Direct Mail Marketing Generates Sales Leads: Heres How
1. Personal
Unlike an advertisement in a trade publication, which can be read by anyone, your sales letter arrives at your prospect's place of business as a piece of personal communication from your mind to his. Also, unlike any other medium, direct mail can be personalized (Dear Mr. Smith) and customized to each reader ("As an IT manager, you know that . . ."), showing your prospect that you know about him by name and understand his business in particular. 2. Cost effective
Advertising by its very nature is expensive. To reach a lot of people, you need to spend a lot of money. Direct mail, on the other hand, only targets the prospects you want to reach. Instead of pitching your product to a huge audience of potential buyers, you aim your sales message only at prospects most likely to buy. 3. Breaks through the clutter
Your ad can easily get lost among dozens of competing ads in a trade newspaper. Your sales message is also easily forgotten on radio or television unless you repeat it many times, which is expensive. But a simple letter, addressed to your prospect by name and arriving on her desk in the morning mail (which she must open), cuts through the media clutter and gets her attention. 4. Measurable ROI
Direct mail is one of the best mediums for measuring the return on your marketing dollar (or pound or yen). Simply code your business reply cards, and count how many return to you in the mail. Then calculate how many of those replies generate a sales meeting or a sale. Now you know immediately-and exactly-how effective your mailing has been. Direct mail numbers never lie. 5. Predictable
One advantage of knowing the success rates of your past mailings is that you can predict the success of future mailing. If you mail the same package with the same offer to a similar group of prospects at the same time of year, you can predict how many responses you will receive, and how many of those will translate into sales. 6. Can be improved through testing
Because you can measure your direct mail results, you can also test your mailings. Test one package against another, one list against another, one offer against another, and you'll discover what works and what fails. That way you'll spend your marketing dollars where they are most effective (without relying on guess work or hunches). 7. Immediate
General advertising builds brand awareness. Sales brochures inform. But a direct mail letter asks for action now. So if you need to generate sales leads, and don't have time to wait for your ad to appear in "IT Buyers Quarterly," send a direct mail letter and wait a week or so for a response. Alan is a business-to-business direct mail copywriter and lead generation consultant. As President of Sharpe Copy, Inc. (http://www.sharpecopy.com), Alan specializes in helping businesses generate leads, close sales and retain customers, using cost-effective, compelling direct mail and email marketing. Alan also uses his direct mail advertising services to help charities raise funds and raise awareness of their causes, using fundraising letters.
Related News
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
10 Effective Ice Breaking Questions
Whether you go to a Chamber of Commerce event, a PTA meeting, the racquetball court, the local health club, or practically anywhere else, opportunities to network present themselves constantly. But there are fears which present themselves as well. For example, we ask ourselves if we are in a situation where talking business might be considered tacky. Will I be considered a 'hard sell' type of salesperson for talking about my business at a social gathering?
Are You Attracting or Repelling Prospects?
There are basically two ways in which you can either attract or repel prospects. I call these Attraction Marketing and Repel Marketing.
Five Marketing Tips to Double Profits
It's a startling fact: almost all entrepreneurs aren't marketing their businesses effectively. Marketing goes much deeper than advertising. It begins with having the proper mindset. These five ideas will send you on the right path to building a solid marketing foundation for your business.
Direct Mail Response Rates Mislead if You are Careless
I could tell you that the average temperature in the world is 60 degrees Fahrenheit. But that fact wouldn't keep you from getting sunstroke in Cairo. Or frostbite in Tuktoyaktuk. Averages tell you only so much.
Youre Halfway There!...Or Not Part 1
The year is almost over and the last half of
this year will fly by just as fast as the first half.
Are you on target for meeting your
business goals for this year?
Fundraising Letters Should Raise Donors, Not Donations, When Mailed to Strangers
Are you willing to spend $1.25 to raise $1? To lose money to make money? You should be. Most donor acquisition mailings never pay for themselves. They lose money. And rightly so.
Rules of Thumb for Marketing to Your Past Customers
Keeping in touch can dramatically increase business, when done properly.
How Price Gouging Can Hurt Your Business
"Price gouging" is an emotional, inflammatory term. Everyone is against it, but only buyers, angry over excessive profit-taking, proclaim it. As a seller, how can you reap the profit rewards you deserve without being accused of price gouging?
How to Put Law & Order into Marketing Your Legal Practice
First in a series of three articles
Your Marketing Message
Your message is first among your weapons in the battle of perceptions.
Do You Have This Important Tool in Your Marketing Arsenal?
Many business owners do not understand the authenticity and validation that a simple toll-free number adds to their business presence.
How To Get Business With Your Business Card?
So, you have a business card? And you have given it to a few of your friends as well? Great! But did you get those cards to give to your acquaintances or to get business? Are they getting business for you?? That is the key question.
Dont Use Yourself as Your Pricing Yardstick
"I wouldn't pay more than what I charge now."
How to Turn Your Marketing Into a Money-Making Machine - Examples of solid Marketing
As Claude Hopkins presented in his Scientific Advertising many
decades ago, there are scientific ways of tracking your Marketing and
Advertising and determining clearly and unequivocally what works and
what does not. Without knowing the facts about what is effectively
increasing your leads, and subsequently your sales success, you might
as well be throwing money out the window-literally.
Joint Venture Marketing: What and Why
What is a Joint Venture? A joint venture is an agreement
in which two or more businesses work on a project for a
set period of time. Usually with a specific project or
goal in mind. Joint ventures can be long-term, like
promoting a product together, or some can be short-term,
like bartering or trading products and services. Ideas on
how to joint venture ideas are boundless.
Beware of Magazine Style Yellow Pages Ad Design.
I have been designing Yellow Page ads for the past 15 years. I have been fully submerged in the medium. Even as I sit here writing this article I have various Yellow Page directories from all over the US stacked on my desk.
Forward Thinkers Stay Ahead of the Curve
What is it like from a marketing perspective to be yesterday's news? We rely on what is tried and true in marketing because it is usually safe, tried, and tested. It saves us time, as well, since we don't have to put on our creativity cap to craft an innovative strategy.
19 Ways To Attract Higher Paying Clients
Some people have little difficulty attracting and maintaining clients who have higher discretionary funds to spend for solutions. Others can't get to first base. If you are one of those and want clients that can pay more and you currently aren't attracting them, here is a list of 10 barriers that might be interfering.
Marketing is More Than a Token Process
"Necessity is the mother of invention!" The first time I heard this was nearly twenty years ago when I was introduced to Tony Robbins' material. I was listening to, and applying, information from his thirty day series. I have to admit, the first time I heard this it didn't quite register.
Consistent Marketing Provides Big Rewards
Being inconsistent when it comes to marketing your business can be a recipe for disaster. Nothing is more irritating to a potential customer than inconsistency.
|
