How To Write A Really Great Marketing Letter That Makes Readers Take Action
How To Write A Really Great Marketing Letter That Makes Readers Take Action
Marketing letters are a very powerful tool. However, they are limited in terms of what they can realistically motivate a reader to do.
For example it is very unlikely that a single letter will:
Get a reader to call you up and hire you.
Result in a flood of phone calls of interest.
Immediately enable you to set up a large number of face-to-face appointments.
It would be nice if a single letter to a never-contacted-before prospect galvanized them into hiring you. Nice, but unrealistic.
Although common sense would dictate that this is true, it is surprising how many people tell me, We tried letters and they did not work. No one hired us as a result of our mailing.
Well what were you expecting? Unless you are marketing tree-trimming services, you are probably not going to get someone to hire you on the basis of a single letter. That is just not a good criteria by which to judge the effectiveness of a letter.
Keep in mind that this is all about building relationships. And in order to do that we need to crawl before we can walk.
What we need is a smaller request. Something that advances the relationship, but offers better odds that the reader will say Yes. Remember that this is a lot like dating. You do not go up to the pretty girl (or handsome guy) who you have never met and say, Want to get married? That is akin to saying, I hope you will hire me, in your marketing letter.
Maybe you will get lucky with your letter and it will hit the desk of someone who desperately needs your services. But that is luck. And being lucky just is not an effective long term marketing strategy.
Unless your letter is lucky enough to reach someone who has a crying need for your particular service, the best your letter can accomplish is to raise a mild level of curiosity. Unfortunately, marketing letters are often judged on how many meetings they generate, or how many people call to discuss their problems. From a practical level this just is not how most readers are going to respond.
You will achieve a lot more long-term success if you structure your letter so that it intrigues those who might have a little bit of interest in what you do, rather than only appealing to those with a burning need. This means that the letter needs to offer something that does not commit the reader to a lengthy meeting, a telephone call or anything that requires they actually communicate with someone. At this stage in the relationship, the reader may be interested in your services, but they are also very leery of leaving themselves open to a sales pitch.
This is why the offer of Free Information works so well at this stage in the relationship building process.
The scenario is something like this. Your reader puts down the letter and thinks to himself. That is kind of interesting. They seem to have an understanding of the issues I am facing. However I really do not want to meet with this person, nor do I really want to talk with them on the phone. However they reference some additional information, and that might be kind of interesting to read. If I can go to their website and get it, I just might do that.
This is why it is so important to think about marketing your services as a system. Each step in the process should lead to the next component in the sequence. And the step that has the greatest likelihood of succeeding at this-point-in-time is the offer of a some more information.
This call to action should direct readers to your website in which this offer should be prominently displayed. Naturally the information form people must fill out in order to get the report links to your automated stay-in-touch system. That is crucial in order for you to continue to move prospects from curiosity to interest to action.
How To Write A Really Great Marketing Letter That Makes Readers Take Action - To learn more about this author, visit Mark Satterfield's Website.
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Unfortunately, many marketing letters do not end with a compelling call to action. When you're developing your marketing plan you always want to think about what is next? What do we want our reader to do? That is why you need to create intriguing and compelling offers that motivate people to take that next step.
Marketing letters are a very powerful tool. However, they are limited in terms of what they can realistically motivate a reader to do.
For example it is very unlikely that a single letter will:
Get a reader to call you up and hire you.
Result in a flood of phone calls of interest.
Immediately enable you to set up a large number of face-to-face appointments.
It would be nice if a single letter to a never-contacted-before prospect galvanized them into hiring you. Nice, but unrealistic.
Although common sense would dictate that this is true, it is surprising how many people tell me, We tried letters and they did not work. No one hired us as a result of our mailing.
Well what were you expecting? Unless you are marketing tree-trimming services, you are probably not going to get someone to hire you on the basis of a single letter. That is just not a good criteria by which to judge the effectiveness of a letter.
Keep in mind that this is all about building relationships. And in order to do that we need to crawl before we can walk.
What we need is a smaller request. Something that advances the relationship, but offers better odds that the reader will say Yes. Remember that this is a lot like dating. You do not go up to the pretty girl (or handsome guy) who you have never met and say, Want to get married? That is akin to saying, I hope you will hire me, in your marketing letter.
Maybe you will get lucky with your letter and it will hit the desk of someone who desperately needs your services. But that is luck. And being lucky just is not an effective long term marketing strategy.
Unless your letter is lucky enough to reach someone who has a crying need for your particular service, the best your letter can accomplish is to raise a mild level of curiosity. Unfortunately, marketing letters are often judged on how many meetings they generate, or how many people call to discuss their problems. From a practical level this just is not how most readers are going to respond.
You will achieve a lot more long-term success if you structure your letter so that it intrigues those who might have a little bit of interest in what you do, rather than only appealing to those with a burning need. This means that the letter needs to offer something that does not commit the reader to a lengthy meeting, a telephone call or anything that requires they actually communicate with someone. At this stage in the relationship, the reader may be interested in your services, but they are also very leery of leaving themselves open to a sales pitch.
This is why the offer of Free Information works so well at this stage in the relationship building process.
The scenario is something like this. Your reader puts down the letter and thinks to himself. That is kind of interesting. They seem to have an understanding of the issues I am facing. However I really do not want to meet with this person, nor do I really want to talk with them on the phone. However they reference some additional information, and that might be kind of interesting to read. If I can go to their website and get it, I just might do that.
This is why it is so important to think about marketing your services as a system. Each step in the process should lead to the next component in the sequence. And the step that has the greatest likelihood of succeeding at this-point-in-time is the offer of a some more information.
This call to action should direct readers to your website in which this offer should be prominently displayed. Naturally the information form people must fill out in order to get the report links to your automated stay-in-touch system. That is crucial in order for you to continue to move prospects from curiosity to interest to action.
How To Write A Really Great Marketing Letter That Makes Readers Take Action - To learn more about this author, visit Mark Satterfield's Website.
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
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