The letter arrived looking much like any other, in a plain white window envelope, with my name visible on the inside, and the sender’s company logo in the upper left. I was met with all the normal expectations, inaccurate information and claims that were simply too good to be true.

This insurance agent spent fifty cents or more on me and each of my neighbors to prove that he doesn’t know much about me, and isn’t willing or able to take the time to better understand my situation, beyond qualifying me for a sale.

Selling complex financial products or services based on price alone is a very weak opening gambit. It assumes your readers are unsophisticated, and are willing to accept unlikely scenarios or outlandish claims. On the other hand, this approach works well if you are willing to bet your company on a large volume of buyers who are interested in low end commodity purchases.

Ready to sell on price? Then you should be ready to compete with the Wal-Marts of the world. That means your product comes in cheap on containers from China and/or that your employees are outsourced to an offshore call center. Not you?

Direct Mail is more than ever the premier outreach method for everyone from Mom & Pops to Fortune 100s. It’s just silly and wasteful to use it as a spamming tool.

Why would I want to do business with your company? “Discount pricing” is the same answer all of your competitors use, and they’re as close as a Google search. For most marketers, low price just isn’t good enough, and just the wrong approach.