Anyone has success gaining clients with direct mail?

A student of mine just landed a 367% return on investment on a direct mail piece he sent out.

Offline Student Scores A 367% Return On Investment

It's worth the read to see how he did it.

Greetings Krzysiek,

It is entirely dependent on how you craft the direct mail campaign. Many skills come into play...copywriting...headline...graphic appeal...ability and willingness to make a great offer....ability to understand your target market. Direct Mail is just the messenger which puts all that in the hands of the guy with the wallet. Unfortunately...so many times people blame the messenger when their expectations aren't met.

The fact is...you have a pretty darn good chance of collecting several new clients via their mailbox. It is afterall, one of the first places people go when they get to work, or go home. Its like a daily ritual. You have a guaranteed one on one with them.

As far as comparing it to telemarketing....really like any skill it depends on the telemarketer or the mail marketer.

I will tell you this ...your telemarketing efforts will have greater response if it were a follow up to a direct mail piece.

I would encourage you, if you are able, to scout out particular businesses and send them a letter. Customize your message to them specifically....you want them to see that you've studied them. Offer observations or ideas...food for thought.....to subtly demonstrate your authority and potential ability to solve problems for them.

I think this is what you are intending to do and I say do it.

Postcards are an inexpensive way to get yourself in front of people too. A good follow up to a letter.

For me direct mail and referrals bring in most of my business. Its appropriate though, as I sell printing and direct mail.

I'll do an (almost monthly) 250 to 1000 postcard mailing to small businesses and get anywhere from 2 to upwards of around 50-60 responses for complex campaigns. I can expect usually around 8 to 20 from the main card( fairly typical of what you'd expect from a printers postcard) These are mass mailed and not customized ( just propsects name) They include a limited time offer on a print product, sometimes a referral gimmmick, and an incentive to ask for a sample packet. These post cards allow me to experiment with copy and gimmicks. When I incorporate more complex hooks, or include custom elements, I get much better responses consistently.


The sample packet mailing is sent to those respondents and to companies whom I've scouted out. In addition to the extremely high quality samples, I write a customized sales letter with an offer crafted specifically for them. I mail these out individually as soon as I get a response or finish researching a prospect. I get an immediate conversion of about 1 in 3 sent out.

My whole goal with direct mail is to get my foot in the door, not to make a sale. The good money comes down the road. Just one customer has a yearly revenue value of several hundred dollars... buying more printing through the year, and eventually most will begin to incorporate direct mail into their marketing.

Once your foot is in the door, you can position yourself as a problem solver. Then guess what happens ...that client starts to refer his peers and associates to you.

The main advantage direct mail gives you is that it allows you to go to them...directly. You get to initiate the introduction. You get to initiate the education process. You don't have to wait for a prospect to up and decide he needs to go looking for something.

I would encourage you to move forward with this and bounce ideas off the minds in this forum to maximize the effectiveness of your effort.

I'm usually keen on lending my two cents when it comes to direct mail haha.

Good Luck

Doran P

Thanks very much for your input!

I just started making some calls yesterday, and although I have not given up etc I was wondering if there was a better way to get a conversion (for myself) as I am not an experienced telemarketer. I like the idea of sending a letter, and then following up after a couple of days if they have any questions, etc.

Might give it a try and see how it goes. Hopefully I'll get a bite or two, but I won't be mailing 1000 out (as it is only to the actual businesses that I am targeting) so I hope I will still get some sort of conversion with mailing 50-100 out.

Kind Regards,
Krzysiek

There is a science to direct mail. If you don't know what you're doing, you are just throwing money away. Find a coach who's been successful before and will let you use their letters as a model.

Direct mail can be very very profitable if done right. It also can be used for lead generation or sales.

For one, use the old Halbert a pile mail technique. Personal and Not bulk. Handwritten address(and if sending a lot can easily have printing company or use handwritten font to look real), real stamp, and addresses to person name versus president or manager.

Now you can easily increase your chances of it getting opened and read by the personal and targeted touch but you can ramp it up with grabbers on the outside or inside. Things that catch attention.

I have something now I mail to busy professionals that gets 100% open and read rate and costs about 1.40. Usually it's 47 cents to mail first class, but that extra one dollar investment on the grabber puts me on top of the mail pile and competition...and gets 100% action.

That's what you want because you could have the best letter in the world, but if no one opens your letter then they will never read it and know about your product/service.

The key is targeted, personal, using high-impact direct response copy, and being unique. Use those in your next campaign and watch the profits come in to you faster and easier now.

fasteasysuccess-can you give us an example of the letter you use?

I write and use tons rolltide mostly depending on target market, niche, offer and sometimes other factors are important as well. The key like I said is make sure targeted, speaks to them and their need directly.

Targeted, personal, using high-impact direct response copy, and being unique will put you away ahead of a lot of others out there especially in your niche and area.

Then once you mail test test test just like any marketing campaign. This way you know return on investment, results, and what needs to be done to be more profitable.

Just remember like I said...you could have the best letter in the world, but if no one opens your letter then they will never read it and know about your product/service so make personal and use grabbers and make yourself unique to jump to the top of the pile and get results.

Direct mail is awesome selling to businesses.

But there is a very big difference between B2B direct mail and B2C. Successful B2B usually involves multiple pieces over the campaign vs. the traditional Clayton Makepeace-esque sales letter with a direct response form.

Could you imagine something like that for services?

"Just clip the form below and send to us with a check for $4,000 and we'll start your marketing campaign right away!!!"

Uhhhhhh....

Successful B2B mail is a lot softer... and nudges prospects towards incremental milestones as relationship developers - much like successful email. But it's NOT QUITE the same.

I use a LOT of direct mail with my clients. Multiple pieces at different stages of the sale for multiple, different potential targets.

Direct mail allows you to get creative and use out of the box ideas. Now, with people getting too much spam, direct mail has become a lot more valuable again.

You do need to learn how to do it right or you could waste a lot of money. I definitely agree that sending one postcard and waiting to become rich is not a way to go. Craft a multi-step campaign and add a follow up call in it to be successful.

Here are a few lessons I've learned mailing local business owners:

(1) Know your market.

(2) Focus on generating a lead versus selling your service.

(3) Have a compelling headline and great copy.

(4) Point the reader to an action with an immediate benefit.

(5) Mail a campaign versus one-time.

Telemarketing?

It's not an either or, its a both and.

I find telemarketing works best when I'm promoting a free seminar.

Helpful?

I use direct mail on a monthly basis... I send out 1000 pieces or so, it costs me about $400. I get a response of about 60-100 people responding and attending my seminars.
(6-10% is my avg response rate)

Of the 100 I get about 5% that are qualified for my planning, the other 95% will probably be eligible within the next 10 years. So I make it known to not forget me. And I still get calls frequently months after the seminars.

It is a science, and you're wasting money if you dont specifically target a certain audience.

What is your target?

Hi Krzsiek,

Check out GaryfromDurhams WSO. I think you may find his approach interesting.

Thanks,

Brian

Just concluded a direct mail campaign.

Mailed to a very targeted list within 5 zip codes...

1000 pieces went out on a Thursday (this is 2 weeks before a seminar).

By Tues (4 days later) I had 45 RSVP's for the seminar. By the seminar date, I had 78 RSVP's from the mailer. At the seminar, we had approximately 65 show up from the mailer.

Thats because we call every RSVP and confirm their attendance. (We've done it before without the confirmation call and had nearly 50% forget and not show up)

That being said we also ran an ad in the press release section of the paper. I had 5 people call in from the ad. Clearly the direct mail piece was a much better deal.

This is a very "senior" market that we targeted and this is very typical for this piece to pull in +7% response.

Direct mail works, if its done correctly.

The service we use has been wonderful to us, if you'd like their info, shoot me a PM and i'll share their contact info. They do a great job, and I'm more than happy to send them referrals.

Best,
William

As long as you know EXACTLY what they are starving for, you can put it on a high color post card, use 3rd class postage and a great offer that looks like a coupon and nail it.

I built my entire business with this and I was able to distill it down to the 3 things above for dirt cheap.

Find a direct mail company locally. I found out who ever the politicians used to do their mailings and did only standard (3rd class mail) because it was dirt cheap, especially for post cards.

Apparently I cant send PM's, lol. Not yet atleast I did receive some that wanted to know what service I've had success with... Ask for Jake Favors, please tell him William Baxter sent you. Jacob Favors Lead Concepts 1-800-283-0187 ext. 118 (Fax) 800-238-0140 Lead Concepts My most recent seminar had 134+ people there.... 120 came from my 1000 ct mailer Good luck all. William

I'd prefer to work with direct mail rather than telemarketing any day. The recipients can tuck your paperwork away for days or weeks and then come to you later. That would NEVER happen with telemarketing, and small businesses are used to be pitched for services all day and all night (stationery, utilities, cleaning, etc etc). Getting your telemarketers to get through to the decision maker and getting him to listen is a b*llsaching job. The mail is easier to track, too. By all means make "did you get our package"? calls, if you want.

My direct mailings have been more effective than they've ever been because the competition in the mail has diminished in the last few years.

The keys to effectiveness are (a) a well targeted list and (b) a great offer.

I use direct mail to offer either facebook fan pages or a video as a defined and special priced "foot in the door." With a well-targeted list that I build with a Yellow Page and Google Places scraper, I typically get between 12-16% response rate.

So, using print and mail jumbo postcards through Custom Full 4 Color Direct Mail Marketing Postcards - www.postcardbuilder.com, I can send them for a buck a pop. 100 in the mail for $100 with a low-end response of 12 orders at $350. Even after I pay my freelancers their project fees, my profit is still over $3500 for every 100 I mail.

NOTE: I have tested lowering my cost of print/mail by printing up 1000s very cheaply and then just paying for the labeling/mailing. I managed to get the cost down to less than $50 per 100. BIG mistake - my response rate dropped to 2%. Instead, by sticking to Print on Demand, I can use variable data printing and personalize each one to the targeted companies. That accounts for the higher than average response rates.

Hope that helped.

All the best,
Thom

This is what / how I would do it: first, come up with the list of targets and be specific in an industry, like cleaning service or dentists. And make phone calls and try to find who to address the mailer to. And send out the mailers within a few days (before the person forgets about the phone call). The mailer needs to carry a strong but short message and easy to keep, like a postcard, so that it is easier to save. How's that for a plan..

Bump again for those who pmed me....

I still cant respond back yet.... post counts not quite high enough yet.

if you want a response, include email. (assuming thats ok with the mods)

I just had to jump on this thread ... I own a local advertising magazine that I direct mail EVERY month. I don't care what is said about direct mail ... if done consistently and with a good offer to YOUR target market ... you WILL GET results!

My customer's (local businesses) do!

Mailed to the Home:
All the surveys conducted in the past few years show that approximately 80% of all direct mail advertising is opened & read. Almost twice as many people will see your ad as compared to the next best form of delivery.