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Or… here’s another way you could apply this small business direct marketing tip …

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Hi (Customer’s Name),

Pat here. I want to say, “thank you” for making Little Town Diner a part of your dining experience. Serving folks like you is what makes our business so enjoyable.

To formally say, “thanks” I’d like to offer you a special discount this week. If you visit us between now and Sunday tell your waitress you want “Thank You Discount.” You and your family can order anything on our menu and get 20% off.

Now remember - - you have to ask for discount to get it. This offer is just our way of saying, “thanks” for choosing us to serve you.

Thanks Again, Pat

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There’s no limit to how you can use this.

If you’re a tree trimmer you could use this small business marketing tip too.

Let’s pretend you drop off some of wood from your tree cutting business to someone who makes mulch. This person tells you one day, “I’ve got a LOT of excess mulch here I’d like to get rid of for cheap. Do you know anyone who might want some?”

So you e-mail your list…

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“Hi (Customer’s Name),

Fred here… from Smallville Tree Trimming Service.

I’ve got a friend who has a lot of mulch. They practically want to give it away. You can have as much as you want for $xxx per yard. Every yard of mulch covers xxx square feet.

If you’d like some call 800-555-5555 and place your order. It’ll probably go quickly at this price so call and reserve yours now.

I’ll even drop it off at your home to save you hassle of having to pick it up.

Sincerely, Fred

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You then split profits with your friend who is in wood mulch business. The people on your list know you. They trust you. You’ve done work for them before. They’re more likely to buy from you than from anyone else.

Many on your list aren’t going to be interested in mulch. Some of them will... and they’ll be glad you contacted them with a great deal to help them out.

This small business direct marketing tip applies to ALL types of small businesses.

Get your message out. The people most likely to buy from you are waiting to hear from you. You can contact them for next to nothing. Anytime you want.

And in all cases, landing page must be consistent with marketing piece. If prospect is suddenly confronted with a landing page that seems different or just doesn’t seem to connect with piece they came from, a number of unfortunate things happen. There is a credibility gap. The prospect senses this is different and becomes on guard. And you lose momentum of sell, where one benefit leads to another until close.

Let’s say you’ve determined length of sell copy on landing page. At this point, there is a crucial decision to be made. After sell, do you put order form or signup form on same page or have prospects click to go to another page to fill out form?

There are two opposing prospect tendencies to deal with. The more clicks a prospect needs to go through to get to order or signup, more likely prospect will not continue. On other hand, make prospects do too much scrolling and you’ll lose a certain percentage of them. In addition, if there is too much copy and graphics on a page, there is danger that page looks too cluttered and intimidating.

There is no cookie-cutter solution. Generally, it is preferable to have order form on same page as preceding sell copy; that is, on landing page. Having said that, there are numerous cases when having prospects click to go to a separate order page is better.

So you see, a landing page is an important, yet flexible, stage in selling process. Always keep in mind marketing piece prospect came from and develop your landing page accordingly.