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Three Key Reasons Why Your Last Mailing Failed - and How to Fix Your Next One

A Web developer came to me with a copy of a direct mail letter he had sent offering prospects a free sample Web site. He had mailed the letter to a list that had generated numerous leads the first time he used it. However, this time the response was terrible. What happened?

1) The list was old.

He bought the list two years ago. The list worked when it was new, but two years later he ended up with a large pile of returned mail. It was like throwing money in the garbage.

Keep your house lists up-to-date. The failure rate (returned mail) should be about 2-3%. If you get significantly more returned mail than that, invest the time and money to clean your list.

The sooner you do it, the less it will cost (and the investment will pay off in lower return rates and more orders).

2) It was difficult to respond.

The free sample web sites printed on the promotional letter had long, complex URLs. The more difficult it is to do something, the less likely it is your prospects will do it. If you use a sample URL in a letter or an ad keep it short and simple so it's easy to type into a search box.

3) It was hard to read.

The letter was a jumble of colors and fonts. Use one or two fonts at most, with bold headlines. You don't want your promotional letter to look like a ransom note.

About the Author

Jodi Kaplan, founder of KaplanCopy, fixes "broken" marketing. If your marketing is costing more money than it's making and people leave your Web site without buying, your marketing is broken. For more tips, and a free 25-page marketing guide, go to KaplanCopy Small Business Marketing Guide

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