Affordable Marketing Ideas

After years of spending tremendous levels of money on television, radio or print advertising, some marketers get through to the idea of testing direct mail marketing. After all, it’s cheap and it gets you a gazillion responses for alongside nothing, right? Wrong. Simply mind boggling how many CEOs and corporate executives have mistaken ideas about direct mail (DM.) DM could be a very affordable method to reach specific target audiences in the long run, however, you have to plan carefully (the STRATEGY) before you ever mail unit # 1, (the TACTICS).

1. Choose your CATEGORY correctly between two options:
a. Business-to-Business (B2B)
b. Business-to-Consumer (B2C)

Lots of people will laugh only at that determination, thinking it’s too basic. But it is kind of like deciding which half of your body your pants go on. If you are wearing your pants on your head, you’ll give your audience a great laugh – but you’ll never sell just one item. Some inexperienced marketers will say, “I don’t care who I target – I just want to market to EVERYONE!” Cute, but no cigar.

You have to know who your potential buyer is, before you implement a direct mail campaign – or any marketing campaign, truth be told. Let’s imagine you’re selling an informational guide on pet grooming. That is obviously going to attract consumers, not businesses. The only way it might attract professional pet groomers is that if it contained very advanced information. Quite simply, professional pet groomers already know the basics – and a whole lot more. Your book ought to contain some very high-level ground-breaking information to get their interest.

If your book was a ‘do-it-yourself’ guide to entry-level dog grooming, individuals are you only target.

2. Choose your LIST. List is the number 1 reason for DM failure or success. You are able to invest $10 per unit in to the format and design of the kit (strong tactics), but when you mail it towards the wrong list (bad strategy), you’ll get a poor response. Conversely, if you find the best list of people who want, need and may afford your products and repair (good strategy), you are able to scribble your offer on the sheet of notebook paper (weak tactics) and obtain a good response.

There’s two types of lists, business and consumer. There are two basic types of e-mail lists, COMPILED and RESPONSE. Compiled lists are gathered from multiple sources, i.e. phone directories, county property deed files, credit agencies, surveys, etc. Response or ‘vertical’ lists are those who have registered a particular interest in a product, service or category. For instance, magazine subscribers contain vertical information, because they have shown a desire for the magazine’s subject category. Organizational membership lists are vertical because they individuals have a bond within the type of industry or cause the organization revolves around.

3. Choose your OFFER. Your offer is more that simply what you are selling; it is the way you’re presenting it or packaging it to get the buyer to take action today. Quite simply, your products can be a commercial space heater for warehouses, but your OFFER is ‘try one for 30 days without any money down, and we’ll provide you with a free golf putter – yours to maintain even though you return the heater at our expense later.” Quite simply, this offer removed the objection (cost / might not require it / could have a better offer elsewhere) and it added an upside (free golf putter whether you buy the heater or not.)

The standard DM success formula is the fact that 70% of the response originates from selecting the correct LIST, 20% from choosing the correct OFFER, and just 10% from selecting the right CREATIVE.

4. Choose your FORMAT or “CREATIVE”. Deciding on the best format for the marketing effort can be critical to its success. There are some key steps you need to take to narrow inside your target audience before you write your copy, design your layout, or print the first unit of mail.

Formats that attract individuals are:
a. Postcards – the bigger and shinier, the better. Having a postcard, no envelope must be opened, so that your copy is read by many more and more people compared to an envelope (a minimum of for basic consumer offers.)
b. Invitations. Everyone loves to be invited to a party, so an invitation-size mailing – preferably an A6 or A7 envelope having a live stamp and script font in blue ink – would be opened by the majority of the recipients.
c. Check letters. If you are using a window envelope and also the letter within the window looks like a live check, lots of people will open it. It’s a bit deceptive, so caution is the word during the day.
d. Rebate checks. We call these “snap-packs” in the industry. Have you ever gotten a rebate check from the purchase you’ve made, guess what happens they are; you tear off three sides to reveal the check inside. Well, when the content inside is the offer, you have got with the hurdle: you have got the consumer to open it. It will get read by many people people.

Formats that appeal to companies are:
a. Legal Letters. These are closed-face envelopes made of high-quality, bright-white stock, personalized in a strong business-looking font. When the secretary / gatekeeper thinks it could contain personal information for the boss, you will get your document onto his/her desk.
b. Tactile Mailings. These are boxes that rattle and shake and usually contain a gift item. Everybody likes obtaining a free gift within the mail – even corporate execs. If it’s a toy or gimmick item, they still prefer to get them. Usually, they provide the item for their kid or grandkid, since kids love getting gifts of any kind and it brings a smile to their face. If the secretary knows that the boss likes to give these items to his grandkids, you will get your mailing onto his desk.
c. Postcards. These may or might not get screened through the secretary. Again, the larger the better; we typically use 6″ high x 11″ wide postcards, the most size that can be sent at Standard Class (bulk) mail rates.

Of course, you will find countless other methods to take, and it’s vital that you pick the appropriate format for your audience. But there are lots of other steps to consider – style, offer, kit elements for example letter size, personalized vs. generic letter, lift note, business reply envelope or ‘courtesy’ reply envelope (postage NOT pre-paid), Top class Postage or Standard Class, pre-printed indicia / live stamp / meter imprint, etc. These are best implemented by a direct marketing agency or DM professional.

5. Determine your CAMPAIGN STRATEGY. Are you searching for one-shot sales, or would you like to develop a long-term relationship with the prospect? One-off sales mean that you want to sell them one item (i.e. a vacuum cleaner) once, obtain money and be completed with it. Long-term sales are for multiple-product or multiple-service fulfillment, i.e. vitamins or lifelong carpet cleaning. You always have to demonstrate credibility and reliability, but long-term sales require better BRANDING or POSITIONING to prove that you’re the best long-term choice.

6. Next, choose your COPY POSITIONING. If you are conntacting corporate executives, use clear and concise business language. Don’t try to be clever, funny or whimsical; your audience will think your products is really a joke. But when you are writing to homemakers about a product that will save them cleaning time and enable them to cope with the stresses of building a home, whimsy might help them relate to your product.

It certainly is important to target the BENEFITS of your products rather than concentrating on the FEATURES. Best of luck has features, but you need to present these questions method in which your audience can connect with. What’s inside it on their behalf?

7. Finally, choose your FOLLOW-UP and ONGOING COMMUNICATION approach. In a long-term approach, you want to consider your choices for multi-media communication. In other words, you’ll want to capture the prospects current email address and/or phone number to help you stay in touch with them over time. Then, you need to plan a number of email messages or mailings to present other offers and cross-sell opportunities. For expensive items, you want to schedule follow-up telemarketing and surveys to ensure the client is satisfied.

In summary, it is generally a sensible move to hire an expert to help you with the many facets of a successful direct mail campaign. An expert has done this kind of work many, often, and can help you stay on track with both your strategy and tactics before you invest your marketing dollars. The money you save by short-cutting the right path through the basics might cost you dearly in the long run. Once we prefer to say in the industry, you will find 1,000 steps to producing a successful DM campaign. The only person that people remember if you are unsuccessful is the one which you missed.

Small companies have small budgets for advertising, marketing and advertising printing. Professional marketing and design services can be expensive. Many small business owners believe they are able to stretch their business printing budget by doing the work themselves or pass it on the chain to an employee that has the time to take on this unfamiliar task. With some simple tips just about anybody can design and produce an effective color flyer to produce more sales.

To begin the process of creating and effective marketing flyer, start with a layout template to prevent printing problems later. Free printing templates can be found online from many online printing services.

There are some printing terms that would be helpful to understand when utilizing these templates. Bleed is necessary when color or images extend past the trim type of the flyer. Make sure to extend your image border.125″ beyond the trim line to prevent a white line on the edges of your flyer. Trim may be the four cutlines on your flyer making it the right size. Live copy area may be the distance between the trim (cut) line and type or image about the flyer. For any standard 8.5 X 11 flyer, be sure to indent your type or images at least.25″ inside in the cut line.

Other important terms you should know when designing your own artwork are CYMK and DPI. CMYK is the color printing procedure that uses cyan, yellow, magenta and black (CMYK) to create all the possible printing colors. Your pc produces its color in red, green and blue (RGB). Make sure your files have been converted to CMYK before sending these phones your printer. The RGB process can create more color variation than CYMK, so it is smart to take a closer look at the colors after conversion which means you will see what colors you’re going to get. Be aware that your pc produces backlit color that transmits light and therefore are brighter compared to reflected light of a printed page. DPI refers to dots per inch.Be sure to use only high resolution photos and illustrations. The standard resolution of your computer monitor and also the web is 72 dpi (dots per inch). The standard for the high quality printing in color is 300 dpi. You can’t take a 72 dpi image and convert it to 300 dpi without reducing its size or clarity. All images need to be 300 dpi at the size you plan on using. You are able to reduce the dpi of an image however, you should not increase it.

When you have your flyer set up correctly for printing, you’re ready to start the design process. Right now you ought to have a concept of what you want the flyer to express and images you want to use. Don’t crowd your sheet with too much copy. Stay with a dynamite headline, an intriguingsub head, a phone call to action copy and bullet sales points for your product or service features. And don’t forget to include all of your contact details. It isn’t funny when it transpires with you. Think of your flyer like a mini-billboard and don’t forget a flyer is not a brochure. Don’t get into an excessive amount of detail. The point is to produce a compelling interest of the reader to take benefit of the offer.