Seven Steps to Successful Direct Mail, Part II

March 4, 2005

Step 5: The Secrets Of Writing A Winning Sales Letter
   Promise your most important benefit in your headline or first paragraph. If you can get someone to start reading a letter, you've won half the battle.
   It’s significant to draw the reader’s attention at first glance. For example, if you’re selling natural-stone tiles and installation service for homeowners, you can highlight the time and money saving benefits of your products above the salutation.

   The Headline
   To get attention quickly, there’s nothing that works as well as a good headline. There are different types of headlines to suit a variety of sales approaches:
   • Imported Marble Tiles For Your Home – 30% off (direct headline).
   • Ten-Million Square Feet To One, We Can Install Marble Tiles (indirect headline).
   • Introducing The New Azul Blue Marble From Brazil (news headline)
   • How To Make Your Home More Elegant (“how- to” headline)
   • Do You Have Any Of These Decorating Problems? (question headline)
   • Buy This New Titanium Saw Blade For Higher Performance (command headline)
   You can also use a Johnson Box to stress your headline as shown in Sample Letter 1.

   The Salutation
   Personalize your salutation — individualize each letter by name and address – if you have an enough of a budget. Any letter with a personalized salutation has a better chance of being read. But if you can't personalize, use a salutation that connects with the reader as closely as possible in the context of your list, offer, and product, such as “Dear Homeowner” or “Dear Stone Professional”.
   If you mail to a business and aren’t sure about the title of the contact person, you can use versioned copy, with each version addressing the concerns of a different level within a company. You can encourage pass-alongs of one complete piece, such as a brochure. Or, you can address your piece to two or three people to guarantee that at least one person will read it.

   The Specific Content
   It is essential to include details on basic product features such as size, color, thickness, finish of stone tiles and slabs, packing of stone-fabrication tools and stone-care products, as well as sales terms.

   The Proof
   Testimonials show that others trust and use your products and services and reduce the risk of an untried product or supplier. Success stories accomplish the same thing, but with the added benefit of dramatizing and proving your promises. If you back up your own statements with third-party testimonials or a list of satisfied customers, everything you say becomes more-believable.
   As a stone-tile distributor, include a testimonial of a design center purchasing your products. As a retail store, present a homeowner buying from your company. If you are selling stone-care products, include a testimonial of a tile installer who’s one of your current customers.
   If you have a test result from an industry’s leading institution, include it in your sales letter as an endorsement.

   The Benefit
   In order to close the sale, you need to sum up the benefits of your product or service and call your prospective customer to respond your offer. Tell customers what they’ll lose by refusing this offer. The stronger the benefits the reader is persuaded to recall, the easier it will be for him or her to justify an affirmative decision.
   Remember that time and position are excellent benefits as well. It’s effective to end your letter with statements like, “orders are shipped on a first-come basis,” “it could be many months to fulfill back orders,”or “the sooner you order, the sooner you can be enjoying your elegant bathroom”

   The Signature
   Have the letter signed by the most-appropriate person in your firm, based on the content of the offer. Often this is a person of high authority, such as the president of the company. But it could also be a vice president, inventor, marketing director, spokesperson, or anyone.
   Ask yourself, "Who would make this offer? Who would people expect to make this offer? Who would people be most inclined to listen to and believe?"
   When possible, print the signature in blue to make it appear more personal. And pay attention to how the signature looks; you can tell a lot about a person just by looking at a signature. It shouldn’t be shaky and ragged.

   The Postscript
   People like to know who wrote the letter, so they'll glance at the signature. That makes the postscript ia visual hot spot.
   Traditionally, a postscript represents an important afterthought, so it's inherently intriguing. Therefore, it's a good idea to include one on every letter.
   A postscript should be relatively short — ideally three to five lines — and should motivate a prospective customer to take action. Present an important message, a prime benefit, a restatement of the offer, a reminder of the deadline, or a highlight of your guarantee.

Step 6: Other Elements Of A Direct Mail Package
   The Outer Envelope
   If you are mailing to a stone business, make your mail look important and personal. This can help you get past secretaries and the mailroom. Often, plain outer envelopes are best for stone business mailings. For fulfillment, put "Here is the information you requested" or something similar on the outside.
   If you are mailing to a consumer, you can use a colorful envelope such as one with a marble motif to be used by a design center for marble sales.
   You can also put messages on the envelope as follows:
   • Free Gift Enclosed
   • Money-Saving Offer Inside
   • For Your Home Only
   • See Inside For Exciting Details On Stone Design
   • Read What’s In Tile Store For You – This Week Only!

   The Brochure
   Your brochure should give brief information on your product and underline your offer. A call-to-action has to be on the brochure. If you are a stone material wholesaler, you might want to place your hottest-selling materials on the brochure, along with a toll-free number. If you target homeowners, you can present one of your previous projects/jobs such as bathroom or kitchen on the brochure and direct the homeowner to respond.

   The Lift Letter
   The lift letter has become almost a must in direct mail today. Repeated testing indicates that such a letter boosts response 10 percent or more.
   The lift letter is either folded or in a separate sealed envelope. It’s just like a sales letter, with a repeated offer and information, but it’s usually folded to draw attention. This gives you the chance to do a little extra selling or generating inquiries, and reassure prospective customers that they really have nothing to lose and everything to gain in accepting your offer.

   The Order / Inquiry Form
   The order or inquiry form should repeat your offer and benefits of your products and services. If a prospective customer loses the letter or brochure, a good order or inquiry form should be able to stand alone. If it’s designed to be mailed back on its own, without an envelope, it’s usually worthwhile to prepay the postage.
   If you would like to get the response mostly by fax, put a picture of fax machine on it. You can also provide prospective customers other ways to respond, such as e-mail and telephone.
   Make responding easy. Provide a toll-free number or business-reply card. Explain your billing and shipping policies. Allow fax-back or Internet orders and inquiries. Do anything that makes it easy for someone to say "yes" to your offer.
   Inertia is one of your worst enemies, and you have to combat it actively. Don’t give your prospective customers any excuse not to contact you.

Step 7: Plan Your Projections So That You Can Make A Profit
   Know all the costs involved – postage, printing, paper, personalization, and repeat mailing costs – before you start. Your sales, minus these costs (and your usual overhead of production, handling and shipping) constitutes your profit. Be sure you make the financial projections and know your break- even point.
   Contact your local post office to learn more about mail volume discounts and requirements. The U.S Postal Service gives discounts for certain quantities and pre-sorting. You can also find a variety of services, products and software at www.usps.com/directmail.

Conclusion: Test, Test, Test
   Before starting your full-scale direct-mail campaign, start by testing your offer, your letter and your rental lists. Whenever you test different versions of your direct mail, it is vital for you to use key codes – a unique identification for different letters, forms or mailings – so you’ll be able to track how many responses came from each version.
   Based on test results, you can modify your direct-mail package or change rental lists. And, it’s always a good idea to ask some prospective customers their opinions regarding your direct-mail package before mailing.
   For the stone business, use more letters. They are your salespeople in the mail – your personal contact. Often, you don't even need brochures.
   One simple and nearly foolproof technique you can use: Create a one- or two-page letter and mail it in a business envelope with a reply card or fax-back sheet (and maybe a toll-free number). With a simple package like this, you can generate inquiries for free information, sales calls, demonstrations or seminars.
   Letters are personal, cheap, fast, flexible, and easy to produce. And they work!
   H.Kursad Devecioglu is a sales manager for Grace Tile Fashions, a New Jersey importer of natural-stone products. He is also a direct marketing consultant for small and mid size companies in New York. Kursad is author of the book "A Direct Marketing and Customer-Centric Approach to Marketing Imported Natural Stone Products in a Competitive U.S. Marketplace."