| IFA Bonus Newsletter www.IFAbonus.co.uk - the ULTIMATE information site for all financial advisers! Newsletter for week ending 10th February 2006 | |
Dealing with the Ombudsman, Direct Mail, Newsletter sponsor:
(you could be better off by an iPod if you don't delay - add you name to our email list - you can unsubscribe any time!) Please mention how useful IFAbonus is when you talk to providers Hi A pretty quiet week - not least because one of my offspring has had the dreaded winter vomiting bug, followed by one of the cats! There is lots of interesting stuff below, not least the article on Direct Mail and that on dealing with FOS - something which a number of IFAs clearly go about in entirely the wrong way! BUT could I please ask you to give the panel which advises the FSA on how we feel about them some input, HERE - at the moment the FSA just say there are just a few wingers, and the rest of you all think they are doing a brilliant job. HERE is a real chances to change things. PLEASE DO NOT IGNORE IT. Have a good week, Steve FORUMS - JOB SECTION ADDED - free to site members lots of questions you might be able to answer! Let's get back to the early LIA days when everyone helped each other. There is even more of the market to go round now, so don't be shy - help others and they will help you.
Mortgage News is sent out only to Mortgage Advisers listed on www.FindaPro.co.uk Where is all the rest of the News? There are plenty of publications pumping out News, so we don't put too much in the Newsletter. However, several interesting articles are posted on the site every day - just look at the bottom of the homepage for the latest!
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Contents of This Newsletter Click on underlined items with contents listed Article 1 : Making much better use of IFAbonus (REMINDER) Article 5 : Readers Letters & from the Forums - please register for full site access Article 6 : From The PressArticle 7 : Adverts - now with business sites you should check out regularly Article 8 : Cars - SAAB to Corsa + Diesels to DD to mustafa Passenger Article 9 : Article NO REPLY - I'm a loser Article 13: Events Develop your Ethical Investment Business, FSA Training, Pensions Simplification, IFP Conference, Protection Matters (you can add events to the site FOC), TCF Masterclass Tax Shelter News - most items published on the Tax Shelter Newsletter join Editorial assistance needed! | |
New Facility - add your own personal links to IFAbonus To be accurate I have just fathomed out how it works! This tremendous feature allows you to go straight to any page you use regularly - your own website, local paper, whatever you like! You have your own private section which only you see on our home page - COOL or what? You have to be logged in before you can use it, then go to Your Settings then click on "Edit Your Home Page" - no need to use "Visual Mode" unless you want to be clever, then copy and paste in the following, substituting the sites you want to add to our home page (if you want more, just paste extra lines in): <a href="http://www.roypenfold.co.uk">Roy Penfold</A> Try my links out (copy and paste, save then click Home and look for your links on the left) then substitute your own - changing them anytime you like. Don't forget to let me know if you find a link which should be added for everyone's benefit. The format is <a href="http://www.addressofsite.co.uk">Name of Site- this is the bit you see</A> <BR> just creates a line break to separate the items To learn more about coding visit HTMLgoodies Strictly embargoed until Thursday 9 February at 00.01 hrs Contact Vicky Taylor on 020 7770 7567 / vicky.taylor@which.co.uk Average earners will be £15,500 better off under NPSS, says Which? The National Pensions Saving Scheme will see average earners accrue £15,500 more over the lifetime of their pension than the financial services industry model (1), according to Which? Mick McAteer, principal policy adviser, Which?, explains: “We have a unique opportunity to create a consumer-focused pensions system with NPSS and it mustn’t be allowed to become the biggest gravy train in recent history for the insurance industry. “Industry claims to be able to run a scheme with a charge of 0.7 per cent, but there’s no way they can deliver at this level when experience of stakeholder pensions shows us that they couldn’t even deliver at 1.5 per cent. “They have gone in with a low bid and all consumers can do is watch the charges creep up and up. From previous experience, I wouldn’t be surprised if we would soon see the charge standing at 1 per cent. “If this did happen, then consumers would lose out to the tune of £26,000 compared to the NPSS model. (2) “People earning average salaries will really benefit from NPSS. These are precisely the people that the Government have pledged to help out of the pensions back hole and who must be encouraged to save if the pensions crisis is to be solved. We’ve highlighted this in our submission to the Pensions Commission and the Department for Work and Pensions.” Someone earning £23,000 a year would be £52 a month, that’s £621 a year, better off under NPSS than under the personal pension scheme model at 0.7 per cent proposed by the Association of British Insurers (ABI). If the industry charge rose to 1 per cent then the NPSS return would be even better, with the difference being £87 a month, or £1,044 a year.(3) Mick McAteer concludes: “Over and above the financial benefits of NPSS, there are other reasons why we should be wary of the ABI model. Can we really put the financial well-being of future generations in the hands of the people who ran contracting out, with millions of people likely to get less than they would have done had they stayed in their state scheme? “This can’t be allowed to happen again. NPSS could be what persuades people to save for their retirement and prevent future generations living in poverty.” The key points of the NPSS are: > Affordability: Consumers get value for money with annual management fees being set and maintained at 0.3 per cent. > Sustainability: All employees will be automatically enrolled into funded pensions with the right to opt out. > Fairness: Compulsory contributions are shared between employers and individuals and consumers will own their pensions savings, unlike the insurance company model where firms have legal ownership. > Managed choice: Consumers will have a choice of between six and ten funds, including a default fund, a guaranteed fund and a managed fund or high risk fund to suit their attitude to risk, offering a sensible, managed choice providing security and the opportunity to maximise the potential of pension contributions. > Simplicity: Consumers receive regular statements on how their pension is performing. > Personal responsibility: Consumers will have the opportunity to exercise choice in retirement through having built up a pension whilst at work. -ends- Notes to editors: 1 – Difference between charges at 0.3% and 0.7% is £168,996 – £153, 465 = £15,531 (see example below) 2 – Difference between charges at 0.3% and 1 per cent is £168,996 – £142,897 = £26,099 (see example below) 3 - NPSS return is £621 a year more than the .7 per cent charge (£52 a month) - 10.12% more NPSS return is £1,044 a year more than the 1 per cent charge (£87 a month) - 18.26% more (see example below) Example Annuity: Joint life Male 65/Female 65 RPI linked = 4 per cent Charge Salary A full briefing on NPSS, “The real solution to saving for retirement” is available at http://www.which.co.uk/campaigns
See why the IFADU must have YOUR support HERE - it may be that you wish to draw this communication to the attention of your MP and other key influencers. It seems to me that one email every other day (many in response to emails from the FSA) is hardly over the top when the FSA have hundreds of staff, and the IFADU is representing the interests of 30,000 IFAs.
IFADU need to raise a LARGE amount of money to finance their case, for the benefit of all current and retired IFAs, and their families. I recommend that you send 2 days income, and set up a standing order to help put the IFADU on a more solid foundation. http://www.IFADU.co.uk/about.html
Armchair's motto is simple - 'who says telephone calls need to be answered in your office?'. Typical costings from: Lunch-time Cover - £2 per day Holiday Cover - £3 per day Orderline Cover - P.O.A Evening Cover - £3 per day Phonecall Protect - £2 per day Promotion Cover - £3 per day What are the advantages? No calls are ever missed. Armchair's friendly receptionists talk to your clients, prospects, suppliers and every contact associated with your business giving a professional image. How is it activated and how do I get my messages? Please see their brochure to learn how easy it is to arrange. How do I get started? Either FREE phone 0800 286 1506 or fax FREE 0800 286 1507. Alternatively, you can fill out the enquiry form (see brochure) and you could be covered within 24 hours. FREE TRIAL OFFER to IFA Bonus Members As an introduction to the benefits of using Armchair Answercall, they are giving away a limited number of FREE ONE-WEEK TRIALS. Call the hotline NOW on 0800 286 1506 for more information. Make sure you contact Charles Dean ( New Account Team ) for the weeks free trial Article 4: Compo Corner & FOS News Dealing with the Ombudsman
Being a complaint handling firm, the typical case we deal with is more difficult than average. We do not offer a ‘compliant’ service, but defend claims, whatever their merits, and so the rate of success is important to us. Over the last two years there has been a dramatic increase in the number of complaints against IFAs, particularly for Mortgage Endowments, with a far greater proportion being generated by ‘Ambulance Chasers’. This article comments only on endowment claims. Claims Companies Claims agents are the scourge of IFAs. Discussions in the financial press often include comments by the claims firms that they provide a valuable service, and give expertise to investors who have been mis-sold, but don’t know what to do about it. Our experience is that this is plainly not true and that, without exception, claims companies: Do not investigate any aspect of the advice prior to complaining. Do not bother to establish who the adviser was – relying on the product provider to pass on claims to the correct party. Always rely on standard claims about the ‘mis-selling’. Pass even no-hope cases to FOS, wasting further time and money for the adviser. I have yet to see a case where a claims firm have properly identified the background to the advice and presented an accurate argument. They see no benefit in providing a beneficial service to the claimant, only in pushing the volume of claims up. What should SMDLs say? Senior Management Decision Letters need to address the key aspects of a claim and reach a decision. Where claims are ‘standardised’ – i.e. copied from consumer web sites or mass-produced by a claims company, we see no need to directly address all parts of the ‘claim’. Claims normally really only consist of two aspects – the suitability of the policy, and the claimant’s readiness to accept some risk. Almost all other claims are derived from these. Don’t waste time and money replying to meaningless aspects of a claim. SMDLs addressed to claimants should aim to persuade them to accept your decision. A friendly and informative style works best. Showing any animosity will backfire. SMDLs to claim companies can be much briefer. The company only cares about the decision, not any flowery reasons as to how you reached it. No amount of friendly banter will deter them from going to the FOS if they think there’s any chance of success, so don’t waste your time. Staff at these firms are generally less experienced than you, and they can be embarrassed into dropping a claim if the defence appears strong. The value of a good SMDL A good SMDL is worth its weight in gold. The primary aim of a decision letter is to persuade the claimant that: They were properly advised. Don’t rush a decision letter. It’s far better to be late with the reply than not to have all the information to hand. FOS FOS exists to be an independent, impartial arbitrator between the investor and the adviser. What a joke. The endowment complaint process was originally established because it was feared that unscrupulous advisers had guaranteed investors that their polices would repay their mortgage and give a healthy surplus. I have yet to see such a case. Ever. The process has mutated into a thinly disguised means of paying millions of pounds to people who have no evidence whatsoever of mis-selling. Claimants are meant to prove mis-selling, at least on the balance of probabilities. What actually happens is that FOS adjudicators decide cases have been mis-sold purely on their own personal assumptions or beliefs. IFAs frequently lose claims because FOS decides the investor, in the absence of any specific information to the contrary, ‘probably’ would not have wanted any investment risk. We see FOS justifying such statements with interesting comments such as: The investor was too young to understand what they were doing. The investor was too old to want any risk. The investor had no other equity investments. The risk of an endowment increases with age (!) “We see no evidence, other than their existing endowments, that the investors were happy with any risk.” Where there is evidence to the contrary, we see FOS becoming ever more ingenious in their reasons for finding against advisers. For example: The claimant indicated in the Fact Find that they were 4 out of 10 on a risk scale, where 1 was guaranteed and 10 was speculative. FOS stated that there is nothing to show what level of risk ‘4’ represented, and so the policy was unsuitable. The claimant was warned of the risk of a shortfall, and increased his premium to counter the risk. Some time later he received a further warning, and increased the premium again. On the 3rd warning, he complained. FOS said the claim wasn’t time-barred because the investor would have believed that the policy was now guaranteed to repay the mortgage and so had had no cause to complain earlier. The investor received illustrations and literature that demonstrated, with equal prominence to a potential surplus, the risk of a shortfall. FOS said there was no evidence that the adviser emphasised this in his presentation, and found against him. FOS is determined to find in favour of claimants wherever possible. This is entirely against its remit, although it will present statistics to show that it finds in favour of IFAs more often that not. FOS is not impartial, whatever it may say. Two years ago, around 25% of claims that we saw went on to FOS. As a result of greater awareness by investors and the efforts of the claims companies, this is now closer to 60%. Where cases go to FOS, we find that, without an expert defence, around 80% of claims are initially found in favour of the investor. After ongoing argument with the adjudicator, this falls to about 60% and, if the case goes to an ombudsman, who tends to be slightly more professional, the risk of losing falls to nearer 1 in 2. With an expert defence, the numbers change dramatically. Financial Interest has, despite attracting, by its nature, the more difficult cases, never lost an endowment claim with FOS. Whilst this is a great advert for our services, it is a terrible reflection on FOS. If it is a professional and unbiased organisation, equally balancing investors’ claims against advisers’ defences, why is it that a skilled defence can have such a dramatic impact upon the outcome? The reason is simple. FOS decisions are largely based on the personal views of the adjudicator or ombudsman, rather than real evidence. In the face of determined resistance to their decision, backed by specific or general evidence, FOS, more often than not, backs down. In rare cases, the evidence will be clearly against the adviser and he should expect to lose. Our experience is that even firms with no file can expect to win if the defence is handled well, yet those with good evidence will lose cases if the defence is presented poorly. Do Ombudsmen just rubber-stamp the decisions of Adjudicators? Our experience shows that there is evidence that this happens, even where the adjudicator has made clear errors. However, the good news is that I have yet to see a case where an Ombudsman reverses a decision that was originally in favour of the IFA. Our conclusion is that FOS is strongly on the side of the claimant, and a complete, compliant file will not always suffice to reverse the intrinsic bias. However, a sustained and determined defence, even when based on poor or non-existent evidence, will usually succeed. The Way Ahead? We believe that FOS has got away with this approach for two reasons. Firstly, there is strong political pressure to compensate ‘ordinary’ investors. Secondly, the cost of challenging the system is so great that it is outside the budget of those it most affects – the smaller IFA. In this regard, we wholly support the aims of the IFA defence Union. We expect that the weight of evidence against FOS will result in a challenge to the system. We cannot predict when. Meanwhile we recommend fighting fire with fire and aggressively defending all but the weakest cases.
Around 30% of endowment claims can be time-barred, yet only about a quarter of these because of red re-projection letters. There are numerous ways an investor may have become aware of the potential problem, yet identifying them is not always easy. If in doubt, claim a time-bar. Persuading FOS a claim is time-barred is usually very hard work, but worth it. Perhaps surprisingly, given FOS’s approach in other areas, claims that policies run into retirement are rarely upheld. Even an idiot would have known when their policy ended and FOS do generally recognise this. You would be really unlucky to lose a claim on this basis. A great many FOS adjudicators are terribly inexperienced. Faced with a professional and evidently informed onslaught by the adviser, many of them do crack! Illustrations and product literature greatly enhance a defence. If you no longer have them, samples of the style in use at the time are just as good. Don’t let life companies tell you they haven’t got samples. Of course they do. Pay for them if necessary – it’s worth it! Always find out when the first red re-projection letter was issued. It doesn’t matter if you can’t get a copy. If you are sure you can win the case without one, don’t ask the claimant to complete a questionnaire. If you’re not sure, get one. You will be pleasantly surprised by how many people undermine their claims by giving honest answers to a well-worded questionnaire. If dealing with a 3rd party agent, always issue a questionnaire direct to the investor, and enclose a stamped addressed envelope. If the agent doesn’t see it, the answers are likely to be a lot more helpful to your defence. The Advert We have a 100% success rate in endowment claims, and over a 99% success overall. [Of course, we can’t promise to keep this up] Our fees are typically around £175 for an SMDL and £150 to £300 for dealing with FOS. We take claims on at all stages – even after a FOS adjudicator has ruled against you – but the earlier the better. [Almost] all letters go on your letterhead. Claimants and FOS rarely know of our involvement. PI Insurers like us. Some of our client firms have negotiated a reduction in their PI costs of several thousand pounds by showing that, by using our services, the risk of a successful claim falls considerably. John Wilton-Davies Financial Interest Ltd 01392 362747 This article is intended to be distributed to, and read by, Independent Financial Advisers only. The comments and views are those of the author only and should not be relied upon. Article 5: Readers Letters - please (join the site and) POST!! The Forums need more members to work really effectively. Please join, it is easy! Please visit the forums - and contribute once you are a site member! Property Capital Gains Tax Calculator Using a Company to Save Tax and many more Article 6: From the Press Bee stuff: Guess what? A BeeLine’s only been quoted in a Parliamentary debate, that’s what The dangers of a National Pensions Savings Scheme… Get round Brown's Sipp U-turn
‘Viewpoint: Member Directed Pensions After A-Day’ is available online to members from today via AIFA’s website
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Britons on track for poor retirementFreelance UK - London,UK Mortgage payment protection insurance advice
Article 7: Adverts & Sites you should check out Register on eBay.co.uk! View your UK credit file online - includes score and rating Wills in 3* minutes, up to £125 commission (much more for HNWI), a good service for your clients and no cross selling. Call 0800 298 5208 or Email or visit www.APWW.co.uk/FA.htm - if you have 3 minutes before your next client arrives, you will be ready! Recent events have ensured that clients are likely to be far more positive in responding to legal planning - especially the way we make it so easy. Bank of England Financial Sanctions listings (check for sanctioned individuals and bodies) Get your OWN permanent domain name What have the IFADU done for me? LOTS! Jobs - Members ADVERTISE FREE (one job) Free Lead generation for mortgages, IFAs, GI etc. etc. 2000 FULL colour biz cards for £69 + carriage! PFS Meetings now in Events, below
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IFADU Corner - Countering Compo Evan is collecting together arguments which have been successfully used against compo claims. Many of these are extracted from Determinations by FOS, and then used against the initial verdicts of less experienced ombudsmen. The list will be available to paying members, and to those who contribute to it.
If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law. IFADU Standing Order Form HERE If you have left the IFA business, the IFADU need to hear from you to gather evidence. You also need to stay on this newsletter to keep a weather eye open for trouble!
I have a small with profit plan with equitable life and also 3 with profit pension plans, one of which has a guaranteed annuity option. I don’t really understand the guaranteed annuity or indeed the problems equitable life has. Do you have any views? Indeed. Two synonyms for the word equitable are ‘fair’ or ‘even-handed’. Interesting! The very nature of with profits is that one person loses for another’s gain and vice versa! I would say most if not all doors have closed for Equitable customers hoping for a potential extra cash injection. The Equitable life saga is a peculiar one. It can in some ways be likened to a holiday experience - You know when you are on holiday and you exchange phone numbers at the end with people thinking they’ll never call! - From the late 1950’s equitable sold with profit policies with the choice of either a Guaranteed Rate Annuity or cash lump sum and a Current Rate Annuity. Up until the late 80’s, current rates remained higher than guaranteed rates, which posed no problem to Equitable. However, the beginning of the 90s saw a drop in interest rates that culminated in the guaranteed rates rising above current ones - That’s the bit when the phone rings and your boring holiday friend says they are coming to stay! – Equitable’s response to this was to alter its bonus policy and add more bonus to the cash fund than the guaranteed annuity rates. As interest rates fell, this became unsustainable! Equitable was advised that abandoning this policy would cost them £1.5bn so they decided to examine the legitimacy of its policy. Ernst and Young had approved the accounts in which equitable had set aside £200m for Guaranteed annuity holders. The liability, after their bonus policy was ruled unlawful, came to a little more than that - £1.5 billion. Ah well. Poor Henry. This forced Equitable to close to new business, come out of equities and also to sell off parts of its business that weren’t even in trouble to Halifax. Subsequent arguments back and forth have left equitable with legal bills of £75 million and no favourable outcome. So now where? Well its simple really. It’s as bleak as it looks. Despite equitable running adverts right up to the point when they got into the above trouble, it isn’t an equitable life henry and the fact they didn’t pay commission to middle men is no comfort of course to those that didn’t use an Independent Financial Adviser at the time. Bonuses, because of limitations of investment will continue to be poor and its inevitable they will struggle against most actively managed funds. I would recommend a visit across to an Independent financial Adviser to discuss your options at your next opportunity. As for the plan with the guaranteed annuity. Its very easy to look at these types of arrangements and think you will be benefiting from a nice guaranteed rate in the future. Look closer. You will find in certain scenarios, including this one that the guarantee only comes into play if you take your annuity in exactly the way they offer. In this instance the guarantee only applies if you take a single life annuity with no increases after retirement. In layman’s terms that means if you die the day after you take the pension the pension fund would be lost. Most opt for a guarantee after retirement, which means the surviving spouse can continue to have an income for their life. The fact that the pension plan with the guaranteed annuity rate won’t increase after retirement is also problematic. Inflation will erode the buying power of your income and as each year goes by you will be able to buy less and less with your income. On the above basis the benefit of the guaranteed annuity is weakened or eroded in certain circumstances. If you have a guaranteed annuity or a with-profit plan with equitable, seek independent financial advice. For a fact sheet on staying or leaving with profits or if you have a financial query, call Peter McGahan on 01208 816667 or e-mail pmcgahan@wwfp.net Peter McGahan is the Managing Director of Worldwide Financial Planning Ltd. Is authorized and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.
Article 12: Marketing (For anyone who would like to get seriously involved in Networking, Steve has a back burner project which just needs a project manager! - www.QualityBusiness.co.uk) This email is about an area of much confusion - yet an area of significant potential profit for you and your business - Direct Mail. What sets the smart business owners and managers apart from the rest is that they are willing to take the time to really understand Direct Mail. There are many myths and a lot of nonsense surrounding Direct Mail. You may want to print out and keep this email - because in my continuing efforts to help you and your business create exponential success - I am about to share the essentials of Direct Mail that you really should know. I would be surprised if the contents of this email were not worth at least a few thousand pounds to you over the next year - if you apply all the principles we are going to cover. (By the way, if you're totally new to the subject 'Direct Mail' simply refers to anything you send people in the post - letters, brochures etc.) First lets dispel some of the myths about Direct Mail. My favourite is 'Direct Mail doesn't work.' This ingenious conclusion is arrived at by the fact that you and I throw most of the mail we receive in the bin - therefore the logic is it's a waste of money. The truth is that 90 out of 100 people may throw your mailing in the bin, but if 5 people glance at it, 5 more read it and one of those 5 buys from you - you may well have a highly profitable mailing. Direct Mail is a numbers game and you have to enter into it in the knowledge that most of your mailings will probably go unread. (One of the important factors is to make sure that your mailing is so compelling that people DO read it - but we'll come to that later.) So the reason that Viking Direct and many other big companies bombard you with mailings is because they work. These companies have spent a fortune testing and fine tuning their mailings - they know what works and what doesn't. But here's a word of warning - it is true that a significant amount of direct mail does not work - and that tends to be the mailings conducted by small and medium sized businesses who do not really understand what they are doing. When it's done well direct mail can make your profits soar. When it's done badly it can eat up your marketing budget instantly. So be careful. The second myth is that there is a magical percentage conversion rate that a successful mailing campaign should receive. In other words, you should 'expect' 3% (or whatever) of the people you mail to buy from you. This is absolute nonsense - and it's very dangerous nonsense. First of all, the price of what you are offering plays a significant factor. If you're selling CDs at £9.95 you'll probably get a different response rates than if you're selling million pound yachts. Secondly, it's not the percentage response that counts - it's whether the mailing is profitable or not. Thirdly and perhaps most importantly, nobody can ever predict the response from a direct mail campaign. This is why TESTING is absolutely imperative in Direct Mail. You should never embark on a Direct Mail campaign without testing it on a small scale first. Why? Because the beauty of Direct Mail is that it is statistically very predictable. Let me explain what I mean - and this is really, really important so please re-read this paragraph until you get it. Direct Mail is statistically predictable. If you send out 2000 letters and get 20 responses - you can predict with some certainty that if you send out 4000 letters (to the same group) you will get somewhere in the region of 40 responses. Equally, if you send out 2000 letters, get 1 response and lose money on the mailing, it is highly unlikely that if you send out 4000 letters you will have a profitable mailing. Why is this so important? Because far too many people spend a fortune on a glossy brochure, mail out 10,000 copies to a dodgy list, get a terrible result and lose thousands of pounds. I've seen this again and again - and it can really harm your business. So always test your mailing on a small scale first. It needs to be small enough to be an amount of money you can afford to lose if it doesn't work out - but large enough to be able to hopefully generate at least 7 or 8 responses. For a typical business, that's going to be somewhere between 500 and 2500. Any mailings you consider will fall into two categories: The first is mailings to your existing customers. The second is mailings to potential new customers. If you do not currently do much direct mail - and you have a list of past customers, you should start by mailing these existing customers. Let me be more explicit. Every client I have ever worked with who has existing customers has been sitting on a goldmine of untapped profits because they have not been utilising direct mail with these customers. Think of something you can offer these customers, send them a letter and measure the response. If it works, mail them again next month and measure the results. If it keeps on working, keep on doing it! Then there is using Direct Mail to attract new customers. This is an art and science in itself - and you may want to bring in outside help - but again there are some fundamentals which you will want to follow. Here are eight of them to keep you going: 1 Remember to Test any Direct Mail campaigns for new customers on a small scale before rolling them out. 2 Consider testing renting mailing lists relevant to your target group. There are thousands of highly accurate mailing lists which can be a great way of reaching new people. 3 Always include a letter with any brochure you send - it will increase the response rate. 4 Make sure that the contents of your mailing focus on the benefits of your product or service. You want it to be about your potential customer and what you can do for them rather than just being about you. 5 Don't limit Direct Mail to pure selling. You can use it to say 'thank you' to customers. You can use it to ask for referrals or to introduce your customers to a company you've partnered with. It's only limited by your imagination. 6 If you repeat a successful mailing three weeks later you can expect a response rate around 50% of the original 7 Test mailing postcards - they are cheaper than a normal mailing and in some cases will produce a higher response rate 8 If you follow up a mailing with a phone call you can increase the response rate by up to 1000%
For more Marketing information visit www.CardellMedia.co.uk. If you want to contact me directly for more information - info@CardellMedia.co.uk Chris Cardell
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