So what kind of  response rates can you expect when mailing your letters or postcards?

The industry “average” is anywhere from 1 to 5%- So if you mail 1000 postcards, this says that you can expect to get from 10 to 50 people that will respond for more information.

This does not mean that all those “responses” will convert to sales though. There are many factors that affect your response rates. The main factor of course is the quality of your list your mailing to. Are the leads older than 30 days or more? Have they been resold a gagillion times? Are they from a genealogy list from a failed MLM program, do they target a specific niche? Are they basically phonebook names? etc etc

You need to make sure the leads you buy are from a reputable company. The way leads are collected is vitally important to the success of your mailings! The lead lists need to constantly be updated and cleaned of old or bad addresses etc.

The quality of your mailing piece is the 2nd biggest factor…I touched on this in another post, but I’ll say it again here. If you are mailing envelopes, use colored envelopes if possible such as a light yellow, light blue, ivory, beige. You can use the more expensive cotton woven envelopes to attain that “professional” image, but in the home business arena that isn’t necessary.Save your money and just use the regular kind.

Some people will use windowed evelope with the mailing label showing through to give them a more “official” look such as a bill.

White envelopes are ok, but make sure they are good quality, don’t skimp and buy the ones you can see through. When using your return address, just put your return address and not your name, this will increase the readers curiosity and make them more inclined to open it. Pre printed lables are ok if your handwriting is kinda like chicken scratch lol.

If you have time and have good handwriting, then hand address the envelopes, but if you don’t, labels are ok…The recommended way is to have them put on the envelope with a laser printer. This will give the impression of  a professional, plus it wont’ stink of junk mail near as much.

Use a teaser on the outside of the envelope…Teaser copy is a printed message that might say something like “FREE gift inside” or “look inside now”…This does help!

 Put some time and thought into your lists, your mailing pieces and how they look and your responses will go up.