Landy Marketing

Let's say that you are celebrating the ten year anniversary of opening your business. Obviously you're doing something right because ten years is no small accomplishment. This is something to be proud of talk about. Prospective clients like to know that they are dealing with a stable company and everyone likes a success story.  

Here are a few ideas... If you have a "brick and mortar" location you can add signage celebrating the anniversary. You can buy a rubber stamp, "Proud to celebrate 10 years of serving you!" Go crazy and stamp it on your invoices, stationary, envelopes, and brochures. Mail out a postcard or newsletter announcing the anniversary and offer a discount with an expiration date.  You can get some promotional items (t-shirts, baseball caps, pens, mouse pads, pen sets, etc.) commemorating the anniversary. If you do radio or television advertising—mention it in the ad. For display advertising, either add a banner acknowledging your anniversary or take out a separate ad.  Add your 10th anniversary and any related information to your Web site. Tie in your anniversary by sponsoring or supporting a local charity event. "In celebration of our 10th anniversary, we are proud to plant 10 trees in our local park." Get some publicity for your charitable act. Write an article about the ups and downs of local business in the last decade. Not only is this good for your business and the community but if you have employees, get them involved.    Whatever way you choose to self promote - the important thingis that you do it. Bragging is ok in advertising!    

Whether you need to reach a very broad or very targeted audience, few marketing methods are as effective as a well executed Direct Mail campaign. Due the rising cost of postage and the increased reliance on the internet for sourcing business, many companies have reduced or abandoned Direct Mail in favor of potentially less expensive and broader reaching promotional methods such as email marketing, social media and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). While these are all good avenues to market a large or small business, and we completely believe in and promote them as well, internet marketing simply does not replace a well planned targeted Direct Mail campaign, but rather compliments it nicely. All of this being said, Direct Mail is not necessarily appropriate for all business models. Listed below are our top ten tips to keep in mind to help ensure the success of your Direct Mail efforts.

1. Simple Designs, Simply Work
   Design is key to initially capturing your Direct Mail recipient's attention. If the design is too involved and does not make a compelling case for actually reading the card, your card may end up in the throw away stack without ever being read. Think of the the front of your card as a tiny billboard; it's job is to be an attention-getter. If the design is too busy, your prospect may get confused and just move on.
2. Avoid Information Stuffing
   Resist the temptation to jam copy into every nook and cranny of your card. Info stuffing can be overwhelming to your prospect and make your message get lost. A postcard is the not the place to try to echo everything that is on your website.
3. Keep Your Message Focused
   One of the primary keys to the success of a mailing campaign is proper planning.  The first step in proper planning is to determine what message you are looking to get out there.  Once the target message is identified, stick to it so it does not get lost in a sea of other, lesser, information.
4. Strong Headline
   Just like the design, the headline is there to capture attention quickly and needs to be readable in about 2 seconds.  For example, "We Sell the Best Widgets on the Market Because They are Made Out of Super Strong Materials, Have a Lifetime Warranty, and are Only $20" is unlikely to be as effective as "Super Strong WIDGETS: 20 Bucks - Guaranteed Forever!" - The two messages are exactly the same, but the second one will get read a lot more.
5. Promote Your Website 
   Postcards are a great way to drive extra traffic to your website. The website is where the details of your offer and other relevant information should be  kept.
6. Make a Killer Offer
   If you played your cards right (no pun intended) with the design and headline, you will now have prospects actually reading your ad. Think about this from the standpoint of the reader; if the card is "pretty" and the title is catchy, but nothing of value is being offered, would you call?
7. Clear and Specific Call-to-Action
   Ok, so your card avoided the "junk" pile, and captured your prospects attention long enough to read your compelling offer, now what?  If you have a goal for your postcard marketing campaign (and you better), then this is where the rubber meets the road.  The entire purpose of any commercial bulk mailing campaign is ultimatley to drive revenue and result in a high return on investment ("ROI").  The idea of an ongoing Direct Mail campaign is that when your prospect needs your product or service, they will complete some action that you want them to, whether it is to call you, send an email, subscribe to a newsletter, come to an event, make a donation, or whatever else your goal may be. If you want them to do something specific - you need to lay it out for them - "Call Right Now!", "Like us on Facebook", "Visit our website and enter offer code abc123", you get the point, right?
8. Mail to the "Right" People
   This one falls squarely into the "easier said than done" category, but as one of the primary steps of the planning phase, this one cannot be overlooked.  There are a variety of ways to get a good mailing list whether it is by building one yourself or buying a list from a company like Landy Marketing. Feel free to give me a call (my "call-to-action") and I'll be happy to help identify some list building opportunities for you, both online and off, and even procure a custom list for you.
9. Consistency
   In the beginning of this post, I mentioned that Direct Mail is not appropriate for everyone. This can be for various reasons, but the primary one is the ability to maintain consistency in your efforts.  Sure it is possible that, if your marketing message is dead on, the graphic design is phenomenal, your offer is irresistible, your mailing list is perfect, and your timing is great, you will get response and possibly even high ROI on one mailing, but in most cases, effective targeted Direct Mail campaigns are a part of an ongoing marketing effort.  This means that you must plan, design, mail and repeat.    Some designs, headlines, and offers, may also appeal more than others to different people on your list so mixing them up is important. Maybe the mailing with the really cute puppy did not convert well for cat lovers!
10. Timing
    The fact is that it is impossible to get the timing just right for everyone on the list at once and many people may not read your card the first time they get it, but they may the second or third. Since the "right time" is different for everyone, all you can do here is make educated guesses as to the best time to mail and avoid obvious bad timing (like sending a Happy New Year's mailing in June).

For more information on how our full service targeted Direct Mail programs may be
able to benefit your business, give us call for a no obligation Direct Mail marketing analysis.

For this, my first blog entry here, I will start with a an appropriately general topic..MARKETING! 

1. Know your value proposition
   At any moment of any day, with no preparation, you should be able to meet a stranger and explain what makes you better than other businesses like yours.
2. Don't look for customers
   If you you think your business needs customers, think again.  What your business needs are "clients"!  What's the difference?  Well, attorneys excluded (due to legal definitions), most small business owners need repeat business from long-term clients.  Every interaction you have with a customer should be geared toward making a "client" out of them. Treat a customer right and watch them become a client.
3. Market to referral sources, not end users
   Ok, so this one may not apply to every small business owner (at first glance), but believe me when I tell you, it is much easier to grow your business when you have an army of advocates.  This one is worth a brainstorm.  Rather than being fixated on who your ideal client is, think about who your ideal referral is and go look for THEM.
4. Work with people you like
   There are plenty of people in the world and not enough time.  Don't spend any more time than you have to working with people that you don't like.  Face it, not everyone is going to click and working with people who make you feel negatively, will impact how you interact with others, in turn potentially impacting your business on a larger scale.
5. Don't be a hermit
   Don't sit in your office or at home and think that your prospects will find you if they want you.  You need to get out in front of people and talk to them about what you do.  Chances are that there are no potential customers sitting in your office or at your house all day.
6. Always be prepared for introductions
   You truly never know when a surprise chance encounter may happen so be prepared with, at very least, a business card and a smile. 
7. Don't sell on price alone
   If you are the lowest price in town on anything/everything that you do/sell, you will attract customers that deal with you for that reason alone.  No one can always be the lowest price all the time or they would typically go out of business which means that you will have to constantly develop new customer relationships rather than nurturing the ones that you have.
8. Brand yourself
   Have a consistant theme, style, and message.  Be known for something.  Put your logo everywhere and have a recognizable style.  People that have seen your printed marketing collateral should be able to recognize your website and branded shirts without even seeing your logo there because they recognize the color and other design elements.  Have a slogan and see if your friends, family, and clients know it.
9. Get connected and stay that way
   A communication plan is key to maintaining long-term relationships. The old adage "out of site, out of mind" applies here.  Have an opt-in newsletter (don't spam your friends, family, and prospects), create a LinkedIn profile and Facebook page.  You may be surprised how many people you know and how many people contact you that you have not spoken with in ages or maybe someone who you just met briefly very recently.  It is worth the time.
10. Make your website a huge priority
    Gone are the days where websites were optional.  A company without a website these days would be a rare find to say the least, but a proper, informative website, now that may be a different story.  Future blog posts will talk about what should be on your site, but for now, just remember that your web presence is more important than ever.  Google and other search tools have all, but replaced the phone book and newspapers. Most people will agree that, after meeting someone they are considering doing business with, they will look at their website before even calling them for the first time - wouldn't you?