#5 The Critical Components of a “Successful” Direct Mailing Campaign

Here’s the fifth lesson on the 8 critical components of a “successful” direct mailing campaign.

Lesson #5:

Personalize your letters …

I don’t think I can “over” emphasize this point!

Leave out the hype and commercial sounding wording. Personalize the letter as if you were writing to a friend. Your copy/letter should not sound like a car commercial. Don’t use words like people, folks, or any other words that indicate the “masses.” Remember, write in way that sounds like you’re talking to a friend.

Hi Susan.. How are you John?

Don’t use words that you don’t use when you’re talking everyday!

What do I mean???? “It is a very hot day today, don’t you think so Tom???

NO, NO NO!!! That’s NOT the way you talk and it’s not the way I do either.

I might say…”Hey Tom, don’t you think it’s a scorcher today? I’m burnin up!”

You might say, “Yeah, but I don’t even know the people I’m writing to”…. That’s right you may not, but if you ever want to get to know them, you must write in a personal way!

People hate form letters. WHY? Because they feel like they’re being treated like a number… NOT a person. There’s NOTHING Personal about an “impersonal” sales letter!

Personalize your letters and watch the response go way up!

#4 The 8 Critical Components of A Successful Mail Campaign

Here’s the fourth lesson on the 8 critical components of a “successful” direct mailing campaign.

Lesson #4:

Test, and continue testing to achieve the best possible response..

None of us want to “throw” our money out the window and get NO results from a direct mail marketing campaign. But, that’s what you’ll do if you don’t know how effective your letters are. OR, how ineffective they are…

After being confident that your letter has all the right ingredients in it, send a few hundred and see what happens. Did you get a response (based on the “call to action”) you hoped for? How many did you get? None? Several?

Don’t just send out hundreds, only to find out, it’s not working. If it’s not working, evaluate why. Have someone else look at it for you and get their opinion. (Not a friend who tells you, “everything you do is great.”)

Too many people find out the hard way that their direct mail piece is not effective. Make it your common practice to test out anything you plan to use. See if it makes an impact. Does it work? How well?

#3 The 8 Critical Components of a Successful Direct Mail Campaign

Here’s the third lesson on the 8 critical components of a “successful” direct mailing campaign.

Lesson #3:

A clear concise “call to action”…

This is “the end,” the “concluding thoughts,” if we were writing a story. In an ad copy or direct mail marketing letter, it’s the, “OK, now it’s your turn to do what I’m telling you to do.” OR, asking you politely to do…

Do you want them to call you?
Do you want them to email you?
Do you want them to return a form in the mail?
Do you want them to order your book?

You get the idea. It’s the reason you’ve written the letter to them in the first place.

ex. Give me a call today at 555 555-3954 and I’ll make an appointment to meet with you at your convenience.

It seems simple enough, BUT.. If you don’t tell the reader what you want them to do, it defeats the point of sending the direct mail letter. Do you want them to call you? Buy something? Fill out the form at the bottom of the letter? Make it clear what they should do or they will not respond.

#2 The 8 Critical Components of a “Successful” Direct Mailing Campaign

Here’s the second lesson on the 8 critical components of a “successful” direct mailing campaign.

Lesson #2:

Clean, legible, well crafted copy…

It’s NOT the amount of words that really matter; they need to be the “right words.” Of course, the letter copy needs to be long enough to convey the entire message, but the “right words” are what will get the response you’re looking for.

What are the “right words?”

They are words that let the prospect know that you understand and empathize with their problem, concerns, emotions and needs. (Try and put “yourself” in their position.) If you have a difficult time doing that, you probably won’t get to far with your letter.

Highlight and explain the actual “benefits” of your service. if you don’t specifically tell them what the benefit is to them, why should they care about it? That’s what you have to ask yourself when you write the letter… “Why should they care?”

Take the time to do several re-writes until the copy will grab the reader’s attention.

The 8 Critical Components of A Successful Direct Mail Campaign

Here’s the first lesson on the 8 critical components of a “successful” direct mailing campaign.

If you read the home page at http://www.real-estate-investors-marketing.com, you already got a pretty good explanation of those components, but NOW, I’m going to send you a lesson everyday that will go “deeper” and expound more on each one. I’ll send all 8 lessons in 8 days. That’s right…. one each day.

So check em’ out everyday and learn how you can benefit using them for your direct mail campaign.

Lesson #1:

You must use a quality, current, and highly targeted list…

If you want to find people that are in “foreclosure” for instance, you can go to the courthouse, look in the newspaper or best yet; use a “foreclosure service.” These services usually give you all the information that you’ll need to put your offer together. It saves you a lot of time and provides you with plenty of leads. One of the best services I’ve found is: http://tinyurl.com/55mgjd

If you’re serious about making an income from foreclosures, it’s worth every penny to use a service. Otherwise, you’ll be working “very hard for little results.” You can spend hours at the courthouse waiting for help and even if you know what and where to look for the information you need, someone else already has it, “from one of the services.” Now you’ve wasted your time and lost the opportunity to find a deal.

Whatever the “target” is, you must use a “current” list. Using a current list is the ONLY way to get results from a Foreclosure list, a Bankruptcy list, Distressed property owner list or any other lists, where circumstances will be changing in “days” sometimes. Otherwise, you’ve just wasted your money!

The biggest mistake that you can make is to use a mailing list that doesn’t represent your target audience. Too many people send out mailings, get no response, and wonder why. Make sure that your list is “current” and “targeted” to meet your needs.