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Get a Quick Sales Boost--Convert Your Email
Customers to Direct
Mail
by Kevin Nunley
Is Your Email List Losing its
Power?
Not too long ago, you could send out an ezine issue or an email
sales letter and count on getting a dozen sales immediately, with
many more purchases to follow over the next few days.
Now, with email accounts clogged with volumes of trash, most of
us are lucky if anybody even reads the message we've spent hours
perfecting. Email marketing is still the best bargain in
advertising land, but thanks to uncanned-sp*m, making a buck with
email is not as easy as it used to be.
Ah, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Remember the
distant past (say 1994) when "direct mail" meant sales letters
sent through the post office? Regular direct mail is still
around, and I suspect rapidly gaining ground once again.
One of the hard and fast rules of direct mail is you can sell FAR
more products and services to people who have bought before from
direct mail. The guy who got a sales letter or catalog in the
mail and ordered a shirt will be the first person to buy another
shirt that same way.
Folks who already purchased via direct mail used to be a rather
small part of the public. But now, after almost a decade of
Internet shopping, we're all old hands at buying from businesses
we can't drive to, talk to, or even see.
The number of people who have deep experience buying direct and
receiving the product or service through the mail or digital
delivery is now staggering. Come to think of it, all your
Internet customers are people who have used this virtual direct
mail principle to buy from you and others like you for years.
That means they would be prime prospects for a good direct mail
campaign.
Hmmm.. Smell an opportunity here? Just when email is starting
to create a bit more trouble than it's worth for some of us, good
old direct mail sales letters could be just the thing to get our
attention.
Try converting your email list to a direct mail list. Go back
through your customer records to find physical addresses. Format
your next email pitch for print, then postal mail it to a fat
list.
Let's review a few rules for getting response from direct mail:
1. Letters always sell better than mailers. Forget the 4 color
brochures and concentrate on a good, personal letter.
2. Getting people to open the envelope is the hardest part. Put a
headline on your envelope promising something good inside. Since
most will probably already know your name, make your name and
return address prominent.
3. Include testimonials. The same things that make a great web
page also make fine sales letters.
4. Include a P.S. I get a good guffaw when I see web sites with
PS's. I don't think they do much good online. But PS's work
wonders in a regular sales letter. Studies show more than half
of your audience will read the PS first, so use it to state your
offer, price, and how to reach you.
5. Take your questions to the post office. Most are surprisingly
helpful these days. The mail business isn't what it used to be,
and many postmasters have put out the word to help anyone who
looks like they could bring in more activity.
Kevin Nunley writes sales letters, web copy, and press releases.
See his affordable deals to promote your business at
http://DrNunley.com
Reach him at mailto:kevin@drnunley.com or
send a letter to 54 Ponemah Rd, Amherst, NH 03031.
Get a Quick Sales Boost--Convert Your Email Customers to
Direct
Mail
by Kevin Nunley
http://www.DrNunley.com
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