Why Direct Mail Doesn’t Work for Small Business
March 14, 2010
Here is a paraphrased summary of three different conversations I had with business owners this week:
Business Owner (B.O.): “Marketing doesn’t work, I tried it.”
Me: “Really? Tell me more about that.”
B.O.: “I sent out a bunch of post cards and didn’t get a single response!”
Me: “Hmmm.. A ‘bunch’ you say? How many is a bunch?”
B.O.: “Two hundred and fifty!”
Me: “Ok… and how many times did you mail this group of two hundred and fifty?”
B.O.: “Well, just once, why would I do it again if it doesn’t work?” (Silly me…)
Nothing comes Easy: Especially Success in Business
Nothing in life is easy. You’ve heard that right? Everything worth having requires a lot of hard work, a ton of persistence and loads of patience: Everything from our educatio
n to our careers and even our relationships. Did you expect to just go to a single class to earn your degree? Of course you didn’t- it took years of going to classes and studying! Did you expect to just show up at work for one day and earn a paycheck for the rest of your life? Sure that would be nice, but no. Did you woo your spouse, shower him or her with loads of attention and compliments while you were dating and then completely ignore him or her afterwards? Ummm, I certainly hope not!
So then why do you expect marketing your business to be any different? Why do so many small business owners expect marketing to be single quick-and-easy event? Place an ad and get rich! Yay!!!! Send out a postcard and make the phones ring off the hook! Wahoo! One ad, one postcard, one networking group and I’m set for life!!! It Does Not Work That Way! I’m sorry.
A Little About Advertising and Response Rates
I guess for someone who hasn’t been in sales and marketing as long as I have, mailing out 250 cards to anyone and everyone with a “10% OFF” offer and not getting a single call may seem like an earth shattering failure… but trust me, it isn’t. Now, if you sent out 250 post cards to your target market with an extremely amazing and compelling offer using a 2 step approach and didn’t get a single response, then I might be a bit more surprised.
The chances of getting any response from a single ad, postcard, email, etc are going to be pretty slim. Factor in the quality of your content/message (was it compelling?), your audience (did you target?) and your tracking methods (how do you know if you got a response or not?) and it can be nearly nonexistent.
Think about it: you are presumptuously putting your company/brand/message in front of the faces of anyone who might at some point in their lives buy your products or services; assuming they are 1) your target market, 2) they have made the decision to buy, 3) they have allocated the resources to buy, 4) there are no obstacles to them making the move to buy, and 5) they know like and trust YOU enough to want to buy from you. Holy cow with all of those variables it’s amazing we ever sell anything at all from an ad, isn’t it?
Marketing is about Consistency and Repetition
That is why a consistent and repetitive approach is key to effective marketing. For one thing- studies show that consumers don’t even “see” an ad until they’ve been exposed to it like seven or ten times or something… You are never going to build a business by sending out one postcard or email or placing one ad serendipitously here and there. That just isn’t how it works- it isn’t how we humans work. It takes time to build trust; it takes time for us to make decisions to move forward.
But besides the whole “does advertising work or not” argument: Do you even know who your best prospect is? What their buying cycle is? What their triggers are? If not don’t even waste your time and money on another post card or magazine ad. Really.
I have an idea: the next time you want to spend some money on a postcard, an ad or an email blast without knowing the 3 things I outlined above, go to the nearest casino instead- you’ll have a better chance of getting a return on your money…. Or better yet, hire a Duct Tape Marketing Coach!
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5 Reasons Every Small Business Needs a Blog– Part II
January 13, 2010
Here are the other two reasons small businesses need to blog. (Continued from Part 1 on January 10, 2010. You can view Part I below) and a few myths, debunked.
4. It opens a dialogue/engages with your target market- What a better way to get your audience / target market engaged than by writing provocative and thoughtful blogs? You can use your blog to do research even. Ask a question and invite people to comment. Learn about what is missing in your industry or what your readers would like to learn about – and respond to those comments. Voila – you are engaging your audience – you are getting them interested in your subject matter. Even if they don’t post comments, they have clicked on some link somewhere to come to your blog, so you have already engaged them. With an RSS feed on your blog, readers can subscribe, so every time you post something new they automatically get it. This is how you build a following.
5. It broadens your audience. How many new prospects do you talk to on a daily basis? Really? Yes, you may belong to some networking groups; you may even do some cold calling. But what if you could get people to want to come to you? That is what blogging does. Again, writing relevant and helpful content will draw people that you would never be able to reach with your usual sales tactics. The great thing about social media and blogs is that people share them! Yes – if they read something they like, they’ll post it to twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn – or in some cases all three. Think about how that expands your reach and broadens your audience. And the best part – it’s free!!! Yes, you may need to spend an hour or so writing something a couple of times a week – but how many cold calls would you have to make to reach the same number of people you an reach online with great content (potentially thousands in seconds!)
Blogging Myths:
Blogs are for teeny-boppers and diarists: Sure, that may be how they started, but every great idea the concept has expanded and been improved upon. Almost all major companies are writing blogs and using them as a way to reach out to their customers and potential customers in a more casual, fun and educational way than they’ve done with traditional advertising. Because blogs have roots in the teeny-bopper diarist world they allow us to be a little more casual; allowing us to use our own voice. So have fun with it! Find the inner writer in you.
Blogs are just advertisements: Some people thing blogs are all about selling their product or service. And while that may be the ultimate goal, blogs are really about bringing people to you based on content they want to read. No one is going to visit your blog to be sold. But they will come to learn something new or to be reminded of something with a fun and engaging story.
I have a website, a blog is redundant: Absolutely WRONG for all the reasons I gave above. Blogs also allow you to expand on your traditional marketing messaging in your blog, explain things a little more, and tell stories, share experience and expertise. They also allow you to archive and organized content, so content will always be there for your website visitors to access.
“Anyone Who” is Not a Target Market
November 8, 2009
Finding your target market – that segment of the population that is best suited for your business and is most likely to buy from you - is absolutely crucial to developing a plan for growth (aka a marketing plan). When I talk to small business owners, they’re usually reluctant to start at the beginning, building a plan. Many small business owners think all there is to marketing is getting the right ad in the paper, designing a creative direct mail piece or the perfect web site. While those things are certainly part of an effective marketing plan, none of it is going to be fully effective without a strategy to drive it.
Why a Target Market?
When small businesses spend money on advertising without knowing who they need to be advertising to, what are they doing? First, they’re trying to be all things to all people and this dilutes their core strengths. It makes them look and sound just like everyone else out there. Second, they’re throwing a bunch of money away marketing to people who are not and never will be suitable prospects for their business. I don’t know about you, but I have a limited marketing budget and spending money on people who will never buy from me – or who I wouldn’t want to work with even if they did, is just not how I want to invest it.
So who is your target market? To answer this, let’s talk about who isn’t.
Identifying a target market always comes up in my conversations with small business owners and marketers. “Oh, I know who my target market is!” they proclaim. I ask, “Really? Good for you! Describe your target market to me”. Their answer? “Well my target market is Anyone who _______ {fill in the blank}”: anyone who needs a new car; anyone who needs a dentist; anyone who wants to buy a house, etc. Would your answer be similar? If so, I’m sorry to tell you “Anyone Who” is not a target market. “Anyone Who” buys homes and cars or has teeth is not your target market; “Anyone Who” breathes is not necessarily the best fit for your company.
Why Not “Anyone Who”?
Let me explain: Let’s say you own a dental practice in the 94533 zip code. You may think “Anyone Who” has teeth and lives in your zip code are your target market. You send out a postcard to every home – let’s say 20,000 postcards Of those 20,000 people, 30% don’t have the dental insurance you cover. Another 15% haven’t been to the dentist in 10 years and aren’t going any time soon. Another 20% work in another city and go to dentists near their work. What does all this mean? It means that 65% of the people in your zip code are not candidates for your practice. It means that you just sent out 13,000 postcards or letters for nothing. It means you probably wasted at least $6000 marketing to the wrong people.
Yes, this is a very simplistic example of the danger of not identifying and marketing to your target market, and the benefits are greater than just saving money. Finding your target market also allows you to: differentiate your business; find a niche that you serve best and work only with the people or businesses that value what you do; work with the customers that are the absolute best fit for the core products or services; and work with the customers who are most profitable.
So, unless your “Anyone Who” goes something like this: “Anyone Who is female, between the ages of 35 and 45, has a college degree, 2 children, a husband, owns her home, drives a 3 year old car, reads Business Week magazine, has a household income between $80,000 and $120,000 and spent $4000 dollars on widgets last year” , you need to do some more work on defining your target market. But trust me – “Anyone Who” isn’t it!
If you need help with this step, feel free to contact me. I’d love to hear from you. Click here to leave your comments. Thanks!
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