I used a direct marketing mailing approach to solve a very big business problem for me many years ago. I didn’t even know what  the term direct marketing was at that time, but as a business person I understood how it worked intuitively. More importantly, I knew I needed to do something quick and a direct mailing approach seemed to me the best way to reach the people I needed to respond.  From one letter I obtained clients that paid me hundreds of thousands of dollars over the following years.

Direct marketing is, in my opinion, by far the most effective means of advertising available to almost any small business. There are unending ways in which direct marketing can be conducted, but all successful campaigns have several things in common.  First, you must target the audience most likely to be interested in what you have to offer. Second,  you must understand what that audience needs and how any products or services you offer can fulfill their needs. Third, you must tell them how you are going to solve their problems better than any other option out there. Fourth, you need to provide clear reasons to respond right away. And finally you must provide clear instructions on exactly what they need to do right now to benefit from your offer.

Most business people who are aware of direct marketing think of it in terms of long hype filled letters that they have received for some particular product or service. However, not all direct mail is like that. Direct response mailing for professionals needs to be considerably more… well professional in it’s presentation. In my opinion the most lucrative use of direct mail is for businesses that can use it to pull in customers or clients who will use their services over and over again.

Business to consumer is the most traditional use of direct mailings. However, business to business may well be the most valuable form of direct mail. When mailing to consumers there is often a focus on making an immediate one time sale as opposed to using the approach to develop a relationship. In a business to business direct marketing approach you are much more likely to be interested in finding new long term clients,  rather than making a quick sale.  In this situation the effectiveness of your mailing is not measured in immediate sales, but rather in long term clients or customers who may pay you many thousands of  dollars over a period of years.

So here is my story of the six figure direct mailing I did. The health care industry was in a state of severe upheaval and change. Managed care had wiped out or severely hurt many psychologists in private practice. I was one who suffered these times.  Now I only do a very narrow specialty that does not rely upon insurance companies at all. However, back then I was, like many others, entirely dependent upon insurance companies for my income. The problem with insurance companies was not only poor pay, but an incredible amount of work needed to even get paid by them.  You needed a billing specialist just to deal with the companies on a daily basis.  Traditional referrals from other health care providers became problematic due to the complexity of the insurance situation.

For some years I had been very gradually  transitioning  to  working  in rehabilitation centers and long term care facilities, because I had experience in those populations and knew that once I was able to get a contract with such a facility I would have  a steady flow of referrals and a much less complicated billing situation. However, I had always wanted to maintain a traditional outpatient office as long as it was financially viable. Managed care made it no longer viable for me in a very brief period of time. I decided that I needed to close my office and move to a full time consultation practice.

However, in order to make that change I needed to get a number of contracts with facilities, and I needed to get them as fast as possible. Complicating the situation was an explosion in relatively large companies marketing to these facilities claiming that they could better serve their needs than individual professionals such as myself. In reality these companies were often no more than glorified marketing and billing services for local practitioners whom they hired for a percentage of the profit. However, they had full time marketing people and slick presentations to try and take every facility they could get. Once they got a contract any practitioner who had worked there before either had to come work for them or lose all the business from that facility.

I knew from experience that the people who really understood the situation in such facilities were the social workers. While the big companies were marketing to the corporate people or facility administrators, the social workers were the ones who had to deal with the services they provided on a daily basis. I knew that may social workers were quite disillusioned with the quality of services these companies provided and also had the behind the scenes power to influence the administrators who made the decisions on contracts. But how would I find the social workers who had a real need to make a change in service providers? It would be impossible for me to call them all and go to meeting after meeting to find the ones that might be receptive to me.

Direct response mail was my key to success. I  made a large list of facilities in my geographic area,  knowing that I only needed a very small number of contracts to fill my schedule. I created a very professional   letter addressed  to the head of social services in each facility. I laid out my experience and credentials. I discussed the problems they likely experienced using the large companies that I was competing with, and my main selling point was that they would have a direct line of communication with me as person who provided the services. I also made it clear that I currently had a number of contracts and was only looking for a few more to fill my schedule. I strongly, but very politely, suggested that they contact me right away if they were in need of my services.

I sent out the letters all in one mailing and had no idea if I would even get one response. The next several days were very anxiety producing. I waited and hoped. Within one week I had enough responses to fill my schedule and ended up turning down contracts. I had gone from a very difficult situation to a very secure situation with one letter! I continued to service those facilities for many years and made hundreds of thousands of dollars as a result of that one letter. I continued with many of  them until I decided to no longer to that work. It was actually a sad day for me when I quit doing that kind of work as I had made many friendships with facility staff members. That one letter was the most effective marketing tool I have ever used! You may be able to do something very similar if you follow a similar approach in your  business niche.
 

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