Direct mail is a huge subject and you are always learning, but if you do the basics properly it’s a very powerful tool that is often overlooked these days in favour of online strategies. I personally feel it has come full circle and you can get a better response by putting your sales letter or brochure in the client’s hands than an email.

I constantly delete emails without even reading them properly these days due to the volume I get, but if I receive a well written letter I tend to take a bit more time and have a look. Years ago I would have probably also scanned it quickly and dropped in the bin but since I get less direct mail now it’s not as intrusive as it once was.

You can break direct mail into 2 types;

1. Anything you send to your existing and past clients.
2. Anything you send to people who haven’t heard of you.

The first option should definitely generate income for you with minimal effort, if you are not regularly mailing your client list start today. Don’t always assume your customers know everything you do. Start by maximising your mailings in this area then move on to testing new markets. The second option is harder but can also produce great results.

You must test any campaign on a small scale before rolling it out. The good thing is that it’s statistically predictable, so you can avoid costly errors by testing on a smaller group. The last thing you would want to do is send out 10,000 letters and only get a single response. It would take any of us a long time to generate enough profit from a single new client to cover the outlay. But by testing and playing around with the variables you could find that a test mailing of 100 people gets you 2,3 or even 5 new clients. At least if you t

est on a smaller scale and your letter fails to deliver you haven’t broken the bank. If it works out then mail more.

Over time you can refine your mailing by further testing to generate higher response rates. People often talk about a target response rate but you should just ignore this. There are so many variables here; the list of names, your copy, headline, your offer, call to action, etc the only thing that really matters is what the activity costs versus what it generates. If you’re happy with the result great, but keep testing and try to beat what you’re getting now. Over time you will create a very successful campaign that you can use predictably to generate business.

If you’re sending out your brochure always include a covering letter and make it a personal communication by including the word ‘you’ several times. This ensures you connect more with the reader and focus your writing on whats in it for them rather than focusing solely on how qualified a VA you are.

Obviously the list of names you plan to use is very important and accuracy of the data will improve your results. If your list is quite old and you have a high proportion of businesses that have closed or moved your wasting a lot of money. Consider using a good list broker who can provide you with fresh up to date information you can usually target the contacts you need very precisely by factors such as location, number employees, business type along with the correctly named person. I know a list will cost you more money but purchasing a well targeted list works out cheaper than doing it yourself.

Finally, I suggest you follow up your mailing by phone. If you don’t feel comfortable doing it yourself hire someone to make that call. You will increase your response rates many times over as you will catch prospects who read your letter and think yeah I could use that but never get round to doing something about it.

Office Slaves - 24 hour call handling