Over the weekend I was listening to a great interview from a master of direct mail.
This guy just happened to be a chiropractor
in a town of only 2,000 people, but he was
able to easily generate a six figure business
through the results of his direct mail campaigns.
I picked up a ton of great information out
of it, but I want to share a few tidbits with
you today.
These apply not only to chiropractors, but
anyone that wants to use direct marketing to
make a big increase in their customer traffic.
Here are the tips:
1. Never let your customers forget about you
or get bored with your mailings. He mailed once
a month and each letter was VERY unique.
2. There are only 3 ways to get off a mailing
list once you have shown interest in that business-
You move, you say that you want to get off, or you
die.
3. If you are sending actual mail, you want to
make sure that the prospect will open it. Hand
each envelope and the return address needs to be
to a person, not a business. Otherwise, your
unopened letter goes in the trash.
Email is even worse, so you have to really give
the person a reason to open up that letter.
4. Make it personal- you want to make the customer
feel as if you are really talking to them one-
on-one. Each piece of direct mail that you use,
needs to make the customer feel comfortable and
engaged in the product or service.
5. If you find something that works well, keep
using it until it doesn’t. There is no need to
change any part of a letter that is bringing in
money for you. Milk it for all it’s worth and
then don’t hesitate to get rid of it when it stops.
6. Always include a picture. People want to see
who they are dealing with or what they about to
buy.
Now you may be thinkin’ that you don’t use actual
mail at all. Perhaps your business only operates
through email.
Well, the principles haven’t changed. Even if you
are generating your leads entirely on-line, the
direct marketing process is the same.
Always keep in touch with your customers.
Never drop people from your list unless they
meet the criteria.…and when you find a process that works for
you keep using it.
If you are interested in finding out how to use
sales letters to benefit your business, then you
should check out the Ultimate Sales Letter System.
click here: http://www.sales-letter-system.com
Until Later,
Joshua Black
http://www.underdogmillionaire.com/blog/services
http://www.sales-letter-system.com
Wait, Before You Go…
In the comment section below, we would like to hear about any useful tips for direct marketing that you have picked up over the years. Please feel free to share with your other Underdog Millionaire brothers and sisters.
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{ 9 comments }
There is a very interesting company called “Send-Out Cards” that my cousin is making a full-time income with, and my brother a part-time income. My husband uses it with his contracting company (and also has the ability to market it as a distributor).
One of the advantages of it is that you can sign people up to use it for personal reasons, or business. But as a business tool I think it can be very powerful for small business. It allows you to send personalized cards, in the mail, for less than you’d pay for a card at Wal-Mart. For instance, my husband can send a card to a customer that he built an addition for with a picture of their finished addition (or before and after pictures) and include a note saying “thank you for letting me serve you…etc.”
He can even pull up a customer from a year or more ago and do the same…include a picture of the project he built for them and then put in a note that if they are interested in any remodeling or building projects to give him a call.
Just thought it might be something your readers might want to check out.
Anne,
Thanks for the great resource. This is a very good physical tool for letting your customers know that you are still out there and still thinking about them. The world-famous car salesman Joe Gerard developed a greeting card system like this and sent his customers 12 cards a year. He was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records for the most cars sold in one year, so it must work.
-Joshua Black
Joshua:
This is an interesting post. A couple of ideas I thought of are: Offer a trial membership or create a survey and ask customers to respond.
Another important feature is to use bullet points to explain benefits. It is so much easy to read when the benefits are broken down in easy to read points.
- Rick
Rick,
Trial memberships are very powerful, expecially when coupled with delayed billing (30 days 90 days etc). Bullet points are the best way to deliver benefits to a customer, because they know that they can read them in any order that they want, skipping some, and skimming the sales piece just to find the parts they are looking for.
-Joshua Black
Ha. Who could resist a post with the words “Crazy Chiropractor” in the title?
I think these tips work with most types of relationships. Staying interesting to other people and making them feel that you truly want to know them goes a long way. And, if you actually do care, that is even better.
I think that ‘make it personal’ and ‘include a picture’ would work the best on me.
Great ideas!
Have a great day
Mark,
I try to keep the headlines as spicey as I can. It keeps everyone engaged. It’s the people that care, are the ones that keep the customers around. People can tell if a business owner does not care about them.
-Josh
Direct mailings are a fantastic way to gain new business and keep old business. What I have seen work wonders is a new direct mail piece that is a laminated card mailer. This new piece surpasses a paper post card with redemption rates from 7-14%. The look and feel of a laminated card mailer is significantly different and can be personalized for each recipient. Not only can the can the mailer be personalized but multiple versions of each offer can be tailored to different niches. The ROI is all that matters at the end of the day for a company and this is easily trackable due to the option of a mag strip or barcode.
Joshua,
This post has great tons of great information for direct mail. I found these tips to be very useful because I haven’t had much experience with direct mailing in the past. Including a picture and adding a little of your flavor in there is totally cool. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Justin,
Adding a picture is one of the key secrets of a good sales letter and it’s something that is quickly disappearing with blogging, because too many bloggers think that the old sales letter formula is passe. The only problem is that it still works! Having a picture of what the customer is buying is critical no matter what you are selling. It helps put the product in the customer’s hands (in their mind). That is why e-book graphics are so important as well.
-Joshua Black
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