Now that you have begun your email marketing campaign, you should take a look at the importance of building your email list. It’s definitely ok to start with a smaller list, but you must…Continue Reading

I got an incredible email from one of my veteran staff here at PostcardMania that inspired me to create a FREE “How to Have the Best Mailing Ever” Checklist and I had to put this in my newsletter…

Lisa Switzer, mailing schedule manager, wrote “Hindsight is 20/20! We get a lot of hindsight here in Mailing Services. After a couple of mailings some of our customers are ‘coulda-shoulda-woulda.’ What I am seeing here is the value of a well-done design coupled with the right list isn’t always achieved. Sometimes our customers get so busy wanting a product ASAP that they do not take the time to ask themselves some key questions like, who am I actually mailing to?”

I train my marketing consultants to really tell our customers our ideal scene for them in terms of offer, design and mailing list based on industry and our experience. Of course, we can’t make our clients do what we tell them to (sometimes you guys just want to do what you want to do)…but we can make the best recommendation possible.

I want you to slow down, take a second look, and really decide what you want to achieve with your mailing. Yes, ultimately it’s up to you, but I really want to get you the best response possible — so I created the FREE “How to Have the Best Mailing Ever” Checklist. Call 1-866-829-2082 now and our marketing consultants will email it to you right away.

Best,
Joy

Joy,

I used you a few years ago and did not get even one call. I usually purchase lists, have a mailing go out, and then can call them even if they do not respond.

What makes you so good now?  I am not confident in passive advertising. Do you have any customers in the Reverse Mortgage business that have been successful and that I can talk to? With my lead supplier, I get calls all the time from their prospective brokers, asking me if their program has worked for me, and it does. What can you do for me that they don’t.

I market only in the northern New Jersey area as I personally work with my propects, and see them at least three times. I go to all my closings and get referrals that way.

Dominic Messina
Jacob Dean Mortgage Inc.

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Dear Dominic, 

 I am sorry to hear that you had no response with your past mailing. But was it with us? There is nothing in our records that indicates you have done a mailing with us unless it was under a different company name?

You know, the key to direct mailing is repetitive mailings, not just one. Also the postcard has to have a good offer that is appealing to your target market. In order to know what a good offer is you may have to try out a few. What you think may be good may not be the right offer. Also what lists do you purchase? Your list is the most important part of your mailing. It helps you match your product with your customer. If you’re selling bait you need to reach fishermen, right?

In order to figure this all out and get the right marketing campaign worked out for you I would like you to speak to Rob Bradshaw, he is your Marketing Consultant and our VP Sales. He knows all about it and can go over this with you more in detail. You will hear from him soon.

Also we do have a client that is in Reverse Mortgages. I’m having his consultant contact him as we need his approval before I give out his information as a reference. As soon as we hear back from him I’ll give you the information but I wanted to get back to you in the meantime. 

Sincerely,
Joy

Clutter can torpedo your message. Trying to fit too much information on your card will get it to the bottom of the trash can in a hurry! See what I mean here…

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Where you place copy or graphics (your layout) on your postcard could be vital in getting the response you want! See what I have to say.
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Hi Joy,

I wanted to ask if you could please have a look at our website (mcjbuilders.com) and see if you can help improve…….getting hits, however, no calls.  I am including my ID and password to google analytics for your review.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Martin Castorena

MCJ Builders Inc.

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Dear Martin,

You have a beautiful site and I can see you put a lot into it. I can tell you right off the bat that I know your SEO is not good – SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and this is how the search engines find you and put you at the top of Google when someone types in ‘custom construction McAllen TX’.

Your site is a beautiful brochure type site but it’s not designed from the viewpoint of being a lead generator for you. It is even difficult to find out exactly how to contact you. For a quick fix you should probably go ahead and get your phone number and your email put boldly onto your homepage and every other page so that folks don’t have to work so hard to contact you. I would strongly suggest that you have a conversation with Angel Hollingsworth. She is one of my top consultants here and your consult with her is completely free. Call her at 800-628-1804 ext  222. She can tell you more instant fixes you can do as well. 

Thanks so much for writing to me!

Joy

Retail furniture, how many postcards per new customer. Do you know that answer?

Ross Elwell

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Dear Ross,

Thanks for your e-mail!

Well, as I’m sure we can all imagine, there are a lot of factors in determining the success of a campaign… one of the largest being the offer on the card. Of the case studies that we reviewed with specific numbers it appeared that they were getting around 20-25 new customers for every 5000 cards they mailed out. I attached two of these campaigns to this email.

But in order to determine the real results of a mailing campaign you should look at your return on investment and figure out what the value of a lifetime customer is that you’ll get through such campaigns.

What do you currently do to promote your store?

Sincerely,
Joy Gendusa

When scheduling your promotions,it’s like a game of chess. You should always be thinking at least 3 moves ahead.  

In this case each “move” should be…Continue Reading

If you’ve been reading my newsletter, you may have noticed I’ve been hammering the fact that you need a marketing plan and that you should not let the economy determine whether or not your company grows.

I recently had a subscriber tell me that by continuously bringing up the economy, I was in fact hammering in the external noise and making it more solidly true! I see the point he was trying to make, but I whole-heartedly disagree! I am not suggesting that you simply put your fingers in your ears and yell “La! La! La!” at the top of your lungs, the whole time pretending there is nothing wrong. What I am suggesting is that you not let the external force of the economy be your excuse to fail!

So, guess what? You are 100% responsible for the future of your business. Yikes! If you really consider what that means, it really puts YOU in the hot seat.

Don’t spend your valuable time complaining about where you want your business to be! DO something about it.

Here’s a few ways to start…

1. Get Perspective: Take a few days and get out of your office so that you can take an objective view of your business and industry.
2. Research: See what is occurring in your industry in terms of your competitors.
3. Set Goals: Where do your numbers need to be? Break down your income needs. Not just what you need yearly or quarterly, but what you need to bring in on average on a weekly basis in order to make your targets.
4. Figure out how to get there: Once your goals are set, determine what you need to do in terms of marketing to reach them. If, for your business, 1000 postcards gets you 5 new customers and your monthly goal is 50 new customers, figure out how you can get yourself up to mailing 10,000 postcards a month.
5. Implement: Find those new and old ideas and figure out which ones need to be implemented to solidify your sales.
6. Get Advice: Why reinvent the wheel? Learn from others who have already gone through the trial and error. Here are some Suggested Resources.

Need help coming up with an effective marketing plan that really makes your company stands out? Call us today at 1-866-899-0322, tell us about your business and we’ll show you fresh ideas that will get your business noticed.

Best,
Joy

Joy:

Thank you for your response.

We marketed to both existing customers (700) and what we felt were good prospects (2,300).  The way we obtained our prospect mailing list was online research through the tax assessor’s office.  We targeted areas where we already work and areas that contain good prospects.  We figure that good prospects around here are people in homes older than 10 years and with a value over $250,000.00 in upscale neighborhoods.  Many of the homes that we prospected are more than 20 years old and worth over $350,000.00.  We also know the square footage of these homes and other details like the last time they added on and whether or not they have a pool which might be helpful in future mailings.

I went the self created mailing list route because I thought that would give me more control over the mailing and it would be something I would only have to spend money on once while we collect the data.  If we can get a copy of the mailing list that we buy, we could use that mailing list over and over again and there might be some value, but I figured that the mailing list is a proprietary thing and therefore, not available for viewing.

The mailing went out to many different zip codes in the Metro Indianapolis area.  There was not concentration on a specific zip code.

The plan was to send out two (2) rounds of the same card to the same people one month apart and then create a new postcard with a similar look and feel but a different offer and then send two (2) rounds of that card.  Again, the thought was that by doing this twice, we would be building some brand awareness while picking up customers.  After reviewing the samples that you sent, I may be spending too much time and effort on the creation of a personalized card.  Maybe I should use one of the cards that you attached and not worry so much about the branding and rely more on the compelling offer. 

Indianapolis has many heating and cooling contractors so many of these homeowners may already have “their guy” so this is likely part of the battle.

Another factor that may have influenced response rate was the fact that we are in spring break season and have been for the last month.  As people have been out of town, it has been quiet.  I.E.  Phones not ringing as much.

My concern at this point is changing the look of the card so much that we confuse the customer or fail to capitalize on the branding that has already occurred.  Having never done this type of marketing before, it appears to me that my offer is just not very compelling and that is the primary reason for the 0% response.

Let me know your thoughts.  I do have 6,000 postcards left to print so let me know if we should stay with the current format and change the offer or go with one of your canned cards and change things entirely. 

Sean Smith

Efficient Systems, Inc.

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Hi Sean,

 Sorry about the delay, I’ve been out of town and now getting ready to leave again but I wanted to get to your email before I left.

 I think the card is pretty good… great offers – perfect time of year. I went to your website and it’s not bad.. there can be improvements but it wouldn’t deter someone from trying  you  out. Can you check to see if web hits went up when the cards were mailed? I’m wondering if the cards hit and if you can notice a spike on your web visits? 

I don’t think you need to scrap the cards, they are good… let’s see if web hits were up. I also suggest the next card should have a landing page or a way to capture identities added to your home page. Aubrey can explain to you a bit more about what the landing pages are and how they can work to your advantage.

As for the list, I can’t speak to the efficacy of the list… I mean it sounds correct but it’s just zip codes based on the area has that these homes?

I’ve rarely seen zero results from a decent card with a decent list and a decent website so I’m a bit confused on it. Next thing you can do is get a special phone number to track response… call them and see who answers… see if  it’s a  receptionist… see how she sounds.. see if its a machine… this is all I can think of. I will also pass  this  to Nicholas Lorden in the Quality Control Dept to try to shed some light on this matter as well . 

Joy