Coming back to the number one complaint about direct mail marketing, the cost.

“When my firm started doing direct-mail marketing for high-net-worth investors, industry experts said we were nuts. Ditto when we started Internet direct marketing—wouldn’t, couldn’t work! No one would respond to advertising like that and become clients! Next came radio, print ads, and TV. They all worked, which is a part of how we built my firm. But most everyone “in the know” thought we were daft. When we started doing it in other countries, their pundits said, “Maybe it will work in America, but never here.” Just examples. Whatever you do, if it really works, everyone will think you’re crazy until you’re a proven success.”

--Ken Fisher

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As with all business expenditures whether an expense is worth it or not depends upon Return on Investment.????If you are thinking of adding a new staff member ultimately it comes down to how much revenue and ultimately how much net profit will they add to your business.???All marketing activities are the same.

Clearly, you have to MEASURE everything you do to the greatest extent possible so that you can put a number on impacts on prospect conversion, client retention, new prospect (leads) generated, etc.???If you don’t measure it’s impossible to come up with a real ROI number.

However, when you look at the numbers realistically for client communications and for qualified prospect follow-up you will ALMOST ALWAYS have a strong positive ROI by overlaying Direct Mail to your other communications efforts.????With marketing to a cold list you need to monitor your returns closely.???But, as I’ve said before your returns will depend first and foremost on finding the right list (the right target audience) to mail to in the first place.???

The next Issue – Getting your Mail OPENED and READ.

Most people sort their mail over a trash can.???The useless stuff gets dropped and the interesting or necessary stuff gets put on the kitchen table or wherever.???Well, hell in my case I have a long drive way.????I get the mail from the box on the street.???Pull into the drive way, perhaps steering with my knee in the Turbo.???By the time I get out of the car I’ve sorted the mail.???There’s a postal box and a trash can next to the door.???Typically, stuff I need to deal with whatever Bills I still receive or perhaps a personal note, whatever it might be goes in the house usually to my office, anything that I’m not interested in goes to the trash can in the garage, stuff that I may want to look at later (magazines and perhaps ads to keep) go in the postal box.

The late-great Gary Halbert, copywriting legend talked about “A-Pile” and “B-Pile” mail.???The A-pile is the stuff that in my example above gets into the house.??B-Pile is the stuff into the trash.???At the top of the stack would be a personal note from Grandma or something similar.??

Hand address, live stamp.???Personal and clearly a personal communication.???So, he made sure his letters looked hand-written with a live postage stamp, rather than a printed return business label. He wanted it to feel personal and individualized to ensure it didn’t drop into the trash can.???This can be accomplished with “fake handwritten” using handwriting machines that replicate hand writing, hand written fonts, or by using companies that actually hire teams to address envelops.

Beyond the “A-Pile” sneak up approach there are many other approaches that can work effectively, in fact much of the mail you’ll see in your mailbox over and over again – obviously working for them – are not “A-Pile” stuff.?

One standard approach is using “Teaser” copy on the envelop.???You can add photos, testimonials, or a headline to the front and/or back of the envelop.???All designed to get the envelop opened.

For lead generation and for follow-up with prospects I often use oversize color postcards.. While these are not obviously Pile A or Pile B, because you don’t have to open them to see what they’re about, they do give you a chance to present a compelling sales message on both sides. As long as you have a compelling headline, a compelling photograph, and a compelling offer, they can work well. With a postcard, the main pro is that they see your message immediately.?

However, you have to make sure that your postcard is so compelling that it instantly draws the person in, otherwise it will also be dropped straight into the trash. That involves knowing what they like and what they are looking for.??This comes back to Targeting and “Getting Inside the Conversation Already Going on In Their Head.”????Again, it’s ESSENTIAL to have a POWERFUL HEADLINE to get them to pay attention to the rest of the copy and to have them view the offer.

Pay attention – for ALL advertising you MUST ALWAYS have an OFFER with a CALL TO ACTION.???Anytime you see a company essentially advertising we’re here, if you’re ever interested think of us – you know they are wasting their money or have a motive different from creating a new client.???The best direct response marketing tend to have some sort of “Lead Magnet” – a Free Book, Offer, Webinar, Evaluation, White Paper that’s designed to solve their problem.???

One other approach which is again not that “A-Pile” approach but certainly works to gain attention and is likely to get opened is what we would call lumpy mail or 3D mail.??Imagine if you got an actual bank bag in the mail instead of an envelope. It’s weird but that makes it compelling and interesting. You’re going to open that envelope/bank bag every single time.?

There are many options for interesting or??weird stuff you can do with direct mail marketing, and it costs a lot less than you think. I actually did one recently that included an Olympic gold medal in a bag. You can feel the shape and weight before you even open it, so there is no way you are going to throw it away.???Lumpy mail would be having something in the envelop that is “Lumpy” and creates curiosity.??You’ve seen this a lot with the companies that print custom pens.???With that they’ve likely done it too many times to create much curiosity.??However you can put a “hot wheels” car in the envelop, an aspirin or aspirin bottle, or anything else that creates curiosity to open the envelop.

One additional iteration to this type of mail would be including “Grabbers.”??Gary Halbert was again a pioneer at this kind of stuff. He actually sent out direct mail marketing that included a letter and a dollar bill attached – a real dollar bill! That is sure to get the attention of someone opening it.???I’ve seen mailers with a package of aspirin attached to the letter with a letter that started with “Let’s cure your biggest headache.”

If you were chasing a huge CEO, you might even feel bold and attach a $100 bill to a letter sent by overnight FedEx.??That may seem like a big cost, but if you land that huge client, it is a drop in the bucket. What I am saying is get creative and don’t be afraid to invest in unique direct mail marketing, because it’s exactly that, an investment.?

When it comes to big prospects that I really want to get on board, I set up a long-term campaign. If they are super valuable, they qualify for this massive campaign. I might mail them Mrs. Fields cookies and popcorn and a big box of what I call a shock and awe package. After that, I will send a postcard a week for 12 weeks, and then what looks like a personalized letter.?

I never give up on these people either. As soon as you give up, you guarantee they won’t ever become a client. But as long as keep a line of communication open, there is always a chance.?

I have had people tell me in the past that I sent them stuff for seven years before they finally made a decision.?

One client I eventually worked with had always dreamed of owning a penthouse in Miami and a Lamborghini. Don’t ask me why, but that was his personal dream. I noticed in a meeting once that he was hunched over a calculator, frustratingly looking at sums and numbers. When I asked what he was doing, he revealed he was calculating how much he could have earned by now if he’d signed up with me when I first contacted him. He would have had enough for the Lamborghini within a year.???He’d been on my list for well over a year.

At a recent client meeting I took a poll of my very best clients.??One said he’d been receiving communications from me for 7 years.??Another 3 years.??Another 4 years.??And, yes a few (very few) became clients within days or weeks of first discovering my company.???It just goes to show, don’t give up on quality prospects.

Using direct mail is critical for your success.??You can't ignore it. Knowing the client value that you have is critical. A lot of times I talk to advisors and this objection about direct mail being too expensive is simply a misunderstanding of their own business. If you're going to make $5,000 the first year and maybe $100,000 over a lifetime from a client, spending a few dollars, or even a hundred dollars on them is a no-brainer. If you spend a thousand dollars to get them, you have a 500% return the first year. And most advisors I work with would be jumping up and down and doing the hula hoop if they're getting their clients 10% or 11% annual return.

Anytime you are thinking about follow-up systems, or you are thinking about an effective way to communicate to an individual or to a group, I know that face-to-face is the best, but direct mail marketing is a great option. In many cases, you're not going to do face-to-face frequently enough with a client, or you're not going to be able to drive to somebody's home and knock on the door and say, "Hey, you visited our website." In my expert opinion, on a video conference or on the phone is the second-best option, but then you end up with text messaging and direct mail. For us, email is down the list, a long way below those two.?