Experience has often demonstrated to me direct mail advertising is among the most profitable ways for any small business to get fresh business through the door as well as increase sales to its current client base.
The challenge is business owners approach it in altogether the wrong way. A productive direct mail advertising campaign is not merely a case of sending off some unconsidered note or card through the mail and waiting for it to lead to a flood of sales.
So to be successful with your small business advertising, you must follow the rules. These rules have been proven to be profitable over a century and a half of experiment.
They?re not rules as in laws you must abide by ?or else?, but rather are suggestions which have been uncovered empirically to give more desirable results (i.e. higher Return on Investment, or ROI).
Lamentably, the majority of direct mail campaigns are assembled by people who are simply not up to the job. Usually it?s graphic designers, and although they might be first-rate at producing elegant artwork, they are seldom qualified in direct advertising. Your piece might just look terrific, but who cares? if it?s not making you any profit?
More shocking still, it?s unprofitable arguing with them: even with reams of evidence to the contrary, I still hear graphic designers telling my clients what I?ve created for them has too much copy and nobody is ever going to read it (which is why the 22-page sales letter I not too long ago sent out for a client went to 30,000 + people and brought in an ROI of 150,000 GBP or more, I presume). Here are a couple of easy peasy ideas I suggest you try out in your direct mail advertising, and just see the difference they make.
Rule # 1: Don?t shout ?ADVERTISING?
The majority of direct mail marketing LOOKS like advertising. It?s in a stock envelope with a label or printed address on it, and as often as not it has the company name and logo on it, to. This is a really lousy idea..
How come? Because it?s obvious even to my dog this is a marketing piece ? and it follows you?re going to seek and sell me something, which straightaway puts me on the defensive.
Rather than doing this, invest in some proper ?personal? envelopes, get them hand-addressed or make use of a good handwriting font, and then stick on a real stamp from the Post Office. Yes, it?s a bit more trouble and a tad more expensive, but the extra responses will more than repay your cost.
Supposing that it?s genuinely unavoidable to have a return address on it, just add to to the front in the top-left corner, though do not use your company name (put your name if you need to) and definitely leave out the logo.
This is right away going to mean more people will in fact open your direct mail marketing pieces. Naturally, when they?ve opened it, they?ve got to read it and then take action.
Rule # 2: Write like you speak
But ? if you check out the majority of direct mail marketing pieces, they?re dull, uninspiring and full of wind. They don?t seem to be there for any specific reason other than ?brand awareness?. Disregard that immediately. Your ?brand awareness? will be a spin-off of your success, not the other way around.
So compose your direct mail piece from one human being to another, in everyday, friendly terms. And then, make sure you?re writing about one thing, and one thing only.
Aim your entire piece at spotlighting one problem and one problem only, by making a big, bold promise in your headline. Then, in the body of the piece, tell them you CAN resolve it, and then tell them PRECISELY HOW they can grab this miracle solution you have. To put it otherwise, you have to have a focused and impossible-to-miss call to action, like ?Ring me on 00000-000000 NOW and schedule your free consultation? places are restricted to the first seven people to call, so if you are the eighth caller, you?ll miss out?. Dead easy.
These ideas by themselves will make an enormous difference to your profits, I guarantee.
This entry was posted on Saturday, February 25th, 2012 at 8:11 am by Guest Author and is filed under Business Services. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Source: http://business-centired.co.za/2012/02/direct-mail-marketing-profitable-ideas-for-serious-business/
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