The Great Direct Marketing Conundrum

Many a home business owner has spent sleepless nights thinking of ways to turn his venture into a higher profit-making unit and build it to be his primary source of income. This is never easy for a home business because most start-ups face initial lack of money and cash flows. A small cash strapped business would also find it a little uphill to get outside funding. The best way, anybody will tell you, is to advertise... all big companies do it, and get good returns. Undoubtedly, advertising, even PR, has a great impact on sales, but for a home business owner these may be cost prohibitive in the beginning. The trick is in getting a little creative and using low cost ? high impact strategies. Go through help sites on the Internet and you'd be spoiled for choices.

We suggest putting direct marketing on top of your list. Why? There are several reasons:

- It is more cost effective than mass media strategies like Advertising

- There is lesser "spill ? over" than mass media like advertising and public relations

- You can "measure" the effects of direct marketing

Solving the direct marketing riddle

By definition direct marketing is a sales and promotion technique in which the promotional materials are delivered individually to potential customers via direct mail, telemarketing, door-to-door selling or other direct means. Direct marketing is one of the most effective marketing tools a home business owner can employ to expand his business and make it more profitable. It can help you create visibility for your company and educate the targeted audience about the products and/or services you sell.
www.onlinewbc.gov/docs/starting/glossary.html

Direct marketing is not a complicated, puzzling marketing option that will leave you frustrated and down with a few thousand dollars. If executed with proper planning, focus and some creativity, these tools can do wonders for your home business. Some of the most popular and time-tested direct marketing tools are:

  • Brochures: A brochure is your sales person in paper. It gives your potential client all the information he needs on your company; an opportunity to evaluate your products, services, your expertise and a platform to get in touch with you for more information. A brochure created with serious forethought and meticulous detailing can do all of this and more for you. A few tips:
    • A compelling covering letter is a must to getting the prospect to read the whole brochure
    • A well-designed brochure must keep the target audience in mind, the level of sophistication in style and content and the market you are operating in.
    • A brochure must be aimed at finally getting the prospect to send in a business enquiry. Don't forget to add the contact details; a postage paid business reply envelope attached with the brochure would be a good idea.
      http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol134/brochure.htm

  • Direct mailing: Direct mailing involves sending out sales letters, fliers, reply cards and other promotional literature through snail mail, to a pre-decided mailing list of potential customers. If targeted to a precise audience, it can get you faster responses and does not have to cost much. The most important part of direct mailing is building a robust mailing list with the right names. You could either develop this list yourself through your own records or buy lists from a List Broker. You could also try and take help from the SBDC (Small Business Development Center), a government program sponsored by the SBA that provides expertise to small and home business owners and has access to targeted mailing lists, which it can offer you as an SBDC client. Take a look at www.sba.gov/sbdc http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,317818,00.html

  • Telemarketing: For telemarketing you can use the same list as for your direct mailers. Take care to suit the message to a telephone call; keep it short and conversational. Telemarketing, by far gets you the quickest result. One phone call can get your sales team appointments for demos or a meeting to talk about your company. Another valuable response it can get you is a confirmed negative answer. This will help you fine-tune your list better and not waste any more time or money in trying to contact a person who really doesn't need your services or is plain not interested.

  • Postcards: One of the biggest advantages of using postcards is its "openness", literally. Use compelling and creative copy on postcards. Team it up with visual content, and nine times out of ten, the receiver is more likely to give it a read rather than dump it in the bin immediately. It is an effective and a very affordable way to contact and keep in touch with your existing and potential customers.

  • Email: With the WWW being the life source of home businesses, can you ignore email? It is easily the most affordable and time saving direct marketing tool, that can get your message across to thousands of people and allow them to respond just as easily. Decide on the copy very carefully, so that it stands out above all the junk mail that account holders receive every day. You can buy mailing lists, again from list brokers. Fine-tune your message so as to be able to pack in the most relevant information in a short paragraph. Add visuals, links to your website and contact information. This should include a phone and a fax number a postal address and a contact person's name.

    Before you begin a direct marketing exercise, spend considerable time on evaluating what tools would be the best for your business; effective but not cost-prohibitive; how would you tailor your message for brochures, mailers, emails etc., so as to break away from the clutter and maximize impact. Once you are through with this, spend time on creating the mailing list with the right names. If you are able to bring down the cost of your direct mailing exercise to even 30 cents, but have a mailing list of 20, 000 people, all wrong names?. every cent has gone down the drain! Someone once said, "There is a difference between Efficiency and Effectiveness. Efficiency is doing the right thing, but Effectiveness is doing the thing right!" So work at making an effective direct marketing plan and see your business expand and become financially more robust.

    ==========================================

    Wanna Learn the Secret of Creating Passive Income Online
    From a man who made $3,244,842.32 from the Internet in Only 27
    months? => http://www.the1andonly.biz

    Presented by:
    Perfect Home Based Business Opportunities

    In The News:

    • pen paper and inkwell


    cat break through


    Six Ways To Attract New Customers To Your Restaurant

    Without new business, your restaurant won't be able to grow.... Read More

    Two Steps to Improving Your Marketing Success

    Since the human brain seems to be able to focus... Read More

    Why Your Business Need a Website

    Web Presence gives your business a distince edge over your... Read More

    How To Perfect Your Marketing Message!

    When it comes to your marketing message, the little things... Read More

    Calling All Carbon-Based Lifeforms

    Many businesses want to market to all carbon-based life forms.... Read More

    CD ROM Business Cards - Offline Marketing For Online Promotion

    It's a great concept, - and it has a 'cool... Read More

    Ditch Coupons Before Customers Ditch You

    Everyone wants to feel like they're getting a good deal.... Read More

    Identify The Ideal Target Audience With These 5 Tips

    Narrowing your focus to one primary group of people is... Read More

    10 Effective Ice Breaking Questions

    Whether you go to a Chamber of Commerce event, a... Read More

    Modern Marketing With Postcards

    Postcards may be one of the best kept secrets of... Read More

    Why Pay for Online Press Release Distribution?

    We've all heard that "free advice is worth what you... Read More

    A Great Marketing Model ? Utilizing the Power of OPM

    Staying ahead of the marketing curve seems to be a... Read More

    Guerrilla Marketing in Action

    Guerrilla Marketing is using time, energy and imagination to market... Read More

    Has the Free Report Had Its Day?

    For years now we have been inundated with offers of... Read More

    Whats In It For Me?

    Sometimes, one of the most difficult things to teach beginning... Read More

    Is Your Company A Member Of The Community?

    One particularly hot south Texas day, I was making a... Read More

    Too Much To Do: Four Keys to Effective Delegating

    Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what... Read More

    Creating And Maintaining A Mailing List

    Starting to collect proper information to create a... Read More

    Writing Marketing Copy That Sells

    When your prospects see your marketing materials, your brochure, your... Read More

    Ten Reasons Why Most Yellow Page Ads Fail -And Yours Does Not Have to

    Grant Directory users are ready to buy Yellow Pages have... Read More

    Marketing Lessons From Apples iPod

    Apple Computer just announced that their earnings from the last... Read More

    Niches - The Path to More Profits

    Hey, as business owners we CAN'T be all things for... Read More

    How To Get Business With Your Business Card?

    So, you have a business card? And you have given... Read More

    Laws of Marketing ? The 10 Immutable

    Most marketers believe that anything is achievable if you are... Read More

    Uncover Your Hidden Markets

    Want a simple, low-cost way to boost your sales? Just... Read More

    Three Simple Keys Will Make Your Customers Stick

    Do you spend a lot of time and energy courting... Read More

    The Biggest Problem With Your Marketing Is...?

    What is the biggest problem most marketers have? Who knows.... Read More

    Putting Your Website to Work

    Websites have replaced the brochure as the "must have" marketing... Read More

    Direct Marketing ? Brand Identity Guru Tips

    If your company doesn't have a direct marketing program in... Read More

    What Does Marketing Mean?

    You can have the best little business ever with wonderful... Read More

    Communicating Our Attitude

    The goal of successful marketing is to create long lasting... Read More

    Maximize Your Lead Generation Efforts by Recycling Your Leads

    The basic lead generation process is pretty much the same... Read More

    Marketing For Just Cause

    Cause marketing is a relationship between a for-profit and a... Read More