I don’t have a lot of space so I’ll get right to the point: A personal letter is the best marketing tool for personal communication to your personal clients, even when sent to all 100,000 of them. What? You don’t have 100,000 clients. Me neither. Sigh…
In a letter you have time and space to sell sell sell. You can explain benefits, features; show facts and figures. A consultative sell? No problem in a letter: you can explain what you’re selling, why you’re selling it, then why your customers absolutely need it because it will be so good for them and best for their family, just initial here and here and send back, and we’ll take care of the rest.
But a letter is a lot of work and expense: printing, folding, including a brochure perhaps to add credibility; envelope, mailshop services for inserting, postage, affixing postage, applying names and addresses. Lots of handling, really.
Post cards, on the other hand can be effective, and they’re a lot less work. High readership, because once they’ve picked it up and they’re ready to toss it out, hey – they’ve read it! But, they’re no good for lengthy consultive selling. In fact, they’re not much good for selling at all.
Fortunately, you don’t have to sell anything from a post card. The objective of a post card is not to sell something. The objective of a post card is to generate phone calls. Look at the title of this article. Told you.
I write a lot of post cards for clients and I never once have asked for an order; but I always, always ask for a phone call, usually several times, as well as displaying a large phone number. If the reader calls, the post card is a complete success. It has done everything we’ve asked it to do – now it’s up to my client to close the sale or get an appointment, and turn the prospect into a real customer.
So, what’s the best way to get the reader to call? The best way to get people to call you is by giving them what I term a “Non-threatening reason to call.” Enough technobabble. In short, offer something for FREE. It’s really difficult to get people to call you when they think they’re going to get a sale pitch – much easier when they can ask for something specific, especially when it’s free.
Offer anything but a brochure. A brochure is a sheet of paper folded in thirds. You can get free brochures at the drugstore or an automobile dealership. So free brochures have no value. But: offering a FREE Booklet works well. A FREE “Informational” Booklet works even better. And notice how by setting the word FREE in all capital letters it jumps out at you? Do this on your post card – when you say FREE Booklet, use all caps. A single 8-1/2” x 11” sheet folded in half is a good booklet. Two sheets folded and nested together is even better.
The title of the booklet is what drives people to pick up the phone, so the better the title the more phone calls you’ll get. Can you think of a title that will make everyone call? OK, besides “FREE SEX!” No, not “FREE MONEY!” either. OK, “FREE Beer!” is good. Works for me, anyhow.
While I like nice clean booklets that have crisp copy and great graphics, truth is I don’t care if your booklet has all that – the objective of the post card, remember the post card, is to generate a phone call. By the time prospects receive your booklet, the objective of the post card has already been fulfilled. The reader called.
The booklet takes a back seat to the post card in the campaign – it’s the tertiary stage in your marketing. 1. Reader gets post card. 2. Reader calls for FREE booklet. 3. Reader receives booklet. That’s why I don’t care that much about how great the booklet is, other than an excellent title. The title is incredibly important. More important than anything else. Because the title either drives the reader away, or drives the reader to call. What does your title do?
Here’s how to think up the best title. On a blank sheet of paper, write 100 possible titles, go back and pick out your best one. Hey, I didn’t say you’d like it, I just said here’s how to think-up the best title. One that will make every possible qualified prospect call. That’s the objective of the booklet title.
On the billboard side of the post card yell, “Call and get your FREE Booklet, “25 Ways to…” or “15 Things to Look Out for when …” or “Proven Ways How To …” and give a big phone number. Or, “How to Get the Best ___ in 3 Easy Steps…” or Free Booklet tells you how…” You get the idea. Post Card + FREE Offer + FREE Booklet = phone calls. Get it? Got it? Good.
Getting Referrals
Don’t forget to add a small line at the bottom, “And Thanks for all those great referrals – We appreciate them! Please, keep them coming!” This simple line gets you referrals.
Jeff Dobkin is a fun speaker who writes and designs direct selling letters, post cards and direct marketing material. He has written 5 books on direct marketing and humor. Call him at 610-642-1000 for his other articles on post cards (sent to you FREE.) Visit www.dobkin.com.