Making Marketing Work

Making Marketing Work
Promoting with postcards by direct mail is one of the most
effective ways to reach your customers. Long experience has
shown this and a recent survey commissioned by an
independent firm out of Baltimore has demonstrated it again
recently.

The study found that 76% of people read direct mail that is
sent to them. Further, it found that the piece you send and
what is put on it are more important than ever. Up one
third from last year, 63% of people feel that the
appearance and message of the piece makes a difference in
their decision to respond. This is another reason postcards
perform well. The instant appeal and attraction of a
well-designed, full-color card certainly makes it stand out
amongst envelope-wrapped letters.

Statistics like those should help those who may feel
uncertain about investing in direct mail marketing
programs. In such cases, I have found they have usually
broken two key rules in their past attempts at direct mail
that caused a lack of success. These rules will help make
your direct marketing work and will give you a stable and
increased source of sales leads:

1. You must do something.

I am constantly surprised at the number of small business
owners who tell me that "we just get referrals" or that
direct mail marketing "doesn't work for us". Yet my next
question usually stops them cold. What marketing are you
doing? The vast majority of these businesses are not doing
any marketing at all! Yet they feel marketing doesn't work
for them. Of course it doesn't work if you don't use it.

So the first rule of direct mail marketing is that you must
do something--anything. Just about anything being sent out
gives one a basic level of outreach and will give you some
degree of response. And that promotion can then be
adjusted, focused, narrowed and targeted more exactly to
improve the response and build it higher and higher. But if
you don't do anything in the first place, you're not even
yet at Square One.

2. You must be regular and repetitive.

One-shot mailing leaves a lot of leads on the table. Your
mail piece is just one of the hundreds of messages glanced
at daily by the average customer. Even with a well-designed
piece that succeeds in gaining attention, a substantial
percentage of recipients will notice but not respond. Don't
just leave them there. More mailings will develop them into
customers.

Further, 69% percent of those surveyed above said that
their current needs and the timing of the offer mattered to
their response. Even if they aren't ready for you now,
continuing your mailings will increase their interest and
keep you in front of them. Then when they are ready, you're
right there.

Finally and most importantly, a regular mailing campaign
gives you stability in your business and its sales. It can
be easily measured that peaks of marketing outreach are
followed soon after by peaking sales. By maintaining a
regular and stable level of direct mail outflow, you will
find your leads and sales stabilizing as well.

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Ken Daniells helps business owners and organizations to
increase income and profits using practical, but often
overlooked marketing basics. He is the founder of BOOM!
Ink, a marketing company dedicated to helping small
business owners market effectively and grow. For more free
articles, tips and advice, visit http://www.boomink.com .