Do you want to dominate your market?
Are your sales not where they use to be?
Are you seeing revenues not hitting their targets?
Would you be interested in a money-making faucet you can turn on any time you want?
If you’ve answered ‘yes’ to any or all of the above you’re in luck! I’m about to share with you the best marketing method EVER created… Direct Mail!
Let me share a little secret with you… direct mail’s hard!
But, that’s good!
Wait, it’s not just good, it’s one of the key reasons it’s so great! Lots of small business owners try and fail at direct mail.
You see, with a direct mail campaign, one mistake, an element missed, and the entire campaign can fall flat on its face. Unlike other advertising methods direct mail can often be an all or nothing adventure.
That’s why many of your competitors don’t use mail, or vastly under-utilize this money producing spigot.
But, I’m going to share with you the methods I have used to sell hundreds of millions of dollars worth of products for my customers - here and now!
Direct mail absolutely rocks!
A great direct mail campaign creates starving customers willing to do anything to put money in your pocket.
I have lots of examples that this true, here's one. I had an event that I thought was completely doomed. Two days before the giant sale we were hit with a hurricane! At one point, the showroom was filled with a foot of water.
We were able to solve the water problems, but the morning of the event it took me an extra 40-minutes to get arrive because there were still trees down, and several major roads were closed.
We were doomed, right… NOPE!
We had a HUGE event, making lots of money!
The direct mail piece was perfectly dialed into the list, and those people would not be denied the opportunity to spend money with us!
Listen, direct mail works. It really works!
Let me share how to use direct mail to make your small business thrive!
There are three parts to a direct mail campaign, the list, the content, and the timing. And they're a bit like the three parts of government. Obviously, linked, but also separate and independent.
One is no more important than the other. The way I like to think about a direct mail campaign it is only as strong as its weakest link.
If you have a bad list, it's a compromised campaign; the list is your weak link. If your mail piece has awful content, it's a weak chain that under-delivers.
Successful direct mail campaigns must get all three parts right. But, when I'm preparing a campaign, nothing gives me more confidence then nailing the list! A great list, unlike the other elements, can help you overcome weaker parts elsewhere.
Yet, most business owners put next-to-no effort in selecting the list. But, they agonize over the mailer's content. Let's take a look at all three parts, and start building your million-dollar direct mail campaign now!
The List - The Power of Direct Mail
The goal is to find a list that contains only people who are ready to buy your product... now!
A starving group of people, ready to buy now will have the least purchase-objections to overcome.
This means your advertising copy has less work to do. Sometimes, with a great list all you need to do is provide the payment options, all they want is the best way to give you their money!
On the other side, a list of disinterested people isn't likely to buy from you, regardless of how snazzy your graphics are, or, most importantly, how low you discount your product.
You want your list to be filled with people right in the middle of the Marketing Bull's Eye
When someone's not in the buying cycle they are not going to buy a product. Someone with a 7-year old child's not buying a car seat, they don't need or want one.
It doesn't matter the car seat's price or value, they are not buying. When I've been told of a mail campaign's failure, more often than not this is the cause.
Moving one ring in, the potential customer's someone who's on the periphery of the buying process.
Using the car seat example, this would be a couple who's just decided to have children. Either not pregnant yet, or the child's just conceived. They're technically in the market, but a ways away from being ready to pull the trigger.
These people have begun the purchasing process, but they're not at the buying point. Either because they want to do further research, or have not been motivated to move closer into the buying cycle.
Almost every list you will use has these folks, and this is the audience that dictates your direct mail campaign's content, more on that in a moment!
Let's move to the Bull's Eye, the Active Shopper! These people represent your best opportunity to make a sale. When someone's in this position, they are shopping or researching online; they are reading reviews and asking friends about their opinions.
This buying cycle revolves, so when an active shopper makes a purchase, hopefully with you,, they move back to the outside of the circle.
As consumers, each of us moves through these cycles, with a variety of products.
At lunch time, we are in the Marketing Bull's Eye for a sandwich. For a meal we could cycle through this entire process in a day. For a car, the period of time to cycle through the Marketing Bull's Eye take years. And, for a home, it might be only a once in a lifetime journey!
So, when you're buying a list, the key is to have active and potential customers.
Let's dig deeper, and create a direct mail example for a hypothetical business. Anyone will do. For this exercise, let's say your accountant. Every business needs an accountant, right? But, that's too big an audience, all businesses. Now, you could target new businesses, they should offer you a great prospecting source. But, this audience might not offer a big enough pool of potential candidates. So, let's look at targeting businesses that will be attracted to your message. And, since accountants are a service that's results driven is there a business niche you specialize in, or have had success? Let's say you have a lot of happy clients in the construction business.
We're getting warmer, but let's dig deeper! Your happiest and most profitable construction clients, what characteristics do they share? You do some internal research, and you see they do residential work, and they all have between 15 and 25 employees, and when your existing constructions clients grew 50% from the previous year they needed different services. These businesses generate $12 to $15 million in gross sales per year, have been in business for 5-8 years, and are located in four counties around your office. Guess what, with that information you can go on dnb.com and extract that list, companies that tick all those boxes, or one VERY close to those exact specifics!
Can you see how spending time and money creating the perfect list is so critical to the campaign's success?
Let's keep building this hypothetical campaign, next is the content.
The Content
The goal of your content is simple; you should want the following response, a person moving from I'm not quite ready to buy, to… WOW, I can't let this opportunity pass, I'm purchasing now!
There are a lot of moving parts to the content; let's breakdown each one in order.
The Goal - what do you want to achieve. Do you want 15 new clients?
Is the goal to generate $500,000 in gross revenue?
Establish the target for the campaign; then, you need to determine if the goal is attainable.
The Offer - what offers can you present to a potential customer?
Do you have incentives, services or a specialty you can offer. If you were in retail you might have something from a manufacturer that would be appealing?
Are their external elements that would give you the incentive to discount, situations like a financing charge coming against inventory, new product coming that would require offsite storage? Be creative and thorough in assessing all the possible offerings and incentives you can give to a customer.
I'm a huge fan of including a guarantee, especially if you're mailing to a cold, non-customer list. The guarantee reduces the reader's concern about developing buyer's remorse. Plus, your guarantee, which should be as strong as you can possibly make it, shows the reader you are confident in delivering what you're promising.
In our example, let's say the offer is a free 3-year tax audit, plus a 30-minute consultation.
Call to Action - without a call to action you're going to leave customers behind. You've seen ads with call me now, come in this week, buy now to save. All are calls to action, and all of them helped maximize sales. Give your new customers clear directions on how to purchase, when, and why they need to act now.
Measuring Device - how are you going to determine who purchased as a result of your direct mail campaign? You can do this in many ways, and no one way is better than another, but you MUST do this! Some ways to measure this campaign's success:
If you collect names at the time of purchase, you can compare those names with your list.
Include a coupon as part of the direct mail piece (or the piece itself)
Offer a free gift or a bonus of some sort at purchase, only for people responding to the direct mail campaign
Now let's talk about how your direct mail piece will be constructed, how it will look will be dictated by how it's 'Tailored.'
The tailoring refers to your copy, what you're going to be telling your customer. Your offer, call to action, and your measuring device are all included in your copy, but now you're going to tailor those elements to your audience.
Think about this for a moment. All the effort we've put in establishing our goal, creating an irresistible offer, devising the right call to action with the proper measuring device, all are critical elements, but the piece will woefully underperform it's not correctly tailored.
You start tailoring your copy by identifying the person whom you're writing for, the perfect customer. You probably noticed my last sentence is singular, not plural. You write effectively to one clear person, not an indistinguishable mass of people.
You start by going back to your list and creating a profile of the person who's considered a 'Potential Customer' in the marketing Bull's Eye. The three levels, this is the middle, not someone outside the 'Buying Cycle,' those folks are hopefully not on your list! People who are 'Active Shoppers' will have everything they need if you write to the Potential Customer.
Who is this person? Is it a man or a woman. How old are they? Where do they live, how do they live. You're going to create this customer Avatar.
Once you've created this Avatar, it's time to outline their problems and pain-points. I know I don't have to explain a business problem to you, but pain-points or issues can be anything that irritates, annoys, disappoints, or fails to satisfy your Avatar. Create as complete a list as possible!
Let's go back to the list, the residential construction companies, your accounting business. What type of problems could they face:
Sales are increasing, but your gross profits are stagnant
Managing the financial elements of the business is taking too much time
My business tax consequences seem very extreme
My business profoundly impacts my personal tax situation
Now that you've identified the problems let's outline pain-points. Every issue has at least one pain-point!
Sales are increasing, but your gross profits are stagnant
Tired of working more, yet making less?
Managing the financial elements of the business is taking too much time
Do you feel tied to your desk, unable to do other work your business needs?
My business tax consequences seem very extreme
Do you ever wonder why you're working this hard when you've got to give the government so much money?
My business profoundly impacts my personal tax situation
Would you reconsider owning your business if you knew how it would affect your individual tax situation?
That's how you outline the problems and pain-points. Questions and pain-points are often presented as bullet points, headlines, and sub-headlines. You're providing aspects of agitation, which of course, you'll then offer the solutions.
Now, let's talk about the headline, an essential part of your direct mail piece. Your headline needs to stop the reader, grab them by the collar, and press your message against their nose! Answer this question, and you'll be on your way to a great headline… what's your Avatar's biggest concern, fear, aspiration, or goal. When creating a headline, you want to reference the end result, your reader's most significant benefit, by investing their time reading your direct mail piece. You'll focus on benefits, not features!
When structuring a headline, I will often use words like discovering, exposing, learning, ways, and often put a number into the headline. Using our example, here's a possible headline,
Discover the 3 Tax Mistakes Construction Companies Almost Always Make
Then, I'd support that headline with a sub-headline:
You're about to learn how to reduce your tax burden by thousands of dollars!
So, you've got a list of:
Significant problems and pain-points
Your offer
Your call to action in place
Your headline, which is the guiding force for your direct mail piece.
Now, your direct mail piece is starting to take shape, and it's a great time to make sure you're heading towards your goal. If not, make some adjustments.
I've told you I want to make the information on this website transformative for any business owner who wants to put this knowledge to work in their business. I'm going to give you a fantastic tip that will transform your copy, it's the idea of nesting loops.
The movies and television shows you watch, the books you read, they all use nesting loops. We like them, and smart content creators give people their content in this manner. Nested loops are a way of starting and stopping stories and or lines of discussion.
Here's how to set up your nested loops
Your problems and pain points will create your stories. A story can be one or a group of problems.
Keep in mind, the number of elements in the story can be multiple, but the end or solution to the problem must be singular! You'll introduce the issues and problems, then solve them.
Makes sense, doesn't it!
Here's our problems and pain-points we used earlier, and they are now our stories.
Start Story #1 - Sales are increasing, but your gross profits are stagnant
Tired of working more, yet making less?
Start Story #2 - Managing the financial elements of the business is taking too much time. Do you feel tied to your desk, unable to do the work your business needs?
Start Story #3 - My business tax consequences seem very extreme. Do you ever wonder why you're working this hard when you've got to give the government so much money?
Start Story #4 - My business profoundly impacts my personal tax situation. Would you reconsider owning your business if you knew how it would affect your personal tax situation?
Those are the introductions, the better your create details about the stories the better. You can use things like, 'I had a customer who was thriving everywhere in his business except in his bank account. When he came into my office it was 50/50, whether he would be an incredible success in the future, or give up his business, it was that bad!
You humanize and prove your knowledge, now let's end those stories!
End Story #4 - Thankfully, you don't need to sell your business! By doing you can keep owning your business without suffering the damaging effects on your personal taxes.
End Story #3 - If you have a customized accounting procedure in place, you can take advantage of tax scenarios often overlooked, but offer considerable tax savings!
End Story #2 - Getting out from under that pile of paperwork allows you to get back to building your business and doing the work you love!
End Story #1 - By implementing the tools and programs I have developed, you can join my clients in seeing their businesses flourish without the hassles associated with a growing business.
Do you see it?
It's so critical to understand the structure is so important! Your direct mail piece's content needs to relate to the reader's problems and obstacles, and then prove that you're offering the solutions.
Listen, 99% of business owners who try and create their own direct mail piece will structure it in the 'logical' manner. Start story #1, end story #1. Start story #2, end story #2, etc.
If you explain your marketing mention without nested loops your reader is much more likely to lose your reader well before the end of your direct mail piece.
A boredom inducing direct mail piece ONLY appeals to the people in the very center of the Buyer's Bull's Eye.
When you use nested loops, you capture the reader's interest, you're speaking to them, and they will continue reading because they want to know the answers!
Here's a marketing truth. If you take the same content and mail half of the list a piece set up in the logical format, the other half in a nested loop, the nested loop direct mail piece will perform better, usually much better!
Getting into the Loops
I'm sure you know it's essential to inform the reader, but it's equally important to keep their attention. You'll keep the reader hanging on every word if you use some of these techniques.
Use Stories & Anecdotes - remember when you were in school? In one class you were bored to tears, struggling to stay awake. In the next class, the teacher had students engaged, asking questions, laughing. And, you hung on the teacher's every word, time flied and you learned a lot! When you're writing, mixing in stories and anecdotes (like I just did) and you will hold the reader's attention.
Write Like a Real Person - you're not Shakespeare, and you're probably not writing to a bunch of academics, so drop all the unnecessary words. Remember, we're writing for that Avatar, and your direct mail piece needs to reflect how that person speaks.
Words and terms to avoid in writing (or speaking):
In terms of
Move the Needle
Best Practices
Lots of Moving Parts
There's some examples, but this list is long, but I think you get it. Avoid cliches and terms that mean nothing or are so prevalent that their meaning has dissolved.
Break it Up - long, content-packed paragraphs send a reader running! Help your reader's eyes quickly move through your content.
Emotionally Connect - be real, and let your reader know who you are. If you can connect emotionally with your Avatar, your results will skyrocket!
Be Clear, Show the Way - give your reader paths, we all like to know where we're going. Use phrases like, 'the first step is,' 'next,' 'finally,.'
The last significant portion of your piece is the PostScript, aka P.S., and it's often overlooked to the business owners' financial loss!
If your direct mail piece is a boxing match, the P.S. is your knockout punch! I like to restate the offer in a question format in the first P.S. -
P.S. I have to ask, what do you have to lose? By auditing your last 3-years of taxes, I'm taking all the risk! But, I know businesses just like yours and after I've completed my tax audit, you will end need to refile your taxes because there's a big check back from the government waiting with your name on it!
Then, I'd add another ‘P’
P.P.S. Since you're still reading, I know you're interested, and here' something you need to consider. I can only add 14 more clients to my company, and I'm expecting to have to turn some honest, hard-working people away, so waiting can only cost you money!
Guess what? I've crushed it with 5 P.S.s, all you need to do is keep adding more Ps!
Now, we're going to finally address the subject most people start with, your direct mail campaign's structure. Clients always ask me on the initial phone call, do you think we should mail a letter, postcard, package? If you don't know ALL the elements we've hashed out above, you can't answer the question.
I always create as much content as possible; then, I have to decide how much content does that Avatar needs to pull out a credit card and make a purchase? You must include every word necessary to generate that sale, and if you're not convinced after reviewing all of your content, you need to create more!
That's a tree-top perspective of how content dictates structure. Another reliable measuring device is the average expected purchase amount. If I am creating a direct mail campaign for a dry cleaner and offering $0.99 shirt cleaning, there isn't a long list of barriers to purchase I need to overcome. I make a 100% satisfaction guarantee, and if I can establish a level of professional competence, I can probably turn them into a new customer.
In our example, there is a high expense, right? If you said no, think again. My offer does not include a price, but I'm asking for a lot of time and trust! I'm asking that business owner to trust me with their financial information. I'm asking them to consider leaving their present accounting company, someone they trust. I'm asking them to take the time to get me their taxes and then spend time finding out what I've discovered after my audit.
That's a lot more than rolling the bones on a dirty shirt with a dollar!
So, for the accountant I would anticipate mailing a letter, two or more pages for the accountant offering the audit. I could envision a rather complicated package that would be amazing!
While for the dry cleaner, a postcard, or a marriage-mailer is often all that's needed.
Listen, there's a lot more to a direct mail piece's design! There's an enormous psychological element. There are entire college classes on psychology and advertising, but you need to know some of the critical aspects. Don't discount this information; the details are where you're going to cash in!
Your direct mail piece's size and shape will impact your results. In a few minutes, we will be looking at the direct mail campaign's financial impact.
But first, let's examine how to make sure all the hard work you've done doesn't go down the drain because you've got the timing wrong!
When considering the timing of a direct mail piece, the industry and the offer must be considered. That dry cleaner offering $0.99 shirts needs to decide which are his busiest days for laundered shirts to determine the proper timing of this promotion. If Saturday morning is the day most people bring him shirts, he'd try and get his direct mail campaign in people's hands-on Thursday, or Friday. If the piece gets there on Monday or Tuesday, the reader may have every intention of taking you up on the offer, but by Saturday, many who wanted to bring you their shirts has forgotten about your postcard and went to their regular dry cleaner.
In the accounting scenario, the timing isn't measured by the day of the week, but by the time of the year. I could be wrong, but I would guess that the accountant would want to get the letter in a person's hand at the start of the fourth quarter? Maybe I'm wrong? If I were writing this letter for a client, I'd have an in-depth discussion regarding timing. It's so critical; in this example, if you mail the piece at the wrong time of year, you're taking a winning direct mail campaign and turning it into a loser!
Under the umbrella of timing, I include frequency and testing. Testing can be summarized as something every professional direct mail marketer does, and is never on the radar of the amateurs, but you're becoming a pro!
There's one excellent reason professionals test; it saves money and increases their eventual return! In direct mail, the rule is you test everything, and you continue testing!
You always test a list. If a list offers 500,000 names, it would be financially reckless to mail the entire list on the first attempt. I would test a representative sample of 5,000 names. I'd pull the names proportionally from all geographic and demographic options. When you segment the list properly, you can test and draw accurate assumptions on the list's effectiveness. Here's how you would analyze the list after the test:
List - 5,000 names - $0.25/name = $1,250.00
Postage - First Class $0.378/pc = $1,890.00
Cost Per Piece $0.28 = $1,400.00
Total Cost for the mailing = $4,540.00
Mailing Results - 150 sales generated (3%) - $85.00 average gross profit per sale = $12,750.00 gross revenue. Net gross sales (after taking out mailing costs) $8,210.00.
Now that we've run the test, you can determine the effectiveness of the list. A 10X return on your initial investment should meet the needs of any business. We know the list works, and if we decide to mail to 10,000 names next time, we can estimate:
Cost $9,080.00
Gross Revenue $25,500.00
Net $16,420.00
Testing applies beyond the list. You can test headlines, P.S.s, paper type, envelope teaser copy, font type, postage type, and any other element in the letter. The critical thing to remember, testing must be done against a constant. If you want to test two different headlines, you like them both, and you're not sure which will be more effective. Using the example we outline above, you would take those 5,000 names, then proportionally divide the list in half again, and mail headline #1 to 2,500 names, and headline #2 to the other 2,500 names.
Stop, if you're heads spinning and you're wondering who needs this… you do!
If both headlines were well written and worthy of consideration, both versions would generate sales. But, you will likely see that one headline might generate more sales, but the other delivers sales with much higher profit. For example:
Headline #1 - 88 sales - $65.00 average gross profit per sale = $5,720.00 in sales at a cost of $2,270.00, a very good result.
Headline #2 - 67 sales - $94.00 average gross profit per sale = $6,298.00 in sales at a cost of $2,270.00, a better result!
If you did not test and only used Headline #1, when you do your next mailing, of 10,000 pieces, you would generate $22,880 in gross profits. But, because you tested, and you're using headline #2, it offers a better return! Headline #2 will generate $25,192.00! If you mail once a season, that test will put $9,248.00 extra dollars directly into your pocket four times a year! THAT'S why you test!!
Let's now talk about your mailing frequency. In direct marketing when someone talks about frequency its the number of times you mail a list. It could be a quarterly mailing, based on seasons, or a multiple series of mailing needed to generate a response. Using the accounting example, it may make sense to plan on a frequency, multi-piece mailing.
When we did our analysis for the accounting mailing, let's assume the following:
Goal is 14 new clients
1-year revenue/client ($500/mo = $6,000.00/year)
List size is 1,000 - tested 500 names
3% response = 15 responses - 1/3 closed - 5 new customers
Price/Piece = $1.00 = $500.00
Now, let's analyze this! You spent $500.00, and you generated five new customers for $30,000 in gross revenue this year! That's great, most businesses would stop now and celebrate, but there's TONS more money on the table!
First of all, you'll mail the other 500 names. There's another $30,000 in gross revenue, for a total net gross income of $59,000.00. If you invest a tiny portion of this money, you can compound your gains.
A responder follow-up series - 20 people responded, but did not take you up on the offer. If there were no interest, you would not have heard from them. Let's create a 6-part in-depth tax newsletter sequence that will be mailed periodically over the next year to keep your connection warm and hopefully move them from interested to clients.
You're too busy to write the content, you hire a copywriter and pay them $8,000.00. You're only going to mail a top-quality piece, so you're going to spend $4.00 on the printing. Here's your costs:
$8,000.00 in copywriting - the piece is either evergreen or would need minor tinkering each year.
$4.00 x 20 = $80.00 x 6 mailings
Total $8,480.00
Over the year, the professionalism and knowledge you've shared with these people brought 7 of them off the fence, and they are now clients! That's an additional $42,000 gross revenue and net revenue of $33,520!
Wait, we're not done yet!
Your list had 1,000 names, 30 people responded, so there's 970 non-responders. After seeing returns, 20 more names are undeliverable, so there's 950 names left. You create another mailing for the remaining 950 names. In this mailing you mention your previous letter, you tell them about the 17 new clients who took advantage of your offer.
You took the time to get testimonials from your new clients, and they provide you with a robust additional persuasion. They're benefiting from the same offer the people in this mailing ignored.
As a bonus, you're going to offer these people the chance to opt-in to your 6-series mailing program absolutely free!
You mail 950 names - $1.00 per name = $950.00
I've often gotten better responses when I've done a follow-up sequence like this, but for this example, let's say you generate another nine clients, the same response rate as last time. There's another $54,000!
But wait, there's more!
Also, 15 people opted into your 6-series mailing program. There's not copywriting costs, so there's only the printing and mailing expenses.
15 pieces - $4.00/piece - $60.00 per mailing = $360.00.
Three of those people become clients for a yearly revenue of $18,000!
Let's add it all up!
Costs:
Gross Revenue generated
Total Gross Revenue - $174,000
Net revenue - $163,210!
I hope you've seen how direct mail can impact your business, and now you know how to structure a campaign to help your business reach its potential.
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