8 Direct Mail Secrets for a Higher Response Rate

To be successful with direct mail sales letters, there are several strategies you can use to increase response rates:

1. At the top of your sales letter, use a strong headline that states the most important benefit you are offering. This headline should be bold and a larger font size than the font size you use for the body text in your sales letter.

2. When writing your sales letter, use a friendly conversational style. Do not try to write "corporate" where you use large words and try to impress your prospects with your command of the English language. All that does is turn people off. Instead, write your sales letter as if you were talking to your best friend.

3. Use a P.S. in your letter and restate your most power benefit and sales offer in it. Most people will read a P.S. first before reading the sales letter, so it is important to make your P.S. have a very strong sales message and a call to action.

4. Your sales letter needs to explain the benefits your potential customer will receive. Understand that everybody cares about one thing in life - "What’s in it for me?" Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and ask yourself, "If I was receiving this letter, why would I want to buy the product or service being sold? What’s in it for me?"

5. Ask your prospect to take action such as to call you for more information, to visit your website, to complete and order form and mail you a check, etc. If you do not ask your prospects to take action, they won’t.

6. To get your sales letter opened, use a standard white business envelope and handwrite the recipient’s name and address. Yes, this takes a lot more time than using mailing labels, but mailing labels scream junk mail! The first key in a successful direct mail campaign is to get your envelope opened, and by handwriting the recipient’s name and address, you can almost guarantee that your envelope will be opened.

7. Make your envelope "lumpy" by enclosing a small, inexpensive free gift. Make sure the gift has your company name and contact information on it and that the gift is something a person would want to keep - such as a nice pen, a good highlighter, etc. And, the promo gift should have your company information on it – your company name, phone number, and website address.

8. Here is the most important direct mail tip. Repetition. You will not have success with your direct mail campaign if you only send out one mailing. Each prospect on your contact list should be contacted a minimum of three to six times during a 12-month period. Properly used, direct mail can be one of the most effective and cost-efficient marketing strategies you'll ever find for your business.

As a final thought, understand that the national average direct mail response rate is only 1%. What that means is if you send out 100 letters, the average response rate is for one customer to contact you. However, one way to greatly increase your response rate is to use the tips I mentioned in this newsletter and to make follow-up calls to the contacts you sent your letters to, especially if you are marketing to businesses.

To your business success!

Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group Ad Agency
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
http://www.geisheker.com
(920) 471-1638

Burger King Angry Onion Whopper Commericals

I normally hate Burger King's TV commercials. Most of them make me want to stab the creators of their advertising million of times with a rusty fork.

But that was until I saw Burger King's Angry Onion Whopper commercial. This commercial really caught my attention and made me laugh. The commercial almost dares you to try their new angry onion Whopper. My favorite part is when the farmer shocks the onion to make it really, really angry. Sick, twisted and fun. Just the way I like it.

Now here is my question. Has this commercial gotten you to go to Burger King and try an angry onion Whopper? Let me know.

You can see the video of it on youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um_hineki0o

Now if we can just get Burger King to stop using that disturbing Burger King mask. Honestly, that mask would be perfect for a slasher movie. It sure gives me the creeps.

Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group Marketing Agency
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
http://www.geisheker.com
(920) 471-1638

Special Annoucement - HIRING CAMP COUNSELORS FOR THE SUMMER!

HIRING CAMP COUNSELORS FOR THE SUMMER!

It is just the time of year when The Fresh Air Fund begins preparing for the summer full of summer camps filled with happy faces and lots and lots of kids from the cities who get to spend their summer vacation out of the city and in the country. It is also a very important time for finding and hiring camp counselors for the summer as well as locating, vetting, and securing host families as well. All of this information is collected on a little informational web site you can check out, but I will excerpt some of this below.

Fresh Air Fund Needs Counselors for Summer 2009!

You love working with children, and that's probably what we like most about you. Running across the ball field, washing off the glitter glue, or swimming in the lake - with your cabin group laughing around you - you'll be in your element.

Are you going to be the counselor the children learn to paint with? The one they play soccer with? The one they want to hang out with? Or perhaps the one they read a bed-time story with? Whatever your role becomes, you'll thrive on the challenge and commit yourself to the cause.

You've got to be 18 or over by June 20th to apply, and you'll usually have completed at least one year of college by the summer. Any previous work with children should always be included on your application.

The experience you're about to apply for will be like no other, and it's going to take patience, flexibility, creativity, and a whole lot of self-motivation. But the rewards will be great... overcoming challenges, meeting new friends, playing games in the sun, jumping into the cool lake, painting face masks, hitting a home run, telling stories around a camp fire...

...and then seeing that smile brighten a child's face.

We're looking for counselors and program staff for all five of our summer camps - but places fill fast, so get your application in today.

We are now accepting applications for the 2009 season.