How to write direct mail that really, really works

Written by Julia Hyde


Continued from page 1

A good rule to follow is: Keep selling until you run out of selling points. Byrepparttar end of your letter your prospect should have more than enough information to make a decision.

Write a friendly greeting

When possible address your prospect by his name, as this will increase your response rate. If you don’t have an individual name, you’ll have to use a title such as Dear Business Manager, or Dear Creative Director. Don’t address a householder as, “Dear Householder,” Instead use, “Dear Animal Lover,” or “Dear Mercedes Owner.

Use an attention-grabbing headline

Make sure your headline is atrepparttar 108219 top ofrepparttar 108220 letter. Use it to highlightrepparttar 108221 main benefit. Make sure it’s easy to understand and tells your reader why he should read your letter. Avoid headlines that try to be clever, or funny. They rarely work.

Ask for what you want

Don’t be slow in asking forrepparttar 108222 sale. If you wantrepparttar 108223 reader to buy your garden gnomes, tell him so, nearrepparttar 108224 beginning. If you let him get half way downrepparttar 108225 page before telling him what you want, your letter will end up inrepparttar 108226 trash.

Write from me to you

Make your letter personal. Have one customer in mind while your writing it and address him as if he were sitting right beside you. Userepparttar 108227 word “you” frequently. Instead of saying, Our lingerie is sexy” say, “You’ll look sexy in our lingerie.” Change, “Our blankets are warm and comfortable,” to: “You’ll be warm and comfortable in one of our blankets.”

Get your reader to act NOW

Byrepparttar 108228 end of your letter,repparttar 108229 reader should have allrepparttar 108230 benefits of your product or service, and have become more and more interested. Now you need to get him to act. Tell him clearly and simply what you want him to do: telephone, fill inrepparttar 108231 reply card, send money, visit your web site or get a representative to call.

Finish with a PS

Make sure your PS sounds like something you “just remembered to say. By, try not to start your PS withrepparttar 108232 word “Remember” as it shows what you’re about to say contains nothing new. Instead, userepparttar 108233 PS to highlight a benefit not already included in your letter.

Julia is an independent copywriter specializing in advertising, search engine marketing and direct mail. For more information on how Julia can increase your company's sales visit her website at www.juliahyde.com or email info@juliahyde.com


Direct Mail

Written by Christopher


Continued from page 1

(A word of warning though) You have to enter this knowing that most of your mailings will go unread, but at least it’s cheaper than other advertising methods.

Large companies like Capital One, know their mailings DO work – they’ve spent a fortune fine tuning and testing these campaigns. But just to warn you – direct mail can fail, and they arerepparttar ones, usually, small to medium businesses send out, because they don’t understand what they are really doing.

If it’s done right, it will make your profits increase dramatically, and when it’s done badly – it can eat into a budget, so be very careful!

There are 2 types of mailings:

Potential Customers

Existing Customers

If you don’t do much mailing – start doing some now. It’s easy to not email out of fear of upsetting clients, scared of bombarding them with too many mails, thus losing a sale.

That’s crazy and it’s to nobodys advantage.

Actually, most sales emails are helpful and quite genuine. I was once told “You’ve got to be mad to not listen to a salesman – they might have something you need!” So next time you receive a mail or telesales call, consider that it could well be in your favour.

And there really is nothing wrong with sending out 2 mails each week.. So don’t worry.

I have noticed that many clients are sitting with 1000’s of email addresses – yet they aren’t contacting these clients. That’s like throwing money downrepparttar 108218 drain. They could say NO, then again they could say YES to your product. Imagine if a further 10 bought your services next week – how do you feel about not emailing those customers now?

Try it today….. Think of something you can offer these customers, you must have something you can offer! Even something for free. Send them a letter and measurerepparttar 108219 response. If it works, mail them and measurerepparttar 108220 results. If it keeps on working, keep on doing it!

The best email is a personal communication with a customer you know. It may read as follows:

Dear-----------

I wanted to follow up after your purchase of (your product) on (date) to see how it's working out for you and to thank you for your continuing business. If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know by return email, or feel free to call my private phone number.

Many Thanks

Regards

Mr X

Your customer is going to open, read and appreciate an email like this. They may even respond to it, and even if they don't, it doesn't look like spam or bug anyone. And they probably will appreciate that.

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Give it a go – you’ll be surprised.



Christopher is a Sales Promotion Expert and owner of an ad company


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