Andrew Kryzak

Hey fellow Warriors,

I've been getting some absolutely amazing results using an innovative two step selling system and thought you'd like to know about it.

What I do is rent lists containing names and addresses of my target prospects (ie dentists, chiropractors, doctors, restaurants, etc) and send them a dollar bill letter.

What's a dollar bill letter you ask? It's a letter pitching your service that uses a real live dollar bill attached where the headline would normally be.

I use plain white envelopes and live stamp to make letter look personal so it gets opened. Once opened you instantly grab their attention because instead of some hype filled headline staring at them you have a crisp dollar bill. (Whens the last time you got a letter with a dollar bill attached to the top?)

Because of this you've already slid right past the main hurdle to making sales which is a lack of attention on the part of the prospect. They receive dozens of pitches and they all look the same and have the same general promises.

This sticks out like a sore thumb and basically grabs them by the eyeballs. They can't help but want to find out why on earth you sent them a dollar bill. It literally forces them to read your letter!

Now it's just a matter of telling them the reason you sent them the dollar. The reason of course is because you wanted to jumpstart your profit improving relationship with them by giving them the first dollar of the large windfalls to come just to show them you're serious about helping them. Then you go on with explaining what you have to offer and why it's good.

The results of this are like an atom bomb! I've never seen anything like it before.

But I go a step further and wait about 9 days and then I send everybody who didn't respond a simple postcard asking if they got my letter... the one that had a dollar bill attached to the top. If they opened it they'll most certainly remember. Then I ask them to please contact me in regards to it. Simple and gets even more sales.

I'm going to keep this post short but I wanted to let you in on this little secret of mine. The results have been mind blowing and I wish I had come upon this system sooner. It's that good! It brings absolutely targeted leads directly into your funnel who are already very intrigued just by the way you contacted them. You stand out from the crowd like a sore thumb.

Trust me, once you try this you'll never go back to other methods for getting business.

I hope you got value from this!

Best,
Andrew

"How To Make $500 Per Day With PURL Postcard Marketing"

"How I Sell Simple Articles For $97 Each"

"Trojan Horse Chamber Of Commerce Method Nets Me $5,527 Profit Without Pitching Anything"

Diice

Brilliant idea,

another method i also heard of was to include 2 dice (die?) in the letter, first of all because mail is more likely to be of interest if it is bulkier, and contains something other than the letter, and also to intrigue the reader, as with your dollar bill idea.

-Michael

kenmichaels

So is this the windup ?

David Miller

I think it was the pitch...The WSO shows what a 10 dollar bill can accomplish I guess.

Andrew Kryzak

Hey guys,

I don't quite know what you mean when you say "is this the windup?"

Could you elaborate?

Andrew

"How To Make $500 Per Day With PURL Postcard Marketing"

"How I Sell Simple Articles For $97 Each"

"Trojan Horse Chamber Of Commerce Method Nets Me $5,527 Profit Without Pitching Anything"

iAmNameLess

wind up.. pitch.. strike...out

ShayRockhold

I'd imagine it's referring to the windup for the upcoming WSO.

BTW - nice post. It's not a new system. Been around for a while. But it's a nice reminder of it.

http://www.copywriting1.com/2007/10/...ll-letter.html (Not an aff link)

Andrew Kryzak

Oh I see... no there's no pitch coming.

Try this method and check back with your results. I think you'll like it.

Andrew

"How To Make $500 Per Day With PURL Postcard Marketing"

"How I Sell Simple Articles For $97 Each"

"Trojan Horse Chamber Of Commerce Method Nets Me $5,527 Profit Without Pitching Anything"

ramohr

nice post do you have a copy of the letter you sent ... it would be nice to get a look see
Thanks
ramohr

jacquic

1 die, 2 dice

Yes, bulky other than a $1 mail is good, not least because the smallest note in England is a fiver, which is $7.95. Postal rates have just gone up here again, making one really get the letter right!

Lol, I didn't either. If we're 'winding up' in the UK, it means either we're teasing someone, or we're finishing something, not having a prelude to a pitch.

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agonce

I know that this type of DM campaign works, one other reputable member of the forum has done it and shared it about 4-7 months ago. Congrats on your success btw

swilliams09

I got a mail package from the nielsen ratings people (for those who live outside the US nielsen caculates what people are watching on tv and it helps advertisers and networks set budgets for commercials. They used to put Nielsen boxes in people's homes to track their viewing habits and would sell the information). In the package was 2 bucks and information about their survey they wanted me to take. Since I had a few minutes I went ahead and took it online. I won't lie, the two bucks got my attention because otherwise I would have trashed it.

RedShifted

I've been dying to try out the dice method myself I like how the dice kind of imply to "take a chance".

Just need to find somewhere to get a ton of them cheap.. maybe the dollar store.

luane

I have to say that most people DO pay attention to real money! Ingenius really, if you have lots of dollar bills to spare .

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ShayRockhold

Dollar stores are good. Gaming stores are good, too. You can order them wholesale online.

Gaming stores have really unique dice, too, if you want something eye-catching.

agonce

I have purchased these and they are okay for our purpose:

Amazon.com: 100 (One Hundred) 19mm 6 Sided Red...

AussieT

Yes, that method has been around for longer than I have!

But its good to know that it is still working even today when a dollar is worth a lot less.

John Durham

I dont have any problem imagining 100 one dollar bills going out, and returning in the form of a maybe a couple of $1500 customers or maybe even more.

never did this, but have thought it. Makes sense. It would probably cost $200 to get a 2k or more return just theorizing based off what seems like common sense here.

The problem with conversion ratios with diorect mail is largely that no one opens them...

So if you have a 1/10 call in ratio from the ones who open it and read, and then a 30% closing ratio with the live prospects, then that means you can close 3 out of that hundred as long as all hundred are opened and read, which usually I would think is less than half that (again based on my own guesses).

So I can see how the dollar would work because virtually EVERYONE would give you the time to at least open and give a moment of consideration.

agonce

Obviously, the key with direct mailing is following up with a phone call. That would basically mean: I want to see who's interested first(ie the ones that call you), and then, those that don't call, follow up with them and see "if they got your mailing piece" .

ShayRockhold

This is where I think a combination of chunky mail with the dollar bill would come into play and covert nicely.

Eddie Spangler

Here is one idea, use dice and dollar bill. Attach dollar to letter and fold into three, like you normally fold a letter.
Then on outside use a sticky note and say "Roll the dice before opening this letter"
Some will roll, most wont but they will be curious.

Then they open, dollar appears or falls out, and letter starts something like congratulations, no matter what you roll you will come up a winner with one of our campaigns....

agonce

now if someone did this to me and i had a business, i would surely call them

sweetcrabhoney18

Okay.. maybe I'm just a junk mail hater.. what if they don't open the mail at all? Do you put something on the envelope that says there is money inside? Because I own a non profit and I get so much mail most is just trashed without being opened.. I wonder if I missed any money from them??

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Jerry McGough

Put it in one of those imitation FedEx envelopes if you want to make sure it gets open....

beeswarn

Nice story, but I don't believe any of it.

However, if you can show some actual numbers and facts, I'll try to believe it. How many did you mail? When did you mail them? What was the offer? How many conversions? How long does a conversion take? How did you track? How many came back in the mail unopened? Did you run a control campaign with no dollar bill enclosed? How did that compare? How many times have you repeated this campaign? What were those results? If they don't convert during the first campaign, do you step up with a $2 or $5 bill?

I really want to know more about this. But I can't just take your word for it.

agonce

Handwriting the address and their name is very important to get them to open your mail piece, it almost guarantees that they will open it.

beeswarn

It does, or you just say it does? What is your source?

ShayRockhold

This would be my concern, too, if it's just in a plain envelope. I think having a "chunky" piece of mail would do better.

agonce

I said almost guarantees. There isn't really a way to track how many people opened your mail piece(unless you will call everyone that you sent the piece to and ask them), so I wouldn't think there is any statistics on this.

However, when you see a hand written address and name on it, you will at least OPEN it for few reasons. One of them is that, handwritten means it can be someone that you know is sending it to you(maybe a bill,costumer etc). Another reason is that it is clearly not computer generated, ie some generic 'current resident/owner', so you won't throw it away just as easy as you would throw a 'not-so-personalized' card.

beeswarn

I'm still not sold and I've heard people tell me a hundred other times that hand writing addresses on envelopes produces higher open rates than otherwise.

Other than those you made up for your make-believe example, what facts do you use to justify making your manly assertion that you can "almost guarantee" it will be opened by the addressee?

Do you not put return addresses on your envelopes? Do you have to hand write those too? Whether or not you hand write them, does placing an unfamiliar return address on the envelope tend to affect whether people will still think it's from a friend? What kind of friend or relative sends valuable content through the mail without a return address?

If you think I'm unfairly challenging you to use logic, you're right. People who come to the Warrior Forum for marketing help shouldn't have to wade through old wives' tales like this (and the original post.)

rugman

Fed ex them a box with a shoe in at - headline "now that i have my foot in the door....."

Growing older but not up!

ShayRockhold

I honestly don't doubt that a hand-addressed envelope will get a higher open rate.

However, if your offer sucks, it won't make a difference in your response rate. And the response rate (i.e. sales) is what makes you money.

ShayRockhold

Mine. About 80% of them do. *shrugs*

agonce

woah, calm down buddy. I did my first direct mailing campaign 5 days ago but with a VERY small sample(30), so I did not want to say "I've tested it". I got two responses so far and hopefully I will get some more in the upcoming days.
I've used the dice + handwritten the address and name of the owner, and a color stamp which says 'confidential'.

Besides, there are many many businesses who use direct mail successfully as a marketing tool. I've learned from 'bob ross' that it's not about the quantity, but its about how targeted your receivers are and how good the offer is.

p.s. I am not saying that the envelope got opened just because it was hand written, but I don't really care as long as I get this kind of response rate.

beeswarn

I did my first direct mailing campaign 5 days ago but with a VERY small sample(30), so I did not want to say "I've tested it".

So your "almost guarantee" is more like a guess?

... its about how targeted your receivers are and how good the offer is.

Well, what about marketing isn't?

candres79

Anyone even remotely involved in direct marketing has probably heard of The
Dollar Bill Letter. It was originally created in the 1920’s by Robert Collier, a legendary advertising copywriter.

Gary Halbert an accomplished copywriter, actually popularized the Dollar Bill Letter in the 1970's through the 90's

Gary Halbert also did other interesting things like... attached pennies, dimes, twenty dollar bills and even one hundred dollar bills to his sales letters!

Here is a copy of the Dollar Bill Letter That I use!

Regards,
Christopher Andres
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agonce

lol if you just want to argue for no reason, thanks but I am not in the mood for that and its time consuming. You sound like one of those prospects who don't plan to buy but they just want to give you a hard time and waste your time( and theirs).

How about you try it yourself and then come back and tell us whether you had any success.
What worked for me, might not work for you. What I can guarantee for myself, I can't guarantee the same for you. Simple as that.
I know for a fact, that handwriting the address will make the envelope look more personal, you can disagree with it all day long but other posters in this thread agree with it. So if I were to send an envelope of this type to you, you will maybe throw it out, but most of the other people I've sent it to will open it.

And yes, marketing is all about that, but most of the people in this board think that they can just send 100 mail pieces and get 2 clients, w/o making a targeted list to market. Or send 1000 emails and get 2 clients.

beeswarn

You think I'm arguing for no reason? I thought I'd made it clear that I'm arguing to hijack this thread so that people looking for actual marketing help here don't waste their time with this old wives' tale and the uninformed me-too replies you're all posting to it.

I have tried hand-addressing envelopes. I did it for years. You've sent 30 in your entire life. For nine years it was my job to generate 10 leads a day and hand write the envelope I had to mail out the PR material in.

There is no reliable evidence in this thread that hand writing an address on an envelope addressed to a stranger makes a meaningful difference in the open rate.

You can think it does, you can hope it does, you can tell each other that you believe it does, and you can take flying leaps to all sorts of unjustifiable conclusions drawn from insignificant sampling. But, you cannot present any evidence that it does.

Voasi

I actually talked about this in a thread 6months ago. It definitely works... I've actually taken an additional 5 steps to make the conversions skyrocket further.

Steps are:

1. Call prospect - let them know that you're going to send them a letter (with a cash prize) and an analysis of their company's performance online.

This first step is CRUCIAL, has it does 2 important things. First, it makes the person who GETS THE MAIL (gatekeeper) and let's them know that money is coming in the mail. MORE IMPORTANTLY though, we verify the data. Verifying your data is such an important step. We buy data and a bulk of the time, the business owner's have changed or they've deceased or something else has happened.

2. We take our new segmented list and write a kick-a$$ salesletter directed to the actual business owner (now that they've been verified through step 1).

3. We attached $1 bill to it, add 2 dice and a nice little competitor analysis.

4. We stick this all in a nice large, manila envelope and add a few rubber stamp graphics. ...c'mon, let's add a little sense of urgency to open!

5. Sales team follows-up with them 2 days after the day they should've got it to schedule a face-to-face meeting to close the deal. (that's of course if they haven't called us first)

6. Close minimum $1k-$5k/mo. SEO deals. And we usually will close an additional $2k-$10k web design deals about 30% of the time.

It's all about targeting, segmenting and nurturing your list. You shouldn't take a shotgun approach to direct mail, or else you'll end up spending a bunch of money.

PS - we're going to start playing around with $5 attached depending on how much gross revenue the company did the last year (again, verifying the data helps with this). In my mind, I'm more then happy to drop $500 on 100 pieces of mail (leads) that are verified - just to get ONE CLIENT back at $2k/mo. (but that doesn't happen... conversion rates are much better then that).

It's out there... go get it! I always tell students of mine - these business owner's know the internet is the way to go, the media and everyone tells these people that. They just want to be sold on something that is going to work - BE THAT DIFFERENCE and provide that VALUE!

Eddie Spangler

Here is another way to do the dollar bill thing. I just thought of this and it is based on something that Readers Digest used to do way back when. They would send out a check to people in the amount of 10 cents, yes 10 cents.

It came along with a letter that said you can either cash this check OR use it to buy this awesome book, the first in a series. The idea that people would think it was a way better idea to spend the 10 cents on this valuable book and would then commit to sampling other books in the series at a special price, cancel anytime thing.

So with that in mind, send the dollar with a note that states they could spend the dollar how they like OR trade it in on a one hour consultation with you valued at xxx where you will show them how to make lots of loot with your super internet marketing plan.

I think that people getting such a proposition are more likely to take you up on it (and for Beeswarn, I have not tested this, its purely speculation based on what RD did and what I know about psychology) than if you had just offered a free consultation because it feels like they are losing out on such a great proposition if they dont.

Back to Readers Digest , why would I cash this lousy 10 cent check when I can get a book valued at $10 with it-Why would I want to keep this measly dollar when I can trade it in for a $xxx consultation.

Mobile Tactics

I would think hand addressing or printed address would make a difference if you are mailing B2C, but with B2B, not so much. Businesses get important letters and checks in the mail all the time, so the chances of them throwing something into the junk pile just because it has a printed address is less. Of course with B2B mail you have the problem of a secretary trashing your letter before the boss you are trying to reach even sees it.

ShayRockhold

Totally planning on trying this, but not with dice. I think a pair of sunglasses would be a better insert for what I offer. Hmmmm....

Eddie Spangler

You gonna play the future is so bright gotta wear shades angle

Andrew Kryzak

Great comments everybody! I didn't realize this thread would gain so much momentum. I can't wait to hear about your results!

I love some of the tweaks you guys have come up with. I'll test them for sure.

Andrew

"How To Make $500 Per Day With PURL Postcard Marketing"

"How I Sell Simple Articles For $97 Each"

"Trojan Horse Chamber Of Commerce Method Nets Me $5,527 Profit Without Pitching Anything"

ShayRockhold

LOL No, but that isn't a bad idea!

jrobconsult

I have sent out over 600,000 direct mail letters and postcards since 2003 for various small businesses in the United States. I will say that the response is better with a handwritten address, but in some of the larger campaigns ( Hallmark store 1,500 letters weekly) due to time constraints we used labels. Other consultants using the same approach share the same results with me.

I have heard about different color ink making a difference, but I never saw it. Also, having a female with nice handwriting will definitely get you a higher open response. Some of my info is based on talking to the customers who would visit the store and I would ask lots of questions including about our direct mail piece.

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Aussieguy

I'm going to have to look into direct mail stats, as it blows my mind that some people love this stuff. I can't stand to get a piece of mail with some piece of plastic or other rubbish. Send me a dollar and I'll keep it, but I may or may not even read your letter.
Obviously I may not be the target market though!

Someone was asking the other day about how to help a local grocery store. If they put a watermelon in the envelope, that could classify as lumpy mail and free sample at the same time.

David Miller

Here's how I do it:

I take a crisp dollar bill and place it on my desk. I then hand write the number of the business I want to send it to.

Then I pick up the phone and call the business.

It works pretty well because I can use the same dollar bill all week until I decide to spend it.

bob ross

I was a direct salesperson for a remodeling company for a bunch of years and a lot of times you get BS objections like "I promise I'll call you next week, we just have to get our loan straightened out" or "I'll call you next tuesday after dad has his surgery, we really want to do it but we'll call you thursday" type of crap.

Part of the way I'd handle that objection was to take out a $100 bill that I had plastered with peoples name written in ink on it.

I'd say... "here, just sign your name on this and when you call me back to do it like you say, you can have this". These are all the people that have told me the same thing.

Now what's REALLY stopping you from doing it now, Mrs Jones?


*note: sorry for being a bit off-topic here

David Miller

@Bob Ross - I don't think you're off topic at all. If anyone was off topic it was me in my last post. However, what it's really about is finding what it takes to get people to take action. In your example it's about taking action to make a buying decision, and that idea is a great motivator.