Offline Venture

Hi, I was hoping I could some advice/guidance from the friendly experts on this forum

I'm taking a new approach to local marketing (i know it's not exactly groundbreaking or new but it is an idea I came up with).
The concept is to create a "best restaurants + city" website and allow only 3-5 businesses to have their business listed on there. I feel this will be a lot more powerful than a directory site, which currently pops up first in google, because they are not competing against a large number of businesses.


Now my idea for promoting it was in the form of direct mail sent to each restaurant in the city, saying something like "have your business listed on an authority site, be known as the best restaurant in town, blah blah blah. Only x many businesses will the have opportunity to be a part of this so call now, or miss out."

I'm currently waiting on the site to rank a bit better, so was going to sit down and try to write out the letter.

So what did I want help with I hear you ask?

Well first off have you ever done this and do you think it will work?

Secondly do you think there would be a better way to promote this?

Lastly but certainly not least, do you know of any resources for writing in this form or do you have any pointers for direct mail writing?

Thanks in advance,
Chris