"I agree that most small businesses do not have direct marketing skills. If they want their business to grow, they have a good product or service, and a commitment to meet and exceed customer needs, then direct marketing will work for them.
I have worked with thousands of businesses in my career. Using the Pareto Principle, 80% did not care about learning how to market correctly. Of the 20% left, 5% were willing to give it a try.
The firms I have worked with range in yearly sales of $500,000 to $20 million. Their contact lists, consisting of customers and prospects is as small as 500 or the largest as 10,000 contacts.
Once the customer and I are able to agree on simple segmentation, such as a SIC code, customer types, male or female, or depending on the company, industry demographics, we have our starting point.
Any type of database, such as a contact management system where simple segments can be recorded can work. There are other innovative database solutions offered on the Web that can also do the job.
Industry associations have developed proprietary software programs for their members. I have worked with a few in healthcare developing the marketing component of the software.
Using analytics, testing marketing messages, and tweaking segments in the database, brings better marketing results every time. The advent of social media has increased the available data, which in turn leads to more ideas and even better success.
I find the use of direct mail, email, landing pages and depending on the company, social channels, bring in good results. Every company is different, so that needs to be addressed as well.
I enjoy teaching and helping companies succeed, but they need to understand what marketing can do when it's done right. If they understand that, it's a good relationship for me and my group. Education is the key in copy and frequency is the key in communication".
Mike Deuerling, January 13, 2013.
The more I network, people want to know more about their customers and the appropriate channels to use for communication, but they are unsure how. The answers can be found in direct marketing - everything we learned using direct mail and direct marketing is a valuable solution provider tool for use in today's marketing communications. There is more value to your business using more channels and analyzing data.
Please call me for more details.
MD
PS If you want to read the complete message thread, click on "view my profile on LinkedIn." On the full profile page scroll down to the bottom and stop when you see "Groups." Click on the Direct Marketing Q&A group. Look for the post, "What is direct marketing?" Scroll down until my name appears and follow the discussion from there.
