B-I-G Sales Letter Mistakes

I often get asked to critique sales letters, and I come across a lot of the same mistakes nearly every single time. I’ve condensed it down to 13 of the biggest, most glaring mistakes I often see. Today we’ll start with the first one, and it’s probably the most often made mistake.

1. Poor Headline. Or what's even worse, no headline. The most important part of sales letters is the headline. Unless the headline immediately attracts attention and generates interest, your prospect will stop reading right then and there. This means you have no chance -zero- to fulfill the purpose of the sales letter, which is to make a sale. Your headline should communicate the strongest customer benefit(s) of your product or service.

TIP: Creating a great headline. This is entirely contrary to what many “experts” say, but it is what most experts do!

Headlines are critically important and yes you can spend hours, days, even weeks if necessary, creating headlines and then testing one headline against another. You can create at least 15 to 25 and test the strongest ones. You can write as many as 200 to 250 before choosing two to four to test against each other to find the most profitable.

Or you can do what most copywriters do when they critic someone’s copy. They read the copy and pick out a biggest benefit and make it the headline. Then they look for one or two other big benefits and make them sub-headlines.

Here’s an Example:

“How To Get a New Roof,
And a FREE 42” Flat Screen TV Just in time for the Big Game”
I Really Don’t Want to Lay Off My Crew this Winter
I only Have 10 TVs – Call Now To Be Sure Your Get Yours!

On Friday I’ll cover 2 more mistakes I often see. Stay tuned!

www.3DMailResults.com

Questions to ask Yourself about Premiums

We’re winding down our segment on the power of using premiums in your marketing. For a review of where we’ve been, see my last blog post below.

The first thing you need to do it you haven’t already is find out the lifetime value (LTV) of your average client. You need this vital information about your business. Going into a marketing campaign without knowing your LTV, is like entering an archery contest and not knowing where the target is located! How do you know where to shoot? How hard? How high? How low? Pretty tough.

For example, Let’s say, my average sale from a first time client is $100.00. I know that they’ll be worth $200 each year for 5 more years, the average length of a professional relationship in my business. That client is worth $1,100 to me. I now have a basis of where I can start my marketing campaign.

It is also vital to know your average sale. $5, $50, $5,000? How much of that are you willing to give away for a purchase? Or an appointment? Do you close well? If so, you just need to
get more appointments and premium may be just what you need to give you that bump. You simply need to find the premium to match your budget. If your LTV is smaller, use an appropriate smaller premium. If you have a large transaction size, a more lavish or expensive premium may be in order.

Here are some questions to ask yourself when adding premiums to your offer.

• Do(es) the bonus(es) have a high perceived value?
• Can you make bonuses by breaking out parts of your product?
• Are you going to use non-linked bonuses?
• Are the bonuses set up to be more desired than the product?
• Are you using bonuses to enhance purchase of upgrade (deluxe) product choice?
• Are you creating or buying multiple bonuses, instead of just one?
• Can you link bonuses to fast response? (time, limited quantity, first time buyers, etc)
• Are you offering unannounced bonuses either at purchase or after?

www.3DMailResults.com

The Premium Can Be the Focus of Your Sales Pitch

We’ve been talking about immense power of using premiums (free gifts) in your marketing. On Tuesday we talked about related and unrelated premiums. to review, see the blog posts below. We’re going to pick up our conversation below.

If the right premium is matched correctly with your list, your premium can often drive the sale. World famous retailer Murray Raphel called this the “psychology of second interest.”

Selling the second interest can be included in many sales processes, but it extremely applicable with premiums. How may Cracker Jack boxes did you buy as a kid (or for your kids) just to get that cheap little toy inside, or how about McDonald’s Happy Meals just for the prepackaged toy?

Premiums can Boost Your Referrals

As marketers, you know (or should know), that youwill almost always get a better ROI from your current clients. Knowing this, you can ask your current clients to refer their friends, family and business associates to you! You can offer a FREE gift for each new client they refer. The best place to start to get new business is to ask your current happy and satisfied clients! Offer them something of high perceived value, and they’ll refer their friends to you!

www.3dmailresults.com

Related or Unrelated Premiums?

Most people think their premium needs to be something they sell. This is a myth that needs to be addressed and debunked right now. In almost all instances, a premium unrelated to your product will outperform a premium that IS related to your business.

Here are a couple examples. For years in my main business I have sent out a free Big Key Calculator to responders to my mailing. I sell to independent retailers and I don’t sell calculators! Yes, they could use it in their store (or home, or wherever), but it is in no way related to what I want to offer them.

For years, Sports Illustrated gave away sneaker phones. This is in no way related to what Sports Illustrated offers, a weekly sports-news magazine. They simply matched the premium with their target demographic. They didn’t offer two month’s free of the magazine, or a free report about sports. IT’S A CHEAP, BARELY SERVICEABLE PHONE! It’s not a product they sell!

Have you ever received an offer from Omaha Steaks? They almost always offer a premium with a purchase, and it’s an unrelated product. I don’t know about you, but I sure don’t want a free report on how a cow goes
from the pasture to my plate. However, a free meat thermometer might be just the ticket to make sure my steak is nice and rare!

You should know enough about your target niche to offer an appropriate premium. Some will obviously work better than others. If you’re selling a high end, high priced luxury car, a $25.00 gift card to Wal-Mart probably isn’t the right premium. However, a leather briefcase with a perceived value of $125.00 (your actually cost is probably less than the $25.00 you’d spend at Wal-Mart) could probably do the trick!

www.3dmailresults.com

Why do Premium Offers Improve Direct Mail Response?

First and foremost, everybody wants something for FREE! It is a simple human instinct that appeals to our need for self gratification. That’s the simple answer.

Premiums cost very little, but have a high perceived value. You can very often offer premiums that your prospect perceives as very valuable but costs you very little in ‘real’ dollars. Remember, you are only sending a picture of the premium to the whole mailing and then giving the actual gift only to those who respond!

With this in mind, you certainly don’t want to alienate a customer, so make sure your premium (free gift) is as described in your literature.

Premiums can Lower Your Cost per Transaction!

This is a very interesting thing about premiums. And you’re probably thinking it’s counter-intuitive that a premium would lower your costs, but here’s how it lowers your cost per transaction.

Let’s say you mail out 10,000 sales letters, with no premium and you get a 2% response rate. That would be 200 responders. Let’s further assume you can be profitable with 200 responders. Now let’s say you offer the premium, and response goes up to 3%. This is not an out-of-the-ordinary response when you offer a premium. You now only need to send out 6,700 pieces of mail to get the same 200 responders as you did without the premium. And, for easy math, let’s say each mailing cost $1.00. You would save $3,300 on just the single mailing. If you assume your premium cost you $5 each for the 200 responders for a total cost of $1,000. You’re still saving $2,300!

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Why do Premiums out Perform Discounts and Rebates?

We're going to start a new series of tips on premiums. We briefly went over them last week, and based on the responses I got, you guys want more! So we'll start with a quote from my marketing mentor, Dan Kennedy:

“Too many marketers deal with premiums almost as an afterthought. This is a huge mistake. I know for a fact that premiums can and do drive sales, and that a change of premium, with no other changes, can dramatically alter the results of a promotion. For this reason, just as much careful thought should be given to the premium as to the main offer.”
– Dan Kennedy, Power Points #34

Research has shown that a direct mail letter with a premium offer can out pull a sales letter alone by as much as 300%! Before we get too far into why they work so well, some of you may be thinking, “What is a premium?”

A premium is anything of value your prospect/client/patient receives for taking some action that you want. Often, the best premiums are not even tied to whatever it is that you’re offering! It’s often an unrelated item for the personal use of the buyer and not even for their business (if you’re selling B2B). The key is that is has perceived high value. It may not cost a lot, but it should look like it cost a lot.

When offering premiums, a picture is worth a thousand words. Always include a picture of the item, as this is much more effective than simply describing the item.

There’s a reason why for years Sports Illustrated gave away a sneaker phone. There’s a reason they now give away your choice of any of the 32 professional football team shirts. Why? Because Sports Illustrated knows that premiums work! They’ve be doing it for decades now.

The Estee Lauder Company set the standard with their “Gift-With-Purchase” strategy that is now rampant in the cosmetics industry, and others. The allure of ‘something for nothing’ has always enticed consumers. Doesn’t it make sense to appeal to this very basic, controlling emotion?

Stay tuned for later in the week when we discuss why premium offers improve direct mail response. Have a great week.

Looking for ways to increase your response rates, or reduce returns? How about you offer a free gift! We have many premiums (free gifts) in a wide variety of price ranges.

From inexpensive kitchen shears that cost $1.04 each, to elegant table top clocks for as little as $31.29 each.

We’ve recently added dozen’s of new premiums to our product line, and are adding more every week. Don’t see something that sparks your interest? Reply to this email and tell me what you want, and I’ll find it! We can source 1,000’s of different premium items.

If you have a product or service with a large transaction size, or you know you have a very large long-term value in a new client, go with something a littler nicer, and sometimes a little more expensive.

If you have a smaller transaction size, consider using one of the more inexpensive options. Free gifts are always a good way to increase your response and your ROI.

You Need a Strong, Clear, Call to Action

We’re going to put a bow on our discussion on irresistible offers today. Below you’ll find the final 2 tips for crafting your offers. To review where we’ve been, visit my blog posts below.

We’ll start with the call to action. I think this is best summed up from an article I wrote a while back in my newsletter, in Marketing Lessons Learned from Kona. Kona is my 1 year old Gold Retriever. Here’s the article.

I’m very proud to announce that in March Kona passed, with flying colors, the American Kennel Club S.T.A.R. Program! This is awarded to puppies less than 1 year of age who demonstrate social, training, activity, and responsible behavior. I’m so proud of my pup! We’ve already started basic agility training!

This got me thinking about all the things we need to do when we’re training Kona. I’ve boiled it down to 5 items that we MUST do each and every time we’re training Kona in a new skill. Here’s the list:

1. Tell her WHAT to do.
2. Tell her HOW to do it.
3. Tell her WHEN to do it.
4. Give her INCENTIVE to do it.
5. They must be clearly understood and concise.

These are the exact steps you must follow when crating your call to action. For example, let’s say we’re driving our prospect to visit a website from a sales letter we sent.

You’ve got to tell them WHAT to do (go to the website www.3dmailresults.com). You’ve got to tell them HOW to do it (take 5 minutes at your home PC and log on). You’ve got to tell them WHEN to do it (Right now, don’t delay!). You’ve got to give them INCENTIVE to act (You’ll get my free “Definitive Guide to Using 3D Mail.”) And they must be clearly understood and concise. Remember, confused people do nothing!

When I think about it, training Kona is simply a series of offers, done diligently and with care and consistency, until the lesson is learned and it becomes habitual behavior. Wouldn’t it be nice to have client habitually call you and pay you for your products and services??

Finally, its always a good idea to mention and emphasize your guarantee in your offer. In fact, your guarantee should be part of all your marketing. We’re going to do an entire series on guarantees soon, so we’ll leave it at that this week.

Stay tuned for next week as we’ll open and entire new discussion on a new direct response marketing strategy. Have a great weekend!