| |
| |
|
KwikMarketing.com - Marketing Information |
|
|
|
The Seven Vital Steps You Must Know To Ensure Direct Mail Success
1. Your Most Valuable Asset A mailing list of valued customers is the single most important asset you have. Loyal customers will spend an average of five times more in your business than new customers. Plus it costs ten times more to acquire a new customer. When choosing a mailing list, first identify your best customer. What is their age, income level, and geography? Then identify your "perfect" customer. Select mailing lists which match your perfect customer profile. If you're selling business to business, select the type of business, number of employees and geography, then tailor your message to this audience. 2. The Three Most Effective Words Copy is the persuasive argument that sells your product or service. Begin your copy with a strong headline that spells out the benefit of your product or service. The three most effective words in direct mail are "you," "free," and "new." Studies show that using these words in headlines can boost your response dramatically. Letter copy should follow a simple formula that will help you organize your thoughts and make a convincing sales argument. A. Attention: The headline must grab their attention and make them want to read further. B. Interest: Grab their interest with a sub-headline that states your Unique Selling Proposition (what sets you apart from everyone else.) C. Desire: Elicit desire by painting word pictures of your prospect using your product or service and enjoying its benefits. Give testimonials of customers who have benefited from what you offer. Tell stories of people who used your service despite their initial apprehension. D. Close: Ask for the order. Make it convenient for them to respond. Give your prospects choices of how to get in touch with you. Use a P.S. at the end of the letter to pique their curiosity. 3. What's In It For Me? Your offer attracts people to your business or service. Direct mail will not work if you use it like a billboard. It is like saying, "SEE ME, I'M OVER HERE" at 60 m.p.h. In order for your direct mail to achieve measurable results you must have a compelling offer. Your offer can include money, free gifts, guarantees, testimonials, sale events, coupons, gift certificates, sweepstakes, drawings and private sales. Test different offers and see what works best for you. When you're marketing to a business, personalization is important. Make your outside envelope look like a personal business letter. Keep your copy to 1 or 2 pages and offer an incentive for responding quickly.. 4. Experience Captivating Graphics Designing a mail piece should accomplish 2 things. One is to get the attention of your reader. Two, is to visually clarify the written message you are trying to get across. There are six elements that determine good direct mail design. A. One visual element should dominate the page, whether it's a photo, headline, cartoon or graphic. B. Use only one or two typefaces. Stick with one or two families of type. Use one for the headlines and bolded sub sections and one for the body copy. The body copy should always be a serif typeface, it's easier to read. C. Use lots of white space when you want to make a lasting impression. D. Make sure your text is easy to read. Don't make your margins too wide or your columns too long. Space out the lines of your text so they are easy to read. Use bullets, bold, underlines and short paragraphs. E. Display your logo and pertinent contact information. 5. Produce the Package Have you ever read an ad or received a mailing without a phone number or address? Often people get so wrapped up in the copy they forget to call for action. Boldly feature your phone number, address, web site address, email address and fax. Make it easy for your prospects to contact you. Your logo should visually express the essence of your company's mission along with a positioning statement that sets you apart from your competition. Design a "risk-free" response certificate that clearly repeats your most valuable benefits and moves your reader to say "yes." 6. Testing The standard business-to-business mailing package includes an outside envelope, letter, brochure, lift letter and response device. The benefit of direct mail is that you have an unlimited number of choices when it comes to your package. You can choose the paper, ink color and size of the package. Or you might choose a postcard, self mailer, flyer or 3D package which is almost guaranteed to get opened. 7. Follow Up The three most important elements to test are the list, offer and package. Studies show the quality of your mailing list represents 40% - 70% of your mailing success. First, carefully select your list, keep your offer the same and test one list against another; either two rented lists or your customer list against a rented list. Then, test your offers. Keep your list the same and change your offer. A one word change in a headline can boost your response over 300%. Test discounts, free gifts, free samples, personalized coaching or free reports. Third, test the creative. Colors create moods and can affect response. Test a humorous approach vs. a serious approach. Test photos vs. clip art, ink colors, paper colors, envelope design. Test a postcard vs. a letter. What about a teaser on the envelope vs. a blank envelope? All these variables can affect your response and should be tested. It's useless to have a powerful measurable tool like direct mail and not evaluate whether it's working. Keep track of your response. Code your ads and business reply cards and determine what is the most profitable combination of elements for your market. (c) Allan J. Katz, 2005. Permission to reprint granted to all venues to long as the article and by-line are not changed and links are clickable. Allan is the Loyalty Coach at http://www.loyaltycoach.com and the Marketing Director of http://www.DriveThruPrintingAndMailing.com, a full service, web based Direct Mail Advertising and Printing Company, in Memphis, Tennessee specializing in 4 color printing of direct mail postcards, brochures, newsletters and flyers.
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
8 Ways to Fill a Workshop in a Bum Economy Yes, you can fill a workshop when spending is down and buyers are wary. If your topic is clear, your marketing materials well-done, your product solid and your title catchy, success shouldn't be tough. Powerful Direct Marketing Numbers Direct Marketing works!Why? It works because it's personal. It carries a message, answers questions and gets orders. Know Thy Competition BREAK FROM HO-HUM MARKETING ? IT'S TOO BORING! Once you break from ho-hum marketing, and learn to put your deeper beliefs and values into your promotion, a remarkable thing will happen: You will beat your competitors at every turn, attract precisely those clients who really need and appreciate the products or services your company provides, and have a really good time in your business. In other words ? once you know what your clients really value, and how you are different from your competitors then it's an incredibly simple process to promote your company's products or services. Marketing From Both Sides Of The Ball In the world of business, marketing is often conveyed as a game. It is not uncommon to hear or read of a company "playing the marketing game" or "establishing a marketing game plan". How to Critique Your Own Yellow Page Ad Forget what you know about your business Your goal is to see your Yellow Page display advertisement the way a directory user sees it. You can't act like you know anything about your enterprise that isn't there, on the page. Are Your Prospects Walking Out on You? After 11 years in sales, I've put together and delivered more sales presentations, briefings, and demos than I care to remember. But the nice thing about repetition is that after a few dozen presentations you get very good at reading body language. 3 High-Impact Fixes For Your Marketing Woes How many times has your competitor gotten one over on you? The feeling of being left behind just eats away, until you do something about. The problem is that we often feel that we've got to come up with some grand plan in order to get our business skyrocketing again. Marketing On The Cheap: Become a Joiner Recently I wrote an article on the benefits of joining your local Chamber of Commerce as a way of getting exposure for your business. See "Marketing on the Cheap: Join The What?" at this source or at http://sbmag. How to Turn Your Promotional Products Expense Into a Profit Center If you use promotional products you probably already know the power of giving away freebies. You may use them to thank current customers, or to give incentives to potential customers. Doing it with Class! Doctors do it, hair dressers do it, and salespeople can do it too.I have been working with a chiropractor for a few months and when it came time to give me a new appointment, she would use a quarter sheet of paper to check off the appointment time. Small Business Marketing Tip - Putting the Customer First. I am a great believer in the keeping to the basics - the totally obvious things that we all learn in Running Your Business 101, and then promptly forget. I often have people come up to me after a speech and say, "This is all blindingly obvious, just common sense. Copy SoapNet and Make Money Whether you want to admit it or not, soap operas may hold the key to your home business success. This article includes a few home and small business principles I learned while watching SoapNet. Have You Sold Your Internal Customers? You can make the sale. You know your core message. The 4 P s of Marketing: Effective Marketing Programs Depend On Them There is no shortage of marketing programs, many with great profit potential. The challenge is to sift through and choose the ones that are right for your situation -- the ones that have the greatest potential to grow your business. How To Create Urgency So People Buy Now .. 6 Article Marketing Smarts: How To Get More Reprints And Exposure Article marketing is the latest buzzword for marketers looking to promote their sites and products online. But how do you measure the success of your article marketing campaign? It probably depends on what you expect your article to achieve for you - better branding, more sales, or more publicity. Whats In It For Me? Sometimes, one of the most difficult things to teach beginning sales professionals is the difference between features and benefits. All too frequently, sales people list their product or service features, without articulating how those features will ultimately benefit that prospect or customer. The Dare-To-Be-Different In Marketing Checklist There is a big payoff in being different. When you accept "what is" you place yourself in the category of "sameness," and people don't buy sameness. Marketing: Can I Trust You? We live in an unprecedented era of communication. Because of this, your prospects are literally bombarded from all directions with marketing messages. New Years Planning Critical Success Factors New Year's is a good time for strategic planning or re-planning your business. But don't think that's the only time.
|
| home | site map |
| © KwikMarketing.com 2007 |
