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A Power-Packed Offer Designed To Get You A High Response Rate

by Susanna K. Hutcheson

Do you think offers in direct mail are only for people selling to consumers? If so, we need to reengineer your thinking a bit. You see, everyone loves an offer and the more attractive the offer the higher your response rate will be.

For example, what types of marketing do you respond to? Well, here's a secret. I know what lots of you respond to. What do you want? What do we all want? FREE INFORMATION.

Ah, but wait. Information? Do I mean information about someone's services or product? No, not at all. I mean helpful literature that is related to your product and/or service but is not advertising. That's right. It's not advertising.

In his book, "Business to Business Direct Marketing," Bob Bly says, "The free booklet offer is so effective, and so important, that for most business marketers using direct mail to generate leads, I think it's a mistake not to have such an offer as part of your mailing."

Nothing is more powerful than the Free Booklet Offer.

I walked into an Ace Hardware store today and discovered a display of about thirty different "How-To" booklets on all sorts of subjects. Included were:
Circuit Breakers
Dish Washers
Paint Problems

These booklets were all very informative. They each contained twelve pages. The booklets told all the tools and other things that were needed for the various projects. And guess what? All of the items were readily available at Ace Hardware.

When you offer a free booklet to a prospect you're saying to him or her, "You may not have a need right now, today, but just mail the card in and I'll send you something of value and it won't cost you a thing." These offers convert into clients frequently. They give you and your business instant credibility. They enhance your image. They're soft-sell and they work when nothing else will.

How To Create Power-Packed Booklet Offers

To begin with you must choose a topic. Obviously it must be something that will interest the reader — not be boring or overused. It should also be something related to what you are selling.

For example, right now you're reading part of a booklet. I am, however, using it as a special report in this case. This is a topic you're interested in or you wouldn't have downloaded it. At the same time, it's a topic that's related to my services as a creative consultant and copywriter.

You can put your booklet in many forms. The form this booklet takes is that of "The Special Report." These are easily printed and mailed. Chances are good this report will be published in a magazine at some point. It will then become a magazine article and will probably contain some fancy art work and look really great on the printed page. When that happens, I will make copies of it and mail it to prospective clients. You can do the same with your special reports.

You can also put your material in actual booklets. The page size can be either four by 9 inches to fit a standard #10 envelope or five by eight inches to fit a 6-by-9 inch envelope. They can be six or twelve or sixteen pages or more.

While the booklet or special report is free, you should put a price on it. Place the price on the upper right-hand corner. That adds value to the literature. It also allows you to charge for it if people just want to have it to add to their collection or if someone wants a bunch of them for a seminar or meeting. The price should be anywhere from $4 to $12 for a booklet and $8 to $16 for a special report.

Finally, one very important point. Come up with a really great title. Especially excellent ones are similar to these:

"10 Hot Tips For Successful Sales Letters" (S. Hutcheson)

"Aldus Guide to Desktop Design" (Aldus)

"7 Questions to Ask before You Invest in DP Training . . . and One Good Answer to Each" (Chubb institute)

The title is important because it will determine whether or not people send for it. An uninteresting title will not entice people to fill out a card. A catchy title will cause them to quickly send for it.

So Where Does My Advertising Come In?

You can do low-key selling in the booklet or special report. This takes skill and it's best done by a professional writer. (Notice the low-key sell of that last sentence.)

On the front cover be sure to put your business name or your name as the author. Give your address and telephone number. Put the same information on the back cover but add a bit more about your product or service. Tell the reader just a bit about how you can help him or her. (See my copy at the end of this special report.)

If you're selling a very specialized or technical product or service you will have to create your own booklet or special report or have a professional do it. If, however, a generic bait piece can get the job done there are tons of free ones available to you.

For catalogs of the various government publications available (free or for a very small cost), contact:

Superintendent of Documents
Government Printing Office
Washington, D.C. 20402
(202) 783-3238

Consumer Resource Center
Pueblo, CO 81009
(719) 948-3334

Many of the publications these organizations have available are not copyrighted so you're free to use them. You can put your name and address on them and reproduce them. Of course, you should never use a copyrighted report or booklet without permission.

Free booklets and special reports are really business-grabbers. No matter whether you sell to consumers or businesses, you'll want to investigate the use of them with your product or service. You will discover that people will contact you for a free booklet or report when they would not otherwise contact you.

Once they've replied and received the booklet, the chances are good you will get a good percentage of them as clients.

You can follow up with a sales letter if you want to. Or a phone call. Or even a brief note and more sales literature.

Try this with your next mailing or in your next space ad. Try it in your radio spots. Discover how it increases your response rate AND your conversions. Once you try it you'll never want to be without this great power-packed offer. It works for business giants and soon-to-be giants. And it will work for you!

Susanna K. Hutcheson is a professional advertising and direct mail copywriter. She was the first copywriter to utilize the Internet as a place to market this type of service. Susanna has clients all over the world. She writes everything from Web site content to direct mail and radio spots. Visit her Web site at http://www.powerwriting.com. Her email address is powerwriter@powerwriting.com. Telephone: 316-665-7626.

© Copyright 2006 by Susanna K. Hutcheson and Power Communications LLC. Any republication in any manner is prohibited without the consent of Power Communications LLC or the author. We do give you limited permission to use this article on your Web site or in your newsletter if you print it or reproduce it exactly as it appears here including this entire notice. This article cannot be sold by you or published in a for-profit publication, a pay-per-view site or a site which sells memberships. It cannot be used by schools or in textbooks without our consent in writing. Rights to use this article for a purpose other than the type of distribution for which it is intended may be purchased from us. Call us at 316-665-7626. You may, however, link directly (not by redirect) to this article.