Sometimes it’s fun – and profitable – to use a marketing gimmick, by introducing an intentional error into your direct mail campaign.

Not long ago, Jeff Kaller mailed a mountain of postcards driving people to call – the wrong number. Followed by mailings apologizing for and correcting the mistake.

And getting better than ever response.

In another case a sales letter and registration form was sent out for a very pricey event with the dates, place and price missing. Nearly 70% called to inform the sender of the mistakes: some irritated, some trying to be helpful. This put 70% on the phone with his three telemarketers, who closed half during the calls; net 35% registration vs. best ever prior sign-up rate from same customers for comparable events, 15%.

Joe Sugarman gave discounts and rewards to people who found the most mistakes in his ads. The technical term for this is: involvement.

Intentional errors… are they gimmicks, or are they ‘hooks’?

You’ll know once the responses start coming in!

Direct mail for small businesses is what we do best. We can provide a complete design-print service or let you design it yourself using our free MS Word or Publisher templates. When you’re done, just mail merge and ‘print’ the job to us via our internet print queue. Whether you’re promoting a new product, service or your new website, direct mail REALLY WORKS!

Let us help you save time, expense and achieve a great ROI on your next newsletter. For details or a quick quote phone Dean on 03 963 8899 or email info@cq.co.nz

It sounds simple but inviting your customers to do business  with you is an effective strategy for significantly improving  current sales. Take it from Max Grassfield, owner of  Grassfield’s an upscale men’s clothing store. Max founded the store 35 years ago, and is still running the business.

Max has become so skilled at inviting his customers to do  business that he developed a trademarked system called,  “Invitational MarketingTM.” Max issues personal invitations to  his store to a carefully selected group of individuals in the  Denver area. His method works.

Several years ago, Max Grassfield asked himself, “What can we do to make Grassfield’s unique (which is a question all  small business owners need to ask themselves).” The answer, which he evolved after much study, research, and effort was to develop methods to know his customers “better than the other stores know their customer.”

Know your customer!

For the last ten years, Grassfield’s has been collecting a database of information on its customers, who voluntarily  provide it. Originally, the data included name, address, telephone numbers, sizes, birthdays, and the wife’s name.  (He discovered that wives are often heavily involved in their husband’s clothing purchases.)

He regularly writes customers on a one-to-one basis that use the customer’s first name or nickname (as the customer  prefers), their sizes, wife’s name, product preferences, and references to what they bought in the previous season.

Most communications are programmed to include messages designed only for the particular customer addressed: “I’ve been keeping my eyes on the 44 long suits…” Every letter is  personally signed by the customer’s salesman who he met while visiting the store.

Recently, he sent a wave of three different oversized postcards in one month intervals, to 4,100 regular customers. Each card greeted the customer by name, and was signed by his  salesman.

The Business Results?

There were 117 respondents (a 2.85% response rate) with an average sale of $451. It was an outstanding success. The final cost per piece mailed was just 48 cents including postage. For a $1,986 investment, he brought in $52,767 in sales. (Compare that with the cost of full page ads!)

A couple of months later, Max selected eight suit sizes that  were overstocked. Using the database, he drafted a special  note to each customer whose size fit one of these eight groups.

The incentive was $100 off any suit in that inventory, and $200 off the high-end Hickey Freeman suites. He mailed 1,164 invitations at a cost of $558 and sold 56 suits in 39  transactions. The average sale was $1,110 with a total volume  of $43,307!

This case study is a great example of the power of marketing to your current customer base. Max knows who his good customers are and he takes advantage of that by personally  inviting them to do business with him, again and again. It also  demonstrates the power and importance of collecting information about your customer and how it can be used to make you a lot of money.

( Click here to read more from the original article)

Here at CQ we offer a range of direct mailing options, enticing your customers into your store as Max did.

From smart machinery that will automatically insert your letters into envelopes (right) to tips to accelerate printing, eliminating delays. We’re also aware of the latest NZ Post requirements too, to ensure faster, more reliable delivery.

Colour Sells – Ever wanted to include colour photos of people or product shots into your MS Word Documents? – Words make the sale, but images catch the eye – Most of us know that images in office documents can cause a printing meltdown, especially for a mail merge, where hundreds of pages are generated!

But by utilising our smart MS Word templates, CQ internet print queue (web to print) and our production-grade variable printing technology, this is all done in minutes, not hours or days. Let us show you how, in a risk-free trial…

We also offer a complete design, print and mailing service. The real key to success is in the format, copy and offer. As Max and other organisations worldwide have discovered, the humble Postcard format is often the most cost-effective, saving heaps of time and needless expense. Ask for some free samples.