important thing is to call on the most powerful, image-forming words you can think of to evoke the curiosity needed to compel the prospect to open the letter. 

For as many marketers that feel teaser copy is good on the outside of the envelope, there are those who feel that no copy is better. Instead of opting for an overt sales approach, they make the letter appear to be a piece of personal correspondence.  They use a plain white envelope with no return address. The address will appear to be hand written, or if that’s not possible, the address looks typed.

To pick the best approach, think about what will work best for what you are selling – and consider the audience receiving it. This comes down to research again, and testing – more on that in a minute.

Lastly, a first class offer (like yours) must appear to be first class mail. Avoid address labels at all costs. They scream junk mail and there’s nothing junk-y about your offer, is there?

Your Mailing List

A good mailing list is essential to your efforts online and offline, but this is one area where the delivery system (electronic vs. traditional) will have a large impact on how you proceed.  If you’re communicating digitally, you can have tens of thousands of people on your list since it costs practically nothing to communicate with them. 

Offline, however, you will be dealing with expenses related to printing and mailing.  It’s important to keep your list trimmed down so that you’re only spending money to contact people who are truly likely to buy. 

The best mailing list you can get your hands on is (drum roll) - your own mailing list.  Your mailing list is a list you start compiling the first day you open your doors. Be certain it is kept up to date. There is a direct correlation between the number of times you send messages, content and offers out to your mailing list and the number of sales you’ll make.

But you won’t sell anything with a bad mailing list, so clean it properly and keep it updated. If you can’t do this adequately yourself, it pays to get a third party to organise this for you.

If you want to build a list quickly, or have a company clean your lists for you, then use a mailing list broker to help. You can find one near you on Google. Tell them what you are looking for, and they will help you find the list you need. Don’t try to save money with a cut-price list.  As with everything in life, you’ll get what you pay for. Don’t lose sight of the big picture:

The purpose of direct marketing is not to save money, but to create profits.
 
Evaluation and Analysis

When writing sales letters, you’ll never know if you have a marketing winner on your hands or a bomb that’s going to really stink.  The only way to be sure is through testing. 

Your first test mailing should always be small. Measure your response rate to determine its successfulness. The first piece you send (or put up on a website) is your "control,” and your next mailing with one change made (maybe to the headline) should be compared against it. If your response rate is higher from your second mailing, then your second piece becomes your control.

If you tweak something again and send a third mailing, but results go down, then your second mailing continues to be your control piece. You continually tweak and test until you have a control piece that is bringing in the desired response rate.

When testing, mark each sales piece with a unique code. Ask your sales team to note what each caller’s offer code is for each letter.  Then ask them to record the results. Do the same with your uniquely coded online forms, business reply cards and order forms. You’ll then get a clear picture of what’s happening and why. Test everything, and then test it again.

Never send an untried sales letter to your full mailing list. It’s always easier to scale up positive results than recover from the expensive failure of sending out thousands of untested letters. I’ve actually argued with clients about this - but response rates are directly scalable. If you get 20 responses from sending 1000 letters, you will most probably get 200 from sending 10,000.

Okay…so that’s the general business background I promised you. You’re now ready to put theory into practice. It’s time to learn how to write an irresistible sales letter.

More next time…