Direct Mail Made Easy For Your Business

Direct Mail Made Easy For Your Business

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Direct mail advertising fails for small businesses. And hard to believe though that is, I've seen that claim made by some otherwise seemingly intelligent business owners on business forums and blogs.

But the fact of the matter is...

Direct Mail Marketing Does Work

And it works fabulously well, with the caveat if you don't get it right, it's going to crash and burn. Another caveat I'll throw in is you almost certainly won't get the amazing results you're probably used to seeing bandied about by the pro copywriters.

The reasons for direct mail not working for many entrepreneurs are generally the same reasons email marketing appears not to work for them: they're sending out the wrong kind of messages, and often they're aiming at the wrong people.

What's a 'Good' Response Rate?

Any response rate making you a positive ROI.

It's that simple.

Don't let yourself be misled by the percentage points, because with the right offer and price you can make an indecently large profit on a small conversion rate. A client and I recently did a 30,000-piece mailing of a 22-page sales letter for an expensive training programme earlier in the year, and even though the conversion rate was around 0.67%, the ROI was measured in the hundreds of thousands of pounds.

But let's take a wider view and think about two very quick, simple and easy direct mail marketing campaigns you can test immediately.

First...

Campaign No.1: Your Top Customers and Clients

Simply make a list of your best customers and clients and mail them an offer. I know, you were expecting something a bit more fancy... but it's really not necessary.

A simple postcard saying how much you value their business and that's why you have created a special offer they can benefit from if they get back to you by the deadline (say a couple of weeks from now) is fine.

One of my clients did exactly this in his carpet cleaning business, sending the letter to his top 50-odd customers. The first time he sent it he got something like 7 conversions out of it.

So I urged him to send the letter again.

He did this... and got about the same result.

So I told him to mail it a third time, and to keep sending it until responses tailed off.

Ultimately, I think his ROI was ridiculously high, somewhat over 6,000%.

Campaign No. 2: Generate Some Leads

This is much less certain than the first one and means, alas, more work too. It's tempting to miss out the first step but if you do, then you will almost inevitably find your results suffer. It's up to you to decide if you want to invest the time and money on weeding out your prospect list or on postage.

First you have to profile your Ideal Customer or Client.

The easiest way to do this is to consider your existing customers and clients, and decide whom you like the best.

Who's easy to deal with, pays well and quickly and doesn't come to you complaining all the time?

My guess is you'd like to get more people like those in your business.

Secondly, once you know the kind of person you're looking for, you can begin looking round to see who they are and where you can find them.

And, thirdly, once you have a likely list just send them a postcard inviting them to a web-page where they can leave their details in return for something of value. I recommend you try a free teleclass, since almost no one is doing those outside of my own industry and they really are tremendously effective for the most part.

The teleseminar will then serve three purposes:

1. You will likely drum up some more business because of it.

2. You will have their email addresses so you can start sending them sales emails.

3. You've now got content for all kinds of uses.

Conclusion

The idea that direct mail marketing is ineffective for small businesses comes down to one thing: small business owners simply aren't going about it the right way.

It's not hard, but you do have to follow a surprisingly small number of equally surprisingly powerful rules.

About the Author:
Ireland's foremost direct mail specialist, Jon McCulloch, invites you to visit his blog and grab your copy of BIG Marketing Muscle for Small Business, where he reveals his powerful and little-known strategies to get response rates 300% better than the usual techniques.

And it's free: http://www.jonmcculloch.com/big-marketing-muscle



Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com


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