Wednesday, December 15, 2010

How Marketing with Direct Mailing Lists to Promote your Product or Services

Direct mail marketing may be a perfect way to market your new product or service. Direct mailing also allows you the ability to reach a larger group of targeted consumers or businesses. The following information will provide some key valuable tips when you choose direct mail marketing to aid in marketing your new or existing business.
First, when you make the decision to incorporate direct mail marketing, you should have a basic idea of your target market in mind, and gather appropriate mailing lists. A qualified mailing list provider will also be able to assist in helping your target based on your specific industry.  You want a mailing list that is compiled of potential consumers of your product or services. Analysis on your current customer database may aid in securing a new prospect mailing list. It is always good practice to make sure the list is up to date and includes all the required postal paperwork. It is also a good practice to eliminate any duplicate names on the mailing list. You should never send the same letter to the same person more than once. Marketing Lists Direct also offers the ability to remove your current customers for your new prospect mailing list.
Second, when using direct mail marketing to promote your product or service, it is always more effective to mail the information to a specific person, and not simply to a general title. You should always receive exact first and last names and the titles of the people on your mailing list.
Third, it is important to hide the demographic codes on your mail piece for tracking purposes. This will help you in tracking who is responding to your offer. For example, if you are marketing to people age 40-60, income levels of 50k+, a reputable mailing list provider will include codes on your file for each demographic. Income 40-50k may be coded with a letter B. When these codes are on your mail piece, you can track who is responding and adjust your next list purchase to the audience that has shown the most interest in your product or service.
Lastly, when using direct mail marketing to promote a product or service, be sure to never use abbreviations. Many address lists are sold with abbreviations like "Co." for "Company". There are several other abbreviations which are often included in mailing lists. Prior to printing any mailing list database, it is always best to take a visual scan over your list.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Purchasing a Direct Marketing Mailing List Can Increase Business Sales

Purchasing a Direct Marketing Mailing List Can Increase Business Sales

Seminar Mailings with Income and Investment Specific Mailing Lists Increase New Customers for Financial Advisors

Seminar Mailings with Income and Investment Specific Mailing Lists Increase New Customers for Financial Advisors

Social Media Slowing Business Productivity Compared to Direct Mail Marketing with Mailing Lists

Social Media Slowing Business Productivity Compared to Direct Mail Marketing with Mailing Lists

Selecting a Mailing List Broker or Company

Selecting a Mailing List Broker or Company

Endorse New Business Opportunities to Money Making Opportunity Seeker Mailing Lists

Endorse New Business Opportunities to Money Making Opportunity Seeker Mailing Lists

Grow Company Revenue Using Direct Marketing with Quality Business Mailing Lists

Grow Company Revenue Using Direct Marketing with Quality Business Mailing Lists

Direct Marketing and Mailing List Options for Automotive Dealers

Direct Marketing and Mailing List Options for Automotive Dealers

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Social Media Slowing Business Productivity, Use Direct Mail Marketing with Mailing Lists


Social media has become the new marketing hype. Every business today has a Facebook page, Twitter account, MySpace page, Linkedin page, and more. This form of advertising seems to be a must in the office, similar to having an email account and an instant messenger account. This goes well beyond marketing contacts and involves every employee. In most office environments, every employee has their own personal user id and is constantly logged into these media websites. Are they truly promoting your company or simply using it for personal use? When comparing the two, direct mailing lists are more effective than social media in creating sales.

Are your employees promoting business or simply socializing? The majority of employees would presumably be socializing and updating their personal status. Social media seems to be another distraction in the workplace along with cell phones, text messages, instant messages, emails, and website browsing. Businesses need to realize their employees are being paid to work and not to socialize.

With a slowed economy, businesses are looking to cut budgets in every aspect. The first cut businesses normally make is in their marketing budget. With little or no cost utilizing social media, businesses have been hoping this is their saving grace. Social media does not offer any call to action like direct mail marketing. A direct mailer will state respond by, visit us for, etc. As with anything in the world today, you get what you pay for. Zero dollars produces little to no results.

Direct mail marketing has consistently produced 2-3% response rates with a great offer, accurate mailing list and attractive mail piece. Direct mail marketing can be the best way to market your new product or service. Direct mailing also allows businesses the ability to reach a more targeted audience. It also does not distract or take away focus from employees’ productivity.

Another advantage of direct marketing with mailing lists is that the results are track able. There are several ways to track a direct mailing campaign. The additional of PURL’s (A PURL is a personalized website created from the mailing list purchased, which allows the prospect to respond to your offer online), is one solution to tracking the response of your direct mailers. You can also insert coupon codes into your mail piece for responders to refer to when inquiring to your offer.

Social Media seems to work well for large already branded companies, but for a small to mid-size company it does not seem effective. A local pizza shop, accounting firm, investment firm or privately owned retailer will see very little results using this means of marketing. The objective is to bring customers through your doors and to buy. Direct marketing with mailing lists will guarantee increased sales with a specific call to action and help bring in new customer. Social media can help to increase your rankings in search engines but for local retailers direct mail marketing is going to be the most effective advertising avenue.