Why One Single Direct Mailer Is Rarely Enough To Increase Sales

 It was a Tuesday when Tom called me. I remember the day because my daughter was on her way out to ballet!

Anyway, Tom called me and said...

"Hi Alan my name is Tom. Not sure if I need a copywriter or some advice?"

Okay I said "tell me ... what's on your mind?"

It went a little like this.

Tom tells me he has sent out a very targeted sales letter to a favourable list now for ages.

Here is what happens.

He sells a lower-end product to his customer. The customers are happy (he follows up and asks if they are).

A week later Tom sends out a follow up with a related product at a reasonable price. Toms response rate is less than 0.01% but he still send them out.

So what's the problem? Its a good product and a decent price.

People Don't Read, Don't Want To Read, Don't Have The Time And Need Nudging Along And Then ... Reminding!

So I told Tom, "send me you letter and I will review it for you"

The review brought out one thing ... He could have made them an offer they would not refuse. He was simply making them an offer.

That's for another time though. How could he increase response rates.

Easy and we did.

1. Improve the letter (and it really wasn't that bad)

2. Create an offer they couldn't say no to (in other words what would it take for them to say YES).

3. Create a campaign, not just a one off mailing. REMIND THEM LIKE CRAZY!

Step 3 Is The Key For Tom ... AND YOU!

That's where the response is, at step "3". Most people and maybe you will send out one mailer and HOPE it works. It rarely does.

So what should Tom and anyone else do then?

Create a pre-planned campaign. Bit like this.

First mailer goes out with follow-up product. Response can be low (people don't read)

One week later, send out repeat letter but improve the offer. The letter can either simply be re-sent or tell them we wanted to make sure you got it etc.

Two weeks after that re-send with a note on the top. Explain why sending again but also IMPROVE the offer again.

ONE MAILER IS RARELY ENOUGH unless you have a market clammering for your product!

Tom called me again. This time is was a Friday. Again I remember as I was doing Friday thing, washing my beloved VW Beetle. This was four weeks after we first talked.

He found this.

His new sales letters pulled just around 11% response. That's up from 0.01%. But here's the good part (though the % increase was pretty cool ;-) ...

Tom very quickly discovered that if he mailed out as a 3-4 step plan as mentioned above Tom could pull up to WAIT FOR THIS... 60% response from the buyers of the front-end product

S.I.X.T.Y P.E.R.C.E.N.T.

There a lesson in that for all of us.

Bottom line for you and Tom: One single mailer is RARELY ENOUGH to explode anyone's sales.

Need more help, you know where to get me.

Alan Forrest Smith.

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