Direct Mail Marketing for Your Business

Direct mail advertising doesn't make money for small businesses. And hard to believe though that is, it's a sentiment I've seen expressed by many a business owner who really ought to know better.

But the experience of my clients is...

Direct Mail Advertising Works

And it's extremely powerful, with the caveat if you don't do it right, it's going to crash and burn. Another caveat I'll throw in is you will be exceptionally lucky to get the astounding results you're probably used to seeing claimed by the pro copywriters.

The reasons for direct mail not working for many small business owners are typically the same reasons email marketing doesn't work for them: they're sending out the wrong kind of messages, and often they're targeting the wrong dempgraphic.

What's a 'Good' Response Rate?

Anything that makes you a positive ROI.

It really is that simple.

Don't let yourself be seduced by the percentage points, because with the right offer and price you can make a very large ROI on a small conversion rate. A client and I recently did a 30,000-piece mailing of a 22-page sales letter for an expensive training course earlier in the year, and while the conversion rate was around 0.67%, the payback was measured in the hundreds of thousands of pounds.

But let's take a wider view and think about two very quick, simple and easy direct mail marketing campaigns you could test right now.

Let's start with...

Campaign No.1: Your Best Customers and Clients

Just make a list of your most profitable customers and clients and send them an offer. I know, you were expecting something a bit more fancy... but you really don't need it.

A simple postcard saying how much you appreciate them and so you have created a special offer they can benefit from so long as they respond by the deadline (say a couple of weeks from now) is fine.

A client of mine did just this for his carpet cleaning business, and sent the letter to his top 50-odd customers. The first time he sent it he got about 7 conversions out of it.

So I told him to mail the letter a second time.

He did this... and it yielded about the same result.

So I urged him to send it a third time, and to keep sending it until he wasn't getting any responses from it.

By the end, I think his Return on Investment was ridiculously high, somewhat over 6,000%.

Campaign No. 2: Generate Some Leads

This is much less certain than the campaign above and is, I'm afraid, more effort too. You'll be tempted to pass over the first bit but if you do, then I am certain your results suffer. Only you can decide whether you want to spend the time and money on weeding out your prospect list or on postage.

First you have to paint a picture of your Perfect Customer or Client.

The simplest way to do this is to consider your current customers and clients, and decide which ones you like the most.

Who's easy to deal with, pays well and quickly and doesn't come to you complaining all the time?

I guess you'd like to get more people like those in your business.

Secondly, once you've figured out what they look like, you can begin looking round to see exactly where they are and how you can reach them.

And, thirdly, once you have a likely list just mail them a postcard inviting them to a landing page where they can leave their details in return for something of value. I suggest you try a free teleseminar, since almost no one is doing those outside of my own industry and they really are incredibly effective for the most part.

The teleclasss will then serve three purposes:

1. You will undoubtedly drum up some more business from it.

2. You will have their email details so you can send them marketing emails.

3. Now you also have a load of content for all manner of purposes.

Conclusion

The idea that direct mail marketing is ineffective for entrepreneurs comes down to one thing: small business owners are simply doing it wrong.

It's not hard, but you do have to follow a surprisingly small number of equally surprisingly powerful rules.


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Ireland's leading direct mail expert, Jon McCulloch, urges you to visit his blog and claim your copy of BIG Marketing Muscle for Small Business, where he reveals his powerful and little-known strategies to get response rates 300% higher than the usual techniques.

And it's free: http://www.jonmcculloch.com/big-marketing-muscle