Marketing-Direct
10 Tips To Improve Your B-B and B-G Direct Mail Campaigns
Borrowing words from Potter Stewart and applying them to junk mail, it?s often hard to define, but I know it when I see it. So do you.
Junk mail is worthless, often gimmicky, riddled with hype, pushy in its call to action, and most often laced with bold type, highlights, and font changes. It is hard to define, but we see it before we even open it, sometimes :-)
But don?t confuse direct mail with junk mail. While all junk mail is direct mail, not all direct mail is junk mail.
I do a fair amount of direct mail, both in support of my client?s business and mine. And I?ve successfully used direct mail to generate leads and sales for B-B businesses selling to Fortune 500 executives, as well as B-G businesses selling to local and state governments. Bottom-line, direct mail works.
You can successfully use direct mail to gain access to corporate executives and elected officials.
Here are a few tips to make direct mail work for you, even when sent to the most sophisticated and historically skeptical and hard to reach prospects:
? Look-n-feel professional. Don?t send anything cheesy or cute. Cute doesn?t earn respect.
? Be direct. Tell the person you?re mailing to why you?re doing so and what you hope to gain from having done it. If you want the reader to do something, tell them in simple terms what you want them to do.
? Get to the point. Long and short copy both work, but don?t wander around in your copy building a story that doesn?t need to be told.
? Don?t imply anything. State benefits, difference, and reason to believe as clearly as possible.
? Cite relevant testimonials. Let the reader know you?re legitimate.
? Make an offer. Give your reader something to act on. You won?t insult them.
? Don?t add a crazy amount of PS, PPS, etc. It?s okay to add a PS, but make it relevant and eliminate over-hyped copy.
? Bold-faced type is okay. Bold sub-titles and key points. But don?t get carried away.
? Rarely use highlighted type. Used judiciously it?s okay, but watch your professional look-n-feel.
? Don?t use tricks or gimmicks. You can increase open and response rates by disguising envelops, implying things that don?t really exist, and using a wide array of other tricks and gimmicks. But don?t do it. If you?re a serious business with a real offer and real benefits, it?s not necessary.
There?s my quick list of 10 things to guide a successful direct mail campaign to B-B executives and B-G elected and senior non-elected officials. I use these basic guidelines in successful direct mail campaigns all the time, it works.
Jim Logan is a direct response marketer who writes, speaks, and consults on the topic of businesses making more money. He may be reached at http://www.jslogan.com.
Jim Logan
Similar articles
20 Tips For Easy Ad Writing!
Follow these tips to get your ads to produce the results you need to help build your online business.1. Your ads should arouse the readers curiosity provoking them to click on your ad to get more information. Read more →7 Different Fundraiser Letters
Fundraising letters come in many varieties. Before asking your copywriter to draft a fundraiser letter for your organization, perhaps you might want to consider the possibilities (credits go to Mal Warwick, an acknowledged master of fundraiser letters):1. Read more →Are Infomercials Effective?
Infomercials began to blossom in 1984 in U.S. They are designed in such a way that viewers believe they are watching a program like an investigative news report. Read more →B2B Direct Mail Lead Generation Success Needs Planning, Testing, Measuring
Is Direct Mail Useless for DMers?Is direct mail useless at helping direct mail businesses generate leads?That?s the question I was asked last week by a reader of Alan Sharpe? Read more →Aphorism
The easiest and surest way for a fund to achieve the top quartile in investment performance among peer funds is to achieve the bottom quartile in expenses.
John Bogle