Yes, Yes, Yes and it does work.
But let me tell you, I am amazed by the amount of salons that try a letter, send it out, get no response and wonder why there was no response so give up, is that you or your salon?
How hard is it for you to get a salesperson into the home of a client?
A campaign is a sustained attack on something. So, in other words, we keep having a go. Having a go isn’t enough though to deliver success. Why?
Here are some of the nuts and bolts you need to know before going mad with a hit and miss campaign. This is directed at new clients. If you don’t have a database…WHY NOT, get building one now.
Patience and perseverance… the fact is most give up after sending out one letter and getting no response. Do you respond to a letter you get for the very first time that comes through the door? You may be interested in the product but it could take six months for you to get around to realizing that if you respond to it there could be benefits in it for you.
Good advice… can anyone send out a letter and get a response? It’s worth asking after all response rates are very low generally. If you want to do it your self it’s worth taking some advice before you go with it. There are a ton of books out there that will give you the basics of what you need to create the rights of a mail out campaign and avoid the wrongs. Ring me for advice, or go buy a good book like Herschell Gordon Lewis fantastic book on mail outs.
Good Copywriter… believe me it’s a big mistake to write a sales letter your self. Most companies do, yet the facts show that most companies fail to deliver on their mail-out campaigns, that must tell us something. I have yet to see a high response sales letter be written by the company selling the product. You are too close, too passionate and the letters usually sound desperate or too stiff. Do your self a favor get a good Copywriter that can deliver the goods. Some like myself work by the hour. Others will price a job for a letter. You need to know how they create the letter and how they research the content.
“I bought the xtreme 21 and OMG” Ughor, Ireland READ HERE WHY
The right list… no point getting a mail list and sending it to say 20,000 hoping that some will respond to it. Yet that is what most do. Look if you are selling say baby stuff is there any point sending that mail to a street full of sixty-somethings. No of course not you need to go where your target is. I have my top list and it has about 900 prospects on I mail to. Every time I mail out I spend at least 1 hour doing a selection from my list. From that, I mail out around 20-30 prospects. I get at least 5-10 respond to the mail. Volume isn’t everything here. Targeting is. Get the list right.
Planning… Don’t just send a mail out and that’s it. Plan the campaign for a run of at least six months. Send say three letters at one week, one week later, two weeks later and then one a month for the next six months. Plan the whole thing before you go with it.
Follow-ups... get this side right. Follow up on everything properly. I set up a system for an accountant. The whole idea was that they would get a response in a certain way. They had to respond in a certain way to get the sale. They never did it and lost good leads, shame.
More patience... if you want miracles and overnight success forget it. You might get one client ringing through and going for it big time but they are like getting gold from the Klondike and just never happen these days. Be patient. Plan for success in six months at the earliest. The rest is a bonus.
Automated the system… keep it simple. Get it on autopilot as much as you can. I am not really a template man I create new letters for each project and tailor make everything always but if templates work for you use them. If the whole thing gets overcomplicated you will soon get fed up and probably scrap the whole idea.
The bottom line is this… if you don’t mail out to your clients you are losing or missing out on increased takings?
We all need reminding of everything these days, life is busy. Your clients are no different.
Keep in touch with them, set up a system where you mail them at least every six weeks and it will pay off big time for you.
Finally, if you start it, never give it it will pay off.
Alan Forrest Smith
(This article is taken from the original SalonPunk archives)
