Is your marketing strategy one of trial and error?
This is how some businesses operate:
‘The Haphazard Plumbing Company’ decides that they should be targeting households within a 10-mile radius of where their business is based. Let’s say Leeds for example. So they buy in a mailing list of 20,000 names and they mail their A4 direct mailer to everyone on their list.
Then they wait patiently . . . for a response . . . only . . . the uptake is a disappointing 0.008%. And they’ve wasted a ton of money on the design, the printing, the postage. So what to do next?
Then we have the ‘Savvy Plumbing Company.’ With the help of a hands-on marketing consultant they can be confident in their approach.
They will then analyse the response levels and fine-tune the letter which attracts the most favourable response. This will be the company’s ‘control’ letter.
They may even decide to pit this version against another one still – as a direct marketer you should never stop testing. But what they won’t do, is send an untried mailer out to 20,000 people – and neither should you.
So what kind of ‘sales letter’ elements might you test?:
By using sampling in your direct marketing strategy you will pretty quickly be able to determine whether you have a winning direct mailer, or something that could do with a little more tweaking. Either way, you will not be wasting money on something that might or might not work for you.
A marketing consultant can be a genuine help in producing winning sales materials for your business. But whether you decide to go down the DIY route, or invest in some professional help, you will need to establish a ‘control’ sales letter. That is, a sales letter that your potential customers will respond to – one that will allow you to take control of your company’s marketing results.
This is how some businesses operate:
‘The Haphazard Plumbing Company’ decides that they should be targeting households within a 10-mile radius of where their business is based. Let’s say Leeds for example. So they buy in a mailing list of 20,000 names and they mail their A4 direct mailer to everyone on their list.
Then they wait patiently . . . for a response . . . only . . . the uptake is a disappointing 0.008%. And they’ve wasted a ton of money on the design, the printing, the postage. So what to do next?
Then we have the ‘Savvy Plumbing Company.’ With the help of a hands-on marketing consultant they can be confident in their approach.
They will then analyse the response levels and fine-tune the letter which attracts the most favourable response. This will be the company’s ‘control’ letter.
They may even decide to pit this version against another one still – as a direct marketer you should never stop testing. But what they won’t do, is send an untried mailer out to 20,000 people – and neither should you.
So what kind of ‘sales letter’ elements might you test?:
- Headlines
- Subheads
- Bullet points
- Body copy
- Your offer
- Payment terms
- Guarantee
- Graphics & charts
By using sampling in your direct marketing strategy you will pretty quickly be able to determine whether you have a winning direct mailer, or something that could do with a little more tweaking. Either way, you will not be wasting money on something that might or might not work for you.
A marketing consultant can be a genuine help in producing winning sales materials for your business. But whether you decide to go down the DIY route, or invest in some professional help, you will need to establish a ‘control’ sales letter. That is, a sales letter that your potential customers will respond to – one that will allow you to take control of your company’s marketing results.
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