According to a study released yesterday by media research and consulting firm Borrell Associates, Direct mail spending will drop by as much as 39% during the next five years from $49.7 billion in 2008 to $29.8 billion in 2013.
Email is the #1 Choice
The Borell Associates study predicts email will continue to grow in importance as the preferred online advertising outlet. "e-mail advertising quietly moved to the No. 1 online ad category spot, surpassing all other forms of interactive advertising. Advertisers spent $12.1 billion last year on e-mail marketing, more than they spent on display/banner advertising or search advertising. We're predicting that e-mail will continue to distance itself from other online advertising formats over the next five years, growing to $15.7 billion and remaining the preferred channel among many marketers."
Local Email Advertising Will Lead The Growth
So where is the growth going to come from? Borell believes that "Most of the growth in e-mail marketing will be local. We're expecting local e-mail advertising to grow from $848 million in 2008, to $2 billion in 2013, as more small businesses abandon direct mail couponing and promotional offers and turn to a more measurable and less costly medium, e-mail.
Borell cautions "Those trying to latch onto this trend aren't likely to strike instant gold. Managing large e-mail marketing campaigns require database marketing expertise, a savvy sales force, adequate e-mail management software, familiarity with the rules and regulations and a lot of patience."
So just how exactly can a small, SOHO, or geographically targeted (local) business begin to use email to advertise to Consumers effectively?
We offer a way for companies without their own cultivated list of customers and prospects to effectively email market to Consumers within their geographic footprint. Now you can send emails using our easy to build template system to create your email message and select the geography you want to send to.
How hard is it to use? Easy. It's Email Made Easy.
Simply click on the banner below to find out just how easy.
We'll be happy to assist you in creating your Subject Line and critiquing your content at NO Additional Charge.
Get started using email to help you grow your business.
First Quarter 2009 Sales are up over 30% against Q1 '08 here at DCS Marketing Solutions LLC and GreatMailingLists.com. I don't say this to be boastful--although it is nice to see--but as a thank you to our customers and more importantly as a barometer of change in today's business marketplace.
Change or Die
These are the worst of times, these are the best of times, to paraphrase Charles Dickens. For almost everyone, concern over finacial instability and the present--let alone the future--is a reality and not just an emotional response. Need I go on?...
This is the 30th year that I am blessed to be working in the Direct Marketing industry. I have observed many socio and economic changes in this country during this time--having worked during three (3) prior economic downturns (although none quite as harsh as this one) and one thing stands out to me about Amercian Business throughout.
- Small business drives this country during economic downturns.
- Big business will never fail to screw good people.
- Americans are a resourceful lot and we come up with workable solutions where others see none.
- Greedy people suck.
And where is all this leading...why Change of course!
Change is why my company's business is outperforming 1st Qtr. 2008.
The landscape of American business is once again changing and a multitude of small businesses are being launched by former executives and sales people from bigger businesses. The net result is leaner, more lithe businesses that are better prepared to bend with the prevailing wind and not snap like a tree in a hurricane.
These businesses need cost effective solutions that don't hold them to annual contracts or exhorbitant minimums. And that is why our Mission Statement is: "GreatMailingLists.com is a website developed to provide superior general interest and niche market direct mailing lists and email marketing lists to small and mid-sized businesses. Because these lists are available direct online, we are able to keep costs down--which we pass on to you, the end user. "
And even with our low costs and low minimums, we have been known to work with new businesses to help them to establish themselves whenever necessary.
I have been known to spend 15 or 20 minutes talking with a prospective customer trying to talk them out of doing what they thought was a great idea...why? Because it's the right thing to do, and wish there were more people out in the business world who would do the same for me in certain situations.
I'm told we reap what we sow.
First Quarter Sales are up over 30% here.
If you'd like some help with your direct marketing efforts, send me an email at dcslistguy@greatmailinglists.com
In the next few weeks we will be launching an entirely new way to target local prospects on a nationwide scale.
Now you say awe shucks Doug, I've tried premover lists before, they work ok in a brisk marketplace, but in today's economy--simply knowing that someone is advertising their house for sale is not a measureable indicator that they are moving. TRUE.
That's because you haven't tested our Premovers yet. These premovers come from moving related services sources and we have the ACTUAL MOVE DATE.
Now these leads don't come cheaply, but think about this. These leads give you the ability to communicate with a New Mover before they even move into their new neighborhood. That type of leg-up on the competition is priceless.
At DCS Marketing Solutions LLC and GreatMailingLists.com it doesn't matter to us whether you drive a Porsche or a Chevy. If you're looking for help to grow your business, we're here.
Republicans, Democrats, Independents and all non-affiliated Americans are all secretly, and not-so-secretly rooting for newly elected President Obama and his political Agenda to take successful steps to stop the bleeding and begin the much needed repairing of our anemic economy.
But until that day comes--and hopefully it is soon--it's survival of the fitest. At last look at The Dow, the meek are destined to inherit nothing. Those brave enough to embrace change will prosper--everyone else will do their level best to tread water.
What kind of business are you? The meek? The brave? Or are you a fan of the doggie-paddle?
Quick Business Assessment
1. Customer Value is down. Customers are just spending less. The profitability of individual customers is off 30% or more.
2. Customer Erosion. Typically, Merchants experience annual churn of 20% 1
3. Layoffs, cutbacks, down-sizing, gurding for survival over the long-haul, these are the moral crushing realities of almost all of our businesses as we proceed through Q1 of '09.
In With The New
Replace the old with the new. Not an original concept by any stretch of the imagination; just a sound one. But how do you do it?
For local or regionalized businesses (after all this is a Blog for small to mid-size business) finding new customers comes two ways. Develop a new relationship with an established resident(s) living within your geographic footprint, or grab them when they're new. Success with existing residents comes with tweeking your existing sales and marketing efforts, and one that I can't personnaly speak to on your behalf.
But the second one...revolves around identifying and targeting New Movers to your business trade area. Now New Movers is not a "new" thing. And in fact, there is intense competition to curry the favor of New Movers everywhere these days. And the chief problem with targeting New Movers as an acquisition strategy today is that New Moves themselves are off by 20% 2 or more. Hence, the available pool is diminished, while the competition has exponentially increased.
How To Win
The concept is simple. Get to the New Mover BEFORE they move. Introduce yourself and your business to your future new trade area resident before they move. Avoid competing with the glut of New Mover offers that irritate and inundate every new mover today.
OK, so "How do I do that?" you ask?
Pre Mover mailing or per inquiry phone leads.
So maybe you're thinking, "I've already tried "Pre Mover" lists and they just aren't dependable. Especially in today's abysmal Housing Sale Market! And if you are thinking this, you would be Absolutely Correct! Today's Pre Mover lists are predicated on Real Estate Advertising...and that is not a valid indicator as to when someone will be moving today.
But there is a solution. And it is coming soon. Very soon. It is a Pre Mover list that is triggered by a Moving Services quote request. These soon-to-be-moving to a neighborhood close to you leads will be available on a weekly basis and typically become available 5-7 weeks prior to the actual move date. Plenty of time for the prepared marketer to send one, even two direct mail solicitations, or to execute a well planned phone introduction/conversion campaign.
I'll be announcing the availability date of this Fabulous new customer acquisition tool in the coming weeks. Send me an email with your contact info and I'll contact you a week before I Blog about it.
You can Win, even in this Economy!
dcslistguy@charter.net
1: Page 1. "How to Overcome Retail-Customer Erosion by Capturing New Residents", Moving Targets, 2006.
2: Page 1. "Fewer People Are Moving, Epsilon Report Shows", DIRECT Magazine Chief Marketer Online, Feb. 9, 2009.
The Web Design Schools Guide recently came out with its list of the Top 100 Blogs aimed at helping Small Businesses save costs in the following Categories:
- General Business Finance
- Accounting
- News
- Business Inspiration
- Startup
- Frugality
- Business & Personal
- Cost & Supply Management
- Marketing & Customer Service
"In this economy, everyone's looking for ways to cut down, and small businesses are no exception. One of the best ways to save money in business is to examine your annual expenses and consider how you can decrease those costs. Thankfully, there are some pretty amazing resources to help you figure out new ways to do just that. Check out what we consider to be the top 100 blogs for resources and inspiration to cutting your small business costs in 2009:"
This list is helpful for any small business, whether they are using direct mailing lists, email marketing lists or any other media to market and promote their businesses.
I encourage each of you to check out and Bookmark the following link.
http://www.webdesignschoolsguide.com/library/top-100-blogs-for-small-business-cost-cutting-inspiration.html
As always, the DCSListguy is here to help you succeed with your marketing efforts.
It's important to set goals for any business. If you don't have goals and objectives to measure yourself by, how are you going to know if you are achieving them?
Just looking at your account balance on your business checking is not the smartest way to measure small business growth.
Tell me what your business goals are for the first quarter and I will compile and aggregate them into a post in a couple of weeks.
Send me an email to dcslistguy@greatmailinglists.com listing your top 5 objectives or leave a comment at the end of this post.
Here are my goals.
1. Improve communication with my prospects/customers.
2. Focus on improving my direct mailing lists conversion activity.
3. Continue to develop my email marketing lists sales.
4. Expand my eMarketing client base.
5. Show my wife I love and respect her, every day.
Hoping everyone has a successful first quarter.
Happy New Year everyone!
Doug the DCSListGuy.
I consult with dozens of small business owners each week. Without exception, each seeks to grow their business as inexpensively as possible--especially in today's tenuous marketplace. Some are quite focused on how to go about building their business and have an actionable direct mailing lists plan that they are just looking to me to fulfill with a list or help them tweek. For them, I am happy to oblige.
But for the most part, the small business and home business owners I speak with fall into three categories: I only want 100 Leads, I Want an Email List, Bigger is Better.
For those looking for 100 leads, or for 1,000 for that matter, there really is nothing I can say or do that can help them. Why? Because at those tiny numbers, the likelihood of getting any responses is remote. We have very low minimums--$200 for Consumer and $250 for Business. Why? Because that is the bare minimum that our experience tells us that you can have opportunity to receive a reasonable response from. If you don't have budget for that, it is going to be quite difficult to make a go of using direct mailing lists to grow your business.
For there person coming in telling me that they want to buy an email list to drive people to their website, or to build foot traffic at their brick and mortar location, I typically ask why? Nine times out of ten when I tell them how much they cost and what the minimum quantities are, they say that it's very expensive. And they are right. Quality emails are not cheap. General Internet untargeted emails (Bulk) are cheap. Then I launch into my spiel and they usually shift interest to a mailing list strategy...like the one to follow shortly.
And for the optimist contacting me saying they want a count for all of the people who buy from catalogs in the country...I try to reign them in.
Always work within your budget. There is no point in overspending on your test. What if you need to make changes and re-test? You'll neeed budget for that as well.
Targeting
Define your target market prospects as tightly as possible. Make the parameters for your direct mailing lists narrow, not broad. You can always loosen up your criteria to increase circulation once you have found your sweet spot.
At this point, I want to share that I ALWAYS recommend that a small business do postcard marketing to drive traffic to their on and/or offline businesses.
Buying Your Direct Mailing Lists
When I first started in the Direct Marketing Industry back in the 1980's, the big buzz was "shotgun" marketing. Lists were relatively inexpensive, postage was a small fraction of what it is today, and the philosophy of the day with many successful marketers was "the more hooks you put in the sea, the more fish you catch." And then targeting started to become more important. And more important. And more important.
Today the buzz words are "relevance", "content", "frequency", or timeliness. Relevance is addressed with proper targeting. Content is strictly a factor of the marketers' ability to effectively communicate their message to the recipient. And Frequency is the focus of this post.
Timing
Frequency, frequency, frequency. In email, you can find marketing experts that claim you need to send a prospect message 5 times or more to maximize effectivness. Well I have found that it is not a lot different with certain direct mail.
You are a small business that is opening a new location, or seeks to generate new customer activity at a site (New Memberships, New Customers, etc...) then you want to saturate your target market within your target geography. And to do so you need to mail more than once over a period of time. Say once every three weeks for at least 3 times. This enables you to build up recognition with a prospective customer (even though that postcard might get tossed the first time, there will be some recognition established for the second or third time received). They might have looked briefly at the card, considered it and either put it aside--where it sits until this day covered by something, or they might dismiss you the first time. But when they receive your card the second time, they take action.
So my recommendation is to:
1. Define your Budget.
2. Target your most responsive customers.
3. Purchase direct mailing lists for unlimited use, keeping within #1 above.
Getting your business email opened by the right people is a very challenging endeavor. These days with the proliferation of preview pane viewers, a recipient doesn't even need to open your email to take a look at it. That has its own pros and cons which will be addressed in futire posts. But what it does is put even more pressure on your Subject Line to compel the recipient to not only click, but to NOT delete your email before it even renders in the preview pane.
Recognition breeds relevance. If the email recipient comes to recognize your Brand (Company Name, Newsletter Title, Product Offering, etc...) then, the possibility of your email being of interest and ultimately ending in the action you seek, increases.
I've been reading a lot lately on what Mark Brownlow at email-marketing-reports.com has to say on the subject, and would like to share it with you here. In his latest article titled "Subject lines III: Branding" Mark tackles the issue of Branding.
"Let us begin with a common question: should you include your brand/business name? Well, if a core aim of the subject line is to ensure your email is recognized, putting some recognizable name in there makes intuitive sense."
To read Marks' very helpful article in its entirety, click here.
In my first post focusing on email subject lines, I referenced Mark Brownlow's post on the Email Marketing Reports site. The focus of today's post on Subject Line optimization is RIA--Recognition, Interest and Action.
What is the objective of your subject line? To get the targeted recipient to open your email. Obviously that is a component, but is that all a subject line is? Hope not. "If that's all there is to it, you'd see more subject lines like these:
- Your last purchase has a dangerous defect
- We overbilled you, $100 gift voucher enclosed
- We sold your credit card data by accident
Clearly, just getting people to "open the email" isn't your real purpose. Instead, your subject line is looking to generate RIA: Recognition, Interest, Action."
To read the rest of Mark's second post on the art and science of Subject Lines, click here.
It would seem to me that in today's economy when conversions are paramount, garnering RELEVANT prospects is a Must.
For more information on Subject Lines, check back this weekend to read about subject line Branding in part three.
For those of us that use emails (both customer, and third party opt-in prospecting) to develop new relationships and spur sales, "just how important is the Subject Line?" with regard to the success of my emarketing campaign?
Well, I was digging through my myriad of Blogs and don't ignore info sites and came across the following post by Mark Brownlow on the http://www.email-marketing-reports.com/ site addressing Subject Lines.
Mark's article on subject line length starts--"Creating a subject line is like creating a work of art.
While there are some guidelines a budding artist can follow, there is no "art creation" template that guarantees success. Painting by numbers produces no masterpieces."
To read the whole article, and the feedback of others, please click here.
The second part of his treatis on Subject Lines will appear later this week.
For the past couple of posts I have ventured off into the world of online search (search engine optimization and PPC). Today I return to direct mail marketing and direct mailing lists.
So many newcomers to direct mail marketing rely too heavily on the quality of the direct mailing lists they purchase to determine the success or failure of their mailing effort. While there is no question that the mailing list is the single most important element in the success of a mailing, if you do not:
- capture the readers attention
- provide relevant content
- and ask for the order
the mailing will almost certainly fail. I read a post earlier this month from Brandon on the postcardsmarts blog that I wanted to share with you. Brandon makes good points and offers helpful resources for the neophyte copywriter.
"In postcard marketing, the headline is the primary attention grabber. With direct mail letters, the envelope teaser fulfills the same role. The fundamentals for creating both of these are much the same. These are two of the most important elements in direct mail copywriting."
Take a look at his article "Direct Mail Headlines - How to Grab Attention" and leave me a comment letting me know what you think.
Also, don't forget to vote for the next Blog topic. It helps me to tailor what I write about to you the reader.