Get them involved with Successful Direct Mail

If you can get people involved in your copy, it will substantially increase your readership and, more importantly, response.  Busy fingers increases response.  The more involvement you get from the reader the better.  You get an investment of time and readership, and when you get those, your response can only go up!  Your challenge is to decide what you can do to get your readers involved in your letter.

This link (a PDF) is a perfect example of involvement from Bill Glazer.  This was a step in his marketing funnel that sold his marketing system to independent retail store owners throughout the country.  This is just a small portion of the letter they received, however it does a great job of getting the prospect involved.

Included in the packet he sent was a pen to both make the package 3-dimensional, and to give the prospect a reason to pick up the pen and use it during this exercise.  Bill writes:

Now, I want you to do me a favor and yourself one at the same time.  Use the pen included in this packet and check off each of the reasons below that apply to you…

That’s involvement at its best.  Here are just a few more ways to get involvement from the reader:

Use 3D Mail (duh!).  This gets the reader to engage in your letter and playing or toying with the item you’ve sent.  I won’t go into great detail here, you should be fully aware of the benefits.

Which category do you belong in?  You then list the ‘categories’ of buyers you have, making sure the vast majority of readers will fall into a category.

Does your name appear below?  Here’s how I’ve seen this used best.  Your copy reads, “You’re eligible for this opportunity if your name appears below. “  And now they look at all the names on the list, getting them more involved.  Of course their name will appear, because you’ve put it there!

Quizzes:  With answers revealed later in the letter.  This ensures they either keep reading, or at least skip to the back, where you can ‘grab’ them again.

Ask yourself these 5 questions, or, if you answered yes to any 3 of the above 5 questions.  They will  answer the questions in their mind, getting them involved once more.

Q & A format.  The simplest and easiest, where you’re asking the questions and they’re thinking of the answers.  This is a bare minimum of involvement, and should be included in many of your marketing pieces.

Publisher’s Clearinghouse “move the stamps” technique.   If you’re of a certain age you’ll know exactly what I mean by this.  If you’ve never received that yellow “Publisher’s Clearinghouse” envelope in your mailbox, ask somebody who has.  When you filled out the forms, you moved little stickers from one area of the letter to your enrollment form, thus creating busy hands.  It served Publisher’s Clearinghouse  well for years.  I’ve seen this used with coins, money, stickers, etc.