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THIS WEEK
Appointment Letters - Tips to Get Your Foor In the Door
ALSO IN THIS EDITION
| Small Business: Appointment Letters - Tips To Get Your Foot In the Door |
Recently at Heart Harmony we have been working with a number of businesses on letters they send to potential clients trying to get an appointment with them. We see the same mistakes being made over and over when we look at their existing letters. To help you not make the same mistakes, here are our top 10 tips for effective appointment letters.
- Be realistic in the response you are looking for. People are not sitting by the post-box waiting for your letter. For most people you have to prove to them first why they should read (and not bin) your letter and second why they should give up some of their precious time to see you. Industry statistics talk about a 2% - 5% OPEN rate. That means only 2-5% of all of your letters actually get read. Out of those figures, industry statistics vary between a 1%-20% actual response to your offer. There are things you can do to improve these rates, but at least you now know what you are up against. Up to 98% of all people won’t read your letter, let alone action it.
- What list are you using? A good list will make your mailing. If you are mailing to people who you already have a great relationship with, you can expect your response rates to increase. If you are mailing to a cold list of names you have gathered from the Yellow Pages, or just delivered to PO Boxes, your response rates will be much less.
- Headlines and subheads. People scan letters before reading them. Make sure you have clear and enticing headlines and sub-headlines to make them want to read more.
- Spelling, grammar and layout count. If you send out a letter full of typos, poorly laid out and looking unprofessional – you can count on getting a very poor response. Good layout, with clever use of bold, colour, underlining, larger fonts and “copy doodles” all boost your response rate.
- Go with the flow. Your letter must flow logically and consistently. You want them to understand the features and benefits of what you are offering – and how these will make their lives easier. You want to take your audience through a gradual development of ideas, building them to a point where they know clearly whether or not what you are suggesting will meet their needs and wants.
- How credible are you? People want to know you have background, knowledge, experience and expertise in the area. They want to know that other people have used your services and are fully satisfied with the results. Demonstrating your credibility through including testimonials or case studies will help potential customers feel comfortable with you – enough to want to take the next step.
- Strong call to action. Many people send out a letter seeking an appointment and do not make it clear what they want the person to do. Are they to wait for your call to make an appointment, call you to make an appointment or contact you for more information? Tell people clearly what you want them to do and they will do it.
- PS. If there is a PS on a letter people will read it. Use your PS to reinforce a key point or your call to action. PS’s increase your response rate.
- Follow up. A single mail shot with no follow up rarely works well. All letters should be either followed up with a phone call to the person, or a second mail shot a few weeks later. Many people intend to take action but simply forget. Following up significantly boosts your response rates.
- Test & measure. Businesses need to test and measure the responses to all marketing. How many responses did you get to the one letter? Now try sending out the same letter to a different sample with just different headlines and sub-headlines to check the response rates. Try changing the call to action with a third sample. The top direct mail companies all tweak their mailings until they get a “control” piece – one that consistently performs well. Once they have a control piece they keep using it, every now and again testing a sample with a new piece to see if it beats the control. Small business can do the same thing – use sample sizes of about 100 minimum as this will give you some indication of trends (Big business uses about 10,000 as their minimum but few small businesses have the budgets to work with those numbers).
Call Heart Harmony if you would like to review your appointment letters on 0411 295 900.
| HR Tip - Follow Up Candidates |
 Not all candidates are right for your roles right now. But ... every now and again you see someone you believe may be perfect for you in a few months or years time.
One of the best strategies you can have for these people are to periodically keep in touch with them. It can be as simple as:
- sending them a copy of your company newsletter with an interesting article in it with a with compliments slip - "I thought this may be of interest to you"
- a Christmas card wishing them a successful year
- letting them know of upcoming vacancies.
By keeping in touch you may end up with a brilliant employee in years to come. At the very least, you are forming a positive relationship with someone about your company. Both are win-win outcomes.
Another great invention this week - Mirrus. Guys know that when they shave that their beard is softer and easier to shave when their skin is warm. Enter Miles Blackwood, now resident of the Sunshine Coast.
Miles spent a number of years in the cold highlands of Scotland. He couldn't get a mirror that wouldn't fog up. He also wanted to shave in the shower to save time and get a closer shave. He couldn't find anything that worked, was simple to use and lasted for longer than a few months. So ... he invented his own using simple physics rather than chemical coatings.
I just love simple ideas that work. I also love how small businesses can sometimes beat the big guys at their own game. Shaving companies have been focussed on improving shaves through adding lots and lots of blades. Miles thought outside the square and improved shaves through logic - shave where the conditions are the best.
Girls - the Mirrus also works well for facial scrubs in the shower.
You can get your own Mirrus over the net if your are interested - just go to www.themirrus.com.
In this blog post I look at whether entrepreneurs are made or born after looking at an interview of Richard Branson and his mum Eve Branson.
Getting to understand what's in your client's heads
warm regards
Ingrid
Heart Harmony
PS: This week's blog also included posts about Anzac Day as well as contrasting vs complementary things in business.
PPS: Remember to leave your comment on the articles in this week's newsletter.
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