Offline Marketers: What Would You Do?

2.) A lot of people lose the deal by NOT following up. I'm a big fan of Direct Mail with a follow up... especially because you said "targeted" as well.

Missing out on a TON of sales if you just wait for a call back.

2 without question.

Number 2 for sure. You don't ever want to nag a prospect, but it is good let them know "hey, I'm right here if you need me"

#2

A few reasons

You have a great way to start the conversation when you get the business owner on the phone

when we send out a letter and then follow up with a call the coversation usually starts like this

You: "Hi, my names Shane from X marketing. the reason I am calling is to see if you received the letter we sent out to you the other day?"

Them: "No, what was it about?" (if they haven't received it then 90% of the time they ask this question.)

You: "Well what it was about is..." then you tell them about your offer.

You then follow up with questions like, "What are you doing for your marketing right now?" "Are you getting the results that you hoped you would get from the internet?"

If they say yes they have recieved it, then you use that to move forward also.

Finally, it is a great way to get past the gatekeeper.

When they ask you, "what is this call about?" you just tell them, "Well, I just need to talk to Jack about the letter I sent him the other day."

Oh yeah, it's a good idea to just use the business owners first name when talking to the gatekeeper because that implies that you already know them personally and they will usually put you straight through.


so those are two reasons I would choose number 2

it allows you to have a great way to start your conversation off with the business owner once he gets onto the phone

and it allows you a great way to get past the gatekeeper

Definitely number two. That way, the follow up calls wouldn't be "cold"... instead they would actually be a warm calls which can, in some cases, increase conversions.

Personally, I don't even make follow up calls... The prospects that respond to my Direct Mail pieces are enough for me. My margins are at a suitable level to sustain high enough profits off of 2-3 new clients per week.

I only wish to attract highly qualified Leads who both WANT and NEED my solutions. This makes closing an absolute breeze and eliminates any "hard-selling" on my part.

Enzo

Doesn't it depend on YOUR business model?

What I mean is ... EVERY marketing activity has a COST associated with it.

Especially when you're direct mailing! It's very expensive today.

Say the 1,000 letters cost $600 to mail out.

What is your 'break-even' point?

Also, how much is a potential customer worth?

Knowing THAT helps formulate your direct mail game plan. Or for that matter IF it's even feasible.

I can't speak so much to the 'cold calling' aspect of your question ... however, there are plenty of experts here that can.

P.S. Said another way - just had 2 local clients with direct mail campaigns. BOTH got a 1/2 percent response to a mailing. One client was quite pleased while the other was quite disappointed. Why? One was pitching something that had a LOW average sale versus a HIGH average sale.

P.P.S. And yes, Jason's point below ... is a great one too. i.e. calls cost your time, but not much else. You could get on the horn FIRST ... and LISTEN ... to what your potential customers are saying in response to whatever you are pitching ... THEN craft the direct mail piece. That's a neat thing to do too!

Lee's point is a good one. What's your payback on the marketing?

Calls cost you your time, but not much else. You qualify prospects just as quickly.

I used to have a restaurant business and direct mail was working the best for me. First of all, people keep mail longer, especially if you have a cute design that will touch up your targeted market feelings... Always include you web address, email and phone.
Second, it's closer to the " warm marketing"... yes it's will cost you more money, but you will have a chance to get better ROI. I would definitely use direct mail.

I would highly recommend you to read Dan Kennedy on this subject, in my opinion, he is the Master of direct mail communication.

#2 and I'll give you a concrete real world case with numbers....

Several years ago I was in the mortgage business. I developed a system
for finding people with adjustable rate mortgages that were due to adjust
within the next 90 days after sending the mail piece.

I wasn't the only mortgage broker who knew how to identify these people
so you can imagine that they received multiple mail offers weekly.

With a marketing method that typically produces single digit response rates
I got between 35% and 40%. The mail piece was unlike anything anyone else
was sending... it was a simple post card that looked, at first glance, like it
may have come from their mortgage company. It contained specific details
of their mortgage and informed them that if they failed to act their payment would
increase by "X" amount (the number was accurate based on their mortgage).

The point is I got slightly less than 20% response from people who called me
before I had the chance to call them. I got the other 15% to 20% by making
a quick follow up call to verify that they received the mailer and to ask them
if they were ready to do something now.

I sent these cards out in batches of 50 and got 15 - 20 applications from each
batch. That's more bona fide applications than people sending 500 - 1000 typical
mailers with no follow up were getting.

Do #2... no question about it.

2 without a doubt. The follow up is where you make the sale 90% of the time

I'm just gonna chime in for #2, for most of the same reasons mentioned already.

It can depend on what you're selling. That being said, for my business I would call the list of prospects first. It takes a bit for me to get into the flow of calling, but once I do, I enjoy it -- it's sales.

I don't feel the need to always have to warm up a prospect, I feel I can do that, many times, by talking to them.