It’s the Marketing Your Clients Have Been Waiting for!

Let’s just be direct about direct mail marketing . . . it’s called junk mail for a reason.

Of course, the businesses and marketers who send direct mail don’t call it junk (at least not in public).

But we all know that much of the typical direct mail marketing sent to US households doesn’t make it past the trash can.

Seriously—how frustrating is it to spend your hard-earned money on a piece of direct mail when you know that it has to compete with 848 other pieces sent every year to every household in America and has an unbearably depressing 44% chance of being tossed unopened, unread, and unappreciated?[1]

What if—instead of trashing your direct mail marketing—your customers, clients, and prospects took your piece, enthusiastically carried it into the house, read it with interest, and then carefully placed it on their coffee table for others to see and read?

For more than 18 years, we’ve been creating direct mail marketing that does exactly that, thrilling our clients with a 58% referral rate[2] (that’s not a typo) and the repeat business they receive when they send their personally branded magazine to stay top of mind with the people in their sphere.

And now, in addition to our highly effective American Lifestyle and Start Healthy magazines, we’ve created a third publication specifically requested by our clients.

Introducing Good to Be Home

We’re a company specializing in relationship marketing, and, as we’ve grown, so has our client base. Today, in addition to serving thousands of real estate agents across the country, we also serve financial advisors, mortgage dealers, insurance brokers, dentists, lawyers, and more—we have clients in more than 140 different industries.

We put careful thought into how we could best satisfy requests from our agent clients to include more home-related content. We decided that, rather than cram more content into our existing publications, we’d created a distinct publication. We’d fill it with content that would satisfy not only our real estate agents’ clients but also more of our other clients’ audiences.

It would be highly inviting with playful fonts, more images, and shorter articles.

We would draw our inspiration from high-end magazines like HGTV Magazine, Better Homes and Gardens, and Style at Home.

And it would have a cozy, homey feel.

After many planning and production meetings, our vision came to fruition, and Good to Be Home was created.

Same great value and affordable cost, but with a unique appeal

Like its predecessors, Good to Be Home represents only the highest-quality glossy pages, beautiful images, and engaging writing. Because it’s your personally branded magazine, we’ll still customize it in six key places with your profile image, your business, and your contact information.

You’ll still get Tear-Out Cards, options for your Back Cover, and the Front Inside Cover letter you can personalize to individual recipients.

And it’s all provided with automated, free shipping to your exclusive list of recipients at the same affordable price.

While Good to Be Home retains the same 48-page length as its sister publications, the articles are shorter, which allows us to include more and varied content for your clients to easily read and enjoy. We wanted to ensure that everyone would find something of interest between its customizable covers (of which we offer even more choices than before).

We are super proud of our enthusiastic in-house writing staff who, in addition to writing for American Lifestyle and Start Healthy, now also write for Good to Be Home with the same care and attention to detail that create the value you get to share with your clients.

They conduct meticulous research to write entertaining and information-rich articles—many with a “how-to” focus—about household management, home decor, home improvement, landscaping, gardening, and, of course, our wildly popular recipes—all with a seasonally appropriate emphasis.

How to best use Good to Be Home

Relationship marketing is about creating and nurturing long-term relationships with your clients so that you remain top of mind when the opportunities for referrals and repeat business present themselves. We never want our clients to forget an important client, worry about sending the wrong thing, or send something at the wrong time.

All of our publications are tools that enable our clients to stay in consistent contact with their sphere and to follow up easily with the people they send it to, but it’s the follow-up that is the key to the strategy. The benefit of Good to Be Home is it makes having those follow-up conversations easy.

Imagine this scenario . . .

It’s the perfect soft-touch touchpoint

Issue 3 of Good to Be Home, the fall issue, has just arrived in your recipients’ mailboxes. You use your magazine exactly as it’s intended to be used, and you decide to follow up.

In the past, you may have been hesitant to call these leads. You might have been unsure about what to say that wouldn’t sound awkward or like a transparent pitch for their business. But now, your magazine eliminates this problem because it’s the perfect conversation starter.

You use our Targeted Follow Up tool and identify the people on your mailing list who are most likely to move in the next six to twelve months. These are key leads and, when you get them on the phone, you merely ask if your magazine arrived.

“Yes, we received it on Tuesday. Thank you.”

“Great! What did you think of it?”

“We really enjoy it. We thought we’d try the pumpkin cream cheese dip recipe this weekend.”

“That did look good. You’ll have to let me know how it tastes. I was wondering if you saw the home improvements article. Did you have any questions about it?”

“Actually, I did have a quick question . . .”

(Could it be your lead is thinking about making a few improvements before listing their home?!)

Regardless of the specific article, wherever the conversation goes, let it happen organically. You’re goal is not to sell anything during these calls—it’s only to thank them for being a client and to remind them you’re always available to help.

The beauty and benefit of using Good to Be Home is it makes following up with your clients effortless. Just check your database notes, find an article that you can connect with the person you intend to call, and use it to start a conversation.

Imagine no more guilt for putting off the calls you know you should be making.

Imagine no more awkward introductions.

Imagine no more pregnant pauses while you search for something to say.

With any of our magazines—Good to Be Home, American Lifestyle, and Start Healthy—you’ve practically got a ready-made call script.

Consider sending your clients something they’ll look forward to receiving

Today’s consumer wants to be addressed on their terms.

Consumers what want they want, when they want it, and it better be convenient.

And they want to be recognized as individuals rather than as part of an anonymous mass market.

These are all reasons why we encourage our clients to consistently provide their clients with items of value. And we make it easy and convenient for them to do by providing high-quality, automated marketing tools that deliver useful information, entertainment, and education their clients want. Plus, we make it comfortable and stress-free to place the personal follow-up calls that are the keys to nurturing relationships and remaining top of mind.

Try sending Good to Be Home magazine to your clients. Do as we suggest, and call them the week it arrives to follow up with them. Ask their opinions about the magazine. Mention an article for a reason that relates to something you know about each client. Do that consistently, and you will remain top of mind—making you the first and only professional they think about when the opportunity for a referral or repeat business occurs.

If you already send one of our other personally branded magazines, we want to thank you—but would you like to “mix it up a bit,” try a little pattern disruption, and send Good to Be Home instead? It’s easy to switch—simply call your Customer Success representative, consult your dashboard, or visit our website and we’ll send a free sample to your in-box.

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[1] Lauren Cahn, “This Is How You Can Stop Getting So Much Junk Mail—For Good,” Readers Digest, Updated December 9, 2020, https://www.rd.com/list/how-to-stop-getting-junk-mail/.

[2] 2019 ReminderMedia reader study; conducted by GfK MRI.