If your company spends $1000 per week on marketing then you could save $1000 per week by not doing any marketing. That is true but it is simple and shortsighted view of situation. However, if revenue generated from that marketing is $1010 you have actually just lost $10 by not doing it.

Most times margin is not that slim. We generally bring in around 10 times what we spend in any given week. That means for every $1000 we spend on marketing we bring in $10,000. If we decided that we were only going to spend half of what we were normally spending we would automatically save half of our budget. That is great but we would likely lose up to half of our weekly sales income. In trying to save half our budget we actually lost 9 times that amount.

It all comes back to your Return On Investment. That’s ROI I am always talking about. If you only make what you spend on your marketing it is not doing its job. The money that you spend on your marketing is your investment. The money you bring in on sales is Return On that Investment. That is why your ROI is most important statistic to consider when trying to divide up your marketing budget. Putting more money into a marketing strategy that has a higher ROI doesn’t cost you more money, it makes you more money. Saving money by lowering your marketing budget doesn’t sound so enticing when you think about it that way. Unfortunately many businesses cut their marketing budget first when trying to stay afloat during slow periods. They are actually hastening their downfall.

You have heard it time and time again, "It takes money to make money." It is as true today as it ever has been. You have a good product or service, you run your business well, only thing that you need is good marketing and that will eventually pay for itself.

Perhaps by now you are convinced that you need to spend some money on promoting your business.

Maybe you are still stopped by big question, "How?" What do you really need to know, and how can you actually make it work?

Let’s start with "Basic Principles" of promotion.

What is Promotion?

The direct mail mailing list is a key factor in a successful direct mail marketing campaign and a major point to consider in small business marketing strategies where marketing ROI (Return On Investment) is a key concern.

What really makes your direct mail marketing and advertising campaign successful?

The biggest single factor in success of your direct mail marketing strategy is who you send your mailings to.

A. You need a list.

This can be:

1) a list of existing customers or prospects who have inquired as a result of any of your marketing efforts or

2) a list which you purchase or in some cases obtain for free.

B. The mailing list must contain names of people who are likely to be interested in benefits of your products or services.

Don’t try and sell beer to Temperance Society or real estate to people who cannot afford it. You have to target your direct mail marketing efforts.

What kinds of lists are available?

C. The three basic kinds of lists that you can use are (you can use all three):

1. Your own list of prospects and customers. This is a list that you collected with your own personal marketing efforts. This is known as a house list. These people are most likely to respond to your offers, because they have responded in past.

2. A response list is a list of people that have actually done something. They have either purchased something from people who put together list or inquired in response to some offer or asked to be on list. They have some level of interest in topic or purpose of list.