Small Business Direct Mail Marketing Made Simple

Small businesses are always looking for more economical ways to effectively advertise themselves. For many, the solution is direct mail. Direct mail marketing provides small businesses with a means to reach a large and targeted audience while keeping costs to a minimum. You, too can take advantage of direct mail marketing to promote yourself and your business.

First, you've got to examine your current marketing funnel to see if it makes sense for you to engage in direct mail marketing. If you haven't got some sort of high ticket item or continuity program (recurring billing) in place, then you might want to reconsider.

No doubt you've seen free gift cards, gas cards, coupons, and even MP3 players being offered by some companies in return for taking some sort of action. This action could be mailing in a completed form with your name and email address, completing an online survey, or even attending a live event. People who offer these free goodies are spending a lot of money on them, but they can afford to because they are confident that their marketing funnel will work its magic and produce sales.

Next up is the piece of mail itself. Take time to think about what might be going through a person's mind when they get your letter or postcard. Does it look like a piece of junk mail? Does it look like every other piece of mail that they usually get? Or does it stand out somehow? Get creative with the "standing out" part: you could attach a dollar (or a coin of lesser value if you want) to every postcard you send out, or you could have a small picture of yourself and your family to show that you're a real person, or you could make your piece of mail bigger by stuffing more useful things and goodies in there. Again, get creative to make your piece of mail stand out, but don't go overboard, otherwise it'll get ignored or thrown out right away.

Now you should think about why people should take you up on your offer, whether it is a visit to your website, signing up for a free trial for something, filling in a form, or whatever. Even if you know you have a good offer, you should provide additional incentives for people to act. A couple of ideas would be to offer free gift cards or to enter respondents into a contest of some sort.

Lastly, you should ask yourself what you plan on doing with your leads. As mentioned earlier, a solid marketing funnel is required for direct mail marketing to work. If you just have a single product that you want to sell with no plans to sell more products to those customers, then you're leaving a ton of money on the table. Make sure to collect useful information such as their email addresses, average income, interests, and so on - basically anything that is relevant to your business plan. Once you have all this information, you'll have a solid list of action takers who you can market to again and again in the future.

Dr. Bob Clarke coaches and mentors new and experienced entrepreneurs in making money online with integrity, honesty, and professionalism. He is a marketing and branding expert who teaches his team the secrets to making money online. Visit http://NetworkMarketingMadeSimple.info to see the entire "Network Marketing Made Simple" series and more of Dr. Clarke's extensive training.