So I want to tell you about my party last night. There is a National Direct Sales Trainer that is telling people paper invitations are a thing of the past. She is literally telling them NOT to mail invitations. To use Twitter, Instagram, FB, and text instead. Well….I beg to differ! In a HUGE way! So let me tell you why you SHOULD mail invitations.
My party last night:
12 guests who varied from late 20’s to age 70.
In my hostess packet, my hostess gets a sheet of address labels. She also gets a self stamped and addressed envelope to easily mail them back to me. I have always told them they get $5 off their order if they mail them back to me.
Now…just lately, I started really working on getting my guest attendance AND sales up. And this is what I came up with:
Stickers! Lots of them!
So I mail a mini catalog. On the front, there is a circle sticker that explains they will get a gift if they help their hostess and collect $50 in outside orders (from their friends and family) and bring them to the party.
The small rectangle sticker, says…bring this invitation to the party. If your number is called, you win a free gift!
And then the big label is of course the hostesses information about the party.
So #1: every single guest brought their invitation to the party. And they were immediately asking when the invitation drawing was going to be announced. So….these people carried my invitations around for a MONTH. I’d say that is a success.
#2: One person brought TWO guests to the party. Nothing on my invitation stated anything about guests. But they accounted for $100 in extra orders. So you better believe I’ll be making a sticker and incentive for THAT from now on.
#3: TWO people brought outside orders from their friends and were ready for their free gift. Both found me as soon as they walked in. “here’s my outside order, do i still get a gift for that?” That resulted in $110 in outside orders for my hostess. I also put this flier on the inside of the mini catalog to reiterate “collect outside orders to help your hostess”. here’s the picture of that flier below:
And here’s a close up of the circle sticker on the front
I make all these labels from home. Circle stickers are 2 inch. Big label is 2×4. And I don’t know what the mini one is, but there are 60 to a sheet. So that should help:)
So long story short…mailing invitations is NOT a thing of the past. I had $200 EXTRA in orders because of my invitations that I mailed. And I have at least five hostesses a month who send me back those address labels. It’s all in your approach. It’s the FIRST thing I point out to my hostess. “this will help you increase your free product. It’s very important that you get these back to me 2 weeks before your party. AND…if you don’t know someone’s address, it’s a great way to call them and personally invite them when you get their address. A personal invite will go a long way to making someone feel like you really want them there.” That is what I tell my hostesses! And it WORKS!
I challenge you to try mailing invitations for your hostess!
Melissa Fietsam, Ind. Senior Executive Director at Thirty-One Gifts
www.buymybags.com
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