Ideal Marketing Company Blog

Sales Growth

Direct Marketing simulates Sales: Survey

With majority of recipients making a purchase, Direct Marketing remains one of the best ways of generating sales as figures suggest.

Almost three-quarters of people who received direct mail advertising from a business responded while the success rate for television was ten per cent lower according to ExactTarget’s 2009 Channel Preference Study.
Print media channels such as direct mail is more popular among younger people.

Robert Keitch, chief of membership and brand at the Direct Marketing Association, told the website: “Direct mail has long been the most effective of all direct marketing channels, which explains why the medium still accounts for 25 per cent of all direct marketing spend.”

Also the consumers are more likely to respond to direct mail promotions.

PMDG Marketing Communications is launching a direct mailing campaign to encourage more Mexicans to cross the border to shop in Texas, according to Business Wire.

I still think that direct marketing is the most effective of all marketing channels and is still popular among the youth. This survey shows further proof that it still works for improving sales.

Northampton Marketing Seminars

Just arrived back from a morning seminar I was asked to run for the FSB in Northampton.  The event took place at the Northampton cricket club.  With around 60 business owners present it was a goodoppertunity to talk about the ‘9 steps to successful marketing’ that I recently completed a tips booklet on.  If you were one of the people there I hope you found it useful.  I actually recorded the talk and plan on creating a CD and transcript out of it later this month.

We all like to complain about things from time to time.  This BBC page has a summary of the past 12 months most controversial and complained about adverts.

What I always find interesting about these lists is how some things which seem harmless to me WILL cause offence in others.  Also how some very uncontroversial products of service will rely on sex or violence to sell. Judge for yourself at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8020881.stm

Busy week next week with a free evening seminar on Tuesday and a full day seminar on Thursday.  If you are one of the busness owners attending I’m looking forward to meeting you there.

Marketing Seminars

Looking forward to delivering a marketing seminar in Milton Kyens on Tuesday morning.  I’ve been asked to run this mid morning seminar for Sherwoods Accountants who are offering it free to their clients. So far around 30 people have siad that they will attend and I’m planning on covering some practical low cost marketing ideas.

Finally, I recently looked back at some of the goals I had when I set up The Ideal Marketing Company.  What seemed like an ambitious dream a few years ago is now part of my day to day reality. 

If you do this, you will look back on 2008 as the year that you accomplished a whole series of things that in 2009 seemed difficult – if not impossible. This process, or similar ones have worked for the most successful men and women in history, from Henry Ford to John F. Kennedy from Mother Teresa to Richard Branson.  It’s used by great athletes and scientists, business owners and authors. Most people who achieve extraordinary things are not extraordinary people.  They are just ordinary people with goals that give them extraordinary enthusiasm and drive.  Now their secret is yours to use for the rest of 2007.

Goal setting is just one of the many areas that I cover in my marketing seminars - call or e-mail to find out more.

Marketing Mentor Seminar

Just come back from running a 1 day seminar at Hothope Hall which I host every other month as part of the Marketing Mentor programme.  The group were very inspiring and a real pleasure to talk to.  It’s important to talk to ‘real’ business people regulalry to see how far away from reality the media portrail the business world is.  A very positive ‘can do’ meeting with a number of people who are certainly going to have a great year in 2009.   It’s not all doom and gloom and this group will prove it in 2009.

How 2008 went for you will probably determine how much of a change you want to make for 2009.  If it went well, you might want to make sure it stays on track in 2009.  If it went badly, perhaps some serious reflection and re-evaluation is in order.

The best way to think about your resolutions or goals is to imagine boat.  A boat goes from harbour to harbour all its life.  When the boat’s captain sets out on a journey, he or she knows exactly where the boat is heading and, unless there is a terrible disaster, it will arrive at its planned destination.  The boat may not travel in a straight line; it will have to adjust its course many times during the journey, but after a few hours, days or weeks, it will arrive at its destination.

Imagine what would happen to the boat if the captain didn’t decide where he was going and just set off to see if he could stumble across a suitable place to dock.  For every warm, secure harbour to aim for there are a hundred miles of rugged coastline or sandy beach.  And what would happen if the captain decided to play it safe and just stay where he was?  A ship that’s left in harbour will turn to rot and rust.

What would you describe as the main areas of your life?  You may wish to consider these 7 categories:

Health, Family, Career, Education, Wealth (savings and investments), Home

and Fun.

Goal setting is just one of the many areas that I cover in my marketing seminars - call or e-mail to find out more.

Other Direct Mail letter ideas that work well

Create interest by being topical.  By using a headline from a newspaper (quoting the publication and date) you can show just how up to date your product or offer is. It also makes it clear that your message is based on ‘facts’ rather than being made up by you to sell things. 

It takes seven meaningful points of contact to make the average sale, yet most people give up on direct mail after one letter.  Better to create a list of 100 companies that you REALLY want to work with and mail them regularly than to mail a hundred different companies every week.

As part of your regular mailing campaign, send cuttings (about you or relevant stories) to your contact to show that you understand the industry and how it works. Mixed in with regular direct mail letters, this can be very effective.

Timing is (almost everything). The day your letter arrives has an effect, as does the time of year you send it.  Send your letter so that it arrives on a Tuesday.  For other matters think about the time of year that people are most likely to reply.  For example, when mailing schools, September seems to be the best month.

Stamp rather than frank.  It looks less industrial and is almost always more cost effective.

Follow up with e-mail or a phone call.  This area is covered later in the series, but a good direct mail letter that is followed up by phone within a week of being sent out will generate a far higher response rate for you. 

3D Mailers and novelties can work IF they are very carefully targeted; the more personal or suited to the contact the better.  For example, a personalised calendar can work well and even if it is expensive, it can prove to be a good investment in the long term if you bear in mind the lifetime value of a customer.

Qualify your data.  It’s a pain, but worth calling people on a mailing list prior to writing to them.  Make sure that the name you have is up to date and is the right person to contact otherwise you might as well save your stamp.  Writing to somebody who isn’t there anymore or isn’t in a position to buy from you is rarely going to end well. 

Test, test and test again.  If you think you have a good product and there is a market for it, then direct mail should work for you – it’s just a question of finding the key to unlocking the door, so keep testing out different headlines, offers, lists etc.  You’ll find one that works for you in the end – it might just take a few attempts to get it right. Remember that when you are testing, check out one thing at a time.
This material comes from one one of the Marketing Mentor Marketing Seminars.

The offer

What do you want to say? Why are you contacting these people in the first place?  You should always have a reason for writing to people.  Is it something new that they can have?  Is it a special offer or a reduced price, a new item in stock for a limited time?  Whatever it is, the offer is probably the most important area.  If you get the offer right then you are off to the best start.

Make your offer as eye catching and imaginative possible.  Make it time sensitive and difficult to say no to. Make it believable and above all make it easy to understand. To assess this, show your letter to a stranger: they should be able to say what you are telling them about in about 5 records if you are to have a chance of winning over people with your direct mail letter. 

This material comes from one one of the Marketing Mentor Marketing Seminars.