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“Nobody
reads direct mail!”
We love direct mail. It’s cheap,
easy to target and fast – qualities that are normally
highly valued by budget-wise clients. However, we continue
to hear – from both clients and prospects – that
direct mail has no place in advertising and marketing programs.
The reasoning is almost always the same: “I don’t
read direct mail and neither does anyone else!” Of course,
this is partially true. Many people don’t read direct
mail. But that is not the same as saying all people don’t
read direct mail. A small percentage of the target audience
does read – and respond to – direct mail. This is
the gold you mine with direct mail.
Think about it. Your mailbox is jammed with direct mail because
it works. No company spends on direct mail because they like
spending on direct mail. They spend on direct mail because
it produces results.
But wait. The battle with opponents of direct mail is not
over. They may agree to do a letter, but they still cling
to the “people don’t read direct mail” complaint.
“Make the letter short,” they declare. “Don’t
dare go past a single page.” Why? “Because nobody
reads direct mail!”
At this point, we introduce a few facts. Longer letters pull
more response than shorter letters. We know this from our
own experience – and from the research done on direct
mail. This does not mean your goal is to write long letters.
Your goal is to gain a response by offering every good reason
to respond. It’s crazy to delete reasons just because
you want to keep a letter to one page.
Moreover, there are plenty of tricks that eliminate the need
to read the entire letter. You can – and should –
make your entire case in the first few paragraphs. You can
put “call outs” in the middle of the letter to draw
attention to your key selling point. Or you can drop in a
graphic and put the key selling point in the caption (research
shows captions get very high readership). And don’t forget
about the old PS trick. Readers can’t resist reading
the PS. Some will even read the PS first. That’s why
we give careful attention to the message in the PS.
Do yourself a favor. Let the pros do your direct mail. The
results can be spectacular, especially in business-to-business
mailings, where a single mailing, produced at a cost of a
single 48 cent stamp, can open the way for a $100,000 order.
Or…you can produce a glossy $100,000 brochure that generates
no response. Sounds like a simple decision, but the sad truth
is that many companies choose the $100,000 brochure.
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