3 steps to success using direct mail

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One direct mail technique that can improve your marketing results

Historically, direct mail has been proven over and over to be a great way to generate leads, sales, and profits for business owners.

Especially when your direct mail campaigns:

  • Target the “right” people – the perfect prospect
  • Capture your reader’s attention with a powerful headline
  • Are so interesting and emotional that your reader just has to read it
  • And you make an offer that your prospect can’t refuse

Many business owners send direct mail to generate leads and sales – and chances are, you’ve even tried using direct mail yourself.

You come up with a great idea, write up a quick letter describing how great it is, send out your letter to everyone you know… and wait for the cash to start rolling in.

Unfortunately, this is rarely successful, mostly because most business owners (especially small businesses) only mail the letter one time.

And the reason it’s a problem (for you anyway) is that most people won’t buy from the first letter they get.

Assuming they are interested in your offer, people will only buy from people they like and trust And you’re probably not going to build up a lot of trust in only one letter.

Another issue is the timing. People have hectic lives, and maybe they put your first letter in a pile, then forget about it. When they get another letter a few days later, they may take the time to take your action then.
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So what’s the secret to direct mail then?

Direct mail will usually get the best response when you mail a multi-step sequence of letters.

At the very least – three letters sent 4-6 days apart. Depending on your product or service, there is no upper limit to how many letters you could send.

There have been companies that get profitable response from the sixth or seventh letter in a direct mail campaign.
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3-step direct mail

Step 1:
Write a letter that gets attention, gets read, and compels your reader to take action now. Make sure it goes to a laser-targeted group of people, and mail it using a live stamp.

Step 2:
If they don’t respond within 4-6 days, send out a second letter. Only this time, change the letter a little bit (e.g. put “Second Notice” at the top), make sure they know the big benefit, and add another bonus or incentive for responding.

Step 3:
For the non-responders, wait another 4-6 days and send out a third letter (again making some minor changes to the copy), and maybe add a payment plan, or something else that can push them over the edge.

If the letter and offer is targeted, this sequence has a much better chance of increasing your results than just sending out one lonely letter and praying for the best.
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My final thought…

Some of my clients have seen great results with this direct mail technique, simply by mailing the 3 letters. With the second and third letters, I just changed the headline and the first paragraph or two from the first letter.
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If you want help with your marketing strategy, writing effective sales copy, have any comments, or have a marketing project you’d like help with, e-mail me or call me at 603-686-5140

If you need help with website design, writing SEO optimized web copy, e-mail marketing, or other online marketing strategies, I can help!

To your marketing success!

Merrill Clark
Website and Marketing Copywriter

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