Strategic Marketing and Communications for Change

ZA Group (Pty) Ltd
Bryanston, Johannesburg
Phone 0860 92 0000
International calls
+27 11 706 1685
info@zagroup.co.za

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How, oh how, does a cash-strapped
entrepreneur find clients?

Write a letter.

  1. Think of one particular business or organisation that you know would benefit from your product.
  2. Write a letter to the MD.
  3. Start with a statement about the one most important benefit they stand to gain from using your product or service.
  4. Expand on that benefit. Offer proof, such as client testimonials.
  5. Bullet-point all the other features and benefits of using your product or service.
  6. Remove the risk of doing business with you, by offering a guarantee or a free try-out period.
  7. Offer an incentive to act immediately, i.e. a discount if they order by a specific date.
  8. Identify nine other businesses that potentially need what you have to offer. Tweak your letter so that it will work for all of them.
  9. Send the letter, by snail mail, to those ten businesses.
  10. Wait for a week, then follow up with a second letter to the same people.
  11. Research shows that responses increase exponentially after the first contact. So, wait for another week and follow up with your third and last letter to the same people.
  12. If they don't call you, don't call them. If they had a need for what you have to offer, and it your letter convinced them of the value of that offer, they would have called you. Instead, tweak your three letters to make them even more compelling and send the sequence out to the next ten potential clients.
  13. Keep tweaking your letters until you get predictable responses to your mailings. When you can send out ten or 100 or 1 000 letters and predict what kind of response you're going to get, then you have a winner.
  14. Direct mail is a wonderful tool that you can use whenever you need to stimulate business. All you need are some envelopes and stamps to send out your letters ... then you can sit back and wait for responses to roll in.

Communicating directly with potential clients is an extremely cost effective method of generating business. Let us help you with writing a direct mail campaign.


ZA Group was founded with a firm commitment to making a significant, positive contribution to the economic and social wellbeing of all South Africans. We harness the power of communication to empower people and institutions to grow their businesses, generate employment and create wealth for themselves and their communities.

ZA Group (Pty) Ltd | Phone 0860 92 0000 | International calls +27 11 706 1685 | info@zagroup.co.za
Postnet Suite 84, Private Bag X75, Bryanston 2021, South Africa
© Copyright 2004 - 2010 | ZA Group pty ltd | All rights reserved
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Site conceptualised, written and designed by the ZA Team.

What is direct mail?

The short answer is that it is advertising sent, by post, directly to prospective customers. The long answer is limited only by your imagination.

  • Whether you're selling a product or a service, introducing a new business to the neighbourhood, raising funds or recruiting volunteers, direct mail can be used very effectively to deliver a message directly to the consumer.
  • Direct mail is also known as junk mail, because it is unsolicited. In countries where direct mail has been over-used, it often lands in file 13: the rubbish bin.
  • Ever-increasing creative techniques are used to ensure that direct mail is actually opened, such as using a computer font that looks like handwriting to address the envelope. Or including a product sample in the envelope ... or creating something so fabulous looking, that people will open it out of curiosity.
  • To maximise response rates, senders of direct mail often buy or create precisely targeted mailing lists.
  • In this way, direct mail allows businesses to isolate their audiences, to concentrate on high probability prospects and to avoid wasting money on marketing to people who may not be interested.
  • You can target a neighbourhood, a town, a city, a province or the entire country. You can target specific population groups, i.e. single mothers with children under the age of five. Or businesses that serve the mining industry.
  • Direct mail is usually sent in bulk to large groups of people, because bulk mail rates are lower than normal rates.
  • Direct mail is similar to handing out fliers at street corners ... except that it is much more effective and a lot less expensive.
  • It is also similar to electronic email, except more expensive, yet a lot less likely to get trashed on landing in the post box.
  • Direct mail is one of the most cost effective means of marketing, yet it is often overlooked by ad-agencies, because there is no commission to be earned.

Strategic Marketing and Communications for Change