Yellow Letters are by far the best mail piece.
Let me reiterate that the purpose of direct mail is to communicate and cause a desired reaction; your mail needs to be read and responded to no later than your last and final mailing. Because of this we must, at times, trick the prospect into opening the direct mail piece. When all else fails in getting your communication opened and read by prospects, my “Yellow” letters will do the job. I have developed a very simple process to follow to ensure consistency and response.
Yellow Letters have the appearance of hand written letters to your prospect written on what looks like yellow tablet paper inserted into an ivory invitation envelope. It looks, feels, and reads as though it were sent by a friend. This is the “trick” part of getting the recipient to open the letter and read your message.
Yellow Letters flat out perform better than any other direct mail piece period. However with that said if you continuously send he same prospect the same letter eventually they will lose their effectiveness which is why I like the combination of different mail pieces.
They are direct and to the point. Some are simple and sweet… feeling like your mom wrote it. These kinds of letters must grab the reader’s attention quickly so that even when they find out you’re not their long lost cousin from Albuquerque, they will continue to read the rest of the message.
There are a variety of Yellow Letters for different prospect groups, however the same generic letter can be sent numerous times without losing its effectiveness.
Professional Letter
I use “Professional Letters” which have been written in a series compiling multiple different letters. They are written to obtain the key objective, which is a call from the seller to set an appointment with you to buy their property. I have used the expertise of professional copywriters to develop letters that push the specific prospects’ buttons and persuade them to call me.
This type of letter is typed and written in professional language. It is important that you understand the type of person you are speaking to with this type of letter and also understand the reinforcement that has been embedded into the mind of the prospect by other professionals who have previously sent the prospect this type of mail.
An added note about direct mail; because a prospect needs to be touched over and over again before they feel inclined to call me I like sending out a series of letters to increase their effectiveness. The first letter starts the conversation and each following letter increases the messages urgency and also tells the prospect that I have written them before.
I include a telephone number at the bottom of the letter. I bring this point up because in a minute when you view my “Yellow” letter you will see a completely different message and a different telephone number. I use two different telephone numbers throughout various advertisements so I have a higher chance of the prospect calling me. If I sent my letters with the same telephone number the prospect may catch on to my techniques and discard one of the types of mail. I want the prospect to think they are receiving mail from two, three, even four different companies. They aren’t; however, and they don’t know it.
As for when I mail this type of letter and the frequency in which I mail all depends on both my advertising budget and the amount of prospects I am hoping to contact me. If you have a large advertising budget and want the maximum penetration from direct mail I would mail professional letters three times a year to most prospects.
Yellow Checks
I love these things. I don’t just love getting checks, I love sending checks. We all get suckered into opening them if they are presented correctly. After all who wouldn’t open an envelope thinking it has a check inside? The other day I received an envelope which appeared to have a check inside of it. I thought to myself “this is a fake check” but I opened it anyway to see what other marketers were doing and guess what? It was a real check… I am certainly glad I didn’t throw that envelope away.
Word of caution… A bad presentation won’t work so we have pain stackenly taken the time and mastered the look of the outside of the envelope and how the check presents itself to your prospect.
From the outside of the envelope the recipient should think that there is a real check inside. They should also be able to see the amount of the check and it should be on check paper stock. If you don’t want your own name on the top of the check, fine, use A Professional Services Company.
This Check Letter produces an amazing amount of calls.
Yellow Postcards
Postcards are a very effective way of grabbing attention. They’re great sources for distributing succinct information about you and your services. Great for instant gratification and getting your telephone to ring off the hook. Coupled with the professional Letters, Mary Letters and Check Letters, Post Cards are an outstanding Direct Mail piece if presented correctly.
Remembering the touch rule that a prospect must be touched between two and eight times, postcards because they are not opened must connect with the prospect within seconds or they will not be effective.
If you are like me when you go to your mail box and pull out your mail, you find the mail consists of items you want and items you don’t want. In today’s world there is a ton of junk mail. Here is how I sort the mail; I remove the mail, I then create two stacks, one for the mail I want, the other for the mail I do not want. I only look at the unwanted mail for a fraction of a second to decide which stack it goes into.
Because of this fact your message must be instantly readable and understandable. Postcards are too expensive to go unread. To attract prospects and hammer my message home to them, I have created a very different Postcard which has a very specific presentation.
My Yellow Post Card delivers a high impact to your prospect and covers with them the reasons to use your services. The front side of a postcard has the Prospects Property Address Boldly visible which tells the prospect that this postcard was created specifically for them. Throughout the message are underlined and bold text which reinforce your business and embed into the mind of the prospect to call you. High-impact powerful statements are used to achieve this objective.
This Post Card is 8.5" x 5.5" for maximum presentation not the wimpy 4.25 x 5.5 little post cards.