It's been a couple of years since I wrote about Post Cards as a marketing vehicle. In the past 36 Months business life as we knew it has drastically changed. And yet, the opportunity to successfully launch a localized business and grow marketshare within one's geographic footprint using direct mailing lists have never been better.
And one of the few things that has remained constant for my clients is the success those using Post Card marketing (SNAIL MAIL -- Gosh how I hate that term!!!) to attract customers still achieve.
But there's a catch...
Like many things in life, Post Card marketing also has a catch. It's called FREQUENCY. Mail the same audience a second time about 2 and a half weeks after your intial mailing. This will help you to maximize exposure and increase response. (Make sure you order your mailing list for "multiple" or "unlimited" use to make sure that you can use the list more than once).
Over the years I've spoken with thousands of small business and home business entrepreneurs. Each of them looking for the most effective means to deliver their message into the hands of their target audience. With the proliferation of the Internet and email into the fabric of our society, many folks in my opinion, mistakenly fall in love with the concept of using email lists to drive cold traffic. I'm not anti-email. Far from it.
Email is an incredible vehicle, but as a prefered solution for building a business on a shoe-string budget...it is not. Email to communicate with customers/clients is a magnificently efficient tool. But unless you have a significant budget to devote to the testing of Subject Lines, copy, images, etc...the odds of hitting a winner with a one-shot email blast is slim.
Targeted Direct Mail on the other hand is a much better bet. Once you have chosen the right list(s) for your marketing effort (Reference my post on "How Do I Buy a Great Mailing List") you need to decide what message you want to communicate to your prospect. Once you have determined this, you next must design a mailing piece around your call to action (Reference my post on "Do I Need a Good Call to Action in My Direct Marketing Pieces?".
And that is where we come to WHY I like Postcards as a Marketing Tool.
Next time you go to your mailbox, observe yourself. Once you have thumbed through your mail, stop and replay what you did. Was there anything that caught your eye? Any plain or unexpected #10 envelopes that just made you want to open them? Probably not, unless they used 4-color artwork or were from a company that you were familiar with. How long did it take you to go through your mail and determine what was trash and what you would/needed to keep? Not long, huh?
So, in that fraction of a second when you were determining the fate of a piece of unsolicited mail what tempted you? Maybe nothing. Maybe it was an attractive or interesting postcard? It certainly wasn't a plain envelope.
The beauty of a postcard is that it NEVER has to be opened. In that fraction of a second that you will have to convince your prospect to keep you from the recycling bin (we're all thinking Green these days, right?) having a postcard with your call to action staring them in the face gives you a much higher probability of gaining relevance in the prospects eyes than an envelope that needs to be opened.
Looking for a low cost, high quality quote for your post card marketing job, email me at dcslistguy@greatmailinglists.com and I'll be happy to get you a no hassle, no strings quote.
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.
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.
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.
I typically scan 300 or so marketing blogs on a daily basis to see what's what in the direct marketing and emarketing Industries. I recently posted an article "Why Search Engine Marketing is Essential for Your Website" and received some interesting feedback. The gist of the feedback was this.
- As a start-up site we need to drive traffic to our site immediately. SEO takes time. "How much of my budget should I spend on each?"
While scanning yesterday, I came across the following post by "Randfish" on the SEOmoz.org blog. He is SEOmoz's CEO, and co-founder, as well as the primary blogger for the site . His post on "The Disconnect in PPC vs. SEO Spending" is well worth reading to get some insight on how dollars are actually spent (about 85% on PPC) versus where research of user eye tracking behavior map users actually look (predominantly at the top of the organic, or natural listings). When you read the post, make sure to also read the comments from SEO experts at the bottom of the article.
My personal experience with this falls along similar lines as Randfish's post...at least initially. I used PPC to drive traffic from keywords that I believed made the most sense--based on Keyword research analysis of competitor sites. I spent thousands of dollars driving heards of traffic to my site and learned a lot about what word could and would pay off. But it was a bloody experience financially.
Today my PPC expenditures are about 5% of my overall search marketing strategy. Search Engine Optimization is where I spend the majority of my non-selling and servicing clients time. After all, I'm the DCSListGuy, so I see direct mailing lists and email marketing lists in my sleep.
In the age of "E" this and "E" that, good ole
Direct Mailing Lists still work best for promoting geographically targeted (local) businesses. Here are some tips on when
direct mail should be your first marketing choice. Keep in mind that the more of these tips that apply, the more likely it is that direct mail will be your best bet.
- If you can clearly define your target audience, direct mail will work. Direct Mail is about targeting. The more precisely you can identify you best prospects, the greater the likelihood of success.
- Whether your sales message is short or long... direct mail works.
- Direct Mail works when you need to control the entire selling process. You don't want layers of contact between you and the decision maker.
- When other distribution channels don't work as well as going direct to your audience.