If you have never conducted a direct mail marketing campaign before, there is a misconception that all you need to do is throw a letter in an envelope and wait for the calls to come in. You can have the most targeted listed available, but if your presentation is poor, your results will be less than spectacular. There is a lot more that goes in to every mailing. It is more than finding a good list. The size and color of the envelope, how the letter is addressed and the letter itself can make all the difference between getting your phone to ring and having the reader throw the letter out without even opening it up. Give yourself every advantage and get the most out of your mailings.
With every type of mailing, and marketing in general, you need to think about how it will be received. Your first barrier is getting the recipient to open the letter. Here is where the color of the envelope and label come into play. If the homeowner has to sift through a pile of a half dozen envelopes they will be more likely to open one that is hand written as opposed to a label stuck on it. Of course, this will take more time or money, but you will end up getting a much greater return on your investment.
When, and if, your letter is opened, you need to get your point across quickly without jamming too much information down their throats. Instead of trying to explain everything, you can focus on reasons as to why they would call you. You can use bullet points, highlighted or underlined words or increased size of fonts to get your point across. Pick one or two ideas to get across and drive those home. Your objective is to get them to call you. At that point, you can breakdown what you can do and how you can do it. If you try to put all of that in a letter, it will seem crammed and most likely go unread.
If you get a 3% response rate on your mailings you are doing pretty well. Out of those, you may be fortunate to get one deal. Since any mailing is a numbers game, it is important to be consistent with your mailings. Just mailing a list of 300 names one time will provide you little to no idea on the quality of the list. Before you mail anybody once, you have to commit to at least three mailings of the same list in the same way. After those three, you can make some tweaks and play around with the presentation and the letter itself. Any changes before three will not give you a good idea of what works and what doesn’t.
If your mailing works, there is a tendency to stop and focus on the deals you have. If the mailing doesn’t work, you will stop because you feel it is a waste. Both of these strategies are wrong. You need to be consistent with your mailing through good times and bad. Your phone may not ring until the third or fourth call or contact. If you can track how many of those people you can get a deal from, you will know how and where to best spend your time and money.
Mailing isn’t easy, but if it is done right, it can be the force that helps you grow your business.
