Ag Industry Watch is a b-to-b newsletter published by Lessiter Publications of Wisconsin.

Farm equipment dealers and agriculture analysts rely on it for critical sales and shipment data, demand forecasts, trend analysis, legislation developments, equipment export and import opportunities, price adjustments and more.

After Lessiter took it over from another publisher, it revamped the newsletter to make the editorial content more relevant to its readers.

THE PROBLEM: Lessiter's existing direct-mail package did not sell the new benefits with sufficient strength and clarity.

MY SOLUTION: Before a package could be created, more research was needed.

I wrote a short survey and had the publisher send it to current subscribers to discover what their biggest concerns were.

Then, armed with these insights, I wrote an acquisition letter that talked about the specific problems they faced – and how the newsletter's new editorial content could solve them.

To dramatically demonstrate the publication's relevance and to support the sales points with hard evidence, I recommended including a "live" sample issue of the newsletter with the sales letter.

Next, to make the offer irresistible, I structured it in two key parts –

First: I emphasized the added value of getting 13 issues for the price of 12, because the "live" enclosed sample issue didn't count as part of their monthly subscription.

Second: We promised a 100% money-back guarantee to remove the prospect's risk.

I read every response from the subscriber survey and selected compelling testimonials for a buck slip to add credibility to our sales claims.

Finally, I wrote a lift note that teased topics coming up in future issues to build the prospect's desire. For example:

"Escalating energy costs. The search for qualified workers. Increased competition. The fallout from the consolidation of farm operators. The shortage of properly trained technicians and servicemen. Dealership purity efforts. Higher steel prices. In future issues, we'll analyze these topics – and many others –"

THE RESULT: The package I wrote pulled four times greater than their control. Two subsequent mailings achieved similar results.

"The package is working great! The response rate was four times higher than our original package when we mailed it the first time. We're still using it with minor tweaks and it still continues to outpull everything else we've been doing. The formal renewal series has really helped as well."