Direct Mail Marketing | Small Business Marketing Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Direct Mail Marketing’

Self-Promotion Equals New Customers

By: Robert Skrob on: May 21st, 2010 10 Comments

The one factor which separates millionaire business owners from the rest is their willingness to promote themselves. Too many entrepreneurs hide behind a corporate façade, trying to make it look as if they have big corporations. However, people want to buy from people, and the business owners who put themselves and their personalities into their marketing attract more customers than those who don’t.

Does the idea of self-promotion create a sickening feeling in your stomach? A lot of business owners are shy because they don’t feel worthy of promotion. If you’re starting out in business and you are working out of your garage or at the kitchen table, it’s easy to assume no one wants to do business with you. It’s easy to undervalue your own skills. In response your first impulse is to create a big, fancy corporate name and to put up a website with an eye-catching logo. This is the opposite of what you should do.

Put your personality into your marketing and make your business look small. Customers love doing business with the owner, not some faceless corporation. Many of the most successful (and smart!) companies use a personality, or individual, as the front person in order to build a relationship with customers.

Take for instance, the Wendy’s restaurant chain. Years ago, Wendy’s had a famous commercial campaign where a woman said, “Where’s the beef?” Funny as those commercials were in the 1980’s, and as well-known as they became, they did not generate sales for Wendy’s restaurants. The campaigns that outperformed those entertaining commercials were those featuring Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy’s. Each time Wendy’s introduced a special sandwich, Dave would go to the studio and shoot a commercial. Now, this was painful for Dave and everybody else involved. He had never performed in front of a camera. It took him dozens of takes just to say his name right. But Dave stuck with it because these commercials generated more customers than any other advertising approach.
(more…)

Exploding the Response of Your Direct Mail

By: Bill Glazer on: December 15th, 2009 9 Comments

This is the transcript from an interview Bill Glazer did with Keith & Travis Lee:

What we are going to be talking about today is a particular type of strategy, although it’s very, very far reaching, which is involved with the use of my favorite media that there is by far and away is direct mail. That’s really where I originally cut my teeth in marketing, and its one that I prefer to do over any other one. And, this is the use of something that we have recently called 3-D mail, although there are some other names for it which are similar to it and we will get into it.

And, I am joined today by the current Glazer-Kennedy 3-D mail aficionados, the famous father and son team, Keith and Travis Lee. How are you guys doing?

Keith Lee: Just great, Bill.

Travis Lee: Doing good Bill, thanks.

Bill: So, we want to talk about 3-D mail and you guys have sort of taken on that mantra of being the experts of that. And, also in those interesting being the suppliers of 3-D mail objects which we will let people know later, if they want to, how they can learn more information about that. I don’t know which one of you want to jump in first, but let’s talk about making sure that people know what we are talking about, so what is 3-D mail?

Travis: 3-D really says it all when you are talking about 3-D mail. It has length, it has width, and it has depth. It is bulky mail stuff that comes in your mail and it doesn’t look like anything else in the mail that you are getting that day. Many other people have called it lumpy mail, or dimensional mail. They all pretty much mean the same thing. And in a lot of cases it’s not even just an envelope that can be lumpy. You know you put a lot of things in an envelope that can give it some shape and some form. But, it can also be like a trashcan, or a treasure chest, or a message in a bottle. Any number of different things that are going to cut the clutter in your direct mail and set you apart from everything else your prospects or clients are getting these days.

Bill: We are going to be talking later on in this call about why it’s so important to be thinking about 3-D mail. I’ve used it and continue to use it often in my marketing. Certainly in my former business as a menswear retailer I used it often, and I still us it now to market Glazer-Kennedy. And, we will be talking about why that’s a smart thing to do, but you guys formed this company. Keith, I am going to let you answer this question. You guys formed this company which is called the 3-D Mail, and so why did you decide to start this whole business to provide people with what they need in order to incorporate 3-D mail?
(more…)

How To Assemble A Direct Mail Marketing Package

By: Dan Kennedy on: October 28th, 2009 2 Comments

When a pro freelance copywriter talks about a direct mail marketing package, he is most often referring to the outer envelope, sales letter, brochure and order form.

We tend to be much more creative and varied in the number and variety of enclosures in a good direct mail marketing package, but the result is the same; a collection of pieces and items are assembled and placed in a particular order, to go into an envelope or other container, for delivery to prospect or customer.

The point is that situations best served only by a simple sales letter are quite rare. Most of the time, you want to mail a multi-piece marketing package.

The reasons for this are many.
(more…)

Hey….Don’t Forget Space Ads in Your Small Business Marketing

By: Bill Glazer on: September 17th, 2009 7 Comments

Let’s talk about newspaper and magazine advertising which is commonly referred to as “Space” advertising.

In many ways, this form of advertising is one of the harder media to make work in small business marketing. Mainly because it typically is a rather costly media and depending on the size of your transaction, it can be very difficult to earn a return on your investment (ROI).

Of course, ROI can vary between whether you are only looking at how much the ad costs verses how much in sales revenue it generated or how many new customers you acquired from the ad and what is their lifetime value to your business.
(more…)

The Power of Dimensional Mail in Small Business Marketing

By: Dan Kennedy on: August 6th, 2009 7 Comments

But why does dimensional mail work? Why does it increase response?

Well I’m convinced that the simple reason is because it adds a bit of intrigue to the mailing, which allows it to overcome the toughest task in small business marketing…getting your mail piece opened….getting your mail piece opened FIRST….and getting your mail piece read!

Piece by Bob Devol of Bob Devol Communications

I’m also convinced that the importance of using dimensional mail is rising due to the increased competition in the mailbox. Direct mail has to work harder than ever to stand out – and dimensional mail can help.

(more…)

Ads or Articles – Which is Better to Market a Small Business?

By: Dan Kennedy on: July 9th, 2009 9 Comments

The Advertorial, The Challenge Of Maximum Readership Reconsidered

The knee-jerk answer is: articles. And the argument for the “advertorial” i.e. an ad made to look like editorial material is that it is obvious; people buy newspapers and magazines for the articles, not the ads. But, like all dogma, ain’t necessarily so. For example, lots of people buy the Wednesday newspaper to get the supermarket coupons, buy the Friday or weekend newspaper to see the movie and nightclub ads. In analogy, people often go to national conventions more interested in the trade show than in the seminars, me included.

MY ADVICE: DON’T STEP IN THE DOGMA

Anybody who has an ironclad rule about the most successful way to do something can be proven wrong. I constantly violate one of the most respected direct response copywriter’s rule about the number of words for a headline. The “A-pile mail” argument makes perfect sense, but I have beaten it in split-tests with teaser copy laden envelopes. Not often. But sometimes. To conclude that the advertorial is the ad format that will always get the highest readership is wrong. On the other hand, a lot of advertisers err in never using it – in space as well as in direct-mail.

I try to be careful about this; I know too much about what doesn’t work. So, I try to be careful not to be dogmatic, or too quickly shut off a client’s idea. I’ll say: I’ve never known ‘x’ to work, and I’ve certainly seen it not work, but let’s explore it from several different directions, including:

Can it be easily and cheaply tested?
Is there a more reliable approach that will do just as well?
Is there enough benefit to balance the cost of experimenting? Etc.

THE CHALLENGE OF READERSHIP

Here’s the key point to keep in mind, whether contemplating different ads or FSI or direct-mail formats, headlines, photos, grabbers, etc.: it can’t sell if it isn’t read. The Big Lesson is – you have to WORK JUST AT GETTING IT READ. Not presume readership, which is what most people do. Way, way, way too much advertising and mail is produced with a presumption of readership. Actually, the opposite is the smarter approach; presuming every recipient will try NOT to read it.

THE BEST WAY TO MAXIMIZE READERSHIP IS targeting. My message to market match’ principle. But when you can’t target, when you must use mass media and fish from a very large lake, then you have to work even harder at getting people to bother reading your message.