How to Double or Even Triple Client Response Rates

Marketing is the bane of every freelancer's existence (in fact, EVERY business owner's existence). Most of us hate it, but it must be done.

So, how do you get the most out of it? By making it personal. Following the steps outlined below, you should easily double -- maybe even triple -- response rates on your next campaign.

1. DECREASE the number of mailings/campaigns: "Huh?!" you may be thinking. "How is that supposed to increase my response rate?" Quite simply by doing some background work. You can't possibly review/read about/research a thousand companies in a week's time.

BUT, you could make a concerted effort to spend a solid week doing 250. Visit websites, make notes of company accomplishments, call to get a name, etc. Mention something in your correspondence that proves you've done your homework. Rigth off the bat, you stand out b/c you're not just another marketer.

MARKETING GOLD! Finding out who to send your correspondence to serves three purposes: 1) saves on postage; 2) has a greater chance of being opened; and 3) creates a clean database.

Getting personal takes time, so you will be able to make contact with fewer prospects, but the contact you do make has a lot better chance of paying dividends because it stands out.

2. Send out a reasonable number each time you e-mail/mail. No, this does not contradict the first point.

I like to send mailings of at least 250 because you can get an idea of how well a campaign worked with this number. Anything smaller doesn't give you enough data to make an educated judgement about whether a mailer/email campaign was effective, or not.

Does your market respond to humor, sarcasm, a serious tone, folksy bits and pieces, etc. You always want to get an idea of why one campaign pulls better than another to judge what's working and what's not.

Doing 8 or 10 campaigns a year of 250 or more should allow you to get a really good feel for what's working -- and perhaps more importantly, what's not.