Are You Running With The Herd?

Is it time to zig?

If you are responsible for marketing and promoting your business, the last few years you know that the marketing landscape is moving. When the economy crashed the last few years back, many business people cut back and put their eggs in the email marketing and Internet baskets. Everyone seemed to be doing it. Money got tight and the marketing herd moved to the free and easy watering hole. The result is that today it is very difficult to get an email message to an intended recipient, and then get it opened and read. And the amount of competition on the Internet will make you dizzy. So in today’s economy how can your grow your business? Well my friend it is time for you to “zig” while the rest of the herd is  “zagging”!

What I mean is this. Don’t stop sending emails to your customers; get smarter about how you do it. It is cheap and easy so why not. But it is a bad idea to rely on Internet and web marketing as your main line for marketing your business. Improve your web site so that it is found easier by search engines, (SEO, search engine optimization). Even while doing that, you are still zagging because the rest of the herd is doing the same thing. If you want to zig, add direct mail marketing to your plans.

Click Here to See Pricing For Direct Mail Programs

Think about this. If you do add direct mail, you will be all alone with your prospects and customers. The amount of traffic and “Marketing Noise” in the mailbox is very low these days. If fact the USPS is reporting record lows for direct mail volume for last 20 years. Which is good for you.

Does this low mail volume mean that direct mail is old fashioned, out dated and ineffective? No, absolutely not. What it does mean is that everyone (your competition) is beating their heads against the wall trying to save a buck using email blasts and web advertising. And, no one is competing for your prospects attention in his or her mailbox which means this is an opportunity for you to increase your sales by zigging away from the rest of the herd.

Here are the basic facts about direct mail:

1. 99.999% of everyone (I MEAN EVERYONE) has a mailbox and the USPS delivers the mail regularly and reliably.
2. 99.999% of everyone goes through his or her mail. They will at least see and touch your mail piece and if designed properly will call you.
3. If your direct mail fails it can only be because of one of three reasons. So it is easy to fix.
4. No other medium allows you to target so directly who you want to reach.
5. You can easily track the results.
6. If designed properly your direct mail message is personal. The more personal the more effective.
7. With QR codes you can link hard mail to your web site, driving traffic and sales.
8. Direct mail puts something SOLID and tangible in your prospects hands. The importance of this point is not to be understated.

Sure postage has gone up. What hasn’t gone up the last few years? But we can even get you preferential postage rates and save you money. The post office gives us a direct mail service discount on postage because we do all the work for the post office, delivering the mail to them ready to go.

The return on investment is very easy to identify and track with direct mail marketing. There are several types of direct mail pieces. You can go from small post cards, to self-mailing brochures to more exotic mail pieces. The cost of printing direct mail materials is nominal.

You can save money by designing your piece yourself, but usually it is better to have it designed by a professional who has experience designing direct mail materials. We have such people employed at Wilson Printing. In fact we can save you time and money by designing, helping you get a targeted mailing list, printing and mailing it for you. We even have tracking programs that help you track the results.

So I ask you again, are you going to keep running with the herd or is it time to zig?

If we can help you please give us a call.

Mark Hale

CEO