Direct mail campaigns ... a refreshing alternative
Those of you that have carried out a direct mail campaign
will probably recognise some of these problems ...
| Direct
Mail Action |
Direct
Mail Problem(s) |
You need to send your direct mail piece to a group of interested
prospects |
There are two
problems here for the company running a direct mail campaign
...
- You need to find a list of people that are potentially
interested in your product and buy that mailing list
- A number of these people could be interested in your
offer, but will not be ready to buy. So your mailing
piece will be filed away and forgotten
|
You need to lay out your direct mail piece, then send it away
to be printed |
This brings another
set of problems for the company running a direct mail
campaign ...
- Your direct mail piece needs to be printed, so you need
to factor in lead time for this
- Printing is expensive. Direct mail pieces often
cost between £1 and £2 each to print.
- If the printing company makes a mistake, this will cost
time. If the mistake is your fault, this will cost
you extra money too.
|
You need to post your direct mail piece |
This brings a
final set of problems for the company running a direct
mail campaign ...
- Stuffing envelopes and posting them is a significant
logistical exercise.
- The company has to pay for postage
|
That sounds like a lot of effort when you know that 98% of your
work is going to go straight in the bin. And worse still ...
you have absolutely no idea why that 98% of people that read your
direct mail piece dumped it.
Search Engine Marketing ... an alternative to Direct Mail
Let's look at the problems the direct mail campaign gave
us, and see how search engine marketing compares ...
| Direct
Mail Action |
Search
Engine Marketing Advantage |
You need to send your direct mail piece to a group of interested
prospects |
Unlike
with direct mail, you never buy lists of people that
just "might be interested" in your product.
You use tools to find popular phrases typed into the Internet's
search engines. You use this data to design a web site
that will attract people interested in your business.
When these people come to you, they are more likely to be
interested in your offers.
They were actively looking for a business like yours!
|
You need to lay out your direct mail piece, then send it away
to be printed |
Not a problem.
Once you have designed your direct mail piece, it is
just uploaded to your web site.
No printing. And if there is a mistake in the copy,
you just change it on your web site. You don't waste
thousands of printed direct mail pieces. |
You need to post your direct mail piece |
No postage either.
And better still ...
- Targeted visitors can be purchased for your web site.
A visitor will often be less than the cost of just
the postage on a direct mail piece.
- There are also many ways of drawing targeted visitors
to your web site for nothing.
|
But it doesn't stop there. Another key advantage search engine
marketing has over direct mail is trackability.
When a potential client opens a direct mail piece and throws it
in the bin (or files it away for later reference), you don't have
many clues. The feedback direct mail gives you is limited.
When a visitor comes to your web site, you can tell ...
- Exactly what they typed into the search engine that passed
them to you
- Where they came from
- How long they looked around your site for, and which pages
they visited
- Which page they left from
You can adjust the layout of your web site so that this speaks volumes
about why people are not buying from you. This is an extremely
powerful tool.
Want to know more about search engine marketing? Please feel
free to email us on info@storevalley.co.uk
or contact us using one of the other methods on this
page.
|
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Services (Lowestoft) and Licensors
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Close, Lowestoft,
Suffolk ... UK Company No 3183392 ...
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