Financial Marketing
Direct Mail Campaign
11.7% response rate to a credit card mailing
to bank customers.
Five department heads met with us initially to talk
about doing their first professional direct mail
campaign. We turned this first meeting into a
spontaneous direct mail seminar. They listened
carefully, and they liked what they heard. As long
as we gave them a good reason for doing
something, they gave us the freedom to do it. They
trusted us, and we returned the favor with the most
successful direct mail campaign in the history of the
bank.
We predicted a conservative 3% response rate.
The customers had a different idea: they nearly
tripled our estimate. Within two months of the
mailing, $3.5 million in credit card balances had been
effortlessly transferred over to First
Citizen’s credit cards as a result of just one
direct mail campaign.
-- First Citizens Bank, South Carolina
Industrial
Business-to-Business Direct Mail Campaign
A major shrink-film supplier for the grocery industry,
Cryovac was very successful on all counts. Their
experienced sales force knew what their
customers needed and serviced them well. There
was only one problem that was finally identified. It
was only profitable for their salesmen to make a
personal call on the bigger accounts; the smaller
ones weren’t worth the time. Unfortunately,
as a group, the smaller ones added up to an
impressive amount of lost sales. Our client turned to
direct mail to solve the problem. And we did.
We introduced three women in Customer Service
as the personal sales representatives for these
smaller companies. We featured their smiling faces
on customized direct mail pieces under a tantalizing
headline: “Meet Barbara. She’s got
your number. And now you’ve got
hers.” One-third of the customers received
the “Barbara” mailing. One-third
received the “Meet Nancy...” mailing.
The remaining third received the “Meet
Joan...” mailing.
Our client’s once-neglected smaller
accounts were thrilled. Once they were targeted
with this renewed attention, they responded with
over $250,000 in sales over the coming months.
-- Cryovac, Inc., South Carolina
Seminar Marketing
We have over a decade of experience as direct mail writers for the
largest producer of management
education seminars in the world - American Management Associations. AMA
seminars target every level of management from
entry-level supervisors to CEOs. Whether the
seminar was one-day or two weeks, we filled rooms in all major and
secondary cities across the United States.
Management Education Books, Magazines and Cassette Programs.
In addition, we have written hundreds of direct mail campaigns for
AMACOM, the publishing division of American Management
Associations. AMA is a prolific producer of educational resources for
managers.
-- American Management Associations, New York City
Technical Book
Marketing
McGraw-Hill Books, a major publishing house, has a large division
devoted to technical books. They use targeted direct mail campaigns
that feature long sales letters to reach their specialized audiences.
The direct mail writers at Freelance Writers Dot US were one of
McGraw-Hill's "go-to" freelance teams for over 50 technical book
campaigns. Subjects ranged from construction topics like concrete
pouring to business topics like budgeting basics and accounting
practices.
Our copywriters were given less than one week from assignment to
delivery of a 4-page sales letter and reply device. In that time period,
we had to review the pre-press gallies of each book, identify the key
benefits and skills to be acquired by the reader, and translate
everything into a strong sales letter
that exhibited an easy familiarity with the subject matter. We did it --
book after book --
but it wasn’t easy!
-- McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York City
Fund-raising for PBS
Affiliate
600% increase in response rate generated over $50,000 in
donations
PBS affiliate Maryland Center for Public Broadcasting told us that they
really believed they had saturated their market with new member
fund-raising mailings. With each mailing, their response rate decreased.
Their last
mailing generated a 1/4% response rate which didn’t attract enough new
members to
pay for the mailing.
We assured them that the problem wasn’t the
medium; it was
the message. First, we needed more information about their
donors before we
could successfully attract more of them. We poured through stacks of
market research reports in search of something they were overlooking.
We finally found it, and this startling fact jumped off the page:
An astounding 39% of Maryland Center for Public Broadcasting's donor
base seldom even
watch public television! They donate because they simply
believe that
public television should exist as a proper balance to commercial
television.
We were thrilled. Now we knew how to get a
reaction from their dormant market.
With our provocative "John Phillips Seldom Turns Us On" campaign, we
proved that their market just needed to hear the right message. Their
tired, old mailing list woke up and generated a 3% response rate with
their donations --
a 600% increase over their previous fundraising
mailings. We followed this breakthrough success with a series of
direct-mail fund raising campaigns that generated new donors and
motivated current donors to give more frequently.
-- Maryland Center for Public Broadcasting
Architectural Brick
Manufacturer B2B Campaign
Architects loved the beautiful, high-quality brick produced by
Carolina Ceramics Brick. The subtle shades and textures always found
their way to an
exciting, new downtown building somewhere in Eastern United States.
However, sales could be better. What more could the sales staff
do? Nothing, we suggested. Instead, we recommended that we mail an
informative bi-annual newsletter to all commercial architects in their
market areas. We featured beautiful photographs and in-depth interviews
with architects about their projects with our brick, as well as inside
looks at how painstakingly the brick was manufactured. Every newsletter
was a stunning showcase of our client’s expertise and obvious ability
to please.
After the first newsletter, we knew we had created something of
value.
Business reply cards that were included with each newsletter kept
coming back with the "Add these people to your mailing list" box
checked and the "Have your salesman call me to discuss an upcoming
project" box checked, too. The pass-along readership was estimated at
500%.
The sales force always received feedback about our newsletters
along with many, enthusiastic, "Keep it coming!" comments. We kept it
coming for seven consecutive years!
-- Carolina Ceramics, South Carolina
Industrial
Wholesaler B2B Campaign
