Growing your business with Direct Marketing
The power of direct marketing or one-to-one communication with your clients or prospective clients cannot be underestimated.
Direct marketing provides positive reinforcement to your clients that you are actively interested in them as customers.
More importantly, direct marketing is a cost effective way to:
• Grow your business by developing your current clients ie. Greater share of wallet
• Acquire new customers
The old adage used in direct marketing ‘your best customer is your existing customer' is just as true today. Satisfied clients are a good source of referrals. It is easier, and often cheaper, to gain greater share of wallet from your existing clients than it is to acquire a new client.
We are going to look at the application of direct marketing as a means of expanding the business you have with your current clients – nurturing your clients – and prospecting for new clients. Whatever your strategy, the following steps will stand you in good stead for a successful direct marketing campaign.
Campaign Strategy
The key to successful direct marketing is getting the right offer, to the right people, at the right time. When you write to your clients about to tell them about a new product or service, you need to ensure that the product is:
• relevant to their needs
• matches their profile
• fits in with their time horizon to purchase
Identifying the right clients when creating your mailing list is critical to the success of the campaign and your bottom line. The more you know about your clients, the more you are able to assist them with appropriate products and services solutions. This includes accurate and up-to-date client records. Good business practice is the consistent collection of client and prospective client data. Ensure your data is updated regularly. Old and inaccurate data is worthless.
How to write effective letters
Most people don't read letters word for word. Therefore your letter needs to grab their attention. Use a headline that intrigues or amazes, but don't go overboard. Once you've got the reader's attention, you need to tell them very early in the letter, why you are writing to them and what's in it for them – the benefit.
Always discuss the benefits NOT the features. Example:
Feature Benefit
Access your bank account via the Internet. Internet access gives you peace of mind knowing that you can monitor your bank account anytime you want wherever you are.
Key Elements
• Keep your letter brief – no more than 1 page
• Get to the point or you'll lose their attention
• The easier a document appears to read, the more likely it will get read.
• Keep the layout clean.
• Indented paragraphs are easier to read
• Use bold and underlining to highlight important words
• Break up a long body of text using sub heads
• Don't tell the whole story in your letter - leave the reader asking questions and wanting more information.
• Tell your clients what your product or service can do, but not how. That's for you to explain when they're sitting in front of you.
• Use real testimonials, charts or figures to back up your statement.
• Don't neglect your outer envelope. If you can put a message on the outside, this will increase the chance of your letter being opened.
The Offer
Unless your offer is tangible ie. Receive a free calculator or cashflow health check, then you need to detail the benefits of the service or product to heighten your client's desire to make an appointment, purchase or request more information.
Call to Action
To overcome inertia, you can imply what they would loose if they did not respond. An example would be that they would miss out on the opportunity to learn how they could double or triple their business growth.
Fulfilment
When considering a direct marketing campaign, you also need to consider the back end ie. The fulfilment of brochure requests or requests for appointments, to ensure you don't disappoint your clients with a delay.
• Make sure your advisers have cleared their diaries and are available for appointments so that the lead doesn't go cold.
• Ensure that you have plenty of product brochures in supply.
• Prepare a covering letter
• Post brochure requests promptly.
Planning Your Lead Flow
If your mailing is relatively large, then staggering the lodgement of the mail will create a manageable flow of responses.
You don't want to be overwhelmed with responses (although you wish) only to find your leads have gone cold because you couldn't fulfil you clients' requests promptly.
Response Rates
Typically, you can expect a 2-4% response rate from existing clients and 1-2% from external list sources. Take these response rates into account when planning your lead flow.
The response level you achieve with your clients will depend on the strength of your relationship with them. The better the relationship, the better the results.
Telephone Follow-up
Have your staff fully briefed and prepared for phone follow up. You should plan to complete your follow up within 1-2 weeks of your mailing.
Measurement – tracking your results
Finally, you should measure the effectiveness of each campaign so that you can build up a knowledge base and continue to refine to improve the effectiveness.
Monitor, and if possible, log responses and eventual sales. The selling cycle on some products and services will vary.
Summary of Campaign Elements
• Develop your campaign strategy ie. Who you want to target and what do you want to promote
• Create a highly targeted list
• Write an effective letter that grabs the reader's attention, clearly states the benefits and encourages the reader to respond promptly
• Put a message on the outer envelope
• Follow up the mailing by phone to boost your success
• Ensure you have an adequate supply of brochures and a covering letter
• Brief your staff on the campaign elements, the key timings and their involvement
TIP
Plan your direct marketing activity for the next 6-12 months taking into account key periods eg End of financial year, to maximise opportunities. Prepare well ahead of time. This is an efficient way to run your campaigns rather than ad hoc mailings