Recently, my wife and I have started some home-improvement projects and have been getting a lot of bids from different companies for finishing the rest of our basement.
While we don’t mind receiving bids from companies, we must have somehow ended up on some purchased marketing lists, because we’ve received several pieces of direct mail from various painting companies in the area.
Here’s an example of one of the letters that we just received that I thought was a good example of “magnetic marketing” style direct mail, and I thought that it was perfect for this topic!
The envelope itself looked personalized, even though it was printed, and the bright yellow immediately grabbed my attention! The print looks like a personalized handwritten font, that someone actually took the time to write themselves, and they even had a real return address label like the ones that “grandma” would use for a birthday or Christmas card!
While the letter did have a call to action, the urgency of that call to action, as well as the demand that clients have of their company, could have been a lot stronger! Instead of simply stating that “many of our neighbors” have trusted this company, they could have more directly stated how many homes in the community they had painted, as well as providing a small, but specific, list of colors that are HOA approved!
They also had a pretty good list of “exclusive” deliverables, while placing some importance on the HOA in their marketing message, directly targeting people who were currently remodeling, or finishing building, their home! However, in their list of deliverables, they restate the fact they give free estimates, when it is clearly stated in bold at the top of the letter!
There was a merge tag that was used to make the letter appear to be more personalized, and it did seem to come from a real person at the company, rather than being just a generic merge tag. Unfortunately for this marketing letter, by trying to use a merge tag to make the letter more personalized, they actually made the rest of the letter seem a little generic.
When you take the time to think about your marketing message, and how others may perceive it, you will have the ability to directly influence how personalized your message will be!
From everyone here at Pinecrest Practice Growth, we hope that you will learn from this letter and personalize your marketing message, which will help your practice to continuously grow throughout the year!