Direct Mail is Personal

When I was a kid I saw ads for Sea Monkeys in my Captain America and Spiderman comics. They looked so cool, I had to have them. I filled in all the order information, got a money order, and mailed it in. The next day I would be at the mailbox checking to see if it came in. I would do this everyday for 4-6 weeks, waiting for that manila envelope to come.

When it finally did come in I couldn’t wait to bring it to my room and magically wait to see those tiny Sea Monkeys appear before my eyes. They were pretty cool by the way.

To this day I may not wait by the mailbox everyday but I still look forward to getting my favourite magazine subscription or a letter from a far off relative or friend in the mail. There is something to be said for receiving a letter, it’s personal.

Email is great but there is nothing like having a piece of mail that is addressed to you in your hands.

Canada Posts independent research shows that People open mail 91% of the time if it is addressed to them. People love to see there name in print.

Now I am not a big fan of unaddressed admail, although it does have its place. What I am talking about is a personalized letter, something that can be customized to your individual client or prospect.

In these recessionary times, we tend to forget about personalization. If we do send out a mailing, we have an address on the envelope; inside we have a bunch of inserts that almost look like they were put in the envelope at the last minute because they fit. A personalized letter ties everything in the envelope together.

Whenever you make contact with a client or prospect you have a unique platform that allows you to engage with your prospect. It allows you to reach out to them. Use this or you are no different than any other piece of mail, commercial or advertisement out there.

If you have purchased a list from Golf Digest Magazine, include golf references. Gardening magazine include gardening references. The goal is to engage your prospect emotionally. Talk there language, there passion!

There used to be so many rules regarding a letter. 1.75” from the left side of the page, doubled space, blah, blah, blah. There are no rules anymore! I have seen letters that I would never have sent out, that did fantastic at getting responses. You cannot argue with success.

You know your prospects better than anyone, use that. Be clever and emotional, if it does not work the first time, send a different variation the next time until you get it right.