If your business only tries direct mail one time…

Your response may suck. You see, by mailing one poorly written letter or postcard, sent to a low quality list of uninterested people, it’s entirely possible you won’t get the results you want.

And if you’re like many business owners, you’ll blame direct mail for your lousy results, saying that direct mail just doesn’t work.

But don’t! Direct mail does work. I’ve said it before, and it’s been proven time and time again since well…. almost the beginning of time.

99.9% of the time, the real reason it didn’t work is because:

• Your sales copy doesn’t engage and persuade your readers
• You sent it to the wrong or a low quality list
• Or your offer isn’t strong enough to get people to act

It’s not the fault of direct mail.

That being said – if you’re a mind reader and know exactly what to say, how to convey it in words, know the perfect people to say it to, and offer them the perfect reason to respond, you’ll get some action…

But frankly it doesn’t often work that way. (Unless you’re one of those lucky types who always win on your scratch tickets)

Get better odds when using direct mail

So how can increase your chance of a successful direct mail promo?

Simple. By testing and mailing consistently.

Test your headlines, your copy, and your offer, and send them to people who are perfect prospects.

And mail them something at least 3 times over a short period of time.

You never know which headline or offer will be the “one” that kicks butt, when all the other ones don’t work. Chances are – you’ll have to try several versions before you experience the winner.

Plus, your odds of success will increase significantly if you hire an experienced direct response copywriter to write your copy.

Joe Sugar man, known by many as the greatest mail order advertiser and ad copywriter of all times (remember the Blub locker sunglasses which sold who knows how many millions of pair), commented that he would often test 3 or 4 ads for one product, and sometimes as many as 10 ads, before coming up with a winner.

And Joe’s on of the world’s top copywriters, who charges thousands of dollars to write ads for his clients.

So even though it’s more work, the extra cost and work to come up with a winner will more than offset the cost of ads that didn’t perform well.

That’s the truth. And anyone who tells you otherwise or guarantees one specific ad will be successful isn’t being truthful. There’s just no way to know for sure without testing. And that’s guaranteed!

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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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