Guerrilla Tips for Direct Mail Success

Taken from Jay Conrad Levinson's site www.gmarketing.com. Great tips for direct mail success:
1. Before you write, do a couple hours of research. Ask a handful of your current customers to tell you in their own words what they like most about doing business with you. Use those words when you ask them. What they will tell you will be the most important benefits they perceive. Use those benefits to start your letter.
2. Come up with a really dynamite reason for someone to respond to the letter. Make an extraordinary offer. Find a new and appealing way to bundle together a number of your product or services. Or offer special payment terms. Or an unusual guarantee.
3. When you start writing, use short words and short sentences. People can't, won't, and don't read long, complicated stuff. Not if they don't have to. They won't read your letter unless it's EASY to read.
4. Count the number of "you's" and "your's" in the letter. Your letter should have at least twice as many "you's" and "your's" as "I's," "we's," "me's," "our's" and your company's name. A ratio of four to one is even better. When they read your letter, your customers like it when you talk about their dreams, their problems, solutions you can provide to their problems, and the benefits they will receive. And they will show their appreciation -- with sales!
5. Whatever you do, DON'T mail it out the minute after you write it. No matter how good a writer you are! Let it sit a day or two. Then, rewrite your letter to make it simpler, clearer and more compelling. After that, read it out loud. Then, show your letter to some customers. If their reaction is "interesting" or "well written," you may have a loser on your hands. A sales letter isn't an essay. It's a sales piece, first and foremost. So, after reading, if your customers say, "How can I get one of those?" -- they want to buy what you're offering -- you've got yourself a guerrilla letter.
6. Check to see if it's clear what you're offering and how a reader can take you up on the offer. One great way to find out is to have a child read your letter. Children often see the obvious that adults -- caught up in the more abstract problems and distractions of life -- miss.
7. Do a test mailing and measure the results. Don't send out all your letters at once. Just send out a few dozen. Or a few hundred. When the results come in -- when your mail is good, they'll come in fast -- then do the math.