Sending a "specials flyer" via email to new clients. Wha about adding a video too?

by apples
10 replies
Sending a "specials flyer" via email to new clients. Wha about adding a video too?

Here is my story. I sell door to door to business. Like yesterday I drove about one and a half hours one way and all I did was hand out a few price lists and specials to a half dozen potential customers. Then I had to drive 1.5hrs back home again, not to mention fuel costs and wankers on the road, lol.

So I'm thinking why don't I just fax or email that same special price list from the office? I mean I can hit a lot more targets than just half a dozen.

What about adding a short video to the email? Where would I host the email video? I would only want to send them a link to the video not the actual video file.

Is it a good ideas to also send a video?

Peter
#adding #clients #email #sending #specials flyer #video #wha
  • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
    That's good you didn't want to send the video itself

    You can host it anywhere: on your site's server (host), on youtube, on viddler, on vimeo.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mohammad Afaq
    I think youtube will work just fine for you

    EDIT: And if you have a webhost then you might wanna look into Amazon S3 storage solutions (or whatever) for video hosting. They're cheap and professional
    Signature

    “The first draft of anything is shit.” ~Ernest Hemingway

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  • Profile picture of the author Steve Peters Benn
    Are these really new clients or are they prospects?

    You should be calling new clients if you want a decent response.

    If you are talking about prospects - Email? Are you serious? Have you even thought that through? The response rate will be far lower.

    Give fax a go - but you need to be aware of local legislation. I've found the conversion rates for fax are very high.
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    • Profile picture of the author apples
      Fax... Well the thought on that was that it is slow, and just like emails the get throw into the bin.

      But that is why the flyer/price list with a video about me, what I sell etc should in theory give a face for them to feel connected to. By that I mean, you can put a face to the offer and I'm sure there is some psychology there that would make this approach have a better strike rate.

      I would say something like hi my name is Joe Smith..blah blah blah, here are some specials on our product. etc etc.

      The market I'm in is well, similar to that of selling ink cartridges. Really it is either convenience, so you buy from the shop when you are in town. Or you sell it like a commodity on the share market. Best price wins.

      But by personalizing that message and having a video, there mus be some kind of emotional attachment that would not be there with just a plaine email, letter in the mail or a fax.

      I mean isn't this jsut what all the big boys do online. "Hey this is our product, see my video, relate to me , remember my face and voice, and remember me".

      I did read a uni study stating that it takes like 6 or 7 visits to a prospect over say 18 months. The constant visits should implant a picture and a relationship in the customer head. This apparently can be achieved in like 18 months with a regular visit ever 3months.

      If you get someone to remember you , that is the first step of the battle. Then I think you just have to put the right offer in front of them....


      These would be prospects.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve Peters Benn
    Hey Apples if these are prospects you will get poor conversion rates.


    I'm sure there is some psychology there that would make this approach have a better strike rate.
    How do you work that out? The vast majority will never even see your videos -everyone who gets the fax will at least scan it. Don't misunderstand me, I am no FAX fan at all, but I get the feeling you are seeing all of these video launches and thinking this could work well for you?

    It won't - people like Kern and Reese already have a relationship of sorts and celebrity - plus a whole army ready to email. I'm just guessing why you are going for this multipart video approach?

    Where are you getting your list from? What system will you use to email them? Why are you emailling rather than writing or calling (why not do all three with each prospect?

    Are your prospects cold or are they aware of you?
    If they are aware of you, why are they not buying already?
    Why will your email be opened (if they don't know you)?


    Fax is nothing like email. I can see why you might think that, but the reality is very very different.


    Honestly, trying to get offline prospects by email is the hardest way. If your goal it to get people in the easiest way [for you] possible, regardless of conversion rate then go for it.


    You say:

    But by personalizing that message and having a video, there mus be some kind of emotional attachment that would not be there with just a plaine email, letter in the mail or a fax.
    - think about this - you are using email to get them to watch the video? Why would they - as you just said - no emotional attachment. They aren't even going to open your email.

    You've described your market as convenience / lowest price based.

    You are in a commodity market and you are combining email and video to convert them?

    Where else have you see video used to market commodity items via email? Disregarding retailers - where have you seen this system, thought 'that works' - I will give it a go?

    Look - if you had an existing customer list I would say this could work better, but you are doing an awful lot of unnecessary stuff that could be dropped for the same results. With a cold list, this will most likely not work well at all.

    All it takes is one competitor with marginal phone and or copywriting skill to call, write or fax your market and you will be blown out of the water.

    I've been there and done it. Same with the fax thing - I'm not talking from a theoretical point of view. You have to be sure that your prospects have fax machines, but the open rates are far ahead of email.

    You click the delete button to get rid of an email - you don't even open it.

    A fax - you at least scan before throwing away - it's similar to direct mail.

    a lot of your emails will be flagged as spam.

    Of those that get through - the vast majority will never open your email (lets be generous and say 20% do)

    So - 1000 emails sent, say about 800 get through. 160 people open your emails (remember, with no prior relationship - open rates are low). Let's be generous and say that 100 click on the link, 60 watch the video and 40 take further action.

    Of those 40, lets say you get a conversion rate of 75% (these are very generous figures).

    30 people sign up.

    SPAM reports will be through the roof from the type of audience it sounds like you have.

    I give it six months before your IP is blacklisted, unless you are using an autoresponder - but if these are cold leads - how are you going to get them onto an autoresponder like Aweber?



    The vast majority of them may not click on your link.

    Of those that click on your link, many will not watch the video all the way through.

    As for personalising email - this could lower conversion rates.

    It seems like you are trying to convince yourself that you have found a very easy way to get prospects without having to go out press flesh or get on the phone.

    It will work, but the conversion rate will be low. If you are happy to have a churn and burn approach to leads that is cool, but be aware that is what you are doing.

    Basically - email 33 people, and you might get one signed up as a client - unless you are incredibly good at targeting and warming up.

    I guess the question is - how are you getting the emails - that can make a huge difference.

    I'm guessing you are uk based.

    Assuming you were contacting digital printers in your area - you would burned through and have ruined the list and possibly your autoresponder (with SPAM) complaints in less than a year, for very few clients.

    I appreciate what you are saying about repeat contacts - but in the time it takes you to get recognition, most of your recipients will have flagged you as spam, and many of the interested parties will have already been snapped up by someone else.

    It sounds like you are going for a 'brand building', recognition approach. This doesn't work without a massive budget.

    Please understand, I am writing all of this to help you.

    I read a LOT of studies, and then test them. I've been running businesses for over 10 years, and I've had a lot of failures and a lot of success.

    I'm not talking about theoretical or reinventing the wheel, I'm telling you from years of experience what works and what doesn't - it is very unlikely that your business is that different.

    Others will have different experiences, but the last thing you want to do is go trying to reinvent the wheel.

    Now - if you have an opted in list of people to contact that is great - and things could be different, but email will always have a low conversion rate - it is the laziest and least effective way to turn prospects into clients for a lot of situations.

    You would be better sending one four line email to each client saying exactly what you have to offer, why they should call you now, and why they won't be able to sign up tomorrow.

    That will probably wipe the floor with any multi video series...
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    • Profile picture of the author apples
      Wow thanks for you thoughts, I really appreciate them.

      So I sell welding supplies, and I'm going to target customers with welding wire. Now at the moment what I do is hop in the truck and drive and go door to door. Yes I have a very good conversion rate. But,, the issue is that for me to hit another town its a long drive there, go door knocking just to introduce myself and then give them some prices.

      They always ask what is your price, end of question. I am in a position where I have the product a a good price in which I can hopefully "dominate my market". I have pretty much done this in at least one town already.

      So I have in the past sent out faxes and mail outs, and yes I did get sales and hits etc.

      I can totally see your point with the emails not getting opened. So doing both emails and fax is a good option really.

      I have a suspicion that a lot of smaller businesses, ie owner operator ones the boss will open the mail themselves. Now the average age group of this lot is the middle age bloke. Who from my experience are not that computer savy. But again you never know.

      In this market I would expect that there are not 20 emails coming in each day like there is with my inbox, .

      But yes with a fax at least if it is a good headline they may well see it and go, oh. Okay.

      In regards to the video, I can introduce myself, and then when I latter on drive to that area I can call in and they will be able to put my name to a face.

      Faxing is much easier, less stuffing around too. So I guess the only real way is to go from you experience and advice, which I appreciate. Or do the split testing A/B thing.

      I know that when I talk to the smaller shops my strike rate is very good, as It is jsut a friend type relationship. The bigger companys, you have to get past the gate keeper etc blah blah blah.

      I imagine for now my targets are smaller owner operator setups. Which I can handle pretty good.

      And like, If you are paying say $100 for a product and I can offer you equivalent product at 20-50% cheaper, and the product works and is fine, why wouldn't you use it.

      Of course it the prospect has a long term relationship with their supplier things are much more difficult. But it is possible.

      Many times it is not what you know, but who you know..

      Peter

      Peter
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve Peters Benn
    Hi Peter,

    Thanks for the extra detail. Your market reminds me of the time I tried to get a load of litho printers on board. Similar age, probably similar IT expertise. Email failed, direct marketing failed - workshops worked. However, I can't see welders going for that.

    Are these guys gonna have broadband and a computer that can view flash video?

    Why would they normally check their computer - what mindset would they be in? Business, personal, fun?

    I'd say give it a go , see how it goes- maybe the low inbox thing will work - but you are betting on them checking their email often enough to see your emails but conversly their email accounts being dead. This was my idea with Lithographics - didn't work.

    How will you get the email addresses?

    My gut says try and sell more to those you have on board, get some testimonials and then find something to give to all of these people as a lead market.

    I'd recommend Outrageous Advertising by Bill Glazer as it has a lot of non internet methods which may work well for you.
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  • Profile picture of the author BH_Winchester
    The thing is Peter it is good to know your target audience. I've worked in some offline/online cross over marketing before and I found that many time individuals that you are selling trade supplies too are not the most tech savy the email/online video may not be as big a hit to them. However you could still pull it off - lets break this down.

    Send each prospective client a well laid-out pamphlet this should include details about your business and your email address; request that they email you if they want to be added to your mailing list to ind out more.

    Any individual that emails you, you should send out a well crafted personal seeming email outlining what you can do for them and why they should pick your company over other suppliers - in this email include a link to your video and in that video make your normal sales pitch to them but over the net. Include your phone number in the email and ask them to follow up with any questions or requests. You should start to see calls coming in now from clients you already have "on the hook". These are the clients that you should take the time to try and visit personally as they show good signs of buying from you at this stage and personalizing the customer experience is one of the best things any sales individual can do.

    Now the other advantage to this method is of course that those who you sent the email out to you but did not call you still have contact information for - you can reach out to these individuals either by calling them or emailing them and find out why they didn't go for your company/service, find out from them what you can do to improve your service, or re-craft your pitch so that it is better next time.

    Continue this method to expand in the towns near you - I would also suggest a skype number and skype credit to keep your call costs low because if you are using a mobile all the time you could raise unwanted costs from this method.

    I think you will find if you continue to expand like this - taking the time to only visit those clients which WILL convert; but still being able to convert other clients via email, video or phone, then you will expand your customer base and strengthen your conversion rate almost 10 fold. If you need any further advice please feel free to PM me or ask questions here and I will try and assist you

    Cheers,
    Winchester
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve Peters Benn
    This sounds good, but could be a lot more effective.

    Send each prospective client a well laid-out pamphlet this should include details about your business and your email address; request that they email you if they want to be added to your mailing list to ind out more.
    No one cares about your(the senders) business - they care about whats in it for them. Send each prospect something that can bring them results. Tie that to your special offers. Put them in the pamphlet.

    Otherwise, the chance of this market reading the pamphlet, booting up the puter, going to the email application and typing in your address is low.

    One line saying something like 'the soldering wire that generations of welders have relied on' and a phone number is all that is really needed. It's more about your offers and call to action than any cr-p about your business.

    if you had an envelope printed with a message on the envelope that read:

    'the top three things that steal clients from welders.. and how you can turn it around'

    I think you would get a very high open rate.

    You would then want some very good content inside (I don't know your market well enough)

    You could ask for email addresses in the letter.

    Attach your specials to the back of the guide.

    I think that might work well - but you would have to test.
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    • Profile picture of the author BH_Winchester
      Originally Posted by Steve Peters Benn View Post

      This sounds good, but could be a lot more effective.



      No one cares about your(the senders) business - they care about whats in it for them. Send each prospect something that can bring them results. Tie that to your special offers. Put them in the pamphlet.

      Otherwise, the chance of this market reading the pamphlet, booting up the puter, going to the email application and typing in your address is low.

      One line saying something like 'the soldering wire that generations of welders have relied on' and a phone number is all that is really needed. It's more about your offers and call to action than any cr-p about your business.

      if you had an envelope printed with a message on the envelope that read:

      'the top three things that steal clients from welders.. and how you can turn it around'

      I think you would get a very high open rate.

      You would then want some very good content inside (I don't know your market well enough)

      You could ask for email addresses in the letter.

      Attach your specials to the back of the guide.

      I think that might work well - but you would have to test.
      Very true, when I said details of your business I was alluding to what you offer your client - not your history or something like that.

      I do agree that the addition of a positive catch line could increase opening and conversions. Of course asking for emails is the first step - and I wasn't saying the only clients you chase are the ones you get to the phone stage those are the ones you want to focus on the most though the more highly interested ones.

      I think the important thing is getting contact info and moving them down the line to a face to face or phone call to personalize the customer experience for them without having to drive to each one. I like your idea a lot though - and may just use it myself in future! We'd make quite the offline marketing tag team haha
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