The Ten Best Direct Mail Secrets
The best direct mail secrets for building small business volume and sales are right here. Even better, these techniques are cost-effective, straightforward, and easy to do. In fact, they are so simple we can outline them here in ten easy steps. Why do you need to discover and implement direct mail secrets? Direct mail is inexpensive and a complement to your overall marketing plan. It’s important to use more than one form of marketing when communicating with your prospects and clients. Use multiple strategies and tactics in your marketing and don’t ever overlook the power of direct mail marketing. It’s big!
First, let’s provide you the 10 most important things you need to remember when implementing your direct mail secrets.
Target your audience: As a business entrepreneur, it’s imperative that you create a marketing plan that reaches your target audience. For example, let’s say you are promoting a dog food to help dogs with arthritis. You wouldn’t send your well-thought out direct mail secrets to all dog owners in general. You would ‘target’ those owners who had elderly dogs suffering from arthritis. Radio or TV is too expensive for the average small business person. Even newspapers ads can be seriously out of reach budget-wise. But using our direct mail secrets, if marketed properly by sending mail to a targeted audience, can reap amazing rewards for your business. And it can be very affordable, too.
Focus on your customers: The best way to use direct mail marketing is to focus on your email list or customer base that you have already established or from your prospects that have responded to your other marketing campaigns in the past. Repeat messages to the same prospect will ‘get the message delivered.” Direct mail if done through greeting cards have open rates as high as 98%. This is a direct mail secret that many small business owners are failing to use. Repeat business with the same customer base is much easier than finding new customers.
Use the power of an invitation: A powerful direct mail secret is to place an invitation or offer in the correspondence. Keep the offer simple and the invite appealing. This is why targeting your audience is so critical. Make the offer ‘sweet’. Tempt them to act now! For example, offering a complimentary sample bag of dog food for arthritic dogs to the right targeted audience makes people pick up the phone, or buy right from your site and take action. They are able to respond to your call to action, “Free Sample.” This ultimately brings repeat business.
Build relationships: Reaching out by sending a caring card is the single best direct mail secret you can learn. It’s personal, it can be customized, it make customers feel good. And this might be the biggest secret of them all... when customers feel good, they return to you over and over again for repeat business. Building relationships shows you care and creates trust. People who trust you will buy from you.
Pre-Qualify your prospects: This direct mail secret allows you to leverage your time with your base of prospects. Those who respond to simple direct mail offers will be the most qualified and interested to buy. Spend your time on those who want to spend their hard earned cash with you.
Develop a customer retention strategy: Most marketers focus all their attention on attracting and securing clients. Then they fail to put in the effort to keep these valuable customers. The truth is... it's not work at all when you systematize your follow up. And it's just plain bad business if you don't have a follow up system to stay in contact with your customer base. Most of the business owners that we consult with don't even know this effective follow up system exists, and it’s a shame. Developing a simple customer retention strategy means money in your pockets. And failing to keep your customer base, is wasted time and effort. A customer retention strategy is a way to interact consistently with your client base in order to provide them with value, the latest information, access to your expertise, and to show them that they are appreciated. (Do not underestimate the value of letting your customers know that you appreciate them!)
Teach your customers how to refer new customers to you: Referral marketing is the easiest sale in the world and one of the easiest direct mail marketing tactics available. Just by sending a thank you card and letting your clients know that referral business will earn them a free cup of Starbucks, free monthly newsletter, or invitation to an customer appreciation discount, will build your client base. They in turn do the selling to their friends and colleagues for you. It’s powerful stuff!
P.S.: Use a Post Script (P.S.) in all your direct mail marketing pieces. This part of the mail is read 80% of the time. Think about it. If you send a greeting card in the mail which is opened nearly 98% of the time and your client reads all the way down to the P.S. 80% of the time – you’ve got a message that landed squarely in your prospect’s lap!
Follow up and follow through: Follow up is critical when using our direct mail marketing secrets. Statistics show that a message must be read on average seven times before your prospects will buy. Create a series of direct mail marketing pieces that will continue to tell a story and provide a solution to your targeted audience’s needs. Each piece will follow up the previous email. Lack of follow up is where most people fail to make the sale and failing to follow up quickly is even worse. It can take an outstanding lead and turn it sour.
Automate: The best way to set in motion these series of direct mail marketing secrets is to use a system that is easy, inexpensive, sends out mail through the U.S. Postal Service, and can be done at the touch of your fingertips right from your computer. Automation is the key to leveraging your time and maximizing your resources. There is only one direct mail marketing tool that we use and trust in our offline as well as online businesses. To learn more on how to use direct mail in your overall marketing plan, click on the links below, or contact us for a personal tour of the direct mail marketing system we have been successfully using for over two years to build and grow our independent businesses. It will change how you do business forever! Grow Your Small Business Fast Using Our Direct Mail Secret Weapon
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