The 8 Points on the Marketing Road Map

If you don’t strategize then there’s a better than evens chance all your efforts will come to nothing.

So with our help,  we will structure a framework which will significantly increase your chance of success.

So let’s get started!

1. Set your budget

Work out a simple plan of the major marketing steps needed to accomplish that goal. Be realistic – by all means save money where you can but  don’t sacrifice quality for cost.
Remember, if you don’t promote heavily, it doesn’t matter how good your product or service is; no-one will know about it and you will go broke!

2. Attention Grabbing Marketing

It’s all in the message.

• As already mentioned in our previous blog, postcards are way more preferable than envelopes for effectiveness. Postcards are seen, the contents of envelopes are invariably not.
•Create your Unique Selling Proposition – more commonly known as why you? In other words what are you offering that will make your prospective customer come to you rather than the guy down the street. If he’s cheaper than you, you have to give the prospect a reason to knock on your door. You really want to get away from that mindset – the last thing you want to do is to devalue yourself or your business.
• Crafting your Call to Action.

3. Email generation is not the answer, it’s ROI-get it?

Hands up anyone who doesn’t know what ROI stands for. Well you’d better learn quickly because it’s important. For the uninitiated it stands for Return On Investment. In Wall Street parlance it’s used as a percentage. So if I invest $100 and earn $10 in interest, my return on investment (ROI) is 10%. But we use in a different way here. It’s quite common for clients to ask how many hits can I expect. They’re always a little disconcerted when the answer comes back “It’s not what’s important”. Why? The reason is it’s the average sale that determines the success of a mailer. For instance, if we do a mailer for say a coffee house, because the average sale is relatively low, they have to have a higher number of hits than say a realtor. All a realtor needs is one client to come thought to a successful deal and they can celebrate.
Does this make sense? I hope so.

4. Building your list

We’ve been down this road before. In a previous blog we talked about how important the list is and now it’s time to put this into action. Here’s a list of the main categories:

• House Customer List. Mailing to your current customers don’t always create a sale but they do a lot more. They provide a reminder that you’re still out there (you’d be amazed that, if you don’t stay in touch, they’ll forget all about you. Hurtful I know but sometimes the truth hurts – and it’s ugly!  So reminding them that you’re still thinking about them cements the relationship.
• House Prospect List – in many cases you’ve done most of the hard work in building your prospect list and it’s vital you reach out to maybe go the last mile and turn these puppies into new customers.
• Targeted List – Define Criteria (selects)
• Consumers -subscription – magazines/stores
• Audience Propensities
• For business to business (B2B) – SIC Codes plus selects

5. The 12 elements when designing your ad

• A Clear bold headline
• A graphic that supports the message
• Colors that pop
• Subheadings on the back that lead into text
• Talk about benefits not features
• Testimonials
• The offer
• Company name & logo
• Call to action
• Contact information
• Return address
• Location map (for local businesses)

6. Crafting a successful marketing offer

Put simply – 2 Rules to Improve response

1. Reward those who buy now
2. Penalize those who don’t

Take a look at our blog “What is A Call To Action in Marketing”.

7. Your Landing Page

Once you’ve got your prospects opting-in you absolutely have to continually reach out to remind them that you’re out there. We can develop a series of emails that will achieve this and will be sent out automatically so you don’t have to do anything. Remember we want you to concentrate on what your good at!

This is right up there with your mailing list and offer as one of the most important elements for success. Instead of the Landing Page, it really could be named the “Launching Pad”.

• Remember over 95% of your mailing list that is interested will visit your website before calling or visiting you.
• You need a separate landing page as your website home page can overwhelm visitors who are looking for your specific offer. Once that happens, they’re out of there – and you’re out of luck.
• A well-designed landing page tells them they’ve found what they’re looking for and that fact alone helps you catch that lead!
• A landing page not only lets visitors know they’re in the right place, but serves as a lead-capture tool so you can follow up with them if they leave without making a purchase.

8. Marketing Schedule

Simple to remember – think 3 moves ahead for:

• promotions
• design changes
• mailing

That way whatever repeat scheduling is planned stays on track.

Say after me – “Repeat…Repeat…Repeat!!