Use Pain Instead of Credentials in Direct Mail Marketing Lead Generation

How do you generate sales leads with direct mail when you have no credentials?

I’m talking about the financial planner with much education but no demonstrated expertise. The brand new lettershop with no industry experience and zero publicity. The software firm with no clients.

How do you persuade prospective clients to call you or visit your website or meet with you when you don’t have decades of experience, a high profile in the community, testimonials from hundreds of satisfied clients, dozens of inches of free publicity in the press, and all the other credentials that your established competitors have?

One way to generate sales leads when you are starting from zero is to use pain instead of credentials. A direct response copywriter I know wanted to start writing email sales letters for businesses. But he had never written one, so he had no samples (and no results) to show potential clients.

So, instead of publicizing credentials he didn’t have, he simply studied all that he could find on email sales letters and wrote a few articles on the subject. Then he mailed these informative and helpful articles to potential clients. Many hired him without question. And without asking to see samples of his email sales letters. His clients figured that if he writes about the topic he must know what he is talking about. He does, and he does.

I’ve discovered the same truth. If you Google “direct mail copywriter” you’ll discover that I appear ahead of Bob Bly, Herschell Gordon Lewis and every other direct response copywriter in the world. I’m not better than them. And I don’t have their credentials. But I’ve written and published more articles online on the topic of direct mail than anyone else, and so I rank #1 on Google. Prospective clients figure that if I rank that high, I must know a thing or two about direct mail. Which remains to be proven, of course!

So when you have no experience, no clients, no reputation and nothing to lose, write about your topic and publish what you write. Publish white papers, special reports, booklets and articles that describe the pain your prospective clients feel. Show them that you understand their frustrations, challenges and problems. When you demonstrate that you understand their pain, prospects will assume (rightly, I hope) that you posses the cure. And they will give you their business.