How to write direct mail that gets direct results

The client's problem: Canadian Realtor News faces dropping revenues as its advertisers cope with a battered real estate market. Moreover, a competing newspaper is eyeing the target market for Canadian Realtor News. The client decided to try direct mail.

The Cornerstone solution: Writing successful direct mail requires talent and adherence to a set of well-researched marketing techniques.

For example, 79 per cent of those who open direct mail immediately read the PS at the end of the letter. That's where we put the strongest selling point, in this case, "More than 1,000 real estate decision-makers are waiting to hear from you!"

We reiterated this in the first paragraph of the letter. We suggested that it read, "Canadian Realtor News can help you reach real estate's decision-makers!"

The rest of the letter emphasized the benefit the client was offering and proved that the client could in fact deliver those benefits. To do this we advised short, sharp bursts of conversational prose in which the main selling points were set in bold type.

Finally, we had the client offer a financial incentive for immediate reply; too much direct mail gets tossed aside to deal with "later."

We also suggested that the package include a page of blank boxes that showed the actual size of possible ads. Beside each box was the discounted price and the phrase "Imagine what you can say with this space!" Samples are effective sellers.

The campaign led to more than $6000 in ad revenue, including three full pages in an 16-page newspaper. Better still, some of the ads were from "breakthrough" clients that Canadian Realtor News had been trying to land for some time.

Cornerstone is a writing and editing firm that uses marketing and PR principles to create "words you can build your business on."

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