NOTE: Although I use a law firm example in today's newsletter, the message applies to almost all businesses.
About 15 years ago, I was contacted by a bankruptcy law firm that was looking to beef up its marketing and get more clients.
They showed me the marketing they were doing and it wasn't all totally terrible.
It wasn't very good, either.
They were doing Yellow Pages ads (remember -- this was 15 years ago), newsletters, ads in the Penny Saver... and...
A Short Little Direct Mail Letter
Nothing really packed too much of a punch.
Plus, there were serious issues in the messaging.
Like most law firms (actually, most businesses in general), they simply recycled what everyone else was doing and hoped it would work.
It wasn't much.
When I checked it out, the lawyers told me they had to keep the letter short, less than a page, because...
"Who the Heck Has the Time to Read
More Than a Page These Days?
Well, this is a common misconception -- that people won't read anything longer than one page.
So, the first order of business consisted of two parts:
1. Change the messaging (they basically had nothing cohesive) and
2. Redo their direct mail letter.
Because they were in a rush to get clients (duh! who isn't?), I incorporated new messaging into the new letter.
A Little Background On the Old Letter:
A. It was only one page. Not even.
B. It was very "lawyerly," very professional sounding... lots of big words.
C. It was on copy paper (the cheap stuff).
D. It was not hand-signed (they used some silly Comic Sans font for the signature).
E. It was not personalized, addressed as: "Dear Sir/Madam,".
Prior to bringing me on board, they were mailing about 5,000 letters monthly and retaining 7-8 new clients.
That's an awful ROI.
After the Firm Retained Me:
A. The letter went from one page to four (initially, the lawyers flipped out).
B. The reading comprehension was on a 6th-7th grade level. No legalese.
C. It was printed on medium quality paper.
D. They used a blue "live" signature stamp that duplicated the signature perfectly.
E. We set up a mail merge system and personalized every single letter.
THE RESULT?
Mailing the same number of 5,000 letters resulted in 120-140 retained clients.
That's PER MONTH.
Were they happy? You do the math...
They were ecstatic!
But honestly, they were also in serious panic mode.
In fact, one of the partners sent me a frantic email and wrote,
"You Are Killing Me With All the New Business.
We Are Busting At the Seams And
All My Employees Are Freaking Out."
Would you like to know the secret to this campaign's success?
I mean the real secret?
Get a little closer... I'll tell you now...
It was the messaging.
Throughout the entire letter, I kept telegraphing one very important message, over... and over... and over...again.
It was:
4 magical words.
I said it a million different ways.
That's exactly what those potential bankruptcy filers needed to hear from their soon-to-be-lawyer.
They didn't want to be judged.
They didn't want to be lectured.
They didn't want to be excoriated.
They didn't want to be scolded.
They wanted someone to tell them, "It's not your fault."
They Wanted to Be Absolved.
That's what I gave them.
So, whatever field, whatever niche you're in... if you can find a way to work the "It's not your fault" messaging, you'll be amazed at the relief you'll see in your customers' behavior.
This works well in weight loss, in law, in the financial arena, in medicine and other areas -- basically anywhere that blame can be assessed.
Hopefully, you'll find a way to work this into your business.
And, if you can't, it's not your fault. ;)
