If you’re doing direct mail marketing then you need to be able to cut through the clutter. And what I mean by that is how can you get your message to stand out against all your competitors’ direct mail marketing pieces? Most direct mail advertising makes it appear that they are chasing the client which means they will be less trusting of you and less receptive to listen to your message. So therefore they will be more likely to avoid you.
So how do you turn the tables around and make them want to chase you? If you can accomplish this, they will be much more open to your message and will be more receptive to what you have and they will want to deal with you. By using a powerful direct mail marketing piece you will increase your chances tenfold. 
What is this powerful direct mail marketing you ask? To tell you the truth, this direct mail advertising weapon is nothing new at all.
Before I tell what it is, let me tell you the story of how it was believed to have started. There was a gentleman who had written a book on economics and he wanted to hold a seminar to promote his book.
He decided to run an ad in the newspaper. After running the ad seeing good results, he decided to purchase 1,000 copies of the paper himself. He then proceeded to rip out the ad from every paper he bought and he attached a note to it and mailed it to a list of people a friend of his had.
The result was a smashing success of a seminar and two months on the best seller list. This was about 20 years ago.
This was the birth of the tear sheet (from here on out, I will abbreviate tear sheet with the letters “TS”). You could say he was the grandfather of it all.
There are two types of direct mail marketing TS’s, newspaper and magazine. A direct mail marketing TS needs to look authentic for it to have an impact and look believable. Let’s talk about the components that make up a good tear sheet.
First is the copy, what I mean by copy is the writing of the article because that’s what it is…an article. It’s not a sales letter. It needs to look, feel and smell like it was written by a journalist about you or your product or service. It needs to be believable. It can’t smell like a sales pitch. A news position article will have much greater credibility and drive up response rate than one that isn’t.
The second component for to a good direct mail marketing TS is what I call the sidebar pieces. Such as having the TS numbered just like a newspaper article. Also, you must have side articles next to it and on the back of the TS. Now, you can’t just have any articles next to the main editorial. You should have ones that would be complimentary to yours. If your business happens to be financial planning, you’re not going to have an article next to it that’s about gardening. A nice complimentary topic for an adjacent article could be how the average American is not saving enough and won’t have enough money when they retire.
Also, you want to make sure that all the articles are lined up properly and there are no gaps between them. It should have a title of the newspaper at the top of the TS.
The third component in a direct mail marketing TS is the post-it note. If you’re not familiar with the post-it notes, it’s the square yellow sticky note you write on to remind you of something and then you stick it up on your fridge, computer or where ever else. The sticky note needs to appear as if a friend wrote it. It goes on the TS with a message of some sort. The message needs to be a call to action. For example, “Try this it works.” It should also have an initial as if someone signed it. The initial that gets the greatest response is the letter “J.” There was a study done using a variety of initials and “J” was the winner. The only possible explanation is that more people know someone with a name that starts with the letter “J” than any other letter.
When you write the post-it note, it should also be personalized with the person’s first name. Say someone on your mailing list who is receiving this is named “Steve”, then the sticky note would read “Steve, try this it works, J” it’s important to have as much of this personalized because it will increase your response rate.
Lastly, having the right envelope is the last ingredient to a successful direct mail marketing tear sheet campaign. Whatever you do, don’t send it in a computerized name and address font with a bulk postage stamp. This just screams junk mail and all you hard work and money will go right in the trash. If you happen to send it this way and were fortunate enough for it to get opened, it would contradict the personalized post-it note.
The best method is to send it in a handwritten font with first class mail. This will make it appear that it was actually sent by a friend or family member.
If you are interested in creating a tear sheet, please click Here or “Hire Me” Tab at the top to get started.
