Despite the explosion of e-marketing, direct mail has grown 137% in the last 10 years. Why? Because it works. In fact implemented correctly, direct mail can generate ten times more response than other marketing.

 Insight Data has now invested in a second mail-room production line and can provide a completely outsourced direct mail service with personalised letters and mailers. The new facility increases capacity to 100,000 mailings per month.

“Most companies use mailshots to generate leads, but many don’t have the time or resources to do it on a regular basis” explains Insight Data’s direct mail manager Julia Knight; “Insight can handle both small and larger mailings and will design a professional-looking flyer, personalise a sales letter, and provide a complete mailing service for regular or one-off campaigns.”

For more information please visit http://www.insightdata.co.uk/Directmail.htm, email us on info@insightdata.co.uk or call 01934 808 293.

You may think your company doesn’t need a newsletter but think again. Newsletters are a great vehicle to deliver information to existing or prospective customers. Not only can you alert the market to your products and services, you can make a more personal connection with the reader by including interesting or heart warming stories about your staff or business. Most of your competitors don’t know how powerful a well-produced newsletter can be, so you have an opportunity to steal a march on them!

Below are just some of the reasons why you need a newsletter. Newsletters are;

• Relatively cheap to produce
• Great engagement devices that get people involved and interested
• One of the best ways to express your business identity and values
• Remarkably flexible – you can use them to convey information, promote your own offerings, share customer testimonials, provide interesting or amusing content ect.
• Relationship builders that help retain good customers, as well as attract good prospects

So how do I produce one?
Ok, so you realise that a newsletter is a great idea and now you want to produce one. But how do you go about it? The following section describes the most important parts of a newsletter and explains how you can do it yourself.

1. Masthead and nameplate
The masthead is the area that appears at the top of the newsletter. The design of the masthead needs to remain consistent throughout all your newsletters otherwise people will not recognise it is your newsletter. The nameplate is a full width display of the newsletters name, issue number and date. Make sure you use appropriate font and the colours reflect your organization.

2. Articles
Each page should have a lead story. You should give this story the most visible headline and more space than any other story– between a third and two thirds of space on the page

The lead story needs to be extremely useful and interesting to the reader. For example, you could write a story saying how selling energy rated windows will increase your customers profits or a recent industry report has reported a surge in demand for composite doors.

When you decide what articles to include in your newsletter, make sure you cover a variety of topics. You want to have something of interest to everyone but make sure it is good journalism, not just disguised sales pitches.

Get to the point
Write short, to the point articles – between 100 and 300 words – and make sure they contain solid nuggets of useable information. Also make sure you tell stories. Tell who did what, when and why they did it and insert a relevant photo of the person.

Grabbing and holding the readers attention
Design is as important as writing in making an appealing newsletter. Lay out articles in such a way that they capture the reader’s attention and invite them to read on. Break them up with new paragraphs at least every five or seven column centimeters. Interrupt long flows of text with headers, tables bullets or an illustration. Add a sidebar (a very short piece or how-to tip that relates to the main article) to increase appeal to the reader.

3. Headers
Headers (also called headlines) should be set in the larger and bolder type than the body of the article. Don’t make a header too wordy, but ensure that it contains enough description to invite the viewer to read on.

You can use special headline typefaces for your headers or use bold type from the same typeface family used in the body of the article. You don’t want to use too many type styles in a single publication. As a general rule of thumb, stick to using one type style for most or all of your text. However, headlines are the exception. You can use a variety of colours shapes and sizes in the headlines to keep them interesting and break up the articles.

4. Type
The body of an article should use a clean, conservative typeface set large enough so it can be easily read – usually size 10, 11, or 12. Avoid all fonts designed to look like handwriting, comic book scripts or old typewriters, unless you have a really good reason to use them.

5. Columns
Use columns whenever you have a large amount of type. The eye may waver and jump from line to line when it has to follow lines of type that go across a full page. If you break up the same article into two or three columns, the line is shorter, so the eye focuses for a shorter amount of time and doesn’t get side tracked.

6. Flow and readability
Make sure your newsletter flows. If you have to continue articles on another page, don’t make finding the continuation difficult for readers. If possible, keep article together to make reading less frustrating.

7. Size
You can publish newsletters on virtually any size of paper. The main factors are the amount of content you have and budget (think smaller if you are on a limited budget). Newsletters can range from both sides of an A4 to a 4, 6 or 8 page A4 newsletter.  A larger format A3 newsletter is still occassionally used to create impact, but can look a little clumsey.

8. Photos and artwork
As with brochures, you can use photos and artwork to make a newsletter article more interesting and to create an appropriate mood or feeling. Text wrap – when a text wraps around a box containing artwork instead of stopping above the box and continuing below it – can also be an effective strategy in a newsletter.

Get these factors right and you will be well on your way to writing a newsletter that will hook the interest of new and prospective customers. Alternatively, Insight Data’s creative design and copywriting team will put together a powerful newsletter, print it and mail it to your prospect clients selected from the Insight database. For more information contact us on info@insightdata.co.uk, by telephone on 01934 808293 or visit www.insightdata.co.uk

If you use direct mail to promote your company, writing a powerful sales letter is absolutely vital. So how do you write a sales letter than really gets the phone ringing?

Pitch to the right audience

Your product or service needs to match the needs of the recipient. It’s no good trying to sell your bespoke aluminium system to an installer who only deals in PVC-u.   Likewise, don’t send technical material to the sales manager, or fluffy sales material to an operations manager.   Target precisely and make it relevant to the reader.

Using a headline introduction

Use a powerful introduction headline to capture the readers attention so they read the first paragraph.  (Which has more impact: “A sales letter Richard Branson would be proud off” or “Writing a good sales letter”).

Use short paragraphs and be precise

Less is more. Get to the point and be clear and concise throughout, or you risk losing their interest.  Short, snappy paragraphs are always best.  And make it personal – Dear Mr Smith will always elicit a better response than “Dear Sir or Madam”.

Use simple words

You are not trying to impress the reader with your vocabulary.  Short, easily digestible words are better than long, impressive words.  This isn’t a technical data sheet, it’s a sales letter.

Focus on benefits

You may want to shout from the rooftops how good your new product is, but all the reader cares about is what it will do for them.  Talk about the benefits – will it make life easier for the customer, is it faster, better, cheaper? Will it improve sales or profit margins?  “This new window will reduce your heating bill by £325 per year” is better than “Our windows are fitted with the latest Low-E glass”.

Include a call to action

Every direct mail letter should include an all-important call to action, ideally with a deadline. Call before 4pm Monday. The call-to-action should direct people to your website, or to phone or email you for a specific reason – more information, book an appointment, request a brochure.   Let people know what to do, and some of them will do it. Don’t let them know, and nobody will do it!

Use testimonials

The best recommendation for your product or service comes from satisfied customers, so try to include a testimonial. If you delivered 20 composite doors at short notice to one of your trade customers, quoting your customer as “delighted with your service” can be very compelling.

Use the You word

I can talk all day about how great I am and how great my company and my products are, after all we are the number one in our industry.  Alternatively I can talk about you and your business and how you could increase your sales and increase your profit if you simply contacted me. You is the most powerful sales-word in the English language.  Since M&S (Marks & Spencer) became Your M&S the business has seen spectacular success.  Are you sold yet?

So there you have it.  By following these tips you should be well on your way to writing powerful sales letter that might even impress Richard Branson.  But if you don’t have the time or resources to do your own direct mail, Insight Data has a dedicated direct mail division, including highly experienced copy writers.  Call 01934 808293, follow us at www.twitter.com/insightdata or visit http://www.insightdata.co.uk/Directmail.htm

Posted by Insight Data’s marketing team. 

Insight Data is the UK’s leading provider of prospect data for the window, conservatory and building industry, with an in-house direct mail and email marketing division for customers who don’t have the time or resources to carry out database marketing themselves. www.insightdata.co.uk

Our thanks to www.asgmarketing.co.uk for supplying this article.

With direct mail proven to generate 10 to 20 times more response than other marketing why do so many companies still get the basics wrong? Below are the 7 Laws of Success that will make sure your direct mail campaign is a success and drives new business right to your door.

 1. Use data from an accurate up-to-date database – High quality data is the backbone of any direct mail campaign. Don’t use directories, online listings, or budget mailing lists – you’ll be wasting your money trying to contact companies who have moved, gone bust, or who are not relevant to your product/service. Investing in a prospect list that is accurate and up-to-date will pay for itself many times over.

2. Use a personalised, well written sales letter – A personlised letter is more likely to be opened by the recipient, giving you the few seconds needed to create an impact. However, if your grammar is poor or the copy doesn’t flow, the reader will simply bin the letter, wasting all your hard work. Even the layout of the letter is important. If it doesn’t look appealing to the eye it won’t be read.  See our article on writing a sales letter.

3. Use window envelopes – never use address labels -What is the first thing people think when receiving a letter addressed with a label? Junk mail. And the first thing they do? Throw it in the bin. Window envelopes look more professional and are much more likely to be opened by the intended recipient rather than their secretary – giving you a few vital seconds to create an impact.  

4. Produce a quality flyer/mailer with your USP – if you don’t give the reader a really good reason to contact you, guess what? They won’t!  Think carefully about the benefits your product/service offers and explain it clearly and precisely.  Then, turn this into a well-designed, well-written and high-impact flyer/mailer. 

5. Always include a ‘call-to-action’ – Good design and copy is essential to hook the readers interest in the first place. You then need to tell your reader what to do next – otherwise known as ‘call to action’.  For example – “Call now to get your free quote!” or “Visit our Website today and download our new order form!” If you don’t explicitly tell someone what to do, the chances are they won’t bother contacting you. 

6. Remember: Repetition creates Recognition – One or two mailers will create a response, but mailing regularly will keep you name where it needs to be – in front of your prospect.  And what happens when they need your particular type of product/service, or their current supplier lets them down?    Remember: Repetition creates Recognition.   Mail prospects monthly and you’ll quickly see your brand recognition – and enquiry levels – increase.

7. Monitor and analyse your response - Be sure to record your response rate and see which mailers give the best response.  Simply changing the headline or image can dramatically change the response rate.  So experiment and monitor the results – and keep tweaking it until you maximise your response rate!

Getting these Seven Laws right can transform your fortunes and potentially drive millions of pounds in business to your doorstep.  If you don’t have the time or resources to carry out regular direct mail in-house Insight Data has a dedicated direct mail division, visit http://www.insightdata.co.uk/Directmail.htm, email us on info@insightdata.co.uk or call 01934 808 293.

Insight Data Ltd

Insight Data is the UK’s leading supplier of prospect data for the window and conservatory industry, with an in-house direct mail and email marketing department for customers who don’t have the time or resources to carry our database marketing themselves. Visit www.insightdata.co.uk