Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Direct Mail Marketing Can Be Easier Than Internet Marketing

By Hank Steinman

Picture this: you have found a terrific business opportunity. You need to promote the opportunity, attract prospects and convert some of those prospects into customers. Given this scenario, most marketers would consider using some combination of internet marketing tools. You could use email via an autoresponder series. Of course, you'd need to either have a list of opt-in prospects, or rent a list, or both. If the business opportunity has a website, you'd need to develop your own squeeze page, drive traffic to that squeeze page, motivate visitors to enter their name and email address. You'd probably need to offer some incentive to do that -- perhaps a free report, or some information your prospect would find valuable. And, you'd probably want to drive traffic to your squeeze page. To do that, you'd need a sales page. You'd need to use up to the minute SEO techniques to ensure that the major search engines rank your page. You'd probably also consider using pay per click advertising to drive targeted search traffic to your sales page. You'd do some keyword research, bid on your keywords, set your daily budget, and activate your PPC campaign. And hope for the best.

Internet marketing can be very effective -- if you know what you are doing. No doubt, there are individual entrepreneurs and companies making big, big money online. There are also literally thousands of marketers losing money trying to learn how to succeed online.

There is a different route available to marketers. That route is direct mail. Direct mail marketing involves mastering critical skills too. Those variables include choosing an attractive product, finding targeted list of prospects, establishing optimal pricing, writing an effective sales letter. Direct mail marketing may be "old school", but is still works. Chances are it will continue to be a viable method of marketing for many years to come. There are several reasons for this. One reason is that prospects are receiving fewer offers in the mail. Marketers are so focused on internet marketing that they have moved away from direct mail. Prospects receive less direct mail than they used to -- so they are more likely to read the offers they do receive! For marketers that are open to the idea of testing direct mail -- that can be done very efficiently by making a modest investment in a direct mail program that offers a complete, ready-to-use package. The package includes a tested sales letter offering a proven product at a price that has also been tested and proven. The program also includes complete information as to specific mail houses that offer complete mailing services including list selection, printing, envelope preparation and mailing. This approach allows you to test direct mail without taking any unknown budgetary risks. All costs are known before they are incurred. All you do is arrange the mailing and wait a few days to see your conversions, and evaluate your results.

Hank Steinman, visit us at http://bit.ly/cCsp9.


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