Direct mail is the cat with nine lives. I’ve lost count how many times, over the years, that I’ve read the obituary for direct mail. The latest time, when email became the latest and the greatest.
Wait a minute, I absolutely love email - if you’re not using it I will show you how to leverage this power.
You’re going to see that I love direct mail. I’ve been writing sales-generating copy for decades. If you do it right, direct mail is the most powerful sales tool man has ever generated.
Direct mail done correctly is awe-inspiring. I’ve done test mailings, small quantities like 5,000 pieces, and had people line up at my client’s doors! Events that needed rain-checks.
One time, I did a mailing for a long-time customer and a hurricane hit the day before the event. The store was flooded! The major highway a stone’s through from their front door was closed because trees were littered all over the roadway. I showed up resigned to see a complete failure… and it would have been in any other scenario, but I was using direct mail and I got the equation right. I had the right combination. When it’s put together correctly, direct mail is the closest thing going to automatic success.
If you want to try direct mail, or if you’ve done direct mail unsuccessfully I’ve got you covered. I created the Direct Mail Rules - a simple to follow document that allows you to use direct mail like a pro. Having mail as a part of your media mix will make you more successful. It’s so versatile and it’s opportunities are almost limitless, I mean do you have a large group of customers who don’t get mail, probably not.
I get it, mail can be daunting, for some it can be a huge part of your budget. I talk a lot on this website about direct mail, and that’s because I’ve seen it work for decades. And, this might be the very best part, direct mail is not something your competition can easily copy or replicate. Run a newspaper ad and the sales rep you worked with is going to visit your competitors and try and sell them an ad, they’ll say, hey, check this out, this ad’s working great! And pretty soon your ad’s going to be next to your competitor’s brand new ad, written to steal some of the attention your ad’s been enjoying.
Direct mail is a whole different animal. If they see your piece, which is unlikely, they won’t know were you got your list. Without the same list they can’t reach the same audience. So, investing and finding a list that regularly generates sales is something every business owner needs to do, it can generate non-stop returns.
I might be telling tails out of school here, but for one of my own businesses I’ve used the exact same list for years! Yes, I’d have it updated, merged and purged, but it’s the same list. And year in, and year out it generated money. As a business owner can you have too many resources like that?