How to achieve response rates of 12% or more with sales letters

When I worked at an advertising agency many years ago, I learned how to market with sales letters. Now they're one of my favorite marketing tools.

Sometimes I achieve response rates as high as 12% or more when I send sales letters soliciting camp enrollment. Most people I know are happy with response rates of 2% or less.

Sales letters can be VERY effective sales tools IF you know the nuances involved in creating and sending them. If you don't, marketing with sales letters can punish you financially.

You know the kind of letters I'm talking about - the typical sales letter you get everyday from credit card companies, gyms, or magazines trying to get you to buy their stuff.

Here's the thing about sales letters though. You're competing against every other piece of mail that arrives in your prospect's mailbox every day. So you gotta make your letter stand out.

Here's a relatively plain sample sales letter I found online:

Nothing about this letter grabs me. It looks like any other one you'd get. In fact if I got this letter in the mail, I'd probably trash it before I even finished reading it.

Most direct mail experts say writing a jaw-dropping, lip-smacking, smash-them-in-the-mouth headline is the most important step to writing an effective sales letter. I agree the headline is one of the most important components.

But you know how to really stand out from the crowd? Start your letter at the end.

Huh?

Let me explain. I mentioned I send lots of sales letters to market my camp. But instead of writing them the traditional way, where you'd thank the person for reading your letter and putting your signature at the bottom, I write my letters as if the person has already read the letter. I even put my signature at the top.

Your typical letter starts like this: "Dear Mr. and Mrs. Smith ..."

But my letters (above the salutation) start like this:

"If you think your child would enjoy all these fun activities, give me a call at 1-888-51-ALOHA. Thanks for your time. 

Sincerely, 

Eric Naftulin

P.S. I know you're really busy, but just in case you're even busier than usual I wanted to give you the gist of my letter first. If you've got the time, here's the rest of the letter..." 

Then I go on writing the rest of the letter.

People like this format. It's creative and respects their time. It introduces Aloha Beach Camp right off the bat and teases prospects into reading the rest of the letter. While normal response rates for direct marketing sales letters hover around 2%, I consistently draw response rates of 7% to 12% or more. That means for every 100 letters I send, I can expect between 7 and 12 people to sign up for camp. That's a pretty amazing stat when you think about it.

But forget about me. This blog is for you. And you can achieve the same dramatic response rates with your sales letters with just a little work. Let me know if you'd like any help. Good luck.

Hubspot says no to Camp Fairs. (I mean trade shows.)

If you're like me, you probably don't think attending camp fairs pays off. In my opinion they're too expensive, time consuming and don't attract the number of prospects we need to make these events worthwhile. Before the "internet age" and online marketing, attending camp fairs was worthwhile. Now a MAJOR internet marketing company,  Hubspot, has quit attending trade shows, too. Check it out.

Moving Billboards: My New Marketing Experiment

One of the marketing tactics I've always wanted to try but never have is "transit marketing."

You know those huge ads plastered on the sides of big trucks that drive up and down major major streets and thoroughfares all the time? That's what I'm talking about.

I confess I'm MESMERIZED by those things. Every time one goes by I pay close attention. I'll bet lots of other people do, too.

I might be wrong but I think these "moving billboards" could be a very effective advertising tool. Just imagine a picture of a big happy camper with your camp's name, phone number and website on the side!

What's not to like about this type of advertising? For one thing, people of all ages, income levels and backgrounds see your ad. And if you live in a big city like me, thousands and THOUSANDS of people could see your ad every day.

But most importantly, this kind of advertising goes to the very heart of what's needed for advertising to be effective -- repetition.

The reason why is because people take the same route to and from work or school every day so they'll keep seeing your ad over and over, day after day.

Everyone should set aside a portion of their marketing budget to try new things, capitalize on opportunities and for unabashed, experimental marketing.

Advertising on these trucks will be my experiment this year. I'll let you know how it goes.

Even Kids Are Perverts

Here's a list that might be helpful to you in your marketing. It's the Top 100 searches kids performed online in 2009. Funny, kids are just like adults -- sex and porn round out the top 5.

ACA Billboard Misses the Mark

I follow @acacamps on twitter. Today they posted a picture of their "Because of Camp" billboard in Austin, Texas. Unfortunately the billboard misses the mark, BIG TIME.

For a billboard to be effective, it should contain 7 words AT THE MOST. And the words should all be close to each other and any pictures shown. Otherwise the billboard is a waste of money and won't do its job right.

The main purpose of outdoor advertising, and billboards in particular, is to REMIND people of things. I don't know if the ACA's billboard reminds people of camp. But a simple message like, "It's Time to Sign up For Camp" would do the trick a lot better than the hodgepodge of pictures and words they're using now.

How will people driving by on a street, highway or freeway grasp all these words and pictures in the brief second they're exposed to this sign?

Unfortunately, they won't.

New Camp Search Engines Coming Soon

There's lots of camp search engines out there and they're pretty much all the same. So I'm making a few new ones for you to list your camp. They'll be different than the ones you're familiar with in many respects. I will keep you updated, but they should be ready this camp marketing season, I hope

What is your camp's website strategy?

Sometimes we spend so much time trying to drive people to our websites we forget what our goals are for doing so. What do you want prospects to do once they arrive at your website?

I'll bet everyone has different goals for what they're trying to accomplish with their sites. But I also hope we all have these same three goals in common:

1. We want people to stay on our sites
2. We want people to come back to our sites
3. We want to convert visitors into paying customers/enrollments

When people hit your website and don't find what they're looking for, statistics show they'll leave in seconds. To keep them longer, provide fast-loading pages and easy-to-find, relevant content.

People won't stay on your site forever, so your strategy then becomes getting them to come back. Games, contests, and interactive tools like blogs and message boards can help.

Naturally, we all want a well-designed website that's nice to look at. But I'd rather have an ugly site that gets people to sign up rather than a beautiful one that doesn't generate enrollment. I assume you feel the same.

The first (and most obvious) solution is having an online enrollment enabled on your site. If you don't, then at least make your printable enrollment form available prominent places all over your site.

Take some time to identify your goals for your camp's website. And check out this article for a Top 10 list of ways to help convert website visitors into paying customers.

If your site's doing what you want it to, great! If not, take the action you need to bring your site up to speed. The time you spend making your website work better can be the difference between an empty camp and a full one.