10/14/11

Follow-up with a Direct Marketing Letter


Direct mail can be used to follow up on your first sales letter.  The follow-up marketing letter is used to keep your business name in front of your customers.

By Lanee' Blunt

There was no reply from your sales letter campaign, should you stop there, or should you throw away your mailing list?  There are far better ways to deal with this than getting another mailing list. A single letter may not be enough to convince certain prospects to call you from your direct mail.  It may take more than one letter to convince prospects to call you.  Follow-up letters are great at building a reputation.  Copy the big corporations and send out a follow-up marketing letter.

A Well Qualified Mailing List
You have the right mailing list for your business, have sent sales letters to prospects on this list, but received no reply.  You must deal with the same mailing list because it is qualified for your business. The prospects may need more information about your small business before deciding to buy from you or call you, so one letter may not be enough for certain prospects. Even if you don’t hear from the prospect they may still be interested in your product or service.

The Follow-up Letters should be in a Series
What will be your time frame before sending the next letter; this is something that you will have to give some thought too.  A series can consist of letters and brochures that you will send to the prospects. “The follow-up campaign usually consists of a series of letters or printed stuffers designed to obtain business through a variety of effective appeals,” according to Carroll Nolan and Roman Warmke’s book, Marketing Sales Promotion and Advertising, (South-Western, 1965). People will read long copy if it is information on a product or service they are interested in purchasing. Give enough information in the letter.

If You Don’t Hear From the Prospect
If you have sent your sales letter, and still there was no response from the prospect. Send a polite letter, it should be different from the first one, and restate your selling points. Let the prospect know that your service is beneficial.

Pre-plan the Follow-up
The follow-up program will work like automation if it is planned, for example: After sending a sales letter then mail a brochure.  A contact program will remind you of the pieces of direct mail you need to send and the correct dates to send them. Keep on schedule and send the letters as soon as possible.

You should stick to your schedule of once a month, or once every other month, or once every four months. 

Reference:

Carroll Nolan and Roman Warmke; Marketing Sales Promotion and Advertising; South-Western

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