How I got a 6% response rate from my 2nd direct mail campaign

I’m over cold email. 

I’m over so-called cold email copywriters and agencies. 

And, most important, I’m over the terrible positioning that cold email naturally gives you.

But… 

I’ve built my entire business off of cold email and delivering on the promises I make to clients. 

And so, the past year or so has caused quite the growing pains as AI and third-world spammers pried a reliable outreach channel from my warm and alive hands. 

I’m not an advertising expert and might end up wasting more moolah setting up ads than revenue I generate. (In fact, once upon a time, many many years ago when I was still in a band, we accidentally spent thousands of dollars on Facebook ads because we forgot to turn them off.) 

I’m also in a bit of a weird geographic location - northeastern Ohio doesn’t exactly cater to business owners in my particular niche and so networking events aren’t an option. Maybe they are, but it makes my inner introvert skin crawl. 

Facebook groups are cesspools - as are gig economy sites like Upwork. (I just remembered the one and only Upwork project I ever took on still owes me moolah…) 

And so, I decided on something totally different: 

Direct mail. 

I bought a list of 1000, wrote up a few different sales letters, and shot from the hip. 

My first 3 letters (which were all basically the same save the headline) flopped miserably. 

Not-a-single response, unless you count the absurd amount of return-to-senders I received back as a response. 

Well, this isn’t good, I thought to myself. 

And so, I analyzed the first 3 letters and came upon a bunch of possible reasons for the lack of response:

* Maybe my headlines just sucked 

* Or my offer, which is admittedly a costly investment, didn’t land 

* Or perhaps the direct mail list I bought is bunk and the folks I mailed weren’t good fits 

And there are an infinite amount of other potential reasons for the lack of success. 

So, instead of majoring in the minors (like, say, tweaking the headline a bit), I created big and sweeping changes:

First, I rewrote two new sales letters entirely. New headlines, new body copy, new offer, new everything. 

Second, as I alluded to, I took away all the risk from the offer I made.

My real goal with this second batch is to learn more info, namely, if the list I bought is reliable. 

Well, I delivered the new sales letters to the blue post office box that’s around the corner from my house late last Thursday night. 

It hasn’t even been a week and my response rate is already 6%, which I hear is a good response rate for mailing customers who know you… and not complete strangers. For complete strangers, my conversion rate 6 days into the campaign is already pulling 2-6x higher than the so-called industry average. 

Now, nobody has qualified for my services yet out of the 6% who responded. Yet. 

But y’know what?

One of the prospects I chatted with (who booked immediately and has a really effin cool and potentially very helpful product) went so far to tell me, “that I hope I’m able to work with you one day.” 

Never in the 6 years of running this business through cold email have I ever even DREAMED of a response like that. 

Turns out, direct mail is a far better way to POSITION yourself as an expert than by pestering inboxes and being ignored in the deep abysses of the spam folder. 

I’ve also learned valuable info: 

At least one of my sales letters is “converting.” 

And the list isn’t completely bunk either. 

I’ve heard that you should give direct mail about three weeks in total for it to be delivered, read, and then acted (or not acted) upon. And so, since I’m only 6 days from sending, there’s a lot of potential opportunities my letters can still give me. 

Only time will tell. 

Anyhoo:

It’s possible that my calendar (and client roster) fills up quick fast over the next couple o’ weeks. 

And so - if you’ve been waiting for a sign to hit reply and partner with me, now’s the time, cully. 

John