Selling Newsletters with Direct Mail? Here’s 1 Thing You Must Remember…
I recently wrote my first direct mail package for a newsletter that covers economic and geopolitical issues.
As part of my research, I read through portions of the direct mail books I’ve got on my shelves.
That’s when I came across this little gem on page 327 of Million Dollar Mailings by Denny Hatch.
Newsletters don’t lend themselves to long-term promotional efforts. They are by definition news and letters, private pipelines into the expertise of an editor or a research organization. They generally go to a narrowly defined audience that would quickly get tired of seeing the same envelope over and over and throw succeeding copies of the same effort away. (One technique to revive flagging controls: change your envelope.)
Plus… as industries and opportunities change, newsletters change, and those changes must be reflected in the promotional copy to make the publication and its editor seem au courant. For example, an investment letter that made people rich on stocks in the mid-80s would have had dramatically to change its story to attract new subscribers (and keep old ones) after the 501-point crash of the Dow on October 17, 1987.
This is why long-standing controls for newsletters are rare. They tend to tire more quickly than DM packages that sell other types of products.
Therefore, if a newsletter is at the heart of your business, it would be worthwhile to have a consistent schedule for testing new letters and approaches.
Test new approaches at least once a quarter; more frequently if you are a high-volume mailer.
-Ryan M. Healy
P.S. If you’re looking for a new direct mail package to beat your current control, give me a call. I’d love to help you bring in more subscribers this year.
