100 best sales & marketing ideas: 9 reasons direct mail still works

18. Third time’s the charm. 

I offer three mailings to the same prospect. The first one on Monday, the second on the following Friday and the last one on the following Tuesday. By the third mailing you have a 67 percent chance of it being read. A follow-up call will be to a warm prospect.

—John Campbell

17. 50 ways to meet a client.

Each week I send out a 50-piece personal hand-lettered mailer with a real stamp, a real return address and I hand print each and every person’s address on the envelope. Then I write on the left corner “See You Next Week!” Inside the envelope it pretty much has a very quick overview of important senior issues, with my picture on the letterhead. At the bottom line of the letter I say, “If I don’t hear from you I will be stopping BY!” Within a few days I usually get one or maybe two people who call me and say “I don’t need your services,” which then I know my people got the letter. I then go to my P.O. Box to see if any were returned and then I go knocking on each and every door. You will be amazed at how people look at you when they see you are a real person at their door. I have clients who place their letter right on their televisions waiting for me. One time a person had a table and chair in the middle of their living room waiting for me! And my business couldn’t be booming any better!

—Renee Merckx

16. Low cost cards

Send these in the mail, followed up by phone calls and email are the only thing that seems to work. 

—Bill Wenner

15. Humor your prospects.

I send drip mail with a cheap watch and ask for their time. I have also sent a mirror and on it asked how they saw themselves on Medicare.

—M. Crolius

14. Consideration is key.

We focus on a four-letter word—CARE. In our office we focus on customer service. Everyone is on the same page, the client comes first. We send hand-written cards for every major event in their life, and a thank you card every time they come in our office.

—Michael Foguth