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.
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
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.
What to say in direct mail?
There are various things that you can write in your letter that will make it more widely read, but bear in mind that about 50% of people will never even open your letter – it will go straight in the bin or will be partially looked at and then thrown away. The more you can make your letter look like a personal communication from one person to another, the better.
Having said that, there are certain ideas, tips and techniques that you can use to improve readership and response rates.
This material comes from one one of the Marketing Mentor Marketing Seminars.
Why direct mail works
Direct mail or e-mail communications work best when you are able to identify a specific, real and current problem – and then suggest a solution to it. By communicating with somebody directly – from you to them – you are able to write to them as an individual and make a compelling case for an answer to a problem they face. If your argument grabs their attention and then talks to them in their language about their problem, you have a much higher chance of getting a response from the prospect.
When it doesn’t work is when it becomes junk mail: a bland letter sent to anybody who will read it and that talks only about what you do, paying no heed to the problems of the person you are contacting.
This material comes from one one of the Marketing Mentor Marketing Seminars.
Keeping focus in your letter
Whichever approach you use, it is important to remember that the communication is not about you or your company. It is about how you can help the person receiving the letter. How you can save them time or money or assist them in some way. Explain to them how you can help them in their specific situation and you will have a letter that is read. Tell them all about how wonderful your company is and you are quickly heading for the bin.
In addition, it is very important to focus on one central message. You can add in other advantages later in the letter or in the sales pitch, but initially your letter should be focused on one specific area.
This material comes from one one of the Marketing Mentor Marketing Seminars.
During a useful marketing mentoring session this morning we discussed theimportance of using testimonials. These really are one of the most effective low cost ways to cement your reputation. Hayn from Gaia sent in some examples for discussion and although we talked about how they could be fine tuned, they are both goodexamplesofwhy testimonials work well.
Energy Saving at Work – Automotive Industry
Alcon is one of the world’s foremost manufacturers of performance and motor sport brake and clutch systems; supplying and winning in F1, WRC, NASCAR, Indy Car, Touring Cars and GT racing, as well as engineering extreme solutions for several leading performance road car manufacturers.
Eager to control peak consumption and reduce their environmental impact with ISO14001, Alcon use the Gaia monitoring system to keep track on electricity usage. With 48 consumption reads taken per day, the data available at www.savegaia.net and alerts set up should consumption hit a set limit, Alcon have their energy under control.
Operations Manager David Fuller said ‘We at Alcon are keen to show our commitment to good environmental best practice. Using Gaia we can visibly see our energy consumption enabling us to drive down usage and save money at the same time.’
Energy Saving at Work – Power Resistor Manufacturer
Cressall Resistors is the world’s foremost resistor manufacturer based on Evington Valley Road, in Leicester.Cressall Resistors has 100 years experience in producing power resistors for use in the electro-technical market. With design and manufacturing facilities within the UK, Cressall supply both standard and custom designed resistors for any application from a few watts up to several megawatts and for operation at any voltage. Cressall are committed to total quality and have a Quality Management System approved to ISO 9001:2000.
In June 2008 Cressall, subscribed to the Gaia system to monitor and control their energy consumption. By identifying higher out of hours consumption during night shift operations they identified savings of 280 KWH units per night (£500 a month). Bill Urwin Quality Manager said ‘Using Gaia we have generated a positive financial payback in weeks which can be secured for the long term through the continual monitoring and alarm settings provided by the Gaia system’
Do you have a testimonial gathering programme in place? if not set one up orspeak to your marketing company andget them to start work on it straight away! Hope you fould that marketing mentoring session of help. Thanks again to Haydn for his input.