KIPLINGER RECOMMENDS

Home > Sales & Marketing, Small Business

COMMENT

BUZZ UP

DIGG

CHECK OUT:

EXECUTIVE POLL

Bernard Madoff, convicted of running an $65 billion Ponzi scheme, was sentenced to 150 years in jail. What’s your take on his punishment?

Compare Price Quotes 100+ Services

OUR PREMIUM CONTENT

The Kiplinger Tax Letter
The Kiplinger Agriculture Letter
The Kiplinger California Letter
Kiplinger's Biofuels Market Alert
Kiplinger's Retirement Report

SUBSCRIBER HELP

CURRENT LETTER

By Knight Kiplinger

The Kiplinger Washington Editors

July 2, 2009

By year-end or so, Congress will give the nod to a major rewriting of the nation's financial regulatory system. This week’s Kiplinger Letter explores whether the package will do more harm than good and what lawmakers are likely to include.

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: The Economy, Business Costs, Taxes, Supreme Court, Energy, Workplace Regulations, Climate Change, Health Care Legislation and Foreign Policy

PREVIOUS ISSUES

CORRECTIONS

TRY THE LETTER:
Subscribe | See Sample

YOUR FEEDBACK

SUBSCRIBERLOG: Got a topic you'd like to discuss? Or a problem or question? Please join our exclusive forum for Letter subscribers only.

ASK US: A Kiplinger Letter editor will promptly answer subscriber questions.

OPEN FORUM: Share your insights and analysis with other visitors.

I just attended a franchise seminar. The speaker represents a few hundred franchises that (he says) are hand picked. He has the prospect (aka victim?) answer some questions about themselves then he makes recomendations - based on your personality, capital situation, etc.. If you pick a franchise, then he does some due dilligence for you. If you both decide it's a good idea, he helps you get started. He says he offers this service free of charge, which means he gets a commission if he's able to sell you a franchise. Has anyone done this? Successfully? Unsuccessfully?

-- fender

How to Keep Direct Mail from Becoming 'Junk Mail'

Direct mail is one of the most proven ways to gain new customers or win back lost ones. Here's how to do it right.

Worth Reading: The Quick Take from Kiplinger

June 2008

fuelNet Monthly

fuelNet Monthly is a marketing newsletter published by The Pohly Co. consulting firm and is a monthly contributor to Kiplinger Recommends.

Robert W. Bly, who wrote the section on creating a winning direct mail campaign, is a freelance copywriter specializing in direct marketing. He has won a number of industry awards.

Crystal Uppercue, who wrote the section on how to calculate ROI for direct mail campaigns, is the marketing manager of EU Services (euservices.com).

Direct mail may have all the charm and excitement of the Yellow Pages and be about as ordinary and low-tech as possible in this digitally connected global market, but it remains one of the smartest and most reliable ways to capture more business. But to be effective, it needs to be done well.

That means getting your letter opened and read, making the sale in the customer's mind and, finally, racking up an order. Each of those steps requires careful thinking and planning lest the potential target gets turned off and tosses out all your work. In an article titled "How to Create a Winning Direct Mail Package," the marketing newsletter fuelNet Monthly walks businesses through every part of a successful direct mail campaign. That covers everything from the appearance of the envelope and the type of "teaser" that might improve odds of getting it opened to the tone of the sales letter to making sure the return envelope is large enough to hold the order sheet easily. "When potential customers have to fold and fit an item into the envelope, you can lose some of them to frustration," the newsletter advises.

fuelNet also spells out seven common mistakes to avoid. Some may seem obvious or just plain commonsense, but they often get overlooked anyway. No one would intentionally buy a bad mailing list, of course, but lousy or inappropriate lists are sold all the time and need to be vetted with care. "You wouldn't mail an offer for gourmet steaks to a list of vegetarians, right?" the newsletter asks.

While successful direct mailing is an art that can be mastered, every company's goals, style and product or service are different. That means constantly adjusting and tailoring approaches and figuring out what works and what doesn't. To help you do that, fuelNet has a simple formula for measuring the ROI of a direct mail campaign.

READER COMMENTS