Tip 17) 4 reasons why you should never, ever send a direct mail letter or email without following up!

Thinking of sending out some direct mail letters or emails as a way to generate new business? Great idea – as long as you are 100% committed to following them up with a phone call within 72 hours of sending them. If you don't:

1. You are wasting your time!
2. You are wasting your energy!
3. You are wasting your money!
4. You could be missing out on other opportunities while you are doing something that is a complete waste of your time, energy and money! 

​Hopefully you are getting the message that sending a direct mail letter without following up is not a good idea. :-)

Your prospects are busy people. They have hundreds, if not thousands, of marketing messages thrown at them every day from TV adverts, flyers in shop windows, posters on cork-boards, branding on vans. They are bombarded via their social media feeds, websites, and emails. It's relentless! They have the attention span of a gnat, and even if your letter is well written, your product or services just what they are looking for, and however nicely you end your message (asking them to call you if you can help them)...

THEY PROBABLY WON'T CALL YOU! 

In 10 years of business coaching, I have only ever heard of a handful of incoming calls from direct mail letters! Often people want to buy what you are selling, but they are just too damn busy to do anything about it. I often get sales letters and very briefly think, “That looks interesting…”, before popping it on my ever-growing pile of  'interesting, but not important' stuff. And there it will stay, until it gets buried by so many other pieces of paper that I get fed up with it all and chuck it all in the recycling! And there are many other business owners around just like me!

So, here's what you should do to give yourself at least a fighting chance of getting some business out of your direct mail letters. I will go into more detail for each step in future blogs, but here are some tips to get you started:  

• Write a great letter with a fabulous eye-catching headline that talks directly to your prospect’s pain or desire. Keep it to one page with lots of bullet points and subheadings. Keep it interesting, upbeat and make it about them! Tell them you will be calling them. End it with a great P.S. (We often skim a letter to see if the headings grab our attention and we always read the P.S.) 
• Call your prospect and check you have the name of the right person to send it to. Even if you have done your homework online, still do this. Not only will it increase your odds of success, but the chances are, you may also be able to gather some useful information if you have a friendly person answering the phone.
• Send your letters in batches of 10–20 and commit to following up within 72 hours. Any longer and you are already forgotten. And you can quickly identify any that have gone adrift and offer to email a PDF over straight away.
• Be prepared to keep following up until you actually get to speak to your prospect. (That can take a lot of calls – as we've already discussed, business owners are very busy!)

Good luck!

Jo Richings x

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