If this is
first marketing article you are reading, go find some other more basic articles that I have written and then come back. This data is for intermediate to advanced marketers.I want to go over a three-step outline for your marketing which are:
1) Surveys
2) Getting Attention
3) Postage
Marketing surveys save you from flying blind in your business marketing strategies and are best way to find out what you should be offering, to whom and how. When you don't really know what to put in your direct mail marketing it's because you haven't done your research.
In order to get response you would like on your direct mail marketing campaign, one area you need to look at is whether or not you are using a survey to find out what to say to your public. You may immediately answer “No – I don’t survey.” But truthfully, it’s very possible you do and just don’t realize it….read on.
You know your market quite well because you already sell to them. You’re unwittingly surveying all time. Take this example:
An optometrist has an optical boutique. He knows that biggest market for his eyewear are women from ages of 40 to 65 years old. How does he know that? His women’s frame inventory is constantly being restocked fives times more than his men’s frame stock or even children’s. And types of women’s frames are ones compatible with no-line bifocals. Interesting! Let’s look at what else this optometrist knows. He knows that these women pay a higher price point for their eyewear because products he keeps reordering are from more upscale designers so these women probably have more discretionary income. That is what I mean by surveying unwittingly.
Now let's take an example where you are sure you have no data:
You are a mortgage broker and you don't know what to say to people to get them to refinance their property, yet this is area you specialize in. You assume that best deal will attract more customers. You conduct a marketing survey, or get a marketing survey conducted for you that asks people indirectly for their attitudes and emotions concerning refinancing and what would be advantages and disadvantages. You find majority of people would like to refinance but think it is a very complicated procedure and so they never try. From this information you are able to determine what tone and message of your advertising should take.
So, what should your promotion say? How about "We'll take hassle out of refinancing for you. Find out how." You will get a response. You could send out thousands of promotional pieces telling your prospects that you can get them lowest rate, but that isn't their concern. Their concern is that it's too complicated. Do you see how you could miss? A survey is answer.
It is smart business to design a survey (or have one designed) to send out to your past customers that will keep you in know, and not in dark.
Now let’s go into next logical sequence of how to break first barrier of getting attention, so “button” you found from your survey hits them before they throw away your promotion before ever even reading it.
Ditch Envelopes!
The most common question that is asked when dealing with direct mail is "How do I get their attention?" This is a major problem because, no matter what you do to them, most envelopes look basically same. Print on them in color, make a window, stamp it urgent - your customers have seen all these tricks before. They get thrown away before they’re even opened. They can tell from outside that it is a sales pitch and they just get rid of it. This causes you to lose sales because of assumptions made before you even try to get your message across, when if you had chance to let customer know what you were offering they might have gone for it. Plain and simple, easiest way to get around this is by using postcards.
