Direct Marketing

[lucysdoghouse]

Do any of you supplement your internet marketing with direct marketing by mailing out postcards and the like? I was thinking of adding this to my toolbag in the future.

I contacted a company and they would charge around three hundred dollars for a list of 5000 address that had made the list due to a certain household income and if they owned a dog. A double sided, full color postcard would be about 42 cents per piece for them to print it up and then mail it.

Seems reasonable to em but I have never done anything like this.

Any comments on direct marketing?

Direct Marketing works great for large companies that sell by mail, etc... but they're able to play the numbers game. The return on Direct Mail is not all that wonderful, I think I read somewhere (and I'll look it up to verify) that it was at BEST 5%.

If you're going to spend that kind of money, $2100 or so (plus I'm sure they have plate charges, etc), I'd suggest putting into something online... PPC or SEO, possibly.

If you like the idea of a hard copy of something, spend way less and market directly to your past customer base. That return should be a lot better... since they've already bought from you and it can be a reason they come back.

Just my two cents...

[michael.jozaitis]

To get a little bit more information on this - what kind of lists are they? Are they previous / current customers or a outside-company generated list?

Our experience is that direct marketing can produce fantastic results if targeted at your already core customers, offering them a reward for being loyal - this could be an email, a direct mailer or something else in line with your overall strategies.

Two fantastic resources for getting direct marketing right include Ad Guru Lester Wundermen's "Being Direct" and Seth Godin's "Permission Marketing."

The key with this is to get permission to market to someone and then let the gates open!

I hope this sheds some light on the situation!

[candypam]

Hans,
A while back someone at Solid cactus told me to try a postcard in each order that goes out and offer them a percentage off their order for x amount of time… normally a month… I put a coupon code on it, so I can track it… last one I did, I received over 200 orders from customers using that code through out the month…. We noticed, many of these people placing the orders, never bought from us before... so I figured, the people that saved the post card, either placed them in their work break room, or home on the frig and their friends saw it and used the code.

I’ve done this 2 times so far, and had great results both times. Make sure the postcard screams your business name and is clever and eye catching so their friends and co workers get nosey and look at it.
Thanks Pam

[lucysdoghouse]

I think I am going to hold off on the direct marketing for a while. I like to research things for a long time in the future before I actually jump on it. Well, that is not quite true but it is for this situation.

The scenario that I described was an outside generated list.

The postcard in the packaging with a call to action on the postcard is a great idea and I will go ahead and try it.

Pens are one of my favorite tools for offline marketing.

I will forever say this...

Why?
People lose pens, people steal pens (ha- in the office you know who you are! LOL!), pens have a way of finding their way around town... and also they hang around a long while.

I closed my online business 2 years ago. My mother still has a few of my old pens- from a marketing campaign I did... from 4 years ago!
I bought 2000 pens and left them at restaurants, post offices, etc.. I just gave everyone I saw a pen...
I had a coupon code on the pen, so I could track sales....
It worked. I'd see that code come in with sales long after I distributed them.

I am a HUGE fan of pens. And... they're ridiculously cost-effective.

OH yeah... one more thing about pens.... The most important: THEY ARE USEFUL.

I used to include them in all my outgoing packages- sometimes two or three... one to keep, two to share.. etc...

[cperry]

Hi
I have not had much luck with lists and postcard mailings. They are $ and many times the lists have bad addresses. I have better luck with monthly emails to customers with coupon codes, ets. I have used pens, post its and business card size coupons in orders before. That seemed to work better. I like the idea of the postcard size coupon, I think there is confusion that is not a regular business card......
Carol