What’s Your Envelope like?

I am one of those guys who does not open his mailbox everyday. I actually realized that I have not checked my mailbox in 3 weeks.. oops! Well, needless to say, my mailbox was FULL of letters and junk mail and I had to go through them.

While I was sorting my mail, I noticed that I was following the A-pile, B-pile sorting without realizing it. I was also doing few extra things. Here is how I sorted my mail:

I take a letter:

1. I look at the envelope itself, if it looks like an offer and not a bill or payment, it went in the trash pile.
2. If I cannot determine from the envelope, I looked at the sender and if I knew them. Is it from AT&T? my bank? if not, went into the trash.
3. If that also passed my spam radar, I looked as to who is it addressed to? "current residence" is trashed
4. If the envelope fooled me, and I do hate being fooled, I open the envelope and peek into it to see if I was fooled. Most of the time, I would have to open the letter to double check if it is important.
5. The rest is usually A-pile mail and for me to keep. I never open them anyway, but that is different story… I am just lazy that way.

Now, our prospects may not do this exact ritual every time they get mail, but enough of them do that we need to pay attention to it. So next time you think about sending out a letter, think of term the prospect. Would you open it if you got it? would you read it?

Here are some tips that usually work:

1. Use live stamp, no metered stuff, or permits
2. Address it to the home owner, or by initials if not sure
3. Either leave the return address empty, or use the address without a name! this is extremely important
4. Handwrite the addresses, even if the letter is typed. You could get away with handwritten font, but you need to test it
5 This is really optional, could give you a pump in readership, but it is situational. Rather than sealing the envelope, tuck the flap inside so it becomes easy to open

Well, That is for the outside of the envelope. Lets look at what goes in the envelope:

1. Obviously your sales letter we always talk about
2. If you have listened to me and collected testimonials from your buyers and sellers, include photo copies of some of them. Make sure no personal information is visible though
3. On a yellow paper with blank ink, have a Q&A  style sheet and see if you can answer common questions that may stop the prospect from contacting you.

 

Obviously I know much more tricks than just there, but these will help you improve your response. Item 2 is extremely important, item 3 helps defuse the customer.

 

 

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© 2008 Fadi Zeidan's Articles.