With the explosion of the Internet coupled with the rising cost of postage many businesses simply no longer use direct mail as part of their marketing. If youre just marketing online you are missing a wealth of opportunities off-line. Direct mail gives you the opportunity to talk directly to hundreds, thousands, and even millions of potential customers. A letter is like a dialogue between you and your prospective customer. It is a communication, one person talking to another. A letter is an opportunity to make the most compelling case on how your product or service will benefit the recipient. With direct mail you have an advantage over almost every other marketing or advertising form. No one will know the size of your staff or the capital of your company; with direct mail you are playing on a level field. The better you are at utilizing direct mail, the more successful your business will be. When you write your letter it has to be about the person youre sending it to, the recipient, and his or her interests, not about you and your interests. It needs to focus on the benefits and results the recipient will receive from using your product or service and not about the features. Always keep in mind when youre writing a letter that youre not selling an abstract product or service. Youre selling the dynamic change that a product or service makes in someones life. You need to develop a desire on the part of the recipient to want the benefit that your product or service offers them. The easiest way to get ready to write a great sales letter is to sit down with someone you are comfortable with and have a conversation with them. Tell them all the different ways your product or service can benefit their lives. Describe the benefits in terms of dollar savings and qualitative improvement in their life. Tell stories about other people and how their lives were improved by using your products or services. Talk about the rapid dramatic and tangible changes that will occur in a prospects life once he or she is using your product or service. Tell the other person about the improvements and the savings theyll see in time, money, or emotion. Help them see and think about what those improvements will be. Then, show them how they can use your product or service without taking any risk. Its always a good idea to rehearse what you want to say before you actually write it. Sit down with a friend or family member, and tell them all the good things about your product or service. Doing this, will get you ready to put the same thoughts on paper. People need, want, and appreciate guidance. Your letter needs to tell them what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. There are other effective things you can add to a direct-mail presentation. For example, you could enclose a product catalog, a brochure, or a summary of all the benefits that the recipient will receive from you product or service. Performance-based testimonials from your customers can be a potent addition to your letter. Make sure your testimonials really quantify the benefit. For example, dont have the testimonial say, The product was really great. I highly recommend it. Instead, it should say, This product, saved me $100 a month on my heating bill, and now my house is perfectly climate-controlled. General and vague testimonials are worthless in selling. In addition, its good to include whats called a lift note. A lift note is a separate little note from the writer, or from some other influential person referred to in the letter or in the accompanying sales material, that restates a key point of your offer in a very simple but motivating way. There should also be a personal P.S. at the end of each of your sales letters. The P.S. should summarize your offer and underscore one more benefit that was not mentioned in the letter. Many people have a tendency to read letters backwards. A strong P.S. will get the reader motivated to go back and read the letter completely. Studies show that next to the headline and the offer the P.S. is the part of the letter that is the read the most. Sometimes thats all people remember about the letter. Always include a P.S. The envelope is a very important part of the direct mail package. It can be very businesslike, with just a name, address, city, state; or it can be more personal with a personalized-looking message on the outside envelope. Another effective way to use your envelope is to have the benefits of your product or service on the envelope. If you are mailing to a specified audience, put some copy on the outside of the envelope that promises a benefit that you know theyre interested in. For example, if you are sending a letter about a tennis product to tennis enthusiasts, then the outside of the envelope could say, Inside: A simple process that will improve your tennis game by 20% and move you from a B to an A player in 3 easy steps, guaranteed! Direct mail is your friend. It gives you a way to communicate directly and expansively with your best target prospects. It will take you into homes on any day of the week. You can make every case necessary when you send direct mail to your prospects. You can say things you wouldnt have time to say in a phone call. A sales letter can get you by defensive secretaries. It can help you get into the prospects mind. You cant do that as well with display advertising or email marketing. You have many marketing techniques available to you. Internet and email marketing are very powerful. But, mail delivered by a U.S Postal Service carrier is still one of the best and most effective ways to personalize your message and get it out to your prospective audience. Copyright2006 by Joe Love and JLM & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. |
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