Recently we talked about how to get your inexpensive direct mail read and found it was basically three things:
- Handwritten note
- Larger size than normal mail
- Different size than normal mail
This week I would like to talk about a great way to get prospects and clients to respond to your direct mail.
It really is just another way of making it look different from junk mail. Junk mail is sent to the masses and for the most part has a message that would work just as well one time of the year as another or one part of the country as another. It is TOO general!
To get the biggest bang for your marketing buck you must:
- Personalize (use their name and your handwritten message) as much as possible.
- Make it timely (use something in the news or special date; e.g. 4th of July)
You can tie newsworthy events to an offering. For example, a few years ago the movie “Sicko” was being promoted and discussed on one TV show after another. Why not offer a card that lets people know that if they want to know the rating of their hospital to give you a call and you’ll send them a report.
Or you can make the same offer for nursing homes! Holy cow! Now that is a great idea! Think about it! Who needs more financial help or is more acutely aware of the need for financial professional help than someone that is either entering or helping a loved one enter a nursing home!
If they request the report you simply go to www.healthgrades.com to get the report to send them with a little bit about how your help people in similar situations.
Another way to use this idea is that people are very aware of holidays and tend to be very responsive to offers linked to holidays as long as the link makes sense.
Think about tying a 4th of July card to a review of their US Savings Bonds. What a great way to get in front of clients that have significant assets that you may be able to find a better home for.
What about using a Memorial Day card to offer a “Spring Cleaning” where you sit down with them to go through the records they need to keep and those that they can safely discard? You could even offer a tip sheet on how long you need to keep documents.
It is really not that difficult to tie in a holiday with some service you provide if you just think about it. If you are stumped we’re always here to help. Just give me or someone at Hoard a call and we can help you.
