Deferred Offer The deferred offer asks prospects to let you know when you should contact them again. The wording of such an offer on a reply card might sound like this: “Not interested right now, but get back to me on [date]: ___________________.” The prospect fills in date. The deferred offer isn’t really an offer, of course, since you are not offering anything. It’s more of a call to action. Use a deferred offer when you want to identify prospects who are neither able nor willing to buy right now, but might be in future.

Negative Offer The negative offer asks your readers to tell you that they are not interested in what you are selling. The wording of such an offer on a reply card might sound like this: “Not interested [please give reason]: ________________.” The reader gives reason. The negative offer is like deferred offer in that it’s not an offer as much as a call to action (you are not offering anything). Use a deferred offer when you want to clean your mailing list, removing business names who are not prospects and never will be. Also use a negative offer to learn why people won’t buy from you. Their answers are informative (even surprising!).

I recommend that your direct mail piece include either a hard offer or a soft offer. You want to generate either a sale (hard offer) or a sales lead (soft offer). Put other offers on reply device only. You don’t want multiple offers in your letter.

5. Predictable One advantage of knowing success rates of your past mailings is that you can predict success of future mailing. If you mail same package with same offer to a similar group of prospects at same time of year, you can predict how many responses you will receive, and how many of those will translate into sales.

6. Can be improved through testing Because you can measure your direct mail results, you can also test your mailings. Test one package against another, one list against another, one offer against another, and you’ll discover what works and what fails. That way you’ll spend your marketing dollars where they are most effective (without relying on guess work or hunches).

7. Immediate General advertising builds brand awareness. Sales brochures inform. But a direct mail letter asks for action now. So if you need to generate sales leads, and don’t have time to wait for your ad to appear in “IT Buyers Quarterly,” send a direct mail letter and wait a week or so for a response.