The 2nd Effort Effect and Its Impact on Your Direct Mail Success
I don’t know what your basketball IQ is. But I have a fantastic suggestion to help you achieve Direct Mail success in 2019 – and beyond. And it comes directly from that simple game invented way back in 1891!
First, what do you think Dennis Rodman, Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Moses Malone, and Hakeem Olajuwon all have in common? Give up? I’ll tell you.
They’re five of the best rebounders in the history of the NBA. Dennis Rodman has over 1.1 MILLION ‘colorful’ rebounds on his own!
I bring up rebounds because I want to share why you need to think about them when considering a Direct Mail campaign – and how to make them as effective as you possibly can to ‘outscore’ your competition. Sending a single postcard to a prospect and hoping they pick up the phone or email you isn’t super realistic.
Rodman and gang were masters of the rebound, or what we call the follow-up in sales. And by putting themselves in position to take second, third, and even fourth shots, their teams became very, very successful. There are 3 critical Direct Mail ideas tie back to the concept of rebounding and/or follow up, and are fundamental to a sustainable, repeatable, and success campaign:
1.) Understand the odds – A common misconception is that if you try Direct Mail once and it isn’t success, that it will never be a success. It’s a long game dealing with the right message sent to the right audience the right way.
2.) Understand the concept of testing (practice) – A Direct Mail campaign is an absolute gold mine when it’s a success. But to find the right message (and beat the odds), you need to create ‘test’ messages and put them up against ‘control’ messages. A ‘control’ is a message or campaign that worked well. A ‘test’ alters some part of the message to try and expand the reach of the campaign to a larger audience, or appeal to a different part of that larger audience. “The best test beats the control maybe 25 percent of the time.”
3.) Understand the objective – A Direct Mail campaign is successful when a specific number or percentage of prospects buys your product or service, and becomes a client, or asks for your free offer and becomes a lead. Plan out the number of mailings against an expected response rate based on what you want to achieve (e.g., five sales out of 1,000 postcards in the first phase). It is critical to know what percentage of purchase/response, based on your campaigns, is to be considered a success.
Repetition, as a concept, is just as powerful in learning a new language, as it is in rebounding. And the same is true in wanting to make sure your prospects understand exactly what you do, why they have the ‘pain’ they do, and how you can help eliminate that pain from their business. Your business exists to make their lives easier. Drive that home. Use Direct Mail to repeat that message.
Do it efficiently. Do it effectively. Do it repeatedly.
Your own goals are building your business, building your brand, maximizing your success, etc. The path to achieving all of those goals is making sure prospects know your name; making sure they know what you can do for them. The best way to do that is to stay top-of-mind. And the best way to stay top-of-mind is through well-planned, timely, and repeated (rebounding) marketing campaigns.
We have Direct Mail coaches who are excited about your potential, and want to coach you on all the ways you can jump up and grab success! Set up a free coaching call with us. Dennis Rodman, Wilt Chamberlain, and everybody else on that list up top knew that the real money was in the follow-up. Now you do, too.