Letters That Wins

What single marketing method best combines flexibility, usefulness, and profitability? If you had not read the title of this article, would you have answered “letters”?

Most business and sales people do not. They look to the more glamorous areas like TV, radio, and print advertising or fancy brochures to bring in new customers and make sales. While all of those methods have their place, in this article I will make a case for using letters with (or even instead of) these typical approaches and give some basic tips on how to create a successful mailing.

WHY USE DIRECT MAIL?

For many businesses there is simply no cheaper way to get your entire message in front of a qualified prospect than by direct mail. When you advertise in print, radio, or television, you are hoping that a few members of the audience will be actual prospects. Then you hope that they actually notice or pay attention to your ad. And finally you hope that they get enough information about your product or service in your small space or time allotment to take some action.

That’s a lot of ifs. That’s also why you need to have a constant presence in the media if you hope to achieve any results. The price of that constant presence can be quite high.
When you use direct mail, you eliminate most of the guesswork and you retain total control of cost, frequency, content, and audience. You can mail one letter at a time or one million. You can include as much information as you like. You can send the mailing to the exact target audience you are after.

Next, despite the increased use of direct mail by large national advertisers (which should tell you something), you have less competition for the target audience’s attention than with other methods. When someone reads the paper, they want the news—not your ad. When they watch TV, they are watching the program—not your ad. When they open a letter, they want to know what’s inside; if it doesn’t interest them that’s fine. At least you were given a chance.

Another advantage direct mail offers is the opportunity to test different approaches against one another to see which works best. This is the only reliable way to learn what your target market will respond to. You should try different headlines, offers, premiums, coupons, prices, colours - every aspect of your package can be tested. If you mail 500 pieces using headline A and 500 using headline B you’ll know which one works better by simply counting the results.

Speaking of results, direct mail offers immediate feedback on your approach. You know exactly how many you mailed and how many responses came in. No other form of advertising can offer such accurate information.

IS DIRECT MAIL FOR YOU?

Chances are that the benefits of direct mail discussed above sound appealing. But can they be applied to your business?
Traditionally, direct mail has been used to sell subscriptions, memberships, services, and certain products such as books. With a little creativity, almost any business can use mailings to promote itself. Why just the other day I received a mailing from a company selling steaks!

In general, big ticket/high margin items or services are the most obvious candidates because very few sales are required to make the mailing successful. But many companies can look beyond the immediate sales generated and work toward a long term relationship with each buyer to justify the costs of the mailing. Small ticket items or retailers might look to include a series of coupons or some other form of discount or membership offer to generate repeat business.

Even if your product or service is one which absolutely requires a salesperson’s involvement, direct mail can be a tremendous way to generate leads while increasing the receptivity to your sales force and improve their success rate.
If you think of a letter as what it is—a way to have personal contact with a prospect—you can see that there is a way of using it to the benefit of your business.

WHAT WILL A LETTER ACHIEVE?

In its most basic form, the mailing will make a sale for you. The recipient will order your product or service by mail or telephone.
Depending on your business, this may not always be possible or appropriate. You may want the recipient to set up an appointment with a salesperson. Perhaps you want them to visit your store or office. Maybe you just want them to be prepared for a call from your company. Sometimes all you want is to have them request additional information in the mail.
Whatever your objective, a well-designed mailing can accomplish it for you. The most important thing to do is decide which objective you will pursue and then make sure that every aspect of your mailing is congruent in leading the prospect to that objective.

WHO WILL YOU MAIL TO?

The answer to this question will depend largely on your budget and the business you are in. One thing that all direct mail experts agree about is the benefit of selling to existing clients. It is much easier to sell your product or service to someone who has purchased from you previously than to a brand new prospect (assuming that your offering satisfies your customers, of course).
What this means is that the most valuable mailing list you can possibly use is your existing customer list. (What? You don’t have one? Shame on you! Get started on building one today.) You can inform them of additional products or services, new items, special offers, whatever. They already know you and are more likely to buy again.

When it comes to new prospects, you will need to decide who your ideal targets are and then find a source of those names and addresses. One of the most overlooked sources of this information (especially if you sell to businesses) is probably sitting right on your desk: the yellow pages. You have a service you would like to sell to doctors? A product for hair salons? They’re all there.
If you are selling to individuals, you can refine your list to certain areas of the city by using the reverse telephone directories found at every library. This way you can target your mailing block by block, or send it only to apartment buildings, or focus on the high-income areas.

Even if your ultimate goal is to send large mailings numbering in the thousands or to mail nationally rather than just locally, these sources may be a good place to start your direct mail experiments. Sooner or later you will need to move to a larger scale source of information. One interim step that many smaller advertisers are turning to are the computer CD-ROM disks containing all the telephone directories across Canada, the U.S., or even Europe. An added advantage is the ability to import these names and addresses directly into your word processor or database.

Given all this, however, the ultimate source of mailing lists is still buying them from someone else, either a professional list broker or a specific group or organization which knows the people you want to reach. A good list broker can target your clientele much more accurately and produce a better return on your mailing. Whether you want a specific age group, economic level, specific past purchasing history (i.e. they have recently bought a car) or whatever, a broker can sell you such a specific list at a reasonable cost.

Once you have experimented and tested enough to come up with a successful mailing, your ability to handle additional business may be the only limit to how often and how many pieces you mail. Don’t let the glamour of other advertising methods get in the way of increasing your profits. Start experimenting with direct mail and see firsthand the power of a simple letter.

Making Money With Letters

Grab ’em by the throat!
Don’t let go until they’re ready to do exactly what you want.
That’s the goal of every direct mail sales letter and in this article we’ll take a look at some of the elements which make for a successful one.

Some of these tips are extremely simple for anyone to do while others require nothing short of artistry to achieve. Your first challenge is to be honest with yourself in appraising your abilities to create a letter which will make you proud and achieve the results you desire. If you aren’t sure, hire a professional - its an investment that will pay off.

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT?

The most important feature of a great direct mail letter is that it contains one single coherent thought. It sets out on a mission and doesn’t deviate from it—beginning to end.
To accomplish this the writer has to decide exactly what the goal is at the outset. What is the product or service being offered? (Ideally it should be ONE product or ONE service only.) After reading the letter, is the reader supposed to make a purchase directly, go to a store, call for an appointment, or return a reply card?

Then a consistent train of words leading the reader on a journey to the desired result must be formed. Begin by getting to the point. Don’t get all artistic and creative and meander around leaving the reader wondering what the heck you’re talking about. They’re giving you a chance by starting to read your letter. If you don’t grab them right away they may not bother with the second paragraph.

Now that you have their attention, keep firing with both barrels. Stick to the point. Make a passionate case for your product or service. Tell them everything needed to motivate them to carry out the action you want—and ONLY the action you want. If you only want them to call for an appointment, don’t try to close the sale in the letter.
Finally, make sure that you tell them exactly what you want them to do. Don’t be shy. Don’t keep them guessing. Tell them!

REACH OUT AND TOUCH SOMEONE

Although the following applies to all marketing communications, it is especially important in letters because—by their very nature—they are such a personal contact.
Speak to the individual reading the letter and tell them what your product or service will do for them. Personalize your message. Make it interesting reading. Speak in the reader’s own language about the reader’s own life. How will their life be better for dealing with you?
The final result should be no less riveting than a good novel. The words you use, the pictures you paint, the happy ending you promise, should all keep your reader eagerly turning the pages to the very end.

Facts and logic will not succeed here. Yet most advertising and sales messages focus on the features of the product: facts, specifications, statistics, comparisons, and so on, ad nauseum. The problem is that people don’t buy for those reasons. They buy for emotional reasons. They don’t buy a car for the number of horsepower or the decibels of engine noise; they buy one that makes them feel sexy or successful. If you ask them why they bought it they’ll tell you about the decibels and horsepower because the emotional reasons don’t make sense, and in many cases are embarrassing.

What is more likely to sway people: detailed statistics about the exact number of defective washers and dryers per thousand or the image of the lonely Maytag repairman? The lonely repairman conveys the message much more clearly and powerfully by driving home the benefit at an emotional level.
Keep the message simple, personal, and focused on the benefits. Reach out and touch someone.

THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT EXTRAS

There are two special areas of a direct mail letter that—if done right—dramatically increase the response generated. The first of these is called the overline, a letter’s version of a headline. It is placed above the greeting of your letter and is the single most read part of the letter. Everyone who opens the letter will read the overline. If it’s a good one they’ll keep reading; if not you can forget it.

The most successful overlines appear hand written in the same style and colour as the signature. The idea is to make it look like you had a special thought you just had to share before you sent the letter. Limit yourself to just a few words, and make sure you don’t give away the punchline by summarizing the offer contained in the rest of your letter. Saying “Save 20% on your home insurance!” gives away too much and will lose many readers. Saying “I want to give you $200!” is much more likely to keep them reading. Whatever your overline, make sure you pick it up quickly in your letter. Don’t leave it dangling out there all by itself. Explain how they’re going to get that $200.

The second most important extra—and the second most read part of the letter—is the P.S. Yes that’s right, even though it has been used on every direct mail letter in the last twenty years a P.S. still works.
The key to a good P.S. is to reinforce one of your key selling points or mention a special benefit or time limit. You want to give the reader an extra little push in the direction of the action you want them to take. At the same time remember that some people read the P.S. right after the overline and before they decide if they want to read the rest of the letter. A strong motivational point will succeed on both counts.

THE MECHANICS

Now let’s discuss the physical characteristics of a successful letter. These are the easiest to carry out yet they still have a powerful impact on the results you achieve.
The envelope: Enough has been written about envelope copy to justify a whole separate article. Yet there is one thing that has remained constant throughout the changes in envelope fashion: the most likely envelope to be opened is the one that looks like a real letter! A simple white business envelope with a stamp and an address could be just about anything, and is therefore unlikely to be thrown out without being opened. A bright colourful envelope with all kinds of copy on it is obviously advertising and is the most likely to be garbaged immediately.

The paper. There is general agreement that different paper quality or colour has minimal impact on the results of a mailing. The only exception to this would be a high ticket item being sold to upscale or professional clientele where a quality paper stock befitting the offering would be well advised. The type. The most successful letters are those that look like they have been typewritten. Although the significance of this is likely to decrease as people get used to computer printing I would continue to use a typestyle which looks like an old fashioned typewriter. In staying with the motif you should capitalize and underline instead of using bold or italics. Overlines and signatures should appear handwritten, and if using a second colour, blue works well (make sure it looks like real pen ink).

The spacing. Lines should be single spaced and paragraphs double spaced. Bonus tip: make sure you end the page in the middle of a sentence (except the last page of course). People are much more likely to turn the page and keep reading to find out how the sentence ends.

RESULTS: THE TRUE TEST OF SUCCESS

The beauty of letters is that the results are quick and measurable. Simply by coding them, you will know exactly how well you succeeded, or how one variation did compared to another. The challenge is to keep testing until you create a truly successful mailing which can be repeated over and over again. Although it may take much effort and refinement, there is nothing closer to a license to print money than a proven successful sales letter.

You’ve got the tools.
Now go write that letter.