by Ruth P. Stevens
Direct mail is one of the most productive marketing communications vehicles in the world. It allows infinite variety of formats and messages; you can find mailing lists in almost any consumer or business category; and it’s a personal, powerful medium that is ideal for persuasive selling.
Compared with other media channels, like print advertising, inserts and Internet ads, direct mail is relatively expensive on a cost per touch basis. But, if it’s managed well, direct mail can provide the lowest cost per response and the highest ROI.
In fact, direct mail is particularly useful for small and medium businesses that are looking to extend their marketing dollars by making a very persuasive case to exactly the right prospective customer with minimum waste and maximum impact.
This white paper is intended to help you get the most value from direct mail to meet your marketing objectives.
The power of direct mail
Dir ...
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Testing & Analyzing Results
The key to success in cross-media marketing, or any marketing approach strategy, lies in testing all of the variables. Empirical proof is the only way you can separate well meaning opinion and belief from facts.
Testing can reveal very large differences in results caused by the media you choose, the appeal you convey in your messages, as well as other factors. As a result, it is not unusual to double or triple the effectiveness of your marketing campaign through testing. And while trends come and go and the pulse of the public is ever changing, there is one rule that never changes: test everything on a small scale before you spend money on a large scale.
The most important variables to test are:
1. The mailing list used to reach your market.
Start by testing to find out which mailing list produces the greatest response. Use at least two different lists so you can establish a baseline and compare how much actual business ...
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The Cross-Media Campaign – Part 1: Define Target and Attract Visitors
The best place to start for a cross-media campaign is with your existing customers. Here’s why:
• Maintaining and enhancing relationships with your current customers is vastly more profitable than acquiring new customers.
• The process of categorizing your existing customers based on their specific interests, needs or wants will give you insights and ideas on how best to reach and attract new customers with similar defining characteristics.
Define and Identify Your Target Markets
As you begin to identify the defining characteristics of each of your target market segments, you will gain valuable insight needed to identify new sources of people (or businesses) with similar needs, wants and interests.
What demographics describe your markets?
What interests do they have in common?
What magazines do they read?
Where do they live?
What political, religious or ...
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Cross-Media Marketing:
How New Media Choices are Revolutionizing Marketing for Small Businesses
Today’s small business owners and managers have a universal challenge when it comes to marketing their business: With all of the new media choices available, how do I know which ones will effectively attract, maintain and enhance customer relationships? Most of us have only about 1,000 waking minutes each day. Throughout those 1,000 minutes, we are bombarded with more than 3,000 commercial messages vying for our attention. We simply don’t have the time or the mental space to process all that noise and still carry on with our daily lives. Our only option is to ignore it.
A few years ago many of us thought the answer might be the Internet. Build a better website and they will come, we believed. Search engine optimization, pay per click advertising, social networks … they all looked like the silver bullet for successfully marketing a small ...
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It’s true: companies and nonprofit organizations of all sizes will carry some of the past few years’ “baggage” for some time to come. But, a new year can infuse a sense of optimism and open us up mentally to fresh ideas and new approaches for tackling our business challenges.
How long has it been since you took a look at the strategies you’re employing to reach new customers? Or, gain additional revenue from your current ones? There’s no better time than now for you to take a closer look at which marketing communications channels have underperformed for you in the past. And, to consider a new mix that offers greater simplicity, less oversight and measurable results.
At Allegra Print, we think it’s important to support our local economy by investing in the health and well-being of the area’s businesses. After all, preserving the local character and prosperity of our community makes this a better place for all of us to do business. When you’r ...
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Many mail pieces/packages would get better results by moving the offer to the very start of the copy. That’s because all readers look for a hook as they quickly scan any advertising material … and drift away instantly if they don’t see value immediately.
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Welcome to Allegra’s Marketing Blog.
This is an open forum for small business marketers to share new ideas, valuable tips and proven strategies that make our companies’ communications the most relevant … and powerful. We’ll be watching the trends – what works and what doesn’t – and reporting the results to you.
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Based on new data reported in the New York Times this week, the poor in the world have more ready access to a cell phone than a clean toilet.
This is to test out images and a you tube clip.
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