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Design Direct Mail Postcards Back-to-Front to Boost Response Rates
Conventional wisdom says that the front of a direct mail postcard is for the picture and the back is for the address, stamp and a short message. But some savvy direct marketers design their postcards the other way around—and boost response rates as...
Direct Mail
Direct Mail The web is a most versatile and often misused medium for direct marketing. In this email, I will share tips and techniques to make the web a major advertising tool for your sales and marketing efforts. Do you have a website? A Web...
Direct Mail - For Small Businesses
We hear a lot of talk about junk mail nowadays. Many people will tell you that they dump it straight in the trash. But why do you think so many organisations send out so called junk mail - because it works! I dump most of my junk mail just like...
Direct Mail Marketing Now As Easy As Email
Is the United States Postal Service (USPS) a marketing innovator? As it turns out, the kind folks in the blue shorts are in fact making it easy for even the smallest business to duke it out with their biggest competitors by using the USPS new...
Direct Mail Marketing Now As Easy As Email
Is the United States Postal Service (USPS) a marketing innovator? As it turns out, the kind folks in the blue shorts are in fact making it easy for even the smallest business to duke it out with their biggest competitors by using the USPS “mailing...
Get Personal: Letters vs. Direct Mail
One of the reasons direct mail works is the personal aspect. It’s ostensibly a letter from you to your prospect. Because of this, the more personal you make it, the better your response will be. If you’re mailing to 100,000 people, putting your...
The Facts of a Direct Mailing List
It is a well-known fact that businesses cannot exist without
advertising. In fact, it is considered as the lifeblood of every
business. It is so important that businesses everywhere are more
than willing to spend thousands of dollars just to get...
The Seven Vital Steps You Must Know To Ensure Direct Mail Success
1. Your Most Valuable Asset A mailing list of valued customers is the single most important asset you have. Loyal customers will spend an average of five times more in your business than new customers. Plus it costs ten times more to acquire a...
Three Cost-effective Ways To Use Direct Mail
Two of direct mail's biggest benefits are:
- Its pinpoint targeting ability
- Its ability to deliver a full and complete sales presentation of any length
This makes direct mail a highly effective way to repeatedly expose your prospect to...
Your Direct Mail Sales Letters Must Differentiate You
For two winters I heated my house with an old fashioned woodstove. I learned the art of reviving a bed of dying coals each chilly winter morning, adjusting the kindling, firewood and dampers just right so that the stove would heat my turn-of-the-...
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Increase your direct mail response rates with freebies.
Although it may seem counterintuitive, giving something away at no charge can lower your cost per lead. That’s because offering a freebie usually increases your response rate.
Here’s an example of what I mean.
Your cost per lead is the money you must spend to acquire one lead. When you mail 10,000 strangers at a cost of $0.50 each ($5,000), and get a response rate of 1% (100 leads), then your cost per lead is $50 ($5,000 in cost divided by 100 leads).
Now let’s say you offer a free information booklet. The booklet costs $1 but offering it increases your response rate from 1% to 3%. Here is what happens:
Your cost of mailing remains constant: $5,000
Your response rate increases: 3%
So your number of leads increases: 300 leads
Your cost per lead drops: $16.66 ($5,000 divided by 300)
Add the cost of your freebie: $1 per lead
And your
new cost per lead is: $17.66
So you see that, by offering a freebie that costs you $1 extra for each lead you generate, you almost cut your cost per lead in half, even though your total costs increase. That’s because your $1 freebie tripled your response rate, from 1% to 3% (entirely possible).
By the way, if you want to reduce the number of “freebie collectors” that you attract, link your freebie with what you are selling (a free lawn analysis, for example) rather than offering something that just about everyone would want for free (an AM/FM radio, for example).
About the Author
Alan Sharpe is a business-to-business direct mail copywriter
and lead generation consultant who helps high-tech firms
attract new clients using creative, cost-effective direct mail.
Subscribe to "Sharpe & Direct," his weekly newsletter, at
www.sharpecopy.com
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