Example Of Targeted Direct Mail To Your Referral Sources

I receive email arguing with me about the use of targeted direct mail (TDM) to my referral sources, and also wanting to know exactly what it is I mail out.

First as to the argument, TDM in my case goes to my referral sources or my potential referral sources.  In my case those are primarily bankruptcy attorneys in that bankruptcy attorneys are the only ones that know when a creditor has violated the automatic stay or discharge injunction in bankruptcy cases.  That is what I do to make a living.  I enforce the automatic stay and the discharge injunctions in bankruptcy cases.  That is about as specific and as narrow of a niche as you can get.

I send out TDM to those bankruptcy attorneys that are on the my little spreadsheet in which I collect this information upon meeting person.  I send out mailers because I do not know how any particular attorney, and especially the attorney's staff who must first confront the issue of a injunction violation, primarily receives information in their office.  I do not just send mailers, I also send them emails and occasionally
faxes.  I also make a point to be out and be seen at events and CLE that my referral sources are likely to attend (even if I am not invited to speak) so I can chit chat about work by the coffee and soft drink
area.  I call my referral sources on occasion just to check in, especially if they are not referring me cases.  I also use Basecamp, which is a cheap little extranet, both because it is useful for my little practice and because it keeps my referral sources completely informed of what I am doing on the cases they have referred.

I also hand out business cards (which is even more low tech than the mailers), and I have a practice blog - StayViolation.Com.  In my case my blog operates as my own little referral portal.  It is the site that I promote in my mailers and other solicitations, as the place for bankruptcy attorneys to obtain information and to refer cases.  That is my marketing strategy in a nutshell.  I give it to you for  free.  It is not complicated, but it is systematic.  It requires you to engage in network marketing, which requires you to get out and about, to meet and greet, and collect names and information from those who can help you.  Getting out and about, meeting and greeting, is the first and primary leg of this plan.  The mailers and the other parts of the system are just follow up.  But, it is this follow up that brings in
the business.

As for the argument that I am using and old complicated method of marketing in this high tech age, I would argue that a good part of my marketing involves high tech.  However, my primary concern is to stay top of the mind with those people and organizations that can and do send me business.  I want to do that as cheaply and effortlessly as possible.  And, I do.  If I do not do this, then most of my meeting and
greeting is for naught.

And, I tell you all of this while acknowledging that I would rather do none of it.  I wish I could just sit on my butt, in my office, and the phone would ring with enough quality, paying cases and clients as I
need, but nothing happens in a vacuum.  I understand this.  You need to understand this.

Amazingly to me, despite all I have preached about this system, few attorneys that I can see have actually used it fully.  Many that have tried do not like it because they cannot see the immediate impact of the system.  They are right from the aspect that not one thing you do makes your phones light up.  (In fact, my phones are rarely lighting up these days as more and more attorneys send me referrals online or via email).  Further, many that try are not consistent with either the meeting and greeting or in consistently sending out emails, faxes, mailers, or in calling.

The key to any marketing is frequency and saturation.  It does not matter how small your pool of referral sources might be.  My pool is just slightly over 200.  Some have yet to refer me a case, some refer
me a case every now and then, and a few refer me cases often.  TDM is a small portion to remind them that we have met and that it would be beneficial for them, as well as me, if they referred me a case now and then.

As to what I mail, it is nothing fancy.  I get on Word or Illustrator and I crank out a short message on regular 8 1/2 x 11 paper.  I have a back page that contains a little teaser.  I print these front and back
of a single piece of paper (usually color paper such as a pastel yellow or green), I either print off or go to the UPS store in my area and run off 200 or so copies.  I fold them over once, tape the bottom, print
off the labels from my little spreadsheet, place the labels on on the smailer, place a regular stamp on the mailer, and throw it in the mailbox.  The process takes about an hour or a little longer.   Admittedly, it is probably the most expensive marketing that I do.  It cost me about $100.00 a mailing but, like I said, it is quick, simple and easy.  But I ask you, even if you send out a mailing every month (in conjunction with everything else you do), what other effective advertising can you do for $100.00 per month?

Because so many have asked, below is an example of one of the mailers.   The first is the inside page, inside the fold.  The second is the outside page, outside the fold.  As you can see, there is not a lot to
it, and that is the point.  You want to keep it simple, short and on point.  Again, the key is not the mailer, but your entire marketing system, and in that frequency and not in depth commentary, is the
answer.  Leave the commentary to your practice blog, to which my mailers refer.

 

                                 

Comments

[Grant D. Griffiths]

Great marketing tool Chuck!!!!!

[Kent]

Chuck-

Great stuff (as usual).

The system itself is beautiful in it's simplicity but if you wouldn't mind some constructive criticism, have tested your copy? It seems to me that it is pointing out what your referral sources are doing wrong, and I think that may lead to some defensiveness. You might want to focus more on making the creditors the villains and have your referral source join you as a knight in shining armor.

Again, just my perspective... there are a lot of full time marketing and copywriting experts giving free reviews and consultations through forums and email who could give you much better insight than me. I'm just giving you my gut reaction when reading the mailer.