Sales Tips and Marketing Strategies

Some of you will laugh at the very thought of direct mail, but I can assure you, it’s a great source of connecting with prospects and existing customers alike. Particularly in our overly-junked-up-email world where people tend to pillage their in boxes and delete anything that doesn’t require a personal response. People respond completely differently to direct mail that arrives on their doorstep than they do many other forms of media.

Direct mail can be as basic as a postcard or a letter on letterhead, or as complex as a full “shock and awe” box that has lots of stuff in it that gets your prospect really engaged like CDs, DVDs, MP3 players, books, magazines and just about anything you can fit in the box as we learned when we put a straight razor (sans blade), a shaving brush and more in our boxes that we mail out.

I sent out about 18,000 direct mail pieces last month, and I re-learned a few lessons, just like I always do. Maybe I can save you a few dollars, and a few lessons by sharing some of the most important things I’ve learned over the years about direct mail. And most importantly, if you’re not doing any direct mail, now is the time to start! Almost everyone else has backed off of it due to cost, and now you can swoop into people’s mailboxes and take new customers!

Below is a list of 10 very important things you should pay attention to when sending out direct mail:

Continue reading ‘Top 10 Ways to Make Money With Direct Mail – Don't Laugh, it STILL Works!’ »

Do you know what the 30 most important seconds of your direct-mail campaign are when it comes to your postcard text?

That’s right! It’s that crucial period when your reader gets his first look at your message. In those brief 30 seconds (at most) he either decides he’ll read on (still with no guarantee of action, though) or he’ll toss it the card in the trash.

Which is it going to be?

And how can you ensure that he’ll hang on to it?

No one can say with extreme confidence that if you as the mailer do A, B and C that he, as the reader, will keep on reading. But there are several steps you can do to increase the odds that those crucial 30 seconds move in your favor.

1) Make it memorable.

Do what it takes to make your copy and your postcard stand out. One writer has called this the purple cow effect. When you drive in the country you’ll pass cow after cow. And every single one of them is black and white, brown or some variation of that. But when you pass a purple cow, you’ll stop your car and say “Wow!”

Continue reading ‘The Most Important 30 Seconds of Your Mailing’ »