Winning Through Marketing - Sales Letters

Sales Letter is our next post in our series of marketing. Aside from our Winning Through Marketing introduction post and our Ultimate Lead Guide series, also check out:

Cold calling
Email marketing
Networking
Social Media Marketing
Podcasting (coming 8/28/24)

Direct mail works.

According to the US Postal Service, 72% of Gen Z-ers get excited when receiving mail and 38% of those will visit a website listed on that direct mail piece after receiving it. 71% of Gen X-ers find direct mail more personal than digital communication, like email.

Lob in their 2024 State of Direct Mail Marketing Report reports that 85% of respondents either read that direct mail piece immediately or at a later time. 62% have taken action on that direct mail after having read it, whether through a purchase, a visit to their website, a visit to their reviews, or searched for that brand online. That's huge! Compare that with clickthrough rates on email at only 2-3%. 

As we reported in the email marketing blog post, 347 Billion emails are sent per day. Conversely, according to Statistica, only 368 pieces of direct mail were received the ENTIRE year in 2022 to households. That means cleaning companies have ZERO competition if direct mailing vs. emailing (psssst...if you're in the DC area, emailing is better...or better yet...doing nothing is better. Just Kidding, kinda).

If direct mail is so great, then why aren't more people doing it?

It's mostly due to the cost. The price of the phone call depends on the volume of calls in relation to your phone bill, which could be pennies at most. A price of a sales email is about the same, even when factoring in a domain name and email service, like MailChimp or ActiveCampaign. But a direct mail piece can cost a significant amount of money, which is why there's very little competition. You could easily spend $1.50 or more per address, and that adds up if you're sending hundreds at a time. 

Despite the great stats above, the end results aren't that much better than a phone call or email. Of every 100 letters I send, I'll typically get 3-5 to respond. My call to action is to book a walkthrough, so I might get 3-5 walkthroughs out of that. And of those 3-5, I might win 1 client. 1% success rate isn't too great. But with targeted and pre-qualified leads you curate, that 1 new client can be very profitable. Our average new client through direct mail was about $5000/mo. Worth spending a few hundred dollars to get a $60K/yr contract? You bet. 

There are many different ways you can send direct mail, but there are primarily 3 ways in the cleaning industry:

Postcards-

You can send postcards. The USPS has restrictions on the size and thickness, but there are printers everywhere that can help you design and curate hundreds of postcards at a time. There are also third-parties, like VistaPrint, that can help you mail them too. Upload your list and you're on your way. If you're cleaning both residential and commercial, then consider EDDM through the USPS or a 3rd party like SendJim. It's my understanding that you cannot separate residential and commercial, which makes it problematic for sales copy in your marketing. Cost for postcards will typically run you $1-$1.50 when you factor in postage and printing.

Self-Mailers-

Self-Mailers are basically brochures or newsletters or other marketing folded over and sealed for mailing. The advantage is that you can send more information without spending too much more in pricing. The downside, according to Who's Mailing What, readers prefer to read less, which means your copy needs to be more concise. Cost can be over $2, depending on printing and mailing.

Letters-

Letters are my favorite method, though it tends to be more expensive. I'm probably biased here because whenever I receive a postcard in the mail I toss it nearly 100% of the time. It's 2024 as I write this, and we're in an election year. I'll probably receive hundreds of postcards between now and Election Day and they all get trashed (seriously, though, go vote).

I use Mail Merge through Microsoft Word to create a sales letter template. I'll upload my lead list (check out the Finding Leads series for inspiration). And with a click of the button, I can print up 100s of sales letters all at once complete with custom addresses. I'll then rerun the list to print directly on our branded self-seal envelopes (don't be like George on Seinfeld).I'll sign each letter and stuff it in those printed envelopes with a brochure, and I'll stamp and send. I don't use labels because it looks canned and I'll put a 1st class USA Flag stamp and I'll send it. If you don't want to do the manual labor, have convos with your local print shops. Ours offered us this service and they'll use a machine to sign my letter and send. All automated. Total cost is about $2/letter.

Here's an example of a recent direct mail campaign:

If anyone is wondering, I don't address the letter to any singular person. In the salutation, I'll put, "Dear Clean Building Enthusiast", or something like that. It doesn't have to go to a specific person. That letter will make its way to the correct person.

Would You Like an Example?

Do you remember the formula I used in the Email Marketing blog post? It's the same:

1-3 sentences describing the pain points of our targeted niche.
1-2 sentence solution (talks about us, who and where we serve).
2-3 sentences listing out how our USPs (unique selling proposition - what makes us different) will help them and their location.
1 optional sentence name dropping clients we serve near them and/or competitors to them we serve.
1 sentence for a very clear CTA (call to action). What do I want them to do after reading? Click and read the link(s), visit my website, call us for services, etc).
1 sentence as a PS,  after my signature I sometimes have a P.S. of an irresistible offer. We'll offer 25% off your first full month, or something like that. 

That's it. There's also a blog post on pain points. Let's say we have a school we want to send a B2B sales letter to. Consistency and Follow-Though is a very common pain point I see in schools. Let's write a letter using that pain point for private schools.

ABC School
1234 Main Street
Anytown, USA 23423

Dear Admirer of a Clean School:

Could you honestly say that your cleaning company is cleaning at 100%, or do you feel there's room for improvement? Is consistency and follow-through from your cleaning company lacking in the ABCs (Always Be Clean)?

We're XYZ Cleaning Services right here in the heart of the Washington, DC area. We've been serving government, office buildings, places of worship, banks, medical facilities, and schools, just like yours, for over X years. 

We niche in school cleaning and we know what it takes to keep a consistent clean. XYZ Cleaning Services utilizes a 3-step approach in cleaning by utilizing technology is measuring the level of clean, a documented supervision system that keeps you in the loop with our management team, and a follow-through with surveys and in-person joint inspections. 

XYZ Cleaning Services knows schools well, and in fact, we clean The Ponds School over in Arlington, the Elm Tree School in Alexandria, and the Johnstown School, a K-12, which recently was published as a top-tier school in the Washingtonian Magazine. 

Call us today at XXX-XXX-XXXX and we'll do a walkthrough and provide you with a complete proposal by which to compare other cleaning services there at ABC School.

Very Truly Yours,

Mark Lineberry
President

P.S. Call us by April 10, and we'll give you 25% off your first full month of services with XYZ Cleaning Services. 

That's it. Simple formula. It works. 

I hope this all helps. Good luck and win new business!