A pathetic sales letter will kill your direct mail campaign. To provide you with some ammo to understand and write your own sales letter, review the Example Sales Letter I wrote to promote my firm’s small business web design services. After you’ve read it, come back and I’ll break it down for you! Download the Example Sales Letter before reading on.

Analysis Of An Example Sales Letter.

What Is A PURL?

A PURL is a custom web address for each recipient in your direct mail campaign. So, for example, if the prospect’s name was John Smith, the reader was directed to a customized version of Formulis.com at www.Formulis.com/John.Smith. PURLs can have a dramatic impact on response rates. This example sales letter consistently scored an impressive 3.5% response rate in multiple tests of 5,000 and 10,000 mailings. Without the PURL website address, the example sales letter still did well, at a respectable 1.2% response rate.

An Inside Look At The Example Sales Letter

Example Sales Letter: First Paragraph

When writing a sales letter, the goal of the first sentence is to peak the reader’s interest to get them to read the rest of the first paragraph. Since this example sales letter was directed at small business owners who had been in business for a year or two, but still did not have a website, the question “don’t think you need a website for your business” was a bit of a personal challenge to the reader. As in, “you must know something most people don’t if you’re too ignorant to ignore the overwhelming benefits of a website.”

Example Sales Letter: Second Paragraph

The second paragraph takes a step back and says, “maybe I’m wrong to challenge your intelligence and worry. Maybe you (the reader) simply needs guidance in doing what every other small business with a website is doing.” So a solution is proposed in the form of helpful information on the Formulis website. Now keep in mind, this example sales letter has one and only one purpose — to drive visitors to our website for more information and further selling. That’s important for any sales letter. Provide one major call to action and streamline the sales letter to focus on that one purpose. Too many options creates confusion and inaction.

Example Sales Letter: Bullet Points

Moving onto the bulleted points (bulleted lists are part of my eight copywriting tips) in the example sales letter, I focus on why the reader needs to visit the website. What inside information do I have that will improve their business? So I bring out the big guns and appeal to them with emotional selling, targeting to their sense of intelligence, greed, desire to be successful, fear of failure and sense of self-worth in the bulleted list. Keep in mind bullets are important because most people will scan your sales letter. And don’t forget that selling is all about emotions! People don’t buy your products and services because it’s logical; they buy it because you’re fulfilling an emotional need.

Next I skip on to tell the reader that there’s a lot more waiting for them on the Formulis website and I anticipate their question, “it may be free, but what’s the catch?”

Example Sales Letter: Last Paragraph

The last paragraph in the example sales letter explains why I’m willing to impart such helpful information on the reader. Why am I giving this information away for free? Because I want you to be successful! And again, I appeal to the reader’s emotions and provide benefits of a website.

After the last paragraph, the call to action is again repeated, but this time, a second option is added in case the reader is ready to buy now.

Example Sales Letter: Postscript

And lastly, another important part of any sales letter is the postscript. Multiple studies have proven that postscripts are usually the first thing read. They are so important, that it’s often a good idea to add two, as I’ve done in the example sales letter. Think of the postscript as a super-condensed version of your sales letter. Peak the reader’s interest, then direct them to your call to action.

PS – And in true sales letter fashion… If you need help with your direct mail campaign, or feel like your head is going to explode, give us a call at 866-247-0605. And be sure to check out How To Write A Sales Letter. PPS – Don’t forget to download the Example Sales Letter discussed in this article.

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E-mail and the internet are certainly putting a fierce beating on the ‘Ol Pony Express. Small business owners are finding digital marketing to be far cheaper and a heck of a lot faster than direct mail marketing. And it shows! The U.S. Postal Service is facing record drops in mail volume. Even so, direct mail marketing is still relevant — so don’t go shooing Pony Express off to the glue factory just yet!

Say Yes To Direct Mail Marketing

Direct mail marketing presents a fantastic opportunity for small businesses to expand their customer base. Unlike mass advertising in television and print, personalized marketing using direct mail is a lot easier and allows a greater degree of accuracy in targeting specific demographics. Although close behind, digital marketing and still faces large obstacles in effective personalization and one-to-one marketing.

Direct Mail Marketing Is Flexible

Rather than blanket large TV audiences with generic commercials — small businesses can target their direct mail marketing campaign to specific industries, regions and any number of sub-classifications. For example, a local restaurant can effectively use direct mail marketing and marketing with postcards to attack both general and specific audiences in one tight little direct mail marketing campaign.

Targeting A Broad Audience With Direct Mail Marketing

It’s fairly easy to target a broad audience with direct mail marketing, while working from within the framework of a personalized direct mail marketing campaign. Using zip codes, neighborhood boundaries and mileage info as a list-building guide, the restaurant in our example can target residents within a specified area, such as ten miles around the business. Location-specific direct mail marketing ensures your business is presented to an audience that is more apt to visit due to proximity. All you need is a top-shelf sales letter (check out our example sales letter) and you’re good to go!

Target Specific Audiences With Direct Mail Marketing

Businesses can also focus on highly-specific, niche audiences within the greater direct mail marketing campaign. In keeping with the above restaurant example, the restaurant can refine their direct mail marketing list to include local small businesses, churches and organizations. A separate mailer within the direct mail marketing campaign can target those businesses with business lunch menus, office delivery services or catering options. If money is tight, a single postcard or mailer can be sent using separate messages for both residential and business customers.

Direct Mail Marketing Isn’t Dead

Direct mail marketing is without question facing a rough future. But it’s not dead! Effective use of a direct mail marketing campaign can help even the smallest businesses expand their customer base — and direct mail marketing holds unique advantages over digital marketing. Digital marketing just can’t match direct mail marketing in reaching highly-specific local audiences. For an inside look at the numbers, take a look at calculating ROI to track direct mail campaign profitability.

Tell us what you think! Do you have a question about direct mail marketing for your small business? We want to hear from you! Please leave us a comment below, we’ll respond as soon as possible. Thank you for reading!

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A lot of small business owners question, “are mailing postcards effective?” The short answer on mailing postcards — yes! Bulk mail postcards are an easy, low cost opportunity for small businesses to attract new customers, stay in touch with current customers, and tap into new markets. Virtually every small business can take advantage of marketing with postcards and direct mail marketing.

An added benefit to mailing postcards in high volume is the discounted postage rate from the U.S. Post Office. Depending on the physical size of the postcard mailing, you can save $0.25 or more per postcard on postage — that can be a huge savings of $2,500 or more on 10,000 bulk mail postcards!

In order to get the most bang for your buck marketing with postcards, be sure to consider the following guidelines for mailing postcards.

Marketing With Postcards:

• Target Your Postcard Mailing — Spend some time preparing a solid list of contacts. Don’t blanket entire zip codes or local businesses simply for convenience. Marketing with postcards are most effective when the recipients already have a need for your products and services. It’ll really give your direct mail marketing ROI a boost! Formulis can help you purchase, rent or find relevant contact lists for your postcard mailing.




• Bulk Mail Postcards — Mailing postcards in high-volume saves you money on each piece mailed. The more postcards you mail at a time, the lower your postcard printing price and postcard mailing postage price is. When marketing with postcards, you can easily send 10,000 bulk mail postcards for the same price as a 2,500 piece postcard mailing sent at First Class postage rates.




• Aim For High Frequency — If possible, strive for higher advertising frequency over volume in marketing with postcards. You certainly don’t want to break the bank, but for example, if you have a strong list, send three different postcards to a smaller list of contacts, instead of sending one big postcard mailing to a huge audience. Frequently mailing postcards to the same list creates top-of-mind recall and stronger brand marketing.




• Be Memorable — Don’t skimp on hiring a designer to create your bulk mail postcards! Simply getting your postcard mailing into the hands of your prospects is tough enough, but you want your postcards to stand out from the crowd! Make sure your postcard mailing is attractive and memorable.

Mailing postcards is a fantastic marketing tool! Be sure to take advantage of bulk mail postcards to target specific niche markets, industries and customers. But keep in mind the above guidelines for mailing postcards. Spend some time making sure you have a strong list, then go guns blazing marketing with postcards!

Hey you! Don’t be a lurker! If you liked this article, hated it, or have questions about mailings postcards and marketing your small business with direct mail — leave us a comment! Be sure to subscribe to our RSS feed or e-mail update. Thanks for reading!

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Direct mail is a pretty straight-forward medium for calculating your return on investment (ROI). But, to be successful, you need to do two things: 1) you must track results, and, 2) you need to do a little math. It sounds like a no-brainer. Track results, calculate success. Unfortunately, many small business owners are in a race to shovel direct mail marketing out the door without any forethought and no follow-up.

Note: Be sure to download my free spreadsheet for calculating direct mail ROI here, Calculate Direct Mail ROI In Excel and at the bottom of the article.

Tracking Results

Your methods for tracking results will vary, depending on how your direct mail is attempting to elicit a response, what you are selling and how, and whatever stages of consumer buying process the recipient is in. But, there are two key pieces of data you should be gathering: sales and responses. Sales are the dollar figures that can be directly attributed to the direct mail marketing campaign and are necessary for calculating ROI. Responses are actions the recipient took to contact you or continue the buying process, such as requesting more information, or visiting your website.

I’ll start with tracking responses, as in most situations, a direct mail recipient responds to your offer before making a purchase.

Tracking Responses
Tracking responses aren’t difficult and can be as simple as asking the prospect, “hey, how’d you find out about us?”

I’ve found it’s best to automate response tracking whenever possible, because all too often, small business owners and staff are either too timid, too busy, or simply forget to ask how the customer came knocking. You can use a variety of methods to automate tracking, such as providing a dedicated phone number to use in your direct mail, specifying a single point of contact, or setting up a personalized website or e-mail for each direct mail campaign. Then, simply count the number of calls, e-mails, website visits or requests for more information that each touch point receives.

Tracking Sales
Sales figures aren’t difficult to track either, but, like response tracking, will depend on your type of business and method of selling. If you take phone or online product orders, it is pretty easy to attribute individual sales using the same methods used for tracking responses. For the most accurate picture, you’ll want to track both: the gross profit as a dollar-figure of all sales attributable to the campaign, and also, the number of new customers or sales volume generated by the direct mail campaign.

For services businesses, things can get a little trickier, especially if your sales are high-dollar. Often there can be a long sales cycle of months or more to run through the consumer buying process and close a sale. So it becomes even more important that you pay close attention and track responses, leads and sales individually, over time. Also, if you run multiple campaigns in quick succession, or at the same time, be sure that you can parse responses, leads and sales between each campaign.

Do The Math

Math was never my strong-suit, so for those of you that get cold and clammy looking at numbers… relax. I’ll keep this nice and easy! Skip to the bottom of this article to download an MS Excel Spreadsheet containing an example direct mail campaign ROI calculations.

Calculate Total Campaign Expenses And Cost Of Goods Sold
To do this, simply add all expenses used in producing, printing and mailing the direct mail campaign. This figure is your [Campaign Expenses]. Your [Cost Of Goods Sold] is simply the expenses you incurred in producing the service provided to a customer, or, if you are selling products, the wholesale expenses you paid for the products that were then sold to customers.

Calculate Campaign Gross Profit
Add all sales in dollars that can be attributed to the campaign. This is your [Gross Profit].

Calculate Campaign Net Profit
Your net profit is what goes into your pocket after expenses and is calculated using the following:

[Gross Profit] – [Campaign Expenses] – [Cost Of Goods Sold] = Net Profit

Calculate Your ROI
Your return on investment is how much money you made back in profit for every dollar you spent on the direct mail campaign. ROI is calculated with the following equation:

[Net Profit] / [Campaign Expenses] = ROI
To calculate ROI as a percentage: [ROI] x 100 = ROI Percentage

Calculate Response Rate
Your response rate is the percentage of people who contacted you in some form after receiving your direct mail piece. The industry average is roughly 1%. To calculate, use the following:

[Total Number Of Responses] / [Number Of Pieces Mailed] x 100 = Response Rate

Calculate Cost-Per-Piece
To identify how much each individual mailing costs, use the following equation:

[Campaign Expenses] / [Total Number Of Pieces Mailed] = Cost-Per-Piece

Calculate Expense To Acquire A New Customer Or Sale
To find out how much it cost you to generate a new customer or sale from the direct mail campaign, plug in the sales volume you were tracking into the following:

[Campaign Expenses] / [Number Of New Clients or Sales Volume] = Expense Per Customer or Sale

Calculate Average Customer Or Sale Value
To find out how much you made per new customer acquired, or what you made per sale, use the following equation:

[Net Profit] / [Number Of New Clients or Sales Volume] = Average Value Of Customer or Sale

In Conclusion

As long as you track results and do the math, you’ll be able to quickly identify problem areas in your direct mail campaigns. Certainly, there are many other calculations you can run to distill data even further, but these are a good start for putting you on the right track, even if you’re simply marketing with postcards.

Download The Excel Spreadsheet! All of the above direct mail ROI calculations are included in an example direct mail campaign I’ve put together as an MS Excel spreadsheet. In the spreadsheet, you can adjust campaign variables to automatically calculate direct mail ROI, profit and more. Click on the link for the Calculate Direct Mail ROI Excel Spreadsheet.

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1. Is Direct Mail Marketing Relevant?
2. One-To-One Marketing: Creating Explosive Personalized Marketing With Direct Mail
3. Example Sales Letter Autopsy
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