Greetings Floor Dealers!
FLOOR DEALER: We’ve tried direct mail, but we quit using it.
JIM: What kind of results did you get?
FLOOR DEALER: Lousy.
I was on a coaching call with Tim, a dealer who had recently joined Flooring Success Systems, and I asked him what kind of results he was getting from a direct mail campaign I provided to him.
“We just did over $27,000 in sales in the last two weeks from one letter.”
“That’s great!” I replied. “How much did you spend on the campaign?”
“Only three-hundred dollars.”
That’s a 90-1 return on investment. This may sound unbelievable, but these kinds of results are not uncommon with dealers who do direct mail correctly. In this series I’m going to reveal the techniques this dealer used to generate this kind of ROI. But I can tell you right off what he did not do. He didn’t send out a mailer using the same, tired, worn-out ad formula used by most dealers in their advertising: the Name, Rank and Serial Number formula. (Business name at the top, a list of products with teaser prices, and contact information.)
I have spoken with a lot of dealers who quit using direct mail because of lousy-to-mediocre results. It almost always turns out that they were using Name, Rank and Serial Number mailers, which virtually guarantees lackluster returns. This is a crying shame because, done correctly, direct mail is one of the fastest ways to generate sales.
I teach dealers how to successfully use a wide variety of marketing medias, including websites, social media, banner ads, squeeze pages, display ads, email, newspaper ads, door hangars, yard signs, truck signage, store signage, and billboards. (Oh, and skywriting. Can’t leave that out.) They can all work extremely well, and I encourage dealers to use multiple medias as long as each one is being done correctly. This means, first-and-foremost, not copying all the other dealers by resorting to the Name, Rank and Serial Number formula.
But direct mail has some unique advantages. First, it can be targeted like a laser beam on a very, very specific group. Most other media can’t do this with the pin-point accuracy of direct mail. (Except maybe shooting arrows attached to ads at the front doors of prospects. I’ve never tried this, but if you decide to give it a whirl let me know how it works out.)
Second, you can reach that group quickly. You can drop a direct-response letter in the mail on Monday, and be getting walk-ins and phone calls by Thursday. Yes, email is quicker, but you have to have permission to send emails. This mostly limits email marketing to past customers, and that can be a great marketing strategy, but what about targeting prospects who have never done business with you?
Third, done correctly you can insure your message gets seen by most of the people you target. Now, statistically, only about 40% of direct mail messages get seen by the recipient. This is because consumers sort their mail over a trash can, tossing out anything that looks like junk mail without reading it. Your prospects are doing the same thing, which partially explains why many dealers get poor results with direct mail. However, I teach direct mail methods which guarantee that 89% – 99.2% of the recipients open your letter and see your message. This has been measured and verified. But again, it must be done correctly.
If you’ve abandoned direct mail because you got fed up with terrible ROI, hopefully, I’ve re-sparked your interest in this media. My coaching clients and I have collectively generated millions of dollars using direct mail, and I hate to see you miss out on this opportunity.
In the next installment, I’ll reveal specific direct mail strategies that you can use to create a stampede of customers.
To Tons Of Customers!
Jim Augustus Armstrong is The “Coach”
Jim Augustus Armstrong is the President of Flooring Success Systems, a program that equips dealers to double their profits, cut their work hours in half and beat the boxes! Many dealers have totally transformed their businesses and their lives for the better after joining Flooring Success Systems.
See what real, live dealers are saying!