Paper Direct Mail Is Not DeadWritten by Jim Logan
I recently witnessed a conversation about “death” of paper direct mail due to “life” of web presence and blogs. I’m not exactly sure why, but someone seems to declare “death” of a marketing technique every few months…I guess that’s how some consultants stay employed – announce “death” of something and create “life” of something new. Anyway, I disagree with notion paper direct mail is dead and as such thought I’d share how we integrate paper direct mail into our marketing, sales, and lead nurturing systems.We do a fair amount of direct mail – postcards, sales letters, brochures, etc. – to generate sales leads and provoke interest in our and our customer’s services. We integrate paper direct mail with our web presence to provoke ongoing interest using unique landing pages specific to each direct mail piece and routinely use sales letters to generate leads. Provoking Ongoing Interest To warm suspects for sales opportunities what we do is create a direct paper mail piece – postcard, letter, brochure, etc. – and send it to a list of targeted employees at specific companies we’ve identified as part of a customer profile. We provide a unique URL to continue dialogue from a particular subject within a paper direct mail piece – in essence we ask a question in paper direct mail piece and answer question on a landing page. The landing page continues flow of information from printed source. We are careful to keep font, color, graphics, etc. same on landing page – this bridges paper direct mail to our web presence. Example: We did a direct mail postcard for a customer not long ago. The piece begged question of how outside counsel spent their time; a graphic included two business people standing by a water cooler. The URL that continued dialogue of managing outside counsel was watercooler.customersdomain.com. We accomplish two things by employing landing pages this way: we track specific interest of our customers and prospects (we track stats for landing pages and correlate it to a mailing schedule), and bridge suspects to “stickiness” of our web presence. Our belief is if you can hold an audience, you can continue to market to them. We’ve found this technique highly effective in bringing prospects to our site.
| | So You're Afraid of the Big, Bad Internet Seller?Written by Laura Thykeson
So, you are afraid of big, bad, scary internet seller.............May I ask "Why?". Most of people that I have talked to about this problem say that they are afraid of being scammed, identity theft, getting thier bank accounts drained, rampant charges on their credit cards, etc. Well, all of you who are so scared of internet seller are also same group that think nothing of giving a waiter or waitress your credit card to carry up to front in that fancy leather folder to charge your meal in that restaurant! Who is to say that person you just gave your card to is honest? Ever thought about that? Hmmm... Kinda makes you stop and think doesn't it? That person who just carried off your card could easily copy down all information they needed to have to use your credit card for as long as they could get by with it. Think of all times you use your card, handing it to people without thinking, but when it comes to internet, you are terrified to purchase a $9.99 item. When you think about it in these terms it doesn't make much sense, does it? Think of it this way-why should you balk at putting your information into appropriate fields on an internet web site to purchase something, when you are handing your card, with no second thoughts, to someone you don't know and will probably never see again? Is is because you can SEE them face to face? Well, does that make them any more honest? No. Does that make your information any more safe? No. Did you know that when that person takes your card, they basically perform same actions with it that an internet seller would do. They transmit your information over either a telephone or computer line, get an authorization, and bring your card back to you. At least with an internet sale, your card never leaves your possession, and you don't run risk of leaving it behind in some shop or restaurant that you can't remember later when you are looking for your card! You probably never thought of it like that, now did you? Kind of makes you stop and think, doesn't it? Don't mistrust dealers on internet just because you can't see them and you are afraid of technology of web. I have been an online seller and buyer for years now, and have NEVER had a problem! Not even once. I have found that most people are honest, and internet marketing is a great way for a stay at home Mom, or a disabled person to make a living and not have to be a burden on welfare system, or live in poverty, or just pay those extra bills that always crop up. We are just like every other business person out there that IS honest. We are just trying to get by. If we cheat or scam someone, we are out of business. If we had enough money in first place, we wouldn't be doing this! We are more dependent on our clients than our clients are on us, so it is in our best interest to be honest, ethical, professional and give best customer service that we possibly can. We won't do ourselves much good by scamming people and getting put out of business, now would we? Plus, it is no easy feat to build an internet website! I personally spend 10-14 hours a day working. Why spend that much time, get situated with a reputable web mall, etc., only to self-destruct? We are liable to same lawsuits, criminal charges, etc. that a "brick and mortar" business is liable to, should one of us decide to rip someone off. Therefore, vast majority of us are not going to spend all that time, just to get thrown in prison for identity theft. Makes a little more sense now, doesn't it.
|