street fighter marketing three killer direct mail tactics
by
Jeff and Marc slutsky! Direct Mail can be a very effective form of marketing, yet for most businesses it seems that the vast majority of those mailers end up in the trash before they get read. Here are three tried and tested unorthodox uses of direct mail that get big results: | 1. | Exotic Picture Postcards -- Not only do you mail at the postcard rate, if your customer gets a picture postcard from Vegas, they're going to read it. When they turn it over your headline reads, "Don't Gamble With Your Next Purchase." With a cute headline that ties into the Vegas theme you got their attention. One business did this with 400 and got 100 replies. That's a 25% return! Use other variations too. How about getting some picture postcards from Disney that read, "Don't Mickey Mouse Around With Your Next Purchase." | | 2. | From Trash To Treasure -- One clever direct mail campaign was a simple 5½ x 4¼ one color post card. The post card was nothing spectacular and got trashed as expected. A week later a standard business envelope arrives to the same homes. Inside the envelope was the same post card that had been crumpled up and then flattened out. A post-it note was attached that read, "Please don't throw this away again! This is important!" It got a lot of attention including a free article in a neighborhood newspaper. | | 3. | Something Borrowed, Something New -- Another type of mail piece that gets high readership is a wedding invitation, so if you make your mail piece look just like a wedding invitation your readership goes up dramatically. Use an invitation theme like, "You're Cordially Invited To A Free Desert." (with purchase of an entree.) | | To make full impact in your invitation mailer, use the following guidelines. | | A. | Actual wedding invitation are expensive but you can achieve the same impression by printing your piece on textured paper, vertical format, 5½ x 8½ folded over to 5½ x 4¼. That size is printed two to a sheet of paper (2-Up) so to print 1000 you only need 500 sheets, cut in half. Your quick printer will have matching envelopes . (This size is referred to as A-2 or Baronial). | | B. | Print the return address on the envelope flap. Use an cursive type style for your return address, with your street address only. Don't put your name on it. If the customer perceives that it's junk mail you lessen your chance of getting that envelope opened. | | C. | Hand address the envelopes. No labels or computer print. It doesn't have to be calligraphy but that would make even more impact. You can probably hire some students to this for you or even some seniors at a retirement center. | | D. | Use a "LOVE" stamp. No bulk permit number or postage meter. |
Editor’s Note:
Jeff and Marc Slutsky are syndicated columnists for the Columbus dispatch. They are professional speakers, authors and consultants with Street Fighter Marketing and Consulting, a Columbus, based training organization that specializes in teaching companies how to generate more business with only a shoe-string budget. This is copyright of Jeff and Marc Slutsky of Street Fighter Marketing. All rights reserved. Any reproduction of these materials without written consent is unlawful. For more information about Street Fighter Marketing write to them at 467 Waterbury Ct; Columbus, Ohio 43230; visit their web site , call 800-SLUTSKY (758-8759) or e-mail marc@streetfighter.com.
|
