2% – 5% Return With Direct Mail

The most difficult thing in today’s marketplace can be getting the attention of your customers and prospective customers. People are bombarded with advertising and generally ignore most of what they see. I wanted to share with you something we have been doing and getting very good results with for our clients. The program I am referring to is a Promotional Check Mailer. Click here to see a copy of the mailer.

Click Here For Pricing on Check Mailers & Sales Letters

The check comes in a brown kraft window envelope. You can see the official looking check through the window. The envelope gets opened. It is not uncommon for our clients to get a 1% to 5% response with the Check Mailers.

These mailers are generating more responses and sales than any other form of direct mail or promotion for that matter. Why? Because they adhere to the basic rules for getting response. There are four basic rules of thumb as to what you want to do with your advertising, they are:

• It must get noticed.
• It must create interest.
• It must build desire.
• It must invite action.

Direct mail has been around for a very long time. There are several types of direct mail, from simple sales letters, post cards, self-mailing brochures to expensive package mailings. Postage increases along with the down turn in the economy have detoured many from using direct mail in recent years. This means you have less competition for your prospect’s attention (in the mail box) than ever before.

Why in the world would you even want to consider using Direct Mail and something as wild as a Check Mailer? I mean postage is expensive. (We can save you money on postage by the way.) Simple, can you tell me what other form of advertising that 99.999% of the population get and see it? Think about it…. There is not a one, none, no other medium that reaches this percentage of people. Everyone gets mail and they look through their mail. Direct mail is personal, targetable and trackable. Does it work always for every business, no. But the reasons it does not work are three and are easily corrected.

Let looks at some of the other advertising options available to you.

Newspaper – it reaches only 8% – 12% of the population and in some cities less. Newspapers have to sell 65% – 70% of the pages as advertising just to break even. So you have a lot of clutter and no guarantee that your prospect will even see your ad.

Radio – there are on average 18 – 25 radio stations in most medium to large metropolitan areas. Targeting becomes tricky. Stations run 18 – 25 minutes of commercial per hour usually in blocks so it is easy to get lost in a commercial block. Radio is a great way to brand a business and drive traffic but you have to be patient, it takes time to build and people do not always tell you how they heard about you.

TV/Cable – oh my god are you kidding me. There are 200 channels and remote control means most people click channels instead of watching a commercial. Ladies, tell me how many commercials you see your husband sit through and watch? The answer is if he has the clicker, not many. Television stations also run 18 – 25 minutes per hour of commercials.

Billboards – for some business models this is effective. But still there are a lot of roads and the people you are reaching are mobile and cannot respond directly.

Email advertising – used to generate a lot of response, now with spam filter and high email traffic it takes a lot to get through not to mention getting read. It is inexpensive and most businesses should use email but should not rely on it as the sole form of advertising.

Check Mailers – this concept is not a new idea. It has been around a long time. Check mailers are effective. What we have done is combine sales letters with the check. The check gets noticed and the amount gives them incentive to call. The letter lets you sell the sizzle of what you are offering.

What could that response rate mean to your company sales? Click on this link for an article that will help you calculate your potential return on investment.

Calculating Your Return On Investment

Why does it work so well?

Two reasons: 1) it gets noticed and 2) it puts something of value in the prospects’ hands and gives them a reason to call you now.

Would you like more information on this for your business? Or, if you need anything else, please let me know. We are here to help you.

Mark Hale
CEO