Gary Halbert, a renowned copywriter, once shared vital insights that could save your direct-marketing efforts from financial ruin.
From time to time, Gary taught classes on copywriting and selling by mail.
One question he often posed to his students was: "If we both owned hamburger stands and competed to sell the most hamburgers, what advantages would you want on your side?"
The answers range from superior ingredients to the best location or lowest prices.
But when Gary's students finished listing their desired advantages, he told them he only needed one advantage to outsell them all:
"A Starving Crowd!"
Gary urged us to consider this: in direct marketing, your most profitable habit is constantly seeking out groups of people (markets) hungry for a specific product or service.
How do we gauge this hunger?
Gary explained that for direct marketers, mailing lists make it easy.
Suppose we're new to direct marketing and want to sell a book titled "How to Invest Money in the Stock Market" via direct mail.
Who should receive our promotion? Gary explored several possibilities:
Gary emphasized the three main guidelines for selecting mailing lists: recency, frequency, and unit-of-sale. The more recently someone has purchased a similar product, the more often they buy that type of item, and the more they're willing to spend on it, the better prospects they are for your offer. Among these factors, Gary believed recency was paramount.
All of this applies to promoting your SaaS product too. Are they already trying similar solutions? Was it recent? Have they spent a considerable amount of money on it?
If you can find factors that identify your hungry crowd, your outreach results will show for it.
We help SaaS founders master the best strategies to build and sell digital products, either on your own or for your agency clients.
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