I am sure it comes as no surprise to you that direct marketing folks and professional fund-raisers lie awake at night planning how to squeeze money out of a stone.
Please don’t misunderstand me. I am not talking about the legions of altruistic men and women who volunteer their valuable time raising funds for worthy causes. Nor about those who ask for contributions to our grossly underfunded cultural institutions.
I’m talking about direct mail (DM) pros, the ones who know how to shoot a million sitting ducks with one hot DM letter. They conjure up schemes to make people dash for their checkbooks, credit cards, and cash-stashed cookie jars.
Some DM letters tell you that you, too, can be the “proud new owner” of whatever overpriced doohickey they’re hawking that month. Other letters yank at your heartstrings so you will send money to feed starving crippled children in Chonesia (a country that doesn’t exist.) DM professionals go to expensive seminars to learn what “suckers,” ahem, I mean, “letter recipients,” respond to.
I will share a simple technique that they all swear by—but only if you promise not to use it to inveigle little old ladies into sending you their life savings for mutilated children in Montepenia or to sell overpriced junk that breaks a week later.
Other than that, you may employ this Little Trick to make all your written communications look more prestigious and trustworthy.
A study published in the Journal of Social Psychology established that a handwritten signature in blue ink is 21 percent more effective than one in black ink. And in direct marketing, that is huge!
The next time you get a DM letter from some of the biggies like Publishers Clearinghouse, you will see the text is black, but the signature is blue. Direct marketing mavens know that this is so important that they go to the incredible expense of a two-color print job—just for the blue signature. And just think that you can do it free!
Little Trick #55
Sign Everything in Blue Ink
Your sky blue signature in a sea of black type stands out as more credible and prestigious than a similar one in black. Splurge for a blue ballpoint pen. It will be the best sixty-nine-cent investment you make in your career.
The next chapter reveals an effective, yet seldom used technique to earn affection and loyalty from those who are not as high on the totem pole as you. I learned it from a manager, but you don’t need to be a boss to benefit from it.