Business owners are using social media, their website, videos, and other online tools to grow their business. That is what everyone should be doing.
The big mistake I see businesses making now is thinking that is all they have to do. Online promotion and marketing is very, very important, but you can’t forget the offline tools you have at your disposal.
One of those tools is direct marketing. Remember paper? Remember envelopes and stamps? Remember that little stick looking thing that you hold in your hand to place words on a piece of paper? These things are still relevant. But you have to use the right technique to make it work. The most important part of launching a direct mail campaign is the sequence. This is something I learned from Dan Kennedy, arguably one of the greatest marketers of all time.
Most people have heard that it takes 7 or more “touches” before a sale can be made. Unfortunately they forget that concept when doing direct mail. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve got one direct mail piece from a local business and then never heard from them again. BIG MISTAKE!
The best strategy is to send a sequence of 7 direct mail pieces spaced a couple of weeks apart over a period of a few months.
The other part of the equation is to target a specific audience. Don’t shotgun your mail pieces to everyone. Select a very narrow market with the right message.
If you don’t craft the right message for each mailing, you will fail. Copywriting (writing words that sell) is extremely important. So if you don’t know how to write effective copy, hire someone.
Here is how my most recent direct mail campaign has gone. The first mailing in the sequence produced ZERO results. I didn’t get a single call or email.
The second mailing got a phone call, but no sale … yet.
The third mailing got a phone call and I started seeing my website visites increase.
On my fourth mailing, I have a client.
On the fifth mailing, I noticed several of the people on my mailing list downloaded my FREE ebook and subscribed to my newsletter. And I still have my sixth and seventh mailing to go out in the next few weeks.
So for a few hundred dollars, I have the following:
- 1 client worth thousands of dollars.
- Increased the number of visitors to my website.
- Grown my email list because of people suscribing to my newsletter and downloading my ebook.
- Increased exposure in my target market.
Increased my chances of acquiring future clients as a result of the relationship I have started to build through my direct mail marketing campaign and the subsequent online connection that was created through the direct mail campaign.
I would call that a fairly decent return on investment and I still have two more mailings to go in this campaign. So don’t downplay your offline marketing while spending time doing online marketing. You need both.
