The offer you promote will play an important role in the success of your direct mail piece. If your offer is weak, your results will be weak.

In coming up with an effective promotional direct mail offer, the basic stumbling block to get over is the idea that you are going to make money from your promotional offer directly. The purpose of the offer is to be such a good deal that people will call or come to see you.

Buying New Customers

When you advertise your business you are basically buying new customers. The offer is part of that equation. Is it worth it to have a fantastic offer if you lose money on it? The answer to that question lies in what a customer is worth to your business overall. How much will a customer spend in a lifetime with your business? The answer to those questions will determine what your direct mail offer is and if it is worthwhile to present a fantastic offer.

More Than Just Freebies

A good offer is actually much more than just freebies or giveaways you throw in. Your offer should be part of a package of elements. Your offer adds value, creates desire, and causes action. A good offer will help the fence sitters to get off the fence and make a decision.

The only roadblock to a great offer is imagination and knowledge of what your customer’s needs and wants are. Will your prospects find your offer of value; will they find it useful and helpful; and, will your competition scratch their heads and wonder how you can do that?

Your offer should always be tied to strings that tie into other parts of your campaign. It has to make sense with what you are promoting and to who you are promoting.

Direct mail is a direct response media. With direct mail, you can target directly and exactly who you want to do business with. The direct mail offer you use has to make sense and I’m not suggesting that you have to lose your shirt to get results. What I am saying is you have to be realistic and you have to know what your customers and prospects will find of value.

I had a dentist run a postcard campaign and his offer was a $150 special on teeth cleaning. His competition was promoting a $50 tooth cleaning special. His campaign failed. This dentist did not do his homework to find out what was already being offered in his area. He was too concerned with not losing money on his teeth cleanings. He lost sight of the fact that every new patient to his practice was worth an average of $1500 per year and usually patients stayed with him for five years or more, which means every new patient was worth an average of $7500 in revenue. The question is would investing $45 in promoting a special teeth cleaning offer be worth it?

The offer promoted makes all the difference in the success or failure of your direct mail campaign.

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