Direct Mail is Worth the Investment

When it comes to advertising, most companies feel that email is the best way to reach consumers.  All too often, they push aside print media options as they feel they are too costly.  In truth direct mail pieces are a great medium to turn those leads into customers.

Low Cost per Each Lead

While you may be right in thinking that emails are less costly than direct mail pieces, it is not the cost of the marketing that should be part of your strategy, but the actually cost per lead that the piece generates.  The cost per lead of your average, letter sized, direct mail piece is lower than emails, pay per clicks, print ads, and telemarketing efforts.  This number drops even lower when you utilize personalization in direct mail pieces or include personalized offers.

Mailing Lists for Direct Mail are More Accurate

Since mailing addresses are regulated by the post office, they are often updated and will have any bad or incomplete addresses removed.  Email lists tend to be less accurate as many people will use fake addresses or email addresses they never check when signing up for newsletters or logins they are required.  With emails, you also have a high chance of emails going to spam, where as a direct mail piece is almost always delivered to the recipient.

Direct Mail Lasts Longer

Basically in terms of shelf life, direct mail has emails and telemarketing campaigns beat.  People are quick to delete emails or clear voicemails without even listening to them or reading them and they are then gone forever.  While direct mail may sit around a little bit, either on a table or a drawer, many people will at least look at its contents once, even if it’s to just check for offers.  Either way your direct mail piece will be hanging around in a large percentage of homes longer than an email.

So when planning your next marketing campaign, give direct mail another shot.  You will not only pay less per lead but benefit from a higher conversion rate as well.

3 Reasons You Should Include Forms on Your Website

Whether you have a small business or a corporate website, including forms can be a low-cost way to begin customer interaction. Below are just a few of the reasons you should add forms to your website:

1. Capture Visitor Information

An online form can track and record a wealth of information that you may not be able to get (or remember to ask) during a phone call. The simplest and most common form across the web is a company contact form. While it may seem to only capture basic information like a person’s name and phone number, you can ask additional information such as where they heard about you or their job title.

If you use a tool that connects forms to a marketing platform, you can also gain insights to information not asked within the form, including which pages of your site they’ve visited, how they got there, and the dates and times of all activities within your site.

2. Provide Communication Options

People can be shy, busy, or just prefer to deal with companies electronically. It’s a good idea to give them options for ways to connect with you. Ever needed to contact a company after their business hours and then try to remember to contact them the next day? Forms provide a way for your company to be accessible anytime, so you don’t miss out on important communication.

3. Customizable and Versatile

One of the best benefits of using forms is that they’re completely customizable and can be adapted for many uses, including:

  • Blog/newsletter subscriptions
  • E-book downloads
  • Event registrations
  • Demo requests

Including forms on your website can help you gain valuable insights into how people interact with your site and provide a window into customer buying habits.

The Value of Direct Mail is Still Promising

So you think print is out, digital advertising is in, right? Wrong! Despite popular opinion, direct mail campaigns are still highly effective and can compete well with internet marketing. People are bombarded every day with words and images on their computer screens, and must continually fight these distractions if they are to get on with their day.

Your potential customers will at least have to hold your piece in their hand and glance at it before tossing it in the trash. If it is attractive or interesting enough they may look at it a bit longer and make a mental note that you exist. Who hasn’t paused to look at a travel brochure with colorful pictures even though they have no intention of taking an expensive trip? A physical piece of mail captures perhaps even more attention than it did before in this digital age.

Advertising through email is not necessarily the best approach to marketing either. As Craig Simpson writes in Entrepreneur Magazine, people are swamped with emails every day and often just don’t open them, partly for fear of spam or a virus. If they do open your email, they may be wary of clicking on a link or attachment they don’t trust.

Another factor, according to Simpson, is personal touch. People might just throw out a flier with loud, ugly advertising, but what if you received a nice, textured envelope with a real stamp that appears to be hand-written, shaped more like a greeting card than a business envelope? You would probably be intrigued and open it up just to feel the connection to a real human being.

The lesson that many successful businesses have learned is, don’t underestimate the power of direct mail!

It is 2017; You Need a Responsive Website

Responsive sites are not built with any device in mind. Instead, they are built to be scalable to any device, no matter its size. It is a huge leap forward from mobile sites. These were sites built only for mobile devices. It usually requires the site owner to create two sites; one for mobile and the other for desktop devices. On the other hand, responsive sites can adapt to any existing or future devices.

Shopping on Mobile Devices is growing

One of the reasons why you should create a responsive site is that mobile shoppers are growing steadily. Recent data indicates that 80% of all Americans have shopped through their phone at one time or another. Failing to make the site responsive could lead to some serious losses.

It Affects a Site’s SEO Ranking

With Google having recognized that most people now use their mobile devices to access the internet, it edited its algorithm. The new update to the Google algorithm ranks sites with responsiveness higher. Google considers a responsive site to be crucial to helping customers get the most relevant results from it.

It Reduces the Bounce Rate

When a site is built to be responsive on multiple devices, it helps with the retention rate. Bounce rate is another factor that may influence how Google ranks a site. Additionally, it affects how easily customers can navigate through the site. If they have a hard time navigating, there is little chance of successful conversion.

More Than Half of All Traffic Comes from Mobile Devices

Most sites now report that over half of their traffic is from mobile devices. It is not that hard to find a good web developer to augment the site. Additionally, the costs involved in making the site more responsive can be recovered from the increased conversion rates.

Increasing Your Bottom Line: 3 Direct Marketing Tips for 2017

The promise of lower taxes and fewer regulations has many business owners excited about what 2017 is going to bring. Will your bottom line increase in the new year? There’s a good possibility it will, but you shouldn’t wait on legislation to make it happen. Take matters into your own hands and make more money with these direct marketing tips.

Start Trending

If you haven’t jumped on the social media bandwagon, do it now. According to Aabaco Small Business, 74 percent of consumers say that social media played a role in their purchasing decisions. If you don’t have a presence on social media, you’re missing out on sales. In fact, social media is so influential and effective, that many small businesses and startups rely on it solely for their marketing needs.

Get Personal

People don’t pay attention to impersonal, bulk marketing campaigns anymore. Think about it, what’s the first thing you do when you get a letter that’s obviously junk mail? Do you open it? No, you chuck it straight in the trash bin. Your potential customers do the same thing. If you want to get their attention, make your marketing personal. Instead of sending a mass generic email, send a postcard that addresses a need they have.

Sell Solutions

Building on the above statement about consumer’s needs, you should always try to sell solutions and not products. If you can identify your base’s needs and address them through education and product knowledge, you will never have to make a hard sale again. Consumers will see the need for your product and make the decision to buy on their own and quicker.

This year is your year to make more money than ever before. If you want a huge bottom line in 2017, adjust your marketing strategies to make it happen.

Diversity is the Key for Effective Marketing

More than ever before, marketing cannot be one-dimensional and achieve success. Regardless of the business or brand that you want to promote, you’ll need to use an assortment of marketing strategies to achieve your desired results. Just like it takes a variety of building materials to build a house, it will take variety to build your marketing strategy. Here are some things to consider regarding marketing diversity.

Social Media

Many businesses still haven’t recognized that social media platforms are crucial for effective marketing. The big four include Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram. Although it can be overwhelming to think of mastering these, an attempt to master at least one starting out would be a good idea.

The reality is that this form of marketing takes time and that requires money. If you don’t yet have the resources to launch an all-out social media blitz, that’s no problem. Take small steps to start. Later, you can get involved in more of these platforms and post more frequently.

Personal Website

It should go without saying that if you don’t have a personal website, potential customers won’t take your business seriously. They may figure that you’re just a scammer or that you’ll deliver products or services that are below par. Your website is often the first impression that a customer has about your business. Invest the resources to make sure that it’s a good impression.

More and more businesses are investing in content marketing for their websites. This often means that a blog is present on their company website. Content marketing on your website accomplishes several key things.

It adds value to your website in the eyes of Google, causing your site to rank higher. It also gives your customers free, helpful information and sets you up as an authority who can solve their complex problems.

As already shared, the importance of marketing diversity can’t be understated. There are plenty of other forms of marketing to consider as well such as email, event marketing, calling, direct mail, print and web ads, press releases and more. By combining several, your marketing strategy will become effective.

Top Ways to Cross Sell Your Products

Cross-selling is the process of selling an additional product that is related to the customer’s original purchase. Cross-selling is a vital tool businesses can use to increase sales as well as add value to the customer’s experience. Here are some tips businesses should consider to help improve their cross-selling sales numbers.

Listen for the Cues  

It is incredibly important to listen to your client’s needs and react to what they are telling you will appropriate products. When customers are presented with products that have no connection to the current needs, they will perceive that you do not value them. For example, if a customer is shopping for a computer make sure you know who the computer is for as the product you cross sell if they are purchasing for their child needs to be different than if they are buying for their husband.

Create a Sense of Urgency

Once you have determined a product that may add value to the customer’s original purchase you should create a sense of urgency. This can be done by pointing out the additional product is only available for a limited time or that you are running low on inventory. If you are offering a discount on the additional purchase you can also remind the customer that the discount is only available for a limited time.

Use Incentives

You can increase your cross-sell numbers by offering your customers something for purchasing an additional item. For example, if a customer if buying an item for $35 offer them free shipping on all orders over $50 or offer 10% all orders over a certain amount.

Bundle Up

There is a reason fast food meal deals work so well and it is because customers are buying products that fit together at an attractive price. There is nothing stopping you from adopting the value meal strategy with your products. Bundle up products that make sense together and offer them at a good price and customers will be naturally drawn to it.

The holiday season is a wonderful time to up your cross-selling game as customers are always looking for one more gift to put under the tree!

Keeping a Strong Relationship With Your Clients and Prospects Using Social Media

The power of social media can affect your business in a dramatic way. Getting it correct, however, can be a challenge. Generally, the fundamentals of good business communications apply to social media as well. So here are four points to help build a solid foundation and grow a better relationship with your customers.

Listen Closely

Read more and talk less. People have a tendency to open up on social media. They’ll tell you plenty and appreciate that you took the time to listen. You’ll get candid feedback-and-insight into what’s important, and what’s not, in the relationship.

Post Quality

Be careful what you post. No post is better than a bad post. Remember, these are people you want to do business with. In their minds, the quality of what you put out there represents the quality of how you do business. Also, if you publish interesting content, your followers may share it with their followers.

Be Consistent

One of the best ways to maintain a strong relationship with your clients and prospects is to be there on a regular basis. Don’t post and disappear. Consistently publish content and participate in conversations. Have a daily routine to check and update your social media. This will send your contacts a message that you value their conversation.

Promote Others

Promote others and they’ll promote you. Spend some time sharing and talking about content published by your followers. There’s a good chance they will do the same for you.

So remember, while the medium may be different, the same rules apply to social media as they do to any other form of good communication.

What Is Keeping Your Customers Up at Night? And How to Ease Their Minds

Fear and worry are most likely keeping your customers up at night. These concerns run the gamut of topics such as financial, health, interpersonal, web related and more. Regardless of the industry that you’re in, every night there are people with “pain points” specific to something that you can help to resolve. With a little effort, you can discover your customers’ worries and provide them a helping hand.

Step 1: Gather Information

Although you may have an idea of the problems that your customers are dealing with, it will take some work to understand them fully. You’ll need to gather information, preferably from different sources, to find out their problems.

Seek out opportunities to talk with them face to face. You’ll also benefit from sending out a brief survey by email to your customers. Why not have a few rating questions and end it with asking them about what their worries are? You can also scour the web to find out what is bothering customers in your industry. Read customer reviews about products or services that are similar to your own.

PPC expert, Robert Brady suggests getting some help from Google. Start typing an industry-related search phrase and see how google tries to guess what you’ll ask. Google does this based on things that people have searched for in the past. Brady, on blog.ispionae.com, says, “These queries show you areas that people are concerned about. They are windows into the hearts and minds of your potential customers and offer you opportunities if your product can solve the issue.

Step 2: Interpret Your Findings

Once you’ve gone through the step to find the answer to what is keeping your customer awake at night, you’ll want to bring all your research together. Preferably in a group, sift through your findings and find reoccurring customer concerns that you may have missed in the past. These are the problems for which you’ll want to provide solutions.

Step 3: Implement a Plan to Help

Although every plan will differ in the details, there are some things that all businesses should do. Communicate with your customers and alleviate their fears. You can reassure customers through your website. You can also provide videos, blog articles, snail mail, email and personal interaction where you discuss and address these concerns. Lastly, you’ll want to do all that you can to make good on your promises so that your customers can happily walk away with a solution.

How to increase web traffic with your direct mail piece

Nothing surpasses the effectiveness of a direct mail when used correctly, in driving that much-needed traffic to your website.  Why so? By placing more emphasis on a specific market, using a particular call-to-action, the response is ultimately maximized in this segment.

Increasing website traffic via direct mail involves a combination of tact and skill to grasp recipients’ attention.  Essentially, it involves the same strategies used to drive recipients to pick a call but instead of leaving a number for them to get back, you include a URL with an incentive to get the recipient to visit.  The incentive is what separates the good from the best; it should be carefully crafted to maximize response.
Below are a few tips to achieve this;

  • Use a simple URL; remember the direct mail URL is not clickable, this means it has to be simple and straightforward for a user to key it into a browser. The tip here is to make it easier to spell to avoid typing errors from the recipients’ end.
  • Include a convincing reason for the recipients to visit your site; a URL by itself is not enough, place a strong offer in your mail that will entice recipients to visit your website. You can include some cash discounts or a free trial depending on your line of work.
  •  Drop in a clear call to action; a call to action guarantees a greater response rate; the more specific you are, the better. For example, if you can include a line like, “visit this URL, sign up and get a discount on your first purchase.”
  • Include a deadline; a deadline gives a sense of time and urgency to your mail campaign.  Recipients are more likely to act on it before the deadline expires. This will drive more traffic to your website before the deadline expires.

Direct mail strategy is tailored to meet the needs of a specific audience, and research has shown its superiority in yielding results when applied to perfection.