Get Personal: Letters vs. Direct Mail

One of the reasons direct mail works is the personal aspect. It's ostensibly a letter from you to your prospect. Because of this, the more personal you make it, the better your response will be.

If you're mailing to 100,000 people, putting your prospect's name on your letter is about as personal you can get. But there are times when you can ? and should ? send out highly personal letters to individual prospects.

Say you sell gardening supplies, and driving to work one day you notice a home with a lovely garden, but dying roses. You find out who the owner is and send her a letter complimenting her on her wonderful garden, along with tips on rose care. Or, you meet a prospect at a business networking function. You get back to the office and send out a letter referencing your conversation and outlining what your business can do for his.

But unlike direct mail, you don't ask for a response. Instead, tell the recipient that you'll be calling in about a week to talk about how you can help them. Then follow up with that phone call.

Now, instead of a mass mailing, you have a personal contact and the beginnings of a relationship. This kind of letter will have double or even triple the response rate of a typical mass mailing. Sure, it's more time consuming, but that fact is what makes it work so well.

So what are you waiting for? Get personal!

Lisa Packer, author of "How To Dramatically Increase Your Business... Without A Blockbuster Budget" and "7 Ways To Get A Pay Raise From Your Web Site" is an independent Copywriter and Marketing Consultant. Find out how to get these two reports, plus more helpful articles like the one you just read at http://www.dramatic-copy.com

Dramatic Copy: The Right Words Make A Dramatic Difference.

---

Online Advertising Versus Traditional Media Advertising

Before I compare today's online advertising with traditional media advertising... Read More

How to Turn Your Promotional Products Expense Into a Profit Center

If you use promotional products you probably already know the... Read More

Turning The Casual Scanner Into A Buyer

The world is full... Read More

What Can Star Wars Teach You About Creating a Buzz for Your Business?

Many people think marketing is some type of mystery that... Read More

Write It and They Will Come ? 5 Ways that Written Information Products Can Help You Build Your Busin

Whether it's a downloadable report available from your website, a... Read More

How to Get a 100% Return on Your Marketing Investment Guaranteed!

One of the most effective ways to market your products/services... Read More

Ten Ways to Market Your Business by Doing What You Love To Do

Most business owners get so involved in the work of... Read More

12 Lessons I Picked Up from Attending Seminars

So you just dropped a tidy sum to attend a... Read More

Trade Show Promotional Products ? Boosting Booth Traffic

I was about seven or eight years old when I... Read More

Knowing When To Charge More and To Charge Less

More And MoreIt was notable that when I started my... Read More

Seven Common Marketing Problems Solved by Marketing Operations

Corporate marketing groups - especially bandwidth-challenged small-to-mid-sized departments - can... Read More

Tipical Mistakes in Marketing

To prevent the risks of a promotion campaign for our... Read More

Client Attraction Technique #1: Niche Marketing

When asked "what business are you in" many business owners... Read More

The Value of a Customer

The Driver of All Marketing EffortsYou need to determine what... Read More

Mark Twain?s Great Marketing Idea

To tell you the truth (and about 53% of this... Read More

Is CRM Technology Living Up To the Hype?

Over the last few years the buzz about CRM (Customer... Read More

20 Power Marketing Tips

Use these powerful yet simple tips from the national best-seller,... Read More

Flesh Eating Spiders And Other Marketing Horrors

After a friend was bitten by a spider, I decided... Read More

Private Practice Marketing: 3 Secrets I Wish I Knew When I First Started Out

I don't know about you, but I am still waiting... Read More

Translation and Your International E-Commerce Strategy

Most businesses realize that they are simply a click away... Read More

Gift Cards - Is It Time to Use Them for My Business?

You're probably thinking, here we go again somebody is trying... Read More

Real Estate Investing - Writing Killer Postcards to Attract Motivated Sellers!

So many of you have been telling us that you're... Read More

Make Your E-Mail Signature File WORK for You!

You're probably familiar with e-mail signature (or "sig") files -... Read More

Features vs. Benefits vs. End Results

If you've been in the copywriting realm for very long... Read More

Wise Man Marketing

It's a sunny morning and you're sitting in your office.... Read More

Small Business Marketing Tip - Get Attention and Be Remembered

We live in a world of noise ? not just... Read More

How To Get New Business

Market, Market and then market some more. So many small... Read More

Do You Make These 5 Common Marketing Mistakes?

The famous P.T Barnum once said, "Without promotion, something terrible... Read More

10 Tips to Grow Your Business Plain & Simple

"Try not to become a man of success but rather... Read More

Embracing The Future - Marketing Yourself, Your Business And Your

IntroductionMany businesses and organisations have a perception that marketing means... Read More

Directional (Not Direct) Marketing

Those who believe the web is not a direct response... Read More

Winning At Business With Your Marketing Game Plan

Stuart from Colorado had talked to a number of marketing... Read More

PowerPositioning: WillYouAcceptThisRose.com

Positioning is a powerful concept in marketing. To illustrate, have... Read More