Beth Conducted Five direct mail campaigns. She selected five clear targets and developed lists of names for each, ranging in size from fifty to two hundred names. She mailed a cover letter and resume' to her first list. When she started to get calls for interviews, she mailed to her second list. At approximately two week intervals, Beth would send out another mailing. She received an excellent response (that is, calls for interviews) from three of her five mailings.
To develop her interviewing skills and investigate each target area, Beth first interviewed at firms she did not care about. She treated these interviews as networking meetings. Beth probed, for example, to find out what the manager thought of other companies on her list. If the comments were generally negative, she dropped those companies. If the comments were positive, she asked if the manager might know someone in that company whom she could contact. She got a lot of mileage out of her campaign because she combined direct mail with networking, and worked the system with great energy.
The entire process took only one and a half months. Beth had clear targets, followed the process, and prepared thoroughly for her meetings. She explored career possibilities she had been somewhat interested in, and refined her career direction. She turned down a number of job offers before she accepted a high level position that allowed her to combine her strongest skill area with something that was new to her and satisfied her long range motivated skills. Beth took a two week vacation before she started that job. She deserved it.
Jack's campaign strategy was very different. Jack is intelligent, articulate, research oriented and also very shy. He targeted an industry that would result in a career change for him. He had read a lot on this industry, and wanted to find out the job possibilities within it.
Jack meticulously researched companies and selected twenty he was seriously interested in. They were huge corporations, and that made it relatively easy to get the names of people to contact. If he had simply mailed to that list, however, he might have gotten no response. As you will see later, twenty names is generally not enough for a direct mail campaign. The effort would have been even more futile in Jack's case because he had, essentially, no hands on experience in that field.
Jack did a targeted mailing that is, he wrote to the twenty people, and followed up with phone calls to all of them. His well-written and convincing letter proved his sincere interest in and knowledge of the field. He sent it without a resume because he was making a major career change and told each of the twenty he would call him or her. He sent all the letters at once, and called every person. It was quite an effort. Jack got in to see just about every person on his list, and as usually happens some of them took a personal interest in his case. They gave him the names of others, and told him how to break into the field. Two of his contacts volunteered to sponsor him in their company's training program.
How It Works
Approximately 20 percent of all jobs are found through direct mail campaigns. This technique is even more effective when combined with networking as both Beth and Jack did.
You will do better in your direct mail campaign when you:
- have clearly identified your target market
- are familiar with the problems faced by companies in that market
- know what you have to offer to solve its problems
Know enough about your target market to compose an appropriate cover letter and to hold your own in an interview. If you don't know enough, learn more through library research or networking. If you feel that you may be caught off guard in an interview because of a lack of knowledge of your target market, do not use this technique until you have gained at least some knowledge.
These are not job interviews, but exploratory meetings that may lead tomore information (which is just fine) names of other people to contact a job interview
Conduct the meeting using the same format as a networking meeting's.
Don't tell the interviewer you blanketed the market. If a company wants to see you, quickly do a little research on it. Tell the manager you wrote to him as a result of your research, and name something specific about the company that interested you. Don't offend someone by saying you have written to everyone in the industry.
It doesn't matter if your contacts come from a direct contact or from networking. What matters is that you get active contacts with people who are in a position to hire you.
Benefits Of This Technique
Direct mail blankets the market. In one fell swoop, you can find out what the chances are for someone like you in that market. You "market test" what you have to offer, and also get your name out quickly to prospective employers. This technique is fast and as complete as you want it to be, as opposed to networking, which is slower and hits your target in a spotty manner.
