My son played in a soccer tournament this weekend. To get him ready for all those hard fought battles and wind sprints, I had to make sure he was hydrated and fueled. The hydration was simple, but the fuel presented some dilemmas. Should I prepare grilled salmon, wild rice and roasted vegetables or the classic, yet stellar PB&J?
I opted for the PB&J. Here’s why: In life and in marketing, what matters is what works. And, I know from experience that you can grill a boy a salmon but that doesn’t mean he will eat. The same is true of your clients. You can spend a whole lot of budget with very little result. In many cases, the classic, yet stellar tools fuel the most growth.
One of those classic yet stellar tools is the promotional sales letter. It doesn’t require any fancy design, programming or printing. In fact, you can mail merge and print from it from the comfort of your home office if you’d like. That’s what I did five years ago when I launched my insurance copywriting business.
I mailed my letter out to 200 insurance industry prospects, and I probably spent a total of $200 including postage, envelopes and paper – maybe even less. That simple, inexpensive effort generated an 8 percent response within the first month, and years later, the replies continue to trickle in. In fact, just six months ago, (4.5 years after I sent the mailer) a prospect called me and said that he’d saved my letter all this time.
If you’d like to send your own promotional letter, here are 10 rules of thumb to follow:
