RELATED: THE ULTIMATE LIST OF FOLLOW UP EMAIL SUBJECT LINE EXAMPLES

In this article:

1. Unclear Subject Line
2. Poor Spelling and Grammar
3. Not Using the Recipients Name
4. Not Using Greetings and Closings
5. Not Responding in a Timely Manner
6. Not Thinking Before Forwarding
7. Using Wacky Fonts and Formatting
8. Using the Wrong Recipient Name

Email Response Tips

Email prospecting is best when you want to reach a lot of people for lead generation. Of course, you have to make sure that the email isn’t an end in itself.

Simple goals can also be achieved with an email: scheduling a meeting, answering one-off questions, and more.

But ultimately, when you’re communicating through email, it’s to get customers to talk to you and purchase your product, so email response is key to building that relationship and closing deals.

We’re only human, and blunders happen, but follow the below email etiquette tips to avoid any email response mistakes.

Unclear Subject Line

Getting people to click on your emails is key to increasing sales conversion rates. Catching your customer’s attention is half the battle, so the email subject line. However, a seemingly minor amount of work could be the difference between starting a great client relationship or saying goodbye to that person forever.

A clear subject line is crucial, so recipients understand why they’re making contact before they open the email. Most people scan their inbox for standout email subject lines, mainly via a mobile device, so a clever salesperson knows how to write clear subject lines that are catchy, customer-centric, use CTAs, and are personalized.

Subject lines must be informative, concise, and clear. Mastering this skill might take time, but getting the email open and responding to it’s essential.

Particularly when connecting with C-level executives, quite possibly because of time restrictions, they know how to communicate efficiently. Therefore, you’ll need to get to the point and respectfully not waste their precious time.

Poor Spelling and Grammar

We’re all accustomed to using shorthand and abbreviations when messaging colleagues, but it’s a different kettle of fish when speaking with customers, and not an appropriate format. You’ll likely not get taken seriously and present yourself as unprofessional and possibly even unintelligent.

Always check your spelling, punctuation, and grammar, even when using spell-check and grammar tools. Always proofread your writing before you send it, and if unsure, get a colleague to read over what you’ve done.

Not Using the Recipients Name

Not addressing the recipient by name is likely to get you nowhere, especially when prospecting. Take the time to personalize emails to show you respect that person and want to build a relationship.

Not Using Greetings and Closings

Even though you’re responding to an email, never go straight into a conversation. Greetings and closings are compulsory and shouldn’t be left out from any emails you send. Greetings don’t always have to be Dear [customer name], they can be less formal once the relationship is established.

Creating an email signature is a useful shortcut that also respects email etiquette. Include your name, job title, company name, and contact information at the very least.

Concluding in an appropriate way allows the recipient to have a better understanding of who you are and leaves a good impression.

Not Responding in a Timely Manner

You should always respond to your important emails within 24 hours. Even if you cannot respond fully, it is recommended to reply, respectfully showing that you received the email. Adding in a get-back-to-you date is a great way to manage customer expectations.

If you’re out of the office for more than 24 hours, you must use an out of office autoresponder. Some salespeople do this even while in daily meetings so that customers know they are important to them. Providing details of who to contact in your absence will make you look more professional.

Additionally, never respond to an email immediately, no matter how big the client is and how excited you are. Take time to digest the content and reply with a great email response.

Not Thinking Before Forwarding

You’ve possibly done this at least once in your career. Forwarding an email about someone, to them or sending sensitive information to the wrong person! It’s heart-stopping stuff and lacks all professionalism.

Using Wacky Fonts and Formatting

Using colors, emojis, and offbeat formatting might be appropriate for some businesses, but generally, it’s likely to hurt your recipient’s eyes and come across as unprofessional. Using bold or capital letters for more than a few words also goes against standard etiquette.

Using the Wrong Recipient Name

Always triple check you have the correct name, particularly when forwarding messages – using the name of the person who sent you an email sounds like a no brainer, but mistakes can be made in multiple-people emails. Mis-spelling is also crucial; check their signature as email addresses can be misconstrued. Only shorten names if that’s how your customer addresses themselves.

The quality of your email response will often determine if a client will purchase your product or hire your services. All responses should be professional and well thought out.

What other email response tips do you have? Do you have any funny stories about emailing incorrectly? Share your comments in the section below.

Up Next:

• EMAIL PROSPECTING VS COLD CALLING: WHAT’S BEST?
• COLD MESSAGING: HOW TO EMAIL SOMEONE YOU DON’T KNOW
• THE BEST WORDS THAT SELL EVERY SALES TEAM SHOULD KNOW

RELATED: EMAIL PROSPECTING VS COLD CALLING: WHAT’S BEST?

In this article:

1. Why is an Email Subject Line Important?
2. Email Statistics
3. How to Write a Follow-Up Email Subject Line
4. Email Examples
   1. State What Your Product Can Do for the Customer
   2. Social Proof
   3. Personalize Subject Lines
5. Emojis
6. Key Tips

Statistics and Examples to Help You Boost Your Email Open Rates

In an ever-evolving marketing and sales climate, you should never stop trying to perfect your subject lines, and what works for some prospects, won’t necessarily work for others. In good quality B2B email marketing, “one size fits all” doesn’t exist. Different customers have different concerns and pain points.

How much can you achieve in one short sentence, and how can you get it to perform in the best way possible? Read on to learn about why it’s essential to get your email subject lines right, what the statistics say, and check out some of our examples.

Why is an Email Subject Line Important?

• Follow-up email subject lines are important for many reasons.
• To show that your business is customer-centric. You should be sending trust-building emails, hoping that your customers will see that you are invested in customer service.
• The automated nature of sending emails means you might not have much involvement in the process, so when you do, they should cover particular scenarios.
• They help to increase conversion. Follow-up emails add value and support your customers through each step of their buyer journey.
• Sorting the suspects from the prospects. Emails designed to target engaged customers will sift out the ones who will never communicate.

Email Statistics

Statistically, most people won’t open an email – 67 percent will only open an email with a catchy subject line, so all your hard work creating the perfect email content can go to waste.

Email providers can use AI to shift emails into your Customer’s inbox or their junk folder. If your subscriber doesn’t regularly open your emails, they are likely to spam.

The typical open rate for emails is less than 18 percent. Optimizing your subject line will get you more traffic and conversions.

How to Write a Follow-Up Email Subject Line

Set yourself a goal before you start writing your email subject lines. Think about writing the subject line after completing the email content and CTA. This way, you’ll be able to ‘pen the line’ consistent with all the elements.

Types of follow-up email include free trial offers, rewards for subscribing, and post product sale.

You’ll likely want to gain information from your Customer, arrange a meeting to pitch a sale, reconnect with a lead, or to say thank you for your Customer simply.

Email Examples

State What Your Product Can do for the Customer

Showing your prospect what you have is all well and good, but this needs to be related to them and how you can help their needs. Being able to solve their problems and tackle their pain points is why they will open your email.

Try to summarize your solution or add an advantage to boost credibility.

Examples could include: –

“How to …”
Although a classic and some might say a boring way to attract attention, some top B2B sales companies use this method. An example from Salesforce is “How to grow your business faster in 15 minutes.” The guarantee is powerful, not just about the product, but it offers an opportunity to learn something.

“[X company’s] secrets on how to …”
The self-interest email generally works because people and businesses want to be ‘better’ than everyone else. Humans are bound to want the best return for the lowest output. Tapping into this psychological element should compel your prospect to find out more and open up your email.

Social Proof

You can warm up your introduction by using existing relationships. Use your current contact’s name to build trust based on the common ground. Of course, you’ll need permission to do this first.

Examples could include: –

“[Referral name] referred me to you”
Build trust-based on a common relationship.

“[Referral name] from [X company] suggested we speak”
Adding company specifics should increase your credibility and give your prospect a clearer picture of where you’re coming from.

“Recommendation from [Referral name]”
You can pique the curiosity of your prospect, enticing them to open and read your email.

Personalize Subject Linesples

The benefit of personalizing subject lines makes the prospect feel like they have been singled out to receive the email and that it’s 100 percent specific to them. In fact, open rates increase by up to 50 percent more.

To add the personal touch, consider adding your Customer’s name. This can increase open rates to more than 21 percent.

Examples could include: –

“Happy birthday [company name] / [customer’s name] – Here’s 10% off…”
This can work for B2B by acknowledging company milestones or anniversaries.

“It’s a pleasure doing business with you [customer’s name]”
The simplest way of acknowledging your Customer after a sale is to thank them.

Getting to know your audience can allow you to mix up your templates. Create alternative email subjects and adjust them for your client and prospects.

You could recognize accomplishments; an example of this would be to acknowledge any awards or milestones that are praiseworthy activities. For example, “Saw you at [event name]” could be used to start a business relationship.

Any personalization will signal to your prospect or Customer your will to go beyond general greetings and show that you are more attentive to details than your competitors.

Emojis

Studies have shown that emojis in subject lines boost marketing effectiveness because of the relation to emotion. However, in B2B marketing, there are mixed opinions.

Reports from a few years back showed that emojis did increase sales engagement, but the tide seems to have turned. A report in 2019 by Outreach, showed that reply rates decreased when emojis were used in email subject lines.

Key Tips

• Keep it simple
• Keep it real
• Keep it about them, not you
• Don’t be too ‘salesy’
• Don’t give away too much detail
• Always assess your figures
• Adapt to market changes

What examples of follow up email subject lines work best for you? Please comment in the section below.

Up Next:

• 6 FORECASTING STRATEGIES FOR MORE ACCURATE SALES [INFOGRAPHIC]
• 8 DAYS OF EMAIL MARKETING | GUIDE TO EMAIL SALES
• WHY EMAIL MARKETING IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF YOUR SALES PROCESS

RELATED: Email Prospecting vs. Cold Calling: What’s Best?

In this article:

1. 1. Why Email Marketing is Important
      1. It Has a Wide Reach
      2. It Gathers Leads
      3. It Keeps You On the Radar
      4. It Builds a Personal Bond
      5. It Enables You to Collect Feedback
      6. It’s Cost-Effective
   2. Does Email Marketing Work?

Why Email Marketing is Important?

There are a few perks to email marketing that you can’t get with any other type of marketing. For example:

It Has a Wide Reach

More so than other forms of marketing, it’s easy to get emails to anyone in the world. Your audience could be halfway around the globe or just down the block, and it would be equally challenging to get your marketing message to them either way — that is, not difficult at all.

Not only is the reach of email marketing vast, but it is exacting, whereas most forms of marketing are sent out into the aether with the hope they will reach their intended audience. Email marketing is specifically addressed to each individual you want to reach. Opening emails requires very little effort, so it’s highly likely your exact target will end up opening the marketing email as long as it’s given an intriguing subject line.

Sending out a fleet or targeted email marketing to a massive list of selected individuals is as simple as copying and pasting a file into your email client.

It Gathers Leads

Email marketing isn’t a one-way channel, like most forms of marketing. It makes it easy for recipients to answer questions or fill in information if desired.

With this interactivity, email marketers can find their most promising recipients. People who not only have enough interest to respond to the email but who also provide suitable answers to the questions asked. The process is easy for both you and the recipient, which means you’ll gather leads at a much quicker rate than with other marketing media.

RELATED: How to Prioritize Sales Leads

It Keeps You On the Radar

Even if a marketing email does not actually result in a lead, it is a great way to remind recipients that you are there and ready to receive inquiries.

When a marketing email shows up in someone’s personal inbox, it is hard for them to tune it out entirely like they can with most forms of marketing, which are generally more passive. They will more than likely at least glance at the subject line, and at that point, you have reinforced your own brand.

It Builds a Personal Bond

A person’s email inbox is generally their own private space, so the emails that show up in it tend to take on a personal feel that most forms of marketing don’t. It’s a perfect opportunity to build a personal connection with recipients.

Include some friendly, casual flourishes in your marketing email to make it feel like a friendly how-do-you-do. These things, combined with the naturally personal vibe of the email, will make customers feel special like your company considers them a friend and not just a potential money-maker.

Check out these four customizable email marketing templates that focus on building a personal connection

It Enables You to Collect Feedback

Like we mentioned above, text fields in mass emails are a quick way to collect lots of responses from targeted recipients. But leads aren’t the only thing that can be collected; you can also ask for suggestions to improve your own company’s service.

Most recipients won’t take the time to respond with feedback. Cast a wide enough net, though, and some will. The respondents will feel you care about their opinions, which will increase their loyalty to your company. The responses are also a source of constructive criticism, which is extremely valuable for any company.

It’s Cost-Effective

On top of all the advantages we’ve listed here, email marketing is low-cost. It can be free, in fact, if you’re writing the emails yourself and using mailing lists you’ve already acquired.

You could hire a professional email marketer to write your email, a designer to format it and make it attractive, and a coder to build lead collection forms and systems. You could also purchase a mailing list to reach the ideal audience for whatever you’re marketing. Even if you do all of these things, it will probably be much cheaper than a more traditional marketing campaign.

WebFX reports, having an agency do your email marketing costs only $300-$500 per month for mid-sized companies, which may be cheaper than doing it in-house if you’re trying to produce high-quality campaigns.

Does Email Marketing Work?

Email marketing works better than most forms of marketing, despite being cheaper. The Data and Marketing Association reports that 99% of people check their email at least once a day. Only about 20% of emails are actually opened. Still, knowledgeable email marketers know how to be included in that 20% more often than not (for the record, the best way is by offering a discount in the subject line). The result is an estimated $38 revenue for every $1 spent on effective email marketing.

You now know a little about why email marketing is important. Email marketing is essential and is too often unused by small- to medium-sized businesses. We hope the advantages we’ve listed will persuade you to start making use of it.

DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER TIPS THAT HELP YOU IN SOUNDING MORE CONFIDENT OVER THE PHONE? LET US KNOW IN THE COMMENTS SECTION BELOW!

Up Next:

• • • • 8 Things You Need to Know About Responding to Inbound Leads
      • 3 Questions Every Sales Professional Should Ask The Email Marketing Manager
      • 3 Salesforce Email Template Tips For Effective Sales Emails

RELATED: The One Thing That Matters For Your Direct Mail Campaign

In this article:

1. Why Direct Mail Matters
2. Direct Mail Copywriting and Planning
3. Types of Direct Mail
   1. No Fancy Fonts, Stick to the Basics
   2. Use Powerful Headlines
   3. Don’t Be Afraid of Using White Space
   4. Use Empathy
   5. Be the Industry Expert
   6. Don’t Sell a Product, Sell a Solution
   7. Elicit Emotions
   8. …But Don’t Just Shock People for the Sake of It
   9. Use Testimonials
   10. Think Out of the Box With 3D Direct Mail
   11. Personalize, Personalize, Personalize
   12. Incorporate Some Direct Mail Images
   13. Create Hot Spots
   14. Never Market Without Tracking and Testing
   15. Sending Automated Direct Mail with Your CRM
   16. Focus on Your Target Market Instead of on Yourself
   17. Be a Sharp Editor More Than a Great Writer

17 Tips to Boost Your Direct Mail Copywriting and Direct Response Marketing

Direct Response Marketing Definition: This type of marketing campaign aims to evoke a direct and immediate response from consumers to marketers.

Why Direct Mail Matters

In the sea of unsolicited email sales pitches and cold calls, there are very few creative sales plays that actually stand out. This is why direct mail is seeing a resurgence as an effective sales tactic.

Many professional marketing and sales departments are now including direct mail into their outreach strategies, to increase their chances of success. And rightly so: reports have shown that direct mail response rates increased significantly in 2018.

It garnered a 9% response rate for house lists. With prospects lists, it was able to get a 4.9% response rate.

These are impressive response rates compared to digital marketing campaigns. In fact, they are the highest levels the DMA has tracked since 2003, as per IWCO Direct.

Direct mail is the practice of sending physical items (cards, letters, even small gifts or gift cards) in an attempt to create a connection or relationship with a prospect.

Direct Mail Copywriting and Planning

Before you invest in a fantastic direct mail campaign though, spend some time first on essentials:

• Persona – an imaginary person based on the key qualities that make up your target market
• List – a way of segmenting the people who you plan on sending your direct mail towards
• Geography – the location or locale of your choosing. Localizing your marketing efforts helps your direct response and have better overall results.

CRM Trends shows that only 20% of the response to your direct marketing campaign will come as a result of your awesome copywriting. Sorry, folks!

About 80% of your responses are due to how well targeted your list is and how interesting your offer is to target audience.

Targeting is an essential part of effective direct response marketing. Thus, you should make sure that you don’t neglect this in the planning stage.

For the purpose of this article, we’re going to assume your list is all cleaned up, you’ve tested response rates, know your target audience, demographics, and personas, and your offer is the best on the block. Simple, right?

Types of Direct Mail

Based on how you’re structuring your campaign, you can have indirect response mailers and direct response campaigns. If you’re interested in the immediate engagement of your audience, you’re going to use direct response campaigns.

As far as what your direct mail looks like, you can choose from a variety of formats:

• Classic Package (a letter and a response or order form): This format usually relies heavily on the letter to persuade the prospect. It is one of the most common types of direct mail, but also not as affordable as others.
• Self-Mailer: This type of direct mail costs less than the classic package. It is usually a large piece of paper that is folded so that it is about the same size as an envelope.
• Postcards: Using postcards for your direct mail campaign will be cheaper if you’re using the standard-sized postcard. Of course, larger postcards will cost you more.
• Newsletters: This format is an excellent way to succeed with your direct response marketing efforts. By keeping your consumer updated on the goings-on of your business, you highly improve your relationship with your potential customers.
• Catalogs, Brochures, and Booklets: With these formats, you give a brief overview of your business’s services and product offers. It can help entice potential customers to transact with your business.
• Letters: Plain letters are a great way to communicate directly with your consumers. With this format, you will really need to power up your direct-response copywriting skills.

Let’s look at all the creative elements that make your direct mail campaign successful, and pick out some winning tactics to maximize your conversions: we’ll look at fonts, copy, outreach strategy, medium, and images.

1. No Fancy Fonts, Stick to the Basics

You can mix and match it up while using a maximum of three different fonts for your direct mailers. Depending on the size of your material, you might want to use just one type of font.

A professional designer will be able to help you pick the right font for your card. Here are a few resources on where to find free fonts:

• Google Fonts
• FontSpace
• Font Squirrel

Tip: Handwritten fonts generate a higher response on direct mailers.

2. Use Powerful Headlines

The headline is the most crucial part of any copy. Industry experts confess that they spend more time crafting a title for their marketing material than they ever do on the content itself.

This is because of people’s tendency to just ‘scan’ things, rather than read—they will most likely go over your title, read a few introductory sentences, and if you do not catch their eye, your direct mail goes directly in the bin.

Here are a few tried and true ways to make your title into pure eye candy:

• Make a title short and catchy (around 65 characters is optimal)
• Use familiar words for the title to be legible by a general audience (no industry jargon, please)
• Use emotional and power words to make an impact

3. Don’t Be Afraid of Using White Space

Listen.

People do read.

You just need to get their attention.

And nothing does this better than white space. There’s an interesting book that you might wish to read if you are looking to improve your visual design skills.

It’s titled creatively: “White Space is Not Your Enemy.” And the same can be said about your direct mail design—don’t be afraid to use white space to your advantage.

Short sentences, two to three words, are very powerful. Make sure you don’t abuse this strategy—your message needs consistency in order to be effective.

4. Use Empathy

Empathy gets you a long way when writing for sales.

What is your user thinking? What is their immediate need, with respect to your product?

How would they really be delighted by the experience, if they were to choose your service?

Put yourself in your client’s shoes, and understand why they truly need or want your service—above all else, and you will be able to find the perfect offer.

5. Be the Industry Expert

This goes without saying, but people won’t consider your offer unless you are the absolute best in your field.

Lots of adjectives (‘awesome’, ‘fantastic’, ‘great’) are a weak proposition when trying to get someone to respond to direct mail. Go for facts, not marketing fluff.

Research and statistics are the base for that, and they should help position you as the expert in your field.

You can achieve this in many ways. One of the most effective way to improve your branding as an industry expert is through excellent content marketing.

RELATED: Everything You Need To Know About Using Direct Mail In Sales

6. Don’t Sell a Product, Sell a Solution

Fulfilling emotional needs with your product for better sales

This is an old marketing trick, but it pays to make it work for you—and it’s surprising how many companies still don’t see the value of selling a solution instead of a product.

The truth is, it’s hard work to be in tune with your customer—to understand and spend the time to research their needs, their pain points. It’s easier to just slap 50% off, or a ‘buy one, get one free’ tagline.

Your product or service needs to solve a problem for your customer—to ultimately make their life better. If you’re not truly convinced that’s what you are doing, why do it at all?

7. Elicit Emotions

Research has shown time and again that users judge a brand by using emotion, not informational content. Ads that generated the best emotional response made a 23% lift in sales volume, according to a 2016 Nielsen report.

A study of some of the most famous images on imgur.com showed that in comparison, negative emotions were less common in viral content than positive emotions. Although that is the case, viral success occurs when the images with negative emotions had an element of anticipation and surprise.

8. …But Don’t Just Shock People for the Sake of It

It’s natural to evoke emotion, but don’t go just go for the shock value. When emotionally charged ads fail, they will elicit the opposite response—and your strategy backfires.

There are a few primary human emotions you can tap into. Joy, sadness, anger, anticipation, and surprise.

Depending on what your campaign is aimed at, you might appeal to other more complex emotions: vanity, trust, need of belonging, or even competitiveness, fear of missing out.

9. Use Testimonials

Using client testimonials for direct mail campaigns to build trust

Advertising is all around us, so we’ve become somewhat immune to the noise. We’ve trained our brains to ignore or push back on any sales-type messages from the get-go.

In the digital realm, we call this the ‘banner blindness’ effect.

The Banner Blindness Effect Definition: It is a phenomenon in the website usability which refers to when visitors consciously or subconsciously ignore what appears to be banner-like ads on a website.

This is where referrals come in.

Why sell a product, when you can have your customers do it for you?

Using testimonials in your direct mail will build trust—especially if we are talking about a powerful name-drop (celebrity endorsements) or someone whose reputation resonates with the audience (endorsement from an industry expert).

10. Think Out of the Box With 3D Direct Mail

Creative, attention-catching 3D direct mailers

Three-dimensional mailers are a cool way to show off your creativity, and they are a sure-fire way to impress your targets. They could be letters or self-mailers, either way, they are bound to get your prospects’ attention.

Direct mailers can be shaped like a box, a plane, or a tree. You can certainly stand out in the crowd with this type of tactic.

Be sure to use them sparingly though—they will be more expensive than regular direct mail, so target them only at your most important targets, and the ones most difficult to reach.

Here’s a slideshow of cool direct mail examples for inspiration.

11. Personalize, Personalize, Personalize

Based on industry, time of the year or audience segment, you will have different response rates for your campaigns. You can only find the sweet spot by testing, and we encourage you to do that as often as possible.

In this day and age, people want to see the human side of a business. It is your job to give the people what they want, so personalize the buyer experience as much as you can.

12. Incorporate Some Direct Mail Images

Words are never going to be incredibly effective on their own. For the geeks out there, this is called the picture superiority effect.

Picture Superiority Effect Definition: The phenomenon which states that pictures are likely to be recognized and remembered than words.

To make the best of this effect, you should have a professional designer on your team to help with your direct mail piece. If you insist on a DIY piece, here’s a few tips to make your images stand out:

• Use images which elicit a powerful emotional response (everyone likes babies, cats, dogs, sports, or food… And if you don’t… what kind of monster are you?).
• Colorful images will do better than plain dull colors or black and white.
• Use pictures that are relevant and resonate with your target audience.
• Make sure to respect copyright when using any image in your marketing projects.

13. Create Hot Spots

Direct mail copywriting makes heavy use of hot spots to draw the user’s attention. The title, the first paragraph, the last paragraph, and post-scriptum (PS) are going to be natural hot spots for any text-heavy material.

You can create additional hot spots by using bold, different fonts, images, even white space. Again, a professional designer might help here.

14. Never Market Without Tracking and Testing

Like always, XANT does not recommend starting any campaign without having a way to track and test your results. There are different ways that you can measure the results of a direct mail campaign, here are a few:

• Custom URLs
• Phone numbers
• Promotion codes
• Vouchers, gift cards
• Email click-through rates, when used as part of a digital and direct mail sales cadence

15. Sending Automated Direct Mail with Your CRM

Nowadays, technology is used to help people achieve so much more than before. It can even help you manage relationships with your customers, both current and potential ones.

You can spend less time trying to nurture your prospect relationship in their buyer journey and more time developing other aspects of your direct-response advertising efforts. Although you shouldn’t be neglecting it, of course.

You are only increasing the time you have to focus on other things.

16. Focus on Your Target Market Instead of on Yourself

A lot of people who are just starting out in the business of direct response marketing tend to focus on the products that they think their potential customers want. This way of thinking is ineffective and will get you nowhere.

What you should focus on instead are the needs and wants of your consumers. Direct response copywriting thrives better when you focus less on you and more on your target market.

There is plenty of sales management software that you should check out that can help you manage your relationships with customers.

17. Be a Sharp Editor More Than a Great Writer

Whether your direct response marketing efforts are on social media, on paper, or on emails, you should know that it is less about being a great writer. Instead, you should be a sharp editor.

To truly develop your marketing efforts into a higher level, you should run your copy through editing several times. You’ll find that you can do with less of the fluff and more of the meaningful content.

We hope you got something useful out of our direct mail copywriting guide. Spending enough time to plan out the strategy, message, and purpose of your direct mail campaign will ensure that you get your money’s worth.

The good news is, writing direct mail for your customers has become a lot easier, thanks to modern technology. Salespeople can now send direct mail in an automated fashion, straight from the CRM—with just a few clicks.

You can watch the webinar on B2B direct mail to understand how this works!

Which of the tricks listed above have you tried to level up your direct mail copywriting? Let us know in the comments section below!

Up Next:

• The Power Of Direct Mailers W/John Coe @B2BMarketing.com
• 8 Days Of Email Marketing | Guide To Email Sales
• Sales Best Practices Every Sales Professional Should Know

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in October 2017. It has been updated for quality and relevancy.

I wasn’t surprised by the results of this research. I’ve run hundreds of multi-channel account based marketing campaigns (ABM), and direct mail was consistently gathering better response rates than any other media. 

When you combine the power of direct mail with other communication channels,  you will get significantly higher response rates than if you used just email.

Breaking Down Barriers With Direct Mail

We all wear a shield towards sales pitches – we all defend against marketing messages. Direct mail helps break down that barrier, by attempting to create a personal connection. Funny, surprising, heartfelt or cordial – your message is the #1 ingredient of a successful direct mail campaign.

It really doesn’t matter what’s in the box.

The one thing that matters to make sure your campaign is successful is to keep the messaging consistent across communication channels.

The sales development/business development team is pivotal towards the success of an ABM campaign. They will provide the follow-up call and email to your direct mail touch will determine your success rate.

This is why it’s important that they know what campaigns you are running at any given time – and make sure to keep the messaging consistent.

The Tech That Aligns Marketing and Sales

Technology ties together the activity of marketing and sales teams, and a well-planned out campaign should make sure the two are permanently in contact. When your direct mail gets delivered, your reps should get an automated notification to let them know right away. They then need to follow up within the next 24 hours.

Using smart sales systems, sales pros can orchestrate their follow-up according to marketing campaigns. They can immediately respond to the prospect with relevant information or pitches.

With our sales cadence tool, Playbooks, business development representatives can create their follow up cadence before the campaign has started. They’re matching it up with the direct mail piece being delivered and all the other touches involved in the multi-channel campaign.

During a six week cadence, a prospects will receive direct mail and digital touches based on their engagement with the campaign. The sales messaging should all be consistent, referencing the marketing materials that the prospect received. 

The more you can automate things internally for communications, the more timely your response is.

Measuring Results and Testing Your Direct Mail Campaign

Each direct mail campaign needs to be tracked in real time, and each digital touch will receive attribution towards the end result of your campaign.

You can track various metrics: response rates, appointments, opportunities.

Here’s a few ideas on testing your direct mail campaigns:

• You can test different types of direct mail (letters, postcards, different gifts)
• Test follow up cadences and different follow up scripts
• Test results with different targeted accounts based on product interest
• You can test based on lead scoring or based on your industry
• If a campaigns has good results, you can run it for an extended period of time

Whether it’s a digital touch or a direct mailing touch, we constantly optimize ABM campaigns by reviewing the results of each touch and making small variations.

I would advise you to do the same.

Sustainable Scaling of ABM Campaigns

Using smart sales systems, which send direct mail automatically (rather than having sales reps do this manually), you can truly scale your ABM campaigns and make a difference towards your bottom line.

One XANT experiment showed that sending automated direct mail is significantly cheaper and more time-effective than sending manual mail.

Either way you choose to do it, keep in mind the following stats:  65.6% of leaders said they are likely to respond to direct mailers.

Don’t be afraid to add direct mail to your ABM campaigns. You won’t regret it!

Download the State of Direct Mail research from XANT to see how direct mail can impact your sales!

We spoke to Derek Boggs, Demand Generation Manager, to see how he uses direct mail as part of a multi channel Account Based Marketing Campaign.

After targeting hundreds of enterprise accounts with multi-channel ABM plays, he found that  sending a direct mail piece is incredibly effective. Whether it is a simple letter, a handwritten card, or a package with a gift card or a small gift, you are bound to get through to your prospect.

Direct Mail as Part of a Multi-Channel Marketing Campaign

Account-based Marketing is the best way to leverage multi-channel marketing, added Derek. You can pair your direct mail with email, phone calls or other communication channels.

“Direct mail is great for an ABM strategy because you’re targeting one account. You can personalize it, and you can target a few key contacts at that account. It allows you to break through the noise of emails, PPC ads, and display ads that follow these key contacts at these accounts all across the web. But when you send a personalized direct mail touch followed up with a phone call, it separates yourself and your messaging from your competitors, ” explained Derek.

ABM: Researching Your Target Accounts

The most time-consuming and the hardest part of ABM though, is not sending the campaign deliverables. It starts with market research and identifying target accounts, adds Derek. 

“You need to figure out the target accounts, contacts at that account and what’s their pain point? Is it similar across all these accounts? Or do we need to customize the messaging for each individualized account?,” recounts Derek. Based on industry or role, you might have a hard time reaching the right contacts in your account, he adds.

“Certain industries have barriers to direct mail (…). Let’s say you’re sending to an exec-level contact. That direct mail piece is going to reach the admin, but not necessarily your decision-maker. (…) It’s really something that we’ve learned here through trial-and-error. We’ve done a good job at tailoring our messaging and efforts towards directors and VPs, so that we don’t have to deal with an executive assistant,” adds Derek.

Reaching Decision-makers With Account Based Marketing

As long as you’re willing to put the time in, you can reach C-levels, say Derek. Validating contact information for leads is generally the most time-consuming piece of an account-based marketing campaign, he adds.

“These large accounts that you target for account-based marketing may have multiple office locations across the country. Across the globe. You’re targeting one specific person at that company that has 10,000+ employees, so it can get a little tricky. Are they working from home? You really have no idea. So you have to put your best private investigator hat on and be willing to do the dirty work to make it effective,” adds Derek.

Keeping the Message Consistent Across Communication Media

Combining phone calls with emails and direct mail yields improved response rates compared to just using one communication medium. The most important aspect of the campaign is keeping the messaging consistent across mediums.

“It really doesn’t matter what’s in the box. The most important questions to ask yourself are, do you have a timely follow-up? Is your messaging consistent across your digital touches, and your direct touch? And does your messaging speak to their pain point,” added Derek.

Just sending a direct mail with a letter or a small gift is not enough, he adds. “It could be the coolest gift they’ve ever received, but if you don’t follow it up with a timely phone call and email it will sit on their desk and collect dust. It’s all about having a sales rep follow-up and having that rep reach out in a timely fashion within 24 hours of this gift landing on their desk and opening up the conversation.” adds Derek.

Most Effective Direct Mail Types

The State of Direct Mailers research from XANT shows that while some types of direct mail are more effective than others, there is one common point to all successful direct mail campaigns. The messaging needs to be consistent across communication channels/media.

“I don’t think there is one type of email or one type of image that works better than others. You just need to be consistent across across all communication channels. The email or web experience for your targets has to tie in to your direct mailer. It also has to tie in with messaging that your reps are using to follow up. If you have different messages with each channel, this will confuse your prospect and they won’t know what it is that you provide,” added Derek.

How Companies Use Direct Mail in Their Campaigns

Recent research from XANT shows that only 38.5% of companies report using direct mail as part of their business. Moreover, only 30% of these will use direct mail for the purpose of prospecting. The main reasons companies do not use mailers is cost (44.3%) and time (22.9%). However, when direct mail is used within a multi-channel marketing campaign, response rates are significantly increased.

Download the “State of Direct Mail” research to see what the most effective tactics are when using direct mail.

Leaders Are More Likely to Respond to Direct Mail

The direct mail feature release corresponds with the “State of Direct Mailer” research from XANT. The study of 330 sales professionals shows how direct mail is used in B2B campaigns and how effective it is. According to the study, 65% of leaders said they are more likely to respond to direct mail communication.

However, only 38% of companies are using direct mail, and only 30% are using it in their prospecting activities.

“Hand-written notes and gifts are extremely powerful and significantly underutilized as a sales tool,” said Gabe Larsen, VP of XANT Labs, in a statement.

“By ‘slowing down’ the client-sales rep relationship with a personalized note through our Playbooks, we can get higher engagement and speed up a sales organization’s ability to sell more.”

Direct Mail vs Email

Overall, direct mail had the highest perceived response rate among any communication method. About 66 percent of respondents said they were likely to respond to a direct mail piece. This was 34.7% better than the perceived response rate with email.

Interestingly, leaders follow a similar pattern as the general audience as 65.6% of leaders said they were likely to respond to direct mailers. As far as which direct mail is more effective, we got some info for you:

• Respondents were most likely to respond to handwritten notes (77.1% say they respond to this type of direct mail)
• Pens and mugs were the most popular gifts
• Amazon and Starbucks were the most popular gift cards
• Cheap gifts with a perceived value under $11.40 (average) reflected poorly on the response rates and the image of a company sending the gift.

Respondents said they were more likely to respond to useful gifts (47.3%) than edible gifts (3.7%).

Click to read more about the findings of the “State of Direct Mail” research.

A direct mailer is a physical item (note, gifts, etc) mailed to a prospect or customer to initiate a conversation or build a relationship. Direct mailers are simply another form of communication. Most people know and use phone, text, voicemail, email, and social, but they don’t use mailers and they should.

Direct mail has become the norm in business to consumer (B2C) sales where studies show “40% of consumers have made a purchase in the last three months because of a piece of direct mail they received.” Business to Business (B2B) has lagged behind in their use of direct mail with only 38.5% of companies reporting they use direct mail and only 30% reporting using it in prospecting activities. This dynamic appears to be changing as data shows that of B2B sales technologies, direct mail capabilities is in the top five in expected growth for 2018 (11.4%).

To better understand this important communication method and its effects in the B2B environment, XANT Labs commissioned a study with 330 respondents. These were B2B associates, managers, and leaders. We tried to understand the opinions of those that may send or receive direct mail.

Sending Direct Mail

Only 38.5% of companies report using direct mail as part of their business. The main reasons companies do not use mailers is cost (44.3%) and time (22.9%). One XANT Labs experiment showed it took 58 minutes to write and send one handwritten note with an estimated cost of time and goods at $48.01.

Medium size organizations ($50-$500 million in revenue) are the largest adopters of direct mail (53.1%). This is 81.8% higher than large companies ($500 million in revenue). Of companies who use direct mail, the average number of pieces sent in a given month is 151.6.

How Do Companies Use Direct Mail?

Our study had some interesting results in respects to the effectiveness and use cases for direct mail. We could see what companies were actually using and what works for them. Here’s what we found out:

• The most cost effective and the most popular direct mail items are cards (44.2% of companies send either printed or handwritten notes)
• The most common use case for direct mail is attempting to initiate a conversation with a prospect (41.2%).
• Welcoming a new client who has recently signed up with your company is the second most popular use case (21.1%).
• The most common offer in mailers is information with a basic call to action (43.7%).

Of companies surveyed, the biggest challenge in sending direct mailers, is determining the right people to send them to (27.3%) and verifying the physical address (19.8%).

Why Direct Mail Trumps Email

Overall, direct mail had the highest perceived response rate among any communication method with 66.1% of respondents saying they were likely to respond to a direct mail piece. This was 34.7% better than the perceived response rate with email.

Interestingly, leaders follow a similar pattern as the general audience as 65.6% of leaders said they were likely to respond to direct mailers. As far as which direct mail is more effective, we got some info for you:

• Respondents were most likely to respond to handwritten notes (77.1% say they respond to this type of direct mail)
• Pens and mugs were the most popular gifts
• Amazon and Starbucks were the most popular gift cards
• Cheap gifts with a perceived value under $11.40 (average) reflected poorly on the response rates and the image of a company sending the gift.

When asked what category of gifts were most persuasive, respondents said they were more likely to respond to useful gifts (47.3%) than edible gifts (3.7%) by 43.6 percentage points.

Conclusion: It’s the Message, Not the Gift!

Most respondents said mailers played a large role in their likeliness to respond. However, the combination of mailers in conjunction with strong messaging was the most powerful. The ability of the rep to personalize the message and have a compelling offer were the two strongest reasons prospects responded to direct mailers.

That’s a wrap. If you’d like to learn more about direct mailers grab our GamePlan here:

I’ve been talking a lot about direct mailers. We recently did a study on the topic for B2B companies and it answered a lot of my questions. The good news is, it’s proven that direct mail is a very effective sales tactic. Around 65 percent of leaders say they are likely to respond to direct mail…and yet only 38 percent of companies are using direct mail.

When it comes to direct mailers, you’re going to hear a lot of people ‘talking’ but not a lot of people ‘testing’. Here at XANT Labs we’ve now run hundreds of mailer tests and some of those have worked really well, while others have done really bad.  A few months ago we wanted to test different types of mailers so we ran a little experiment and the bottom line was it FAILED.

One of my partners in crime is Joey Wood. He’s an enterprise sales director here at XANT. Joey and I discuss a lot about which plays we should run to build pipeline. A play is a strategic prospecting initiative that is more than a cadence or sequence. Let’s take a look.

The Magic Eight Ball Play

PLAYS

P – Purpose

The purpose of the play was to add pipeline for Joey

L – List

The list of people we went after was our target account list and contacts that were executive level

A – Assets

We have to give value before we ask for value. The assets we had were Magic Eight Balls custom made to say messages about how people’s pipeline and forecasting is broken. In addition, we had hand-written notes.

Y – Yield

You have to measure your performance so in this case we were looking at appointments, pipeline, and closed revenue.

S – Sequence

The sequence is the number of activities and what type of activity you use. The sequence is important but you can see that a play is more than a sequence. Here is our sequence:

4calls, 2 voicemails, 2 text messages, 3 emails, 1 social touch, 1 direct mailer

It seems like it should have worked just fine right? We have all the elements and the creativity of the Magic Eight Ball was super funny right?

WRONG, after 60 days here were the results . . .

42 contacts had been enrolled into this play. We had a total of 6 meetings, 37K in pipeline, and ZERO closed revenue. Okay so that may not sound that bad to you and truthfully our sales cycle is pretty long so there is a chance a few things will still fall but if you compare that to our Starbucks Coffee Play, those results are terrible. Just in case you forgot about our EXTREMELY popular Coffee play, let me remind you.

The Starbucks Coffee Play

P – Purpose

The purpose of the play was to add pipeline for Joey

L – List

The list of people we went after was our target account list and contacts that were executive level

A – Assets

We had a Starbucks gift card, a hand-written note, a yeti-mug, and some research we were offering.

Y – Yield

Similar to the the Eight Ball play we wanted to measure  appointments, pipeline, and closed revenue.

S – Sequence

We ran the same sequence as the Eight Ball play

4 calls, 2 voicemails, 2 text messages, 3 emails, 1 social touch, 1 direct mailer.

Notice how almost everything was the same as the Magic Eight Ball play. It was the gift that was significantly different. So, what were the results?

After 60 days. . .

42 contacts had been enrolled into this play. We had a total of 36 meetings, $700K in pipeline, and $142K close revenue. Wow! Look at the difference between those two plays.

What’s the reason for the difference? Remember the variables were basically the same except for the gift and the biggest difference between the two gifts was funny versus useful.

Interesting. When we asked busy B2B managers and leaders what type of gift they’d prefer. 47.5% of respondents said they prefer useful gifts over any other type of gift. That’s 30.7 percentage points higher than funny gifts.

There you have it. When it comes to direct mailers, don’t assume everything is created equal.

Want to learn more about direct mailers? Get Access to our Direct Mailer Executive Summary report here:

I’ve always considered myself a note card guy, but truthfully, in the last 5 years I’ve dropped the ball. I thought it was too hard… So, I wanted to pick it back up and see how much it costs to send a few simple thank you notes to customers or prospects. Here’s the breakdown below.

How to Send a Thank You Card – The Old Way

Watch the video to go with me on this journey just for a simple thank you card to a prospect! It can pretty much be summed up in a short story:

1. I went to the store which is 10 minutes away.
2. Took a few minutes walking around this huge supermarket just to find cards.
3. I couldn’t decide what card to pick, so I took some time there too.
4. They wouldn’t allow me to buy just one card, so I had to pick up a pack of 10 (!).
5. Wasted some time trying to figure out where to get stamps.
6. I went home, wrote the thank you note, then went back to post the card.

So it was pretty much an adventure, and I have to say during the course of this experiment, I realized a few things:

• I don’t know proper email etiquette (figures)
• I already had cards in my office that I bought a year ago and never sent (typical)
• For a millennial sales rep, sending a handwritten card is like solving a puzzle. Really hard and time-consuming…

After all this, I can see now why i stopped sending handwritten note cards to customers, that was absolutely painful!

The truth is, direct mail can be incredibly effective, if it is part of a well thought-out multi channel marketing campaign. And our “State of Direct Mail” research has proved it beyond doubt! About 65% of leaders say they are likely to respond to direct mail… and yet only 38 percent of companies use it!

The Cost of Sending Manual versus Automated Handwritten Cards

We also had a look at the numbers, the cost of sending a manual card versus sending an automated systems like the XANT platform. The average wage of a sales representative shown by our State of Sales 2017 research  is about $92,000/annually including base and variable income. Broken down, that’s an hourly wage of $46.30 – so we just wasted an hour of a sales rep’s time!

We had a card purchase cost of about $5.73 for, but the entire adventure puts us at a total cost of 52.03$ because of the time cost.

And that’s just for TWO cards!

Sending handwritten cards straight from your CRM with an automated system like the XANT platform, brings us to a total cost of $4.77!

It’s way cheaper to send an automated card in comparison to sending two automated cards versus two manual cards.

You make the call here, but I’m tired just thinking about it…

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