Direct Mail

Readers respond about direct mail

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Yesterday, I wrote about direct mail, and how not dead it is, and in fact how savvy business owners, who grew up online, are now rediscovering it.

I asked for the experiences of readers related to direct mail. I got ’em. Here are a few particularly relevant and current ones…

#1. From an in-house copywriter at a big supplement brand and alternative health publisher:

“One of my sales letters for [client] is going to direct mail soon. Excited to see how it performs.”

#2. From the chief copywriter at a health and beauty brand:

“We’ve been sending direct mail at [client]! It’s not the classic plain text letter format, but postcard style cart/checkout abandonment campaigns with some short copy + a discount. Not sure what the ROI is but I imagine it’s not bad since we’ve been doing it for a while. ”

#3. From a fundraising expert:

“I love direct mail. I’ve been doing it for 17 years for clients but in the nonprofit space. It works really well. I made over $10MM with mostly direct mail. From a very small warm list of donors.”

#4. From a fractional CMO:

“Current client spends $200k per month on direct mail. Cold, B2C.”

#5. From the owner of a guitar school:

“I’ve basically built my whole school around it and made ~200k€ with direct mail. It’s really profitable, but a bit slow.”

#6. From an expert in retention marketing for 8-figure ecom brands:

“100%. That’s a huge part of ecomm. I’ve run many campaigns and automations with direct mail. I also have direct connections in the biggest direct mail platforms.”

My point for you today is the same as yesterday.

Direct mail has gone underground. But it is something to consider unearthing again if you have a business, so you can make sales to the 80% of your email list that doesn’t open your emails, or to the 99% of your audience that never sees your messages on social.

Direct mail is also something to consider doing behind the scenes if you partner with businesses and take a cut, or if you take on clients straight out, as a way to distinguish yourself from the sea of copywriters and marketers offering same-old services and producing same-old results.

That’s really all I have for you today.

Except, maybe you’d like to buy something from me? For just $5?

If you haven’t read it yet, you might like my 10 Commandments of A-List Copywriters.

Out of the A-list copywriters I profile in that book, the majority cut their chops on direct mail.

Their stories and commandments can be relevant to you if you decide to integrate this new-again medium of selling into your toolbox. If you’re interested:

https://bejakovic.com/10commandments

Direct mail interest rising

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A bit of behind-the-scenes of my newsletter:

Last Wednesday, a guy signed up to my email list.

As they always do, my minions went to work, figuring out who this guy is.

Turns out he has an interesting business and a book I could relate to. I sent him a 1-1 email to connect more personally.

He replied.

We got into a bit of an email conversation about what we’re each working on. We got on the topic of auctions, which I’m offering to run for people who have offers and an audience.

It turns out this guy has an email list of 99,000 living souls, mostly buyers, and a proven $10k offer he has been selling to that list.

He was interested in the idea of having me run an auction with his audience and offer.

He sent me a Loom with his questions about auction stuff. And at the end of it, he added:

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I’m wondering if you would be open to running this as a direct mail campaign as well.

Cause I’ve got 99,000 people on the list and they’re hit with emails, but direct mail is something I haven’t done yet to them.

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My eyes lit up. Direct mail is a separate topic from auctions, but it’s one I’m very, very interested in.

I tend to glamorize direct mail because its golden days happened before I came onto the scene.

All the legends of the direct response biz, from Halbert to Bencivenga to Schwartz to Caples to Collier, worked in direct mail, honed their chops on direct mail, and praised direct mail as the most reliable, most profitable, most practical medium of salesmanship multiplied.

“Come on Bejako,” I hear you say, “that was centuries ago, back in the time of Margaret Thatcher and Bill Shakespeare. Ancient history!”

No, not really. The fact is, while direct marketing definitely moved online over the past 20 years, direct mail never went away.

Some businesses continued to rely on it…

… and now, like my new reader’s comment shows, interest in direct mail is bubbling up again, among savvy business owners who might never have considered direct mail 10 years ago.

Interest in direct mail is not bubbling up because these business owners glamorize direct mail the way I do.

It’s bubbling up because direct mail today is a great investment. How great? I’ve heard one smart marketer say that for every $100 he spends on direct mail, to a highly targeted list of buyers, with a proven high-ticket offer… he makes 3 grand in return.

Those are the kinds of numbers that should make your furry ears perk up with interest.

I’m putting this idea out there so you start seeing mention of direct mail, and maybe get curious about this opportunity.

I’m also doing it as an information gathering mission.

Have you done direct mail campaigns in your own biz? Have you done direct direct mail for a client? Or do you have interest in having direct mail campaigns run for you… or learning how to do them for others?