Towards the finish of the year, most schools will organise Annual Dinners and Gatherings. That is when they start to think and source for venues to hold their dinners. I was thinking of ways to give them our menus and prices to get them interested and also to show them that our prices are affordable. I normally try to visit the Headmaster or the President of the Parent Teacher Association. But this was not always feasible as most of them were always busy and some had classes to teach.
Sending out Promotional Letters
So what I did was to search the World Wide Web for addresses of the surrounding schools. I then send out promotional letters with different types of menus to these potential customers & followed up with a visit where feasible. I dropped in a couple of my business cards in to the envelope together with the letters & menus. We got a few calls enquiring about doing their dinners from this schools, of which we told them that we can also tailor make their menus to suit their visitors. I didn't get all the schools but I managed to secure 40% from the total letters sent out.
How to Write a Promotional Letter
To write promotional letters, write with a warm and polite tone without being over friendly or imposing and demanding. Make it short and simple. Avoid using flowery long winded words; your potential customers might not have the time read your letters. The first impression matters. By this I mean that the first sentence must capture the reader’s attention or it else it will finish up in the trash bin. If the first sentence is lovely, the reader will certainly read the second sentence and the next and before they know it the letter is done. Avoid sounding like a sales pitch. State the facts and don't lie, most readers can see through your lies. Don't forget to put in your contact number although your letterhead at the top has the details. Most people don't read the letterhead. It is better to sign the letters by hand or get a stamp along with your signature. This will makes the letter more personal to the reader.This idea is lovely in case you have a specific prospect to mail to. Also the date when you mail it is also important. If early the letter might get lost with other letters or files. Or even worse land up in the trash bin. If late the prospect might have already booked another venue. Another thing to note is doing send out this letters to frequent as it will be regarded as junk mail.
The hardest thing about writing sales letter is coming out with things to say. You can hire anyone professional to do this for you. But it will be pricey & time consuming. Or you can purchase a program that generates sales letters for you. Such program is the Sales Letter Generator. To know more about this program, Click Here! It also helps you to generate newsletters.
Later I plan to also send out these promotional letters to the Corporate and Governmental Agencies in our mailing list. To learn how I collected my Mailing Address List you can go to my earlier post Restaurant Promo Ideas #6- Collect Mailing Address
