MLM Direct Mail Tips

Today, I’m going to share some of my best MLM Direct Mail tips.

Direct mail is a very effective, time-tested marketing strategy used by millions of companies and entrepreneurs. More importantly the direct mail industry has been around more than 100-years.

Although the internet has changed the way many businesses advertise, you should not rule out direct mail. If anything, direct mail has become less competitive as other businesses transition to the internet.

In the paragraphs below, I will cover:

• What I Love About Direct Mail
• Quick Facts About Direct Mail
• Six Keys to Success with Direct Mail

Enjoy the information!

What I Love About Direct Mail

How many daily email messages do you receive a day about network marketing, business opportunities, or something related to that subject? I can’t speak for you, but I get anywhere from 50 to 100 emails a day that fall into that category.

Most of these email messages go straight to my junk folder and the few that make it to my inbox get deleted immediately. That means that most of those emails never get opened or read.

What I love about direct mail is that you have someone’s UNDIVIDED ATTENTION. If you can get them to open the piece of mail, or read the postcard, you have their immediate attention.

If they open it, there’s a good chance they will read your message!  And if you have effective AD COPY there’s a good chance you can get the person to take action.

Another thing I like about direct mail is the cost. Some people will say it is expensive, but when you compare it to Facebook PPC or Google Adwords it is about the same price per person, and usually less.

In the past, I’ve averaged 75 cents to $1 per click using pay-per-click services. And I can mail a postcard for less than 50 cents, even including the postage, printing and leads. If I mail a letter, it’s still normally less than $1 per person.

Another thing that I love about MLM Direct Mail is that it’s fairly easy to do. Compared to Search Engine Optimization and online advertising, there is a shorter learning curve. Plus, direct mail is stable and constant, whereas the internet world is always changing.

In fact, you could be up and running with direct mail in no time, probably in as little as a few days. If you can lick a stamp, and put an address label on a postcard, you are in business.

But the BEST thing I LOVE about direct mail is that NO ONE is doing it. Well, not many people are doing it. I’ve been in the network marketing industry more than 18-years now, and I haven’t received even TWENTY pieces of direct mail from someone promoting a MLM Company in all of that time.

As I mentioned earlier, I get close to 100 emails per day concerning MLM. So, I’d consider the MLM Direct Mail strategy a competition free zone.

Quick Facts About Direct Mail

I just wanted to share some quick facts about I found about direct mail online. These facts will help illustrate how large of an industry it really is.

• In 2007, direct mail accounted for 3.5 percent of total U.S. gross domestic product. About 6 million American jobs depend on direct mail.

• California, Texas, New York, Florida, and Illinois are the top five states who shop the most from catalogs.

• According to research, 69 percent of Americans shop from catalogs, on the Internet, over the phone, or by mail, while 81 percent of U.S. households usually read some or all of the advertising mail they receive. 

• Hundreds of millions of pieces of mail are delivered every day to more than 141 million homes and businesses in the United States.

• The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) was founded in 1917 to represent the direct mail community. Today, the association has nearly 3,600 members and is the leading global trade association for all direct marketing tools and techniques. This year, direct mail represented 34% of the total advertising and marketing revenue for direct marketers.

• In 2005, nearly $200 billion in contributions were collected though direct mail for good causes – from charities supporting the poor to foundations conducting important medical research.

These facts were referenced from DMAChoice.com.

• According to the DMA, a dollar investment in direct marketing advertising generates $12.57 in sales.

• Combining direct mail with other marketing activities increases campaign payback by up to 20%, research out of the UK shows.

• According to The Direct Marketing Association’s 2010 Response Rate Report, direct mail and e-mail remain the most commonly used media by direct marketers, with more than half using each.

What’s the bottom line? Direct mail works! 

Six Keys to Success with MLM Direct Mail

When it comes to direct mail, there is a right way and wrong way to do it, especially as a network marketer. Here are some of my best tips.

# 1: Buy the Right List

The first and most important thing you need to do is to purchase the right mailing list. There are literally HUNDREDS of list brokers to choose from, all trying to sell you their list. Make sure you ask them lots of questions about how they compiled their list. Ask if it is a compiled list or a buyer’s list. Ideally, you want to send your direct mail to current and former network marketers: your target market. This will lead to much better results. Remember, you get what you pay for. Cheaper is not always better. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t.

As always, the key to making sure that you get the very best results in your campaign is to make sure that you have the best mailing list! Companies who rely on poor quality mailing lists for their campaigns receive virtually no response, well under 1%, and usually end up taking a loss for every piece of mail that they put out.

On the other hand, a well-run mailing campaign based on a highly targeted and qualified list will often have a response rate in excess of 5% and can even have a response rate of 10% or more.

Source: ListGuy.com

# 2: The Right Offer

You wouldn’t try to sell steak to vegetarians. I hope not. Your offer must be relevant to your list. If you are trying to promote your business opportunity, you should focus on your systems, how you generate leads, your training and how you build your business. That is what other network marketers are most interested in. Focus on what makes you and your opportunity unique. On the other hand, if you are leading with your products, you might want to offer a gift card or free sample. This will lead to more responses.

Once you have general information in mind, such as age range and income level, try to delve deep and really understand the interests of your audience. Are they older people interested in spending time with their grandchildren; or perhaps millennial women who love health and fitness activities? In order to create an effective message, you will want to show how your business’s products and services provide value for your audience’s specific lifestyle.

Source: R&AMarketing

# 3: It’s a Numbers Game

Selling is a numbers game. Yes, you need a good list and a good message, but if you don’t work the numbers, you are doomed. You can’t just mail out 100 postcards and hope for the best. That won’t work. Instead, you need to send out 1,000 to 2,500 postcards (or more) at a time. After you do that the first time, you can wait and test your results. Once you’re confident in your list and offer, you can continue mailing out more postcards or fliers.

# 4: Build Your List & Follow Up

As people respond to your mailing, you must follow-up. Ideally, you want to send people to your toll-free number to listen to your sizzle call and leave a message. Or, you can send people to your capture page, so you can collect their email and follow-up with them with your auto-responder.

The fortune is in the follow-up. When people call or email you with questions, make sure you call them back promptly. Additionally, you might want to mail more offers to people who didn’t respond to your first mailing. Sometimes it will take three to five mailings to the same person to trigger a response.

Whenever someone responds to one of my ads, this is what I do. First, I create a new list with people who responded. Next, I mail each of these people at least once a month for the next 12-months, with a good follow-up sequence. This is where the magic happens.

One simple way to increase the return on investment on any direct mail campaign you do, can be to simply pick up the phone and follow up.

Most small businesses just send out one letter, postcard or mailer to a list of prospects and never do anything else. And most don’t get the results they expect from that mailing. The key is follow up.

Source: Your Marketing University

# 5: Test & Track Your Results

Smart marketers ALWAYS TEST their results before they roll out a major direct mail campaign. I recommend you keep track of your statistics for each mailing. You want to test your response rate, your conversion rate, your cost per lead, and your return on investment. Whenever you make changes to your campaign, you should only change ONE thing at a time. If you change more than one thing at a time, you won’t know what effected the positive or negative change.

If direct mail is a continual part of your marketing efforts, continually test and refine your campaign. Experiment with your recipient demographics, the items you send, or your CTA. By tracking direct mail marketing effectiveness, you’ll ensure your response rates keep climbing higher and higher.

Source: Learning  Hub

# 6: Be Consistent

The final key to success with direct mail is to be consistent. Once you have a system that works for you, you must send out new mailings each week, each month, etc. Don’t do a one-time mailing and then give up. Instead, keep mailing consistently, learn from your mistakes and keep moving forward.

As I see it, these are the six steps you should use to market your product or business opportunity via direct mail the SMART way.

The key to direct mail marketing is consistency, and having a realistic budget will help set a clear and concise plan. With direct mail, it is a number’s game, and the more you can do, the more opportunities you will have.

Source: BiggerPockets

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, MLM Direct Mail is a competition free zone, especially in today’s internet world. That being said, you will need to invest your time and money to educate yourself about direct mail, so you know what you are doing.

Expect to go through some type of learning curve (just like anything else). You will make mistakes and lose money initially, but if you press forward, learn from each mistake, and make adjustments as needed, I’m pretty sure MLM Direct Mail will be the perfect lead generation system for you.

What are your thoughts? Have you used MLM Direct Mail in the past? If so, what was your experience like? Leave a comment below to let me know what you think. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,






Chuck Holmes
20+ Year Network Marketing Professional
Top Earner & Top Recruiter
Email: mrchuckholmes@gmail.com

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