One Heck Of An Argument For Direct Mail (And A Strategy To Match ...

One of the troubling things for most small businesses on a shoestring budget is the fact that advertising media costs so much upfront.

Unless you have a great relationship with the guy or gal over at Val-Pak, the likelihood of you getting away with something like, ?what if I pay you half now, and half after it?s gone out?? is like a snowman?s chance on South Beach.

That?s pretty much what you can expect from almost everything except PPC ads on Google or Facebook where you can select how much you want to spend.

But what?s nice about direct mail is that the game isn?t to pay to reach some predetermined collection of addresses riding along in the same publication or envelope as a bunch of other businesses (which may include your competitors).

Direct mail offers you this extremely cool benefit:

If all you can afford to do today is print and send letters to 30 people, do that. When you have money come in later, send more. If you have the right time-sensitive offer and send that to the right people you can turn over the original investment, ideally make a profit, and send even more letters.

Is it the most elegant way to do direct mail?

Who cares? Sure you?d want to be able to test your message and offer and send the winners out, but if you can?t afford to do that you can?t really afford to be sitting on your bottom either, now can you?

And so I promised a strategy.

I?ve kind of described it already, but here?s a bit more detail:

1. Offer a low cost introductory product or service that will be useful to the majority of your audience whether you know their situation or not. In other words, while a lawyer can provide legal representation, not everyone?s going to court at this moment.Instead, that lawyer could offer some kind of consultation or audit ? to narrow the example a bit more, let?s say the audit would be for small businesses who incorporated without assistance and is to determine whether they are properly protecting themselves.
2. Craft a message, starting with a compelling headline that identifies your prospect as someone who may be at risk or who could gain from the service you provide.
3. Make your offer only good for 3 weeks.
4. Figure out how many people you can afford to send three mailings to (you can send out a 4 sheets of paper stuffed in an envelope for one First Class stamp).
5. If a person responds, great. Take them off the follow-up list for the initial offer. Consider putting them on another list which starts with a welcome message. You now have additional money to mail.
6. Those who don?t respond within a week get the ?Second Notice.?
7. Those who don?t respond after the 2nd week get the ?Final Notice.?
8. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Source: http://marcenriquez.com/2011/09/one-heck-of-an-argument-for-direct-mail-and-a-strategy-to-match/

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