How to use Three Step Direct Response Marketing

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How to use Three Step Direct Response Marketing

By Abe Cherian

Copyright ? 2005







Three step marketing is a cost effective way for you to

sell your products or services. It's also a cost effective

way for you to test various offers. And surprisingly, few

marketers use this marketing technique.



With three step marketing, you'll be selling to people who

contacted you asking for information about your product or

service. And you'll be building your own mailing list from

people who are interested in your products or services.



Because you're building your own mailing list, you'll be

able to send several offers to the same prospects. Being

able to follow-up with the prospects who first asked for

information from you is the key to three step marketing.



Your objective with three step marketing is to locate new

prospects and then follow-up with an intensive direct mail

campaign.



Your sales literature doesn't have to be expensive or full

color, it simply has to look professional. Make sure you

have written something good, have checked it for proper

spelling and punctuation, and have provided a meaning

behind your products or services. This gives reason for the

customer to order your product.



If you have a computer, build a database of customer

inquiries so you can track who actually purchases, and then

send follow-up letters to those who don't.



Follow-up sales are where you are going to make most of

your income. Your ad draws the inquiries, the first order

establishes a good customer, and the rest of the orders are

the selling points.



Your second sales packet should be mailed a month after the

inquiry was received and another a month after that.



Testing is the only way to find out which plan works best

for you in getting orders. You'll need to find out which

sales package works best and how often to make mailings.



How elaborate you want to make your response pack depends

on how successful your product seems to be selling and how

much money you want to invest.



Always start small. A simple one page offer can work as

well as a conglomerate pretty letter. After you've built up

a few good selling products, you might print up a single

page brochure. Even at that, you don't have to go to color

unless your product warrants it.



You don't need an advertising agency to put together your

sales packet, but you can use one if you want. Be sure to

investigate the type of agency and what it can do for you

before hiring them.



Your lead generating letters should target the market most

likely to be interested in what you're eventually going to

offer them. Your letters must state a major benefit that

appeals to the readers' interests.



The main purpose of your sales message is to arouse

curiosity and to get the reader to move to the second step

of the process. Your sales letter must make the reader want

to know more. For best results, your letter should offer

something at no cost, but realize to keep your ROI at

interest.



Studies show that 80% of all people, that's 4 out of 5

people, who inquire about a product buy that product within

one year, but not from the company that made the original

contact.



The reason they don't buy from the company that made the

original contact is because the company did not follow-up.

Statistics show that you must make at least three contacts

with a prospect who expressed an interest in your product

or service before they'll buy from you. Very few marketers

realize this.



So the next few steps in the three step marketing process

are to send follow-up mailings to your prospects.

Repetitive follow-up is the difference between mediocre

success and huge success in marketing. If your initial

mailing is successful, you can realistically expect an

additional 50% in sales with your follow-up mailings.

That's an additional 50% of income you would not have if

you didn't follow-up.



Now you're ready to mail your direct mail response pack to

your prospects by first class mail. Your goal here is to

close the sale.



The prospects you send your first direct mail response pack

to are broken down into the following three steps:



1. A little bit interested. Gather leads through lead

generating direct response advertisements.



2. Very interested and ready to buy. Send follow-up mailing

to prospects. State a major benefit.



3. Very interested. but not ready to buy. Send follow-up

mailing to prospects. State same message with different

headline or call-to-action.



Three step marketing allows you to be in front of your

prospects when they move from the "not ready to buy"

category to the "ready to buy" category. It allows you to

build a relationship with your prospects and when they are

ready to buy, they'll buy from you.



The good news about three step marketing is you don't have

to create a completely different mailing package for each

additional step in the process.



Make minor changes to your initial mailing piece. One

technique that works well is to mail a different cover

letter along with a copy of your initial mailing piece. Try

to keep your cover letter to one page.



Another technique is to change the headline or the opening

paragraph of your original letter while reminding the

prospect that this is another notice.



How many times you should mail will depend on whether it's

no longer profitable. Always remember to include any back

end sales and the lifetime value of your customer. Your

largest expense was getting the prospect. Now is the time

to follow-up and grow your business sales.