Direct Mail using Postcards

Recently, I worked with a company and as part of their Lead Generation Machine we developed a direct mail program using postcards. Not novel, but in the process I wrote the following e-mail which I thoguht was worth sharing. They were convinced that 65% of postcards were read...maybe, but by who? The person bringing in the mail? Here was my response:

My Postcard Thoughts:

1. 65% is a postcard publisher's dream. If it was that high, you would never receive junk mail any other way. However, a high percentage of junk mail comes that way, so there is some truth.
2. More important does it get to the right person. If the message is not direct, postcards may not even reach who it is addressed to, especially if that person has a secretary or someone determines that it should go to somebody else. You could end up in engineering, purchasing, service, maintenance or?
3. Bottom line is the more generic the mailing lists and message the lower the response.
4. With that said, I see no problem using that venue over mail as long as your message is specific and we can get a response out of it.
5. I would design the postcard to solicit a response with maybe a message that is time based. Though I am not suggesting this, I hate discount programs, but as an example “10% off panel work on orders received in November.” Most fax programs and mailings that work are time specific and sell a particular item.
6. People like events or openings.
7. The next question is I think the postcard has to be part of an overall plan that includes follow up and what response you are looking for.
8. Steps in postcard:
   1. Determine market(who, where = mail list, OK)
   2. Determine message(What do they want and Why will they respond?)
   3. Decide what if someone responds to it, what you are going to do or send. (How, when = will you follow up?)

Interesting survey

Here's an interesting survey done by the National Federation of Independent Businesses on small business marketing...part of a great resource site which you can find at http://www.411sbfacts.com/

1. Results of 2006 Survey on Marketing:
   The primary customer base for 45 percent of small businesses is the general public; However, for 30 percent, the primary customer base is too varied for small employers to identify one.
2. Twelve (12) percent of small businesses sell to a small number of business customers creating the potential of becoming a captive supplier.
3. Fifty-five (55) percent of small employers think that their businesses do not need much marketing since their products/services pretty much sell themselves. Forty-two (42) percent disagree.
4. A large share of the small-business population depends on repeat customers. Twelve (12) percent of small-business owners indicate virtually all customers are repeat customers while another 35 percent say most are repeat.
5. The distinction between marketing and selling is sharp for virtually as many as the distinction is non-existent.
6. Forty-eight (48) percent of small businesses have a separate annual marketing budget within the firm’s overall budget.
7. Experience and customer observation are substantially more likely to influence small-business owner marketing decisions than formal, systematic approaches. Seventy-four (74) percent think it is important to rely on gut feel when making marketing decisions.
8. Small-business owners advocate a long-term business outlook.
9. Seventy-eight (78) percent of small employers think that adding innovative products/services is important to business success.
10. 87 percent agree that customers require businesses to be very flexible and adapt to special customer requirements.
11. More small employers intend their marketing efforts to lead customers (61%) than to respond to them (28%).

Where do you fit into all this?

The 5 B's of Marketing?

In 1960, E. Jerome McCarthy introduced the 4 P's of Marketing as a way to describe the mix of factors required to successfullymarket a product. McCarthy labeled the 4 P's as Product, Price, Place (distribution), and Promotion. The idea was that if youcould identify the right combination of these elements, your marketing would succeed. Since then, many have proposed that there are really 5 P's, suggesting Positioning, Packaging, or People as additions to the mix.

Maybe it should be replaced by the 5 B’s of Marketing?

1. BE Real Your marketplace is crowded with competitors, and your prospects are
besieged with marketing messages. For your message to find its way through all this noise, it must be exactly on target. In any field, it's not enough to simply describe what you do. You must be able to tell your prospects exactly how your work helps them solve problems and reach goals, and the benefits and results they can expect to see from it. What this targeted messaging requires is that you become very specific about not only who your offer is for, but what it will help them do, and why your solution is the right one for them.

2. Be Pulling vs. Pusing…In the classic marketing formula, the emphasis was on promotion -- pushing your message out to the world at large. You need to pull toward you exactly those clients you want. Push-style marketing includes cold calling, unsolicited mail or email, paid advertising (online and off), promotional events like trade shows, and some forms of PR, like blasting out press releases. Pull marketing, on the other hand, is focused on building affinity and connections. To attract clients in your niche, you might develop referral partnerships, become visible at networking events, get booked as a public speaker, have articles published or build a content-rich website. You'll find it much easier to make a sale when clients contact you as the result of hearing about you from someone else, or after sampling your expertise for free.

3. Be interesting…You must position your business in the mind of your prospective clients as the best possible choice for exactly what they need. Broadcasting a muddy or generic marketing message won't be enough. Your clients need to understand "what's in it for me?" Be the place they go when they need something. 4. Be there.. Clients are wary -- and justifiably so -- of committing to spendhundreds or thousands of dollars on something they haven't been able to experience in advance. Without tangible evidence to go by, they base their decision on how much they trust you. A significant portion of your marketing activities should be aimedat increasing your credibility. But one of the best ways to build trust is also the simplest. Allow clients to get to know you, be part of their everyday life. Use of your website, services, ideas and advice that you can offer are all important mixes.

5. Be Fast… In today’s world, the most important. The key is hitting the right client at the right time with the right product in the right way – the first time, because you may not get a second time. You have to identify their need or problem, provide the solution, understand the resources needed and the decision process they will use. You have to have a process in place for doing this or the process itself will lead to slow and inaccurate decisions. Effective companies have processes that drive decisions, not delay them.

And this is all marketing!