Experience has shown me direct mail marketing is among the best ways for pretty much any small business to get fresh business through the door as well as increase sales to its existing customer base.
The challenge is business owners tackle it in totally the wrong way. A productive direct mail marketing campaign is not just a matter of sending off some random note or postcard through the post and trusting it to result in a deluge of sales.
So to make a success of your direct mail small business advertising, you must stick to the rules. These rules have been proven to be sound over a century and a half of experiment.
They are not rules as in regulations you have to abide by ?or else?, but rather are guidelines which have been found empirically to give higher quality results (i.e. higher Return on Investment, or ROI).
Unfortunately, almost all direct mail campaigns are assembled by people who are simply not up to the job. Most commonly it?s graphic designers, and although they may be wonderful at developing tasteful things, they are not often experienced in direct advertising. Your piece might just seem first-rate, but so what if it?s not making you any money?
I warn you: your graphic designer and printer will detest this guidance I?m offering you, and will tell you it?s not going to work. If they do then, just tell them you?ll split-test their variation against yours, and the loser pays for the entire mailing. Get them to stick their money where their mouth is. Here are a couple of simple suggestions I suggest you try out in your direct mail marketing, and just see the difference they make.
Rule # 1: Don?t shout ?ADVERTISING?
Huge blunder coming up: most direct mail advertising looks like just what it is: mass produced, abstract sales patter in a low-priced envelope with a snazzy logo on the front. This is a really awful idea..
How so? Well, it?s plain to anybody it?s just something sent by some buffoon wanting to take your money off you. Who wishes to read that? Where?s the value to the reader and why would he or she throw away her time with it?
Rather than doing this, invest in some proper ?personal? envelopes, get them hand-addressed or make use of a good handwriting font, and then stick on a real stamp from the Post Office. Yes, it?s a touch more inconvenience and a little bit more expensive, but the extra responses will more than repay your cost.
Whenever you must have a return address on it, simply put your address in the top left corner ? no company name, no logo.
This is automatically going to mean even more people will in fact open your direct mail advertising pieces. Obviously, when they?ve opened it, they?ve got to read it then reply.
Rule # 2: Write like a real human being
This is in direct contrast to the direct mail marketing pieces you get daily, I ?d put money on it. Most of them have no obvious reason even for existing ? I presume the nitwit creating them waxed lyrical about ?brand? or something. But developing your ?brand? doesn?t by itself make you money. Brand follows and because of service.
You should write your direct mail advertising pieces in just the same tone as you ?d write a letter to a favored aunt or uncle. Forget about being ?professional? or keeping to the rules they taught you at school. Simply write like you speak, and you won?t go far wrong.
Aim your whole piece at highlighting one problem and one problem only, by giving a big, impressive promise in your headline. Then, in the body of the piece, tell them you CAN remedy it, and then tell them JUST HOW they can get hold of this miracle solution you have. To put it otherwise, you need a focused and impossible-to-miss call to action, like ?Ring me on 00000-000000 NOW and reserve your free meeting? places are restricted to the first 7 callers, so if you?re the eighth person to call, you?ll miss out?. Easy as pie.
If you take note of and really abide by the principles I?ve shared with you here, you will see much improved results, that I can promise.
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