Senior Market Advisor. November 2004. www.SeniorMarketAdvisor.com

LTCI Insider. With Margie Barrie.

Tips for achieving a full house at your next seminar: Part II

This column is a continuation of last month’s discussion of seminars and direct mail tips. The information below is provided by Marty Glasser, president of CIS Marketing, a New York firm that specializes in turnkey seminar invitation programs.

How can I get prospects to open my invitations?
Don’t address seminar invitations to “Occupant” or “Friend.” You will attract a significantly larger audience by personalizing your invitations. Other effective techniques include calligraphy addressing, including your address on the outside of the envelope, affixing postage stamps and using envelope sizes that stand out from other mail.

Avoid using address labels, conventional window envelopes or metered postage, as these methods will decrease your response rate.

How can I get prospects to respond?
An upscale invitation conveys a feeling of respect for the recipient. Remember that the higher the income of the invitee, the higher the quality of the invitation must be to attract a response. Wedding style invitations, as well as graphically compelling letter style invitations, inserted in "full view" window envelopes, are effective. Letter style invitations work best when used for broad seminar topics that require considerable text.

Proper layout is critical. Begin with a headline designed to hit the reader’s hot button and focus on a single timely idea or problem that will be discussed, followed by a series of bullet points.

The paragraphs that follow a headline should create a sense of urgency by emphasizing the benefits of attending the seminar.

Make sure to mention the starting, as well as the ending, time for your seminar and state that guests with reservations are welcome.

Finally, keep your personal bio brief and to the point.

How do personal invitations compare to other invitation methods?
Typically, personal invitations incorporated into either wedding or letter formats (not on company letterhead) significantly outperform other invitation methods. Newspaper inserts rarely work and newsprint ads are costly and generally ineffective, except in areas with high concentrations of seniors. Individually written or typed letters on company letterhead work well when addressed to existing clients but not when used for cold prospecting.

Can I promote more than one seminar on a single invitation? Don’t promote two completely different seminars on the same invitation. However, offer multiple dates, times or locations for the same seminar, as long as the total number of options is kept to three or fewer.

What response mechanism should be used? The invitation itself should contain at least two response options, generally a postage-paid response card and a reply telephone number with the name of a specific contact person.

Marty Glasser can be contacted at (800)547-LIST or martyg@CISmarketing.com.

MARGIE BARRIE IS PRESIDENT OF LTCI CONSULTING GROUP INC., WHERE SHE SPECIALIZES IN MARKETING AND SALES SOLUTIONS FOR THE LONG TERM CARE INSURANCE INDUSTRY. SHE CAN BE REACHED AT (410) 653-9600 OR AT MARGIEBARRIE@COMCAST.NET.