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How Positive
Response helped Harry Bryan
achieve a 12% response rate
"Ernest, I read all of your articles with very high interest.
Recently, I attended an industry trade show. The show organizer
gave me a list of those attending on a floppy disk in a merge
file. Using the tips and techniques you write about in your
articles I wrote a personal letter to 475 individuals. This
letter included a free sample offer and the request had to be
made by April 10th. These letters were mailed on Wednesday March
4th. On Friday March 6th, our office
fielded 36 calls from prospects responding to the letter. We are
experiencing over 12% response - and all of the letters have not
arrived yet! It's not a matter of IF we hit 20% response - but
which day this week it happens.
"The owners of our company are truly amazed. We have done letters
before with zilch response. This is the first time we have done a
letter of this type. These prospects
will soon be customers and we can expect significant gains in
sales growth! I look forward to your next article!"
Harry Bryan
Southeast Region Sales Manager
NISUS Corporation
Thanks Harry!
Glad you found the information helpful!
How Empty Words
Can Cripple Your Sales Copy
In his keynotes and recordings, legendary motivational
speaker and sales trainer Zig Ziglar often talks about the
importance of having meaningful, specific goals. He asks, "What
would you rather be in life, a meaningful specific or a wandering
generality?" As marketers, if we want our sales copy to produce
profitable results we would do well to heed Zig's admonition.
Read this article to find out how to translate Zig's advice into
action and make your sales copy do a better job of selling.
5
Marketing Resolutions For Boosting '08 Results
How was your 2007? Meet your sales
projections? How about profits? Did you hit your target, blow it
away, or fall a little short? No matter the results for '06, the
year ahead is what counts now. Read this article for 5 marketing
resolutions you can act on to make the year ahead a banner year
for your business.
How To Make It Past
“White Fang” & Get Your Message Through To Senior Level
Executives
How do you get through to the "Big Kahuna" and get
him or her to respond to your direct mail package? The first
thing you must do is get past the gatekeeper, otherwise known as
"White Fang." This article shows you 5 proven ways you can
de-fang "White Fang" and generate more leads from senior-level
executives.
Four Score
and Seven Years Ago: Copywriting Lessons From Our 16th President
Abraham Lincoln
was not only one of our greatest presidents, he was the most
skillful writer ever to occupy the White House. His moving and
eloquent Gettysburg Address contains valuable copywriting and
communications lessons for business people and communicators at
all levels. This article points out how you can apply these
lessons to make your copywriting, marketing communications and
business presentations more memorable and effective.
How to Win Over
the "Man in the Chair": Salesmanship, Repetition, and Direct Mail
In a classic business-to-business print ad from the late 50's
that came to be known as the "Man in the Chair" ad, an imposing
looking executive sits in his chair looking out from the page
with a scowl on his face. He's one tough hombre to get your
message across to, much like most of today's buyers. He needs a
lot of convincing -- about you, your company and your product or
service. This article presents you with several winning
strategies for winning over the "Man in the Chair" -- and,
closing more sales.
How To Use Direct Mail To Pull Double
Digit Response Rates and Close Sales Fast: Go To The Extreme
Want a big response and quick sales from your next direct marketing
effort? Then take your marketing to the extreme. With a well
thought out, well executed extreme marketing program you'll pull
big numbers and close new business relatively fast.
This case study article details a successful extreme
campaign that produced a 14% response rate and closed significant
new business in a short time frame. Better yet, just
about any business can easily adapt the tactics of this campaign
to carry out their own successful extreme marketing
program.
How To Craft
Stronger, More Compelling Offers That Boost Response Rates
How's your
direct mail program working? Not quite satisfied with your
response rates? Want to kick things up a notch or two or three?
It may be as simple as improving your offer -- which, after all,
can account for up to 60% of your success. This article gives you
proven pointers for more profitable offers. Check it out now and
start boosting your response rates with stronger, more
compelling offers.
How To Get Your Prospect To Open Your
Mail
If
not enough people open the envelope and look inside, your sales
letter or direct mail package will fail. It's as simple as that.
So how do you get your customers and prospects to open your mail? This
article offers two tried and true
strategies.
How Elvis
Helped Seal The Deal: Capturing Attention and Profits With
Dimensional Mail
Ever think of using a celebrity to help market your business?
I did -- none other than The King, Elvis Presley. For an
informative, fun read with
solid marketing tips take a look at this article I was
asked to write for Deliver Magazine, a publication put out
by The U.S. Postal Service (www.usps.com/deliver).
Reproduced here, with permission.
Five Never
Forgets For Sales Letter Success
Chances are, over the years you’ve had any number
of family members, friends and business colleagues pass along
advice to you with a lead-in that goes, “Never forget….” Along
those lines here are a few tips and pointers about writing an
effective sales letter. And never forget, there’s no time like
right now to check out this informative article.
How To
Write An Attractive Sales Letter That Attracts More Readers
Whether you're looking to attract a mate or attract
customers, good looks help. And that's true for your sales letter
as well. An attractive sales letter will more likely catch the
eye of the reader, make them want to spend time with it, and
increase the odds that they'll respond to your offer. Check out
this article for five "dress for success" tips to make your next
sales letter more successful.
Surviving Your Moment of Truth: 3
Effective Ways To Open A Sales Letter
Without an effective opening your sales letter
will be headed for the "round file" in a matter of seconds. But
craft a good opening and your sales letter will survive its
moment of truth and have a real chance at success. For three
tried and true, proven and profitable sales letter openers read
this article.
Five Deadly
Sales Letter Mistakes
When you sit down at the keyboard to write your sales letter, are
you thinking, "Now I've got to keep this to one page"? As you
start to write are your thoughts focused on the hundreds or
thousands of people your letter is going out to or just one
single individual? Do you make absolutely sure that every word,
sentence and paragraph of your letter is grammatically correct?
Who and what do you focus on in your copy? Depending on your
answers to these questions you may be making one or more of five
deadly sales letter mistakes. Read this article and find out
before your next marketing effort.
The "Marshall Plan" For Customer Aftercare: How To Spend
Less & Sell More
Yes, it's vitally important to continually add new customers. But
it's also equally important to have an effective customer
aftercare program in place. One that helps you maintain the
health and increase the profitability of your existing customer
relationships. You'll be well on your way to building stronger,
longer-lasting, more profitable relationships with your customers
when you implement your very own "Marshall Plan."
9
Effective Headlines And Why They Worked
Advertising great David Ogilvy said that unless the headline of
your ad sells your product or service you have wasted 90% of your
money. So how can you learn to write effective headlines? By
studying moneymaking headlines from past ads. This article offers
up nine great ones with expert commentary on why they worked and
how to make the same tactics work for you.
How To Write A
Smooth Flowing Sales Letter That Produces Profitable Results
How well do the thoughts and ideas in your sales letter flow?
Does one sales point smoothly and effectively transition to the
next? Do they build on one another and lead to a logical
conclusion? Get a better handle and you'll start getting better
results. This article shows you how.
Write On The
Money: The Ten Commandments (Plus Five) Of Profitable Sales
Letter Writing
Every year
direct mail marketing efforts by U.S. businesses generate hundreds
of billions of dollars in sales. Is your business getting its
fair share? Do you, your staff, your copywriter or agency have
what it takes to write an effective sales letter or direct mail
package? Not sure? Then check out these 15 Commandments "Moses"
Nicastro brought down from Mt. High Response.
Why You Should Take A Tip From Zig Ziglar
And Apply It To Your Sales Letters
In his seminars and tapes world-renowned motivational speaker Zig
Ziglar always talks about the importance of having meaningful,
specific goals. And he’ll drive home his point with the
rhetorical question, "What would you rather be in life, a
meaningful specific or a wandering generality?" Zig makes a great
point. It's also a good thought to keep in mind when writing a
sales letter. Article includes a critique of a sales letter sadly
lacking in meaningful specifics.
Going For The Sales Letter Gold: Picabo Street Sets An
Example
Just as in Olympic
competition, in marketing and direct mail the margin of victory
-- the difference between bringing home the gold and being
an also-ran -- is usually razor thin. Often it's that extra bit
of attention to the smallest of details that wins the day. Picabo
Street came through in the '98 Winter Olympics and you can come
through with better results from your next direct marketing
effort by following the example she set. Get the details in this
article, which also includes a sales letter critique.
3 Questions That Will Get
More Prospects To "Listen" To What You Have To "Say"
"How effective are your opening couple of lines at making the
reader stop and "listen" to what you have to "say?" Good
questions are effective tools for doing that. And this article
presents three that you can adapt for use in your next direct
marketing effort. Plus, it includes a detailed sales letter
critique. If you're planning a direct marketing effort anytime
soon you'll want to look this article over.
How Long Should Your Sales Letter Be?
What's your opinion? Got to keep it to one page, right? Wrong!
Nobody has the time to read anymore, right? Wrong! After all,
somebody's reading and posting to all those blogs. Here's the
deal: There is no such thing as a sales letter that's too long.
As the man sang in his song, "that's my story and I'm sticking to
it." If you want more details read my article. That is, if you're
not too busy. Includes a critique of a too short sales
letter.
How To Write An Effective Sales Letter For Your Business
Writing your own copy? Would you hire yourself out to do if
for other businesses? If not, why are you hiring yourself to
write for your business? Still insist on doing it
yourself? Go ahead. Just be sure you do your homework.
How much homework does it take for a non-professional to write an
effective sales letter? Read this article I was asked to
write for the Mailing Know-How website and find out.
Just For Fun: How Are
The Numbers? (The Lead-Generation Rap)
Ernest Nicastro's alter-ego, E. "Ice-E" Nicastro,
wrote this rap about marketing and lead-generation. One of the
traits of a good writer is his or her ability to write in many
different genres. Take a look and see how well you think "Ice-E"
succeeded.
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