Would you follow up after sending a mail piece?

Originally Posted by Jorel Or you could make the call first. I know when I go through my mail box I dump the junk before I get to the door. If I recognize a name or company, I might at least read it before I throw it out.

I agree. Save your marketing budget and get dialing.

No hard and fast rules. One would have to compare what a reminder mailing campaign would cost and the possible responses vs that of a phone call. My mail order experience seems to suggest that a reminder mailing is often worth 30-50% of the initial mailing in terms of response rates.

Often we may be able to reduce the cost of the reminder mail to about 60% that of the initial, and the sums work out OK.

Its also important to remember that there may be a cost involved in staggering activities vs pushing out in one go.

Important thing is to do your sums and TEST, TEST & TEST

Originally Posted by realtor I plan to start sending direct mail to different subdivisions. All together I'll be mailing about 500 people. Would you follow up by phone after sending the mail pieces?

I wouldn't call them at all. It takes too much time. I would write a sequence of 3-4 letters.

The first one would invite them to come to the website to download a free special report written around this market segment's biggest problem and frustration.

Marketing Sherpa surveys indicate that some 79% of your prospects (depending on the copy and the report's title) will download the report.

The downloaders would go into a lead nurturing programme.

The non-downloaders would receive the remaining pieces of the letter sequence.

If they still don't respond, I'm done with them.

I prefer writing because the phone is far too time consuming.

And once they are in my lead nurturing programme, I don't really care when they become clients. Sooner or later they will. Some sooner, some later.

There is one problem with this approach. It's not instant. Since many businesses are nothing more than organised chaos, desperately needing instant sales, this approach is only for the rest. And then the rest seems to be the most profitable.

At least in the B2B world I've found that the later I ask for the money, the more I get. So, I'm not in a hurry. Instead of chasing them all over hell's half acre, I let people come to me when they're ready to buy.

And once you set up this momentum, you're set for life. You never run out of "ready to buy" sales leads.

Thoughts?

Originally Posted by Bald Dog And once you set up this momentum, you're set for life. You never run out of "ready to buy" sales leads.

How effective would this be for real estate?

Originally Posted by realtor How effective would this be for real estate?

Humans are humans are humans. It's not industry-specific. It just works.

It can be adopted to any industry from astrology to zoology. You can find lots of great examples in Dan Kennedy's Magnetic Marketing programme.

Originally Posted by Bald Dog Humans are humans are humans. It's not industry-specific. It just works. It can be adopted to any industry from astrology to zoology. You can find lots of great examples in Dan Kennedy's Magnetic Marketing programme.

Much appreciated Bald Dog.

I would also suggest a mailing with a special report. Top 10 Ways to Increase the Value of Your Home. Direct them to a website, where those who sign up for the report are now warm leads.

Originally Posted by susana I would also suggest a mailing with a special report. Top 10 Ways to Increase the Value of Your Home. Direct them to a website, where those who sign up for the report are now warm leads.

This is nipplepiercingly brilliant. This approach can also be used in press releases.

Top 10 Ways to Increase the Value of Your Home.

Four of them are... [these four go into the press release]

For the other 6 Ways to Increase the Value of Your Home... visit [www.yourwebsite.com/reportpr.html]

This is a dedicated page for the report and allows you to track traffic from the press release.

You can also set up a goal for this report in Google Analytics for better tracking.