Photo Credit: FT Business of Luxury
Other marketers may have great ideas for running direct mail campaigns – that you could benefit from. It’s not exactly cheating. After all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
We’re all bombarded with marketing messages all the time. As a marketer yourself, you should start paying attention to them. See if you can pick out the WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?) and call-to-action (what they want you to do).
I’ve brainwashed myself in this. Everywhere I go I’m always looking for the marketing messages and trying to find ways I can apply the good ones for my private clients.
One of the most valuable things you can do for your direct mail business is to find out what others are mailing. And one easy way to do this is to get your name on other marketers’ mailing lists.
Why?
You can always learn from what others are doing. And specifically, you may learn about something that you are not doing, BUT SHOULD be doing.
For example, maybe one of your competitors has recently changed from a single payment plan to a multi-payment plan.
Or, maybe others in your niche changed the way their customers are led to respond to their offer. Instead of driving them online, they’ve started driving them to a phone number.
I’m constantly receiving mail from dozens of different niches. If I start working a new niche that I’ve never worked in before, then I go into that market and get on every mailing list available. That way I can see exactly what everyone else is mailing in that niche.
The more I know about what my competitors are mailing, the better footing I’m on in order to compete with them. If I don’t know what they are doing or how they are presenting their offer, then I will not know whether or not I can make changes to my sales pieces to make them even better than theirs.
How?
So, how do you get onto mailing lists within a specific niche (or in any niche)? It’s easy! Buy a few items from a few companies whose mailings you’d like to see. By spending money with them, they’ll put you on their mailing lists. If they are direct mail savvy, they will start sending you a variety of promotions.
A few of my private clients are in the financial niche. There are a lot of financial newsletters, but I only care about those that market through direct mail. I’ll often subscribe to an Agora Newsletter to get on their mailing lists.
Anyone who is doing direct mail for a financial publication is most likely going to rent a list from one or both of those companies. So when I subscribe to them, I get two things:
- I get on Agora’s house file lists and I’ll start receiving their backend campaign mailings. I’ll see what other products and services they are offering.
- I’ll get put on their rented mailing list so I’ll get to see what others, who rent their lists, are mailing.
I do this for a variety of niches … so I get A LOT of mail each day.
Take advantage of this quick tip of the week and DO something with it! Get on a few different mail¬ing lists within your niche and then start a file to keep track of the mail pieces that you receive.
Bonus tip
I like to use a different first name for each list that I get on. For example, for Agora, I may use Aiden and for a different list, I may use Larry.
By doing this, I’ll know that every piece that shows up in my mailbox with Aiden Simpson on it, originated with Agora. It could be a backend sales piece that they are sending me. OR it could be a sales piece from someone who rented the Agora list.
Either way, I’ll know the source of that sales piece.
Next, take a close look at each piece you receive and read through the copy and offer. Do you see anything that you might like to test in your own direct mail campaigns? Are there any “game changer” ideas that surface from seeing what others are doing?
I’ve helped my private clients make MILLIONS by making simple changes to their sales pieces. Many of these changes originated from seeing what oth¬ers are doing!
Make an effort to find out what other marketers are doing. What works for them may very well work for YOU!