One of the most successful legends of direct response marketing doesn’t use email and insists that people call or fax you to get their response.
I mean the great Dan Kennedy.
But don’t get confused for a minute: Kennedy is one of the smartest and most up-to-date marketers out there, refusing to take email inquiries as a matter of principle.
Why?
Because you value your time.
Look, he knows that people won’t think half as much of writing an email as they do of writing an actual physical letter, a fax, or what they’ll say over the phone.
There is a certain level of dedication and seriousness in the way people perceive a physical letter these days.
But that’s not how it always used to be, and the biggest reason for this is … you guessed it: emails.
Think about it: 20 years ago, hardly anyone used email, so our mailbox was full (millennials read this; I suggest you look up “Physical Mailbox” in the dictionary), so all spam came in that medium and , therefore, the mail was less “important”.
Nowadays, we rarely get physical spam (usually just spam flyers and promotions), so it takes more time to check your less crowded mailbox, making physical mail a very much a type of communication. more “prestigious”. the experts “would like to believe.
And when it comes to physical mail, there is no greater teacher alive today than Mr. Dan Kennedy, who uses it as the lifeblood of his business, and that is exactly why you should consider this new and old medium for your business too.
Like everything in direct response, I suggest you try intertwining it with your stuff online.
Get physical addresses of your potential customers, and once they reach out to customers, send them upsells and high-value product promotions in the physical mail.
Two insanely awesome features that physical mail has that emails don’t have:
Lumpy Mail: How Exciting Is It To Receive A Big, Noisy Box In The Mail? I mean, your heart literally beats louder just by guessing what’s inside. Great direct response marketers know this and use that enthusiasm to attract attention and create a special kind of excitement around their sales letters.
Grabbers: Used to immense success by the late great Gary Halbert (and Mr. Kennedy, of course), grabbers are things you would attach to your physical letter that create an unmatched level of curiosity in your reader. Mr. Halbert’s classic example: If your sales letter features real estate, you’ll want a little plastic bag filled with some dirt and talk about it in the letter and tie it to what you’re selling, or attach a 1 dollar bill. dollar. at the beginning of the letter when talking about financial markets, etc.
When it comes to getting noticed and standing out from the crowd, you shouldn’t stop at today’s busy markets, and there’s nothing like the curiosity that drives physical mail to really stand out like a nun in a brothel.