B2B
Direct Mail Sales Letters Need an Offer (Here's
Why)
In direct mail, the offer is the incentive or
reward that you dangle in front of your prospects to
motivate them to respond to your mailing. In
business-to-consumer direct mail, for example, a magazine
publisher will offer a yearly subscription to its magazine
at 60% off the newsstand price. The discount is the offer.
It motivates prospects to subscribe now and save 60%.
Offers are vital to the success of your business-to-business
(B2B) direct mail campaigns as well. You need to motivate
action. Without a clear, compelling offer, your response rates
will be low and your mailing unprofitable. Here’s why you need
an offer.
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Your prospects are preoccupied
 The people you are trying to reach are just as busy
as you are. They avoid salespeople. They avoid things
that waste their time. They use call display. You need
a compelling offer because you only have a second or
two to grab your prospect’s attention at work.
Don’t
expect that your company name, or your product name, or
your top product feature, will grab their attention.
Use a compelling offer instead.
-
Your prospects don’t care about you
That sounds kind of harsh, stated like that. But
your prospects don’t care about your company, your
extensive client list, your qualifications or your
product features. That means your direct mail package
has to meet your prospects where they are, not where
you are. You have to start by saying “you” rather than
saying “we.” Your offer, clearly communicated, shows
prospects that you care about them.
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Your prospects are skeptical
Tired of advertising hype? Your prospects are, too.
They read all sales messages with their built-in hype
detector in full operation. Your offer helps to
overcome this skepticism by showing your prospects that
you will reward them for taking action. You are not
asking them to believe your sales pitch, just to
respond to your offer, and to take the sales process to
the next step.
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Your prospects are self-interested
Your prospects are interested in themselves. They
don’t want to hear about what your product or service
does as much as what it will do for them. When you
offer a free report that promises to save your
prospects time, money or effort, or promises to make
them more efficient and look good in front of their
managers, you answer the “what’s in it for me?”
question in a satisfactory way.
Alan is a business-to-business direct mail copywriter and
lead generation consultant. As President of Sharpe Copy Inc.
(http://www.sharpecopy.com), Alan
specializes in helping businesses generate leads, close
sales and retain customers, using cost-effective,
compelling direct mail and email marketing. Alan also
uses his direct mail advertising services to help
charities raise funds and raise awareness of their
causes, using fundraising letters.
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