Telesales or Telemarketing: Do You Know Which One You Need?
March 20, 2009 by Lead Generation Website
Filed under About Leads
Telemarketing or Telesales: Do you know which one you need?
Let’s face it; most people don’t know the difference between Telemarketing and Telesales. This suggests that they don’t understand the important distinct values that can be gleaned from each service. The words ‘Telemarketing’ and ‘Telesales’ are still often used interchangeably and then, they can be used to describe activities that often cross over. However, if you wish to get the most from your telephone campaign, knowledge of the differences and how they can be best employed to help your business is vital.
One of the greatest confusions exists around the history of use of the terms themselves. Traditionally, Telesales (a much older term) existed as its own separate activity. Telemarketing is a much more recent term by comparison and has often been used as an overarching term that also includes Telesales as one of its component elements.
Today, many industry experts use the term Telemarketing to incorporate all activities that use the telephone to connect with (potential) customers. This includes making customers aware of a product or service, generating leads or opportunities, canvassing established customers, providing information, conducting market research, and selling products or services to new or existing customers. So, Telemarketing has become a blanket term that includes Telesales and other areas within its remit
Don’t let that confuse you further; Telesales and Telemarketing are clearly quite different activities. When looking to use a specific service for your business, the following key distinctions should be kept in mind:
TELEMARKETING IS: A service that generates interest, creates opportunities, provides information, factors customer feedback, makes appointments and produces leads by telephone.
TELESALES IS: A service that sells your products or services directly to the customer by telephone.
Telemarketing creates prospects, lets people know about what you have to offer them and provides the opportunity for both customer and business to find out more about each other. Telesales converts those opportunities into business for your company.
Now that you’re aware of the main difference between the two activities/services offered, you can choose which service caters to your own specific needs best. The choice that you make depends entirely upon the results that you wish to acquire.
What can Telemarketing Do For You?
? Telemarketing takes the time and cost out of finding new customers or generating interest in your brand, product or service by taking the information directly to your customer.
? Identify excellent potential leads for your own Telesales team to close.
? Creates a more reliable source of data for your Telesales team, rather than buying the data.
? Good Telemarketing Campaigns drive Great Telesales Campaigns
? Excellent Telemarketers remove the need for large periods of cold calling for sales teams.
? Reduces training costs – Great Telesales staff are not always good Telemarketers; there’s a different skill involved and distinct manner required.
? Professionally presents your brand, product or services to potential customers.
? Canvas existing customers to reveal buying trends, or the potential for new business.
? Inbound calling provides a customer service opportunity that can later be converted into further lead generation or sales.
? Inbound Telemarketing teams can staff your ‘Information’ lines, turning simple requests for information into its solid sales leads.
? Outbound calling provides market research activities that can also produce leads.
? Telemarketing can often reveal ‘low hanging fruit’. These are customers who are already prepared to buy a product or service and do not require much (if any) persuasion.
? Appointment making is a People-skill. Experienced telemarketers create stronger appointments.
? Telemarketing helps to provide a stream of appointments based on customers who are looking for precisely what you offer.
? Telemarketing provides customer satisfaction and often exceeds the needs of the customer.
What can Telesales Do For You?
? If you already have your customer data, you need someone to persistently and persuasively convert those leads into sales.
? A professionally trained telesales team increases your conversion rates whilst decreasing your costs per sale.
? A specialist telesales team is often required to convert difficult leads into sales.
? Resourceful telesales campaigns respond to the accurate customer data supplied by well-organized telemarketing campaigns.
? Effective telesales requires specific expertise. Outsourcing that expertise saves money and increases your sales team to meet your current need. The great value of this expandable sales team is that it can easily be reduced.
? Tailor the size of your telesales campaign to your budget.
? Cold Calling needs a particular temperament; reduce potential customer annoyance by employing experienced cold callers who are sensitive but highly persuasive.
? Remove travel expenses by having a telephone-based sales team.
? Leave customers with a professional impression of your company.
If you’re good at speaking to customers about your products and services, but are lacking interest or contact with customers, you need help with Telemarketing.
If you’re great at attracting potential customers, but find it difficult to convert all that potential into business, you need help with Telesales.
Of course, both telemarketing and telesales services can be combined and carried out by the same company, employing them to work strategically as a joint team. One service can generate a pool of potential leads, whilst the other turns those leads into sales. The Telemarketers set up the appointment, the Telesales staff close the deal.
When Telesales and Telemarketing teams work together, planning, coordinating and tailoring their approach, they produce dramatic results. The great advantage of using one team to bring in a constant stream of leads and another team to convert those leads is the quality of communication and interaction that goes into ensuring both services are serving the same goal, the same customer, you.
However, not all companies can provide the full range of inbound and outbound telemarketing and telesales solutions. Always pick a provider that can fully service your marketing and sales needs.
If your business could benefit from either Telesales or Telemarketing services, or if you would gain greater advantage over your competition from a joint Marketing/Sales approach, contact Andy Dickens at….
andy@virtual-sales.com
Thanks to AndyDickens for contributing this article to our Leads blog:
Let’s face it; most people don’t know the difference between Telemarketing and Telesales. This suggests that they don’t understand the important distinct values that can be gleaned from each service. The words ‘Telemarketing’ and ‘Telesales’ are still often used interchangeably and then, they can be used to describe activities that often cross over. However, if you wish to get the most from your telephone campaign, knowledge of the differences and how they can be best employed to help your business is vital.
One of the greatest confusions exists around the history of use of the terms themselves. Traditionally, Telesales (a much older term) existed as its own separate activity. Telemarketing is a much more recent term by comparison and has often been used as an overarching term that also includes Telesales as one of its component elements.
Today, many industry experts use the term Telemarketing to incorporate all activities that use the telephone to connect with (potential) customers. This includes making customers aware of a product or service, generating leads or opportunities, canvassing established customers, providing information, conducting market research, and selling products or services to new or existing customers. So, Telemarketing has become a blanket term that includes Telesales and other areas within its remit
Don’t let that confuse you further; Telesales and Telemarketing are clearly quite different activities. When looking to use a specific service for your business, the following key distinctions should be kept in mind:
TELEMARKETING IS: A service that generates interest, creates opportunities, provides information, factors customer feedback, makes appointments and produces leads by telephone.
TELESALES IS: A service that sells your products or services directly to the customer by telephone.
Telemarketing creates prospects, lets people know about what you have to offer them and provides the opportunity for both customer and business to find out more about each other. Telesales converts those opportunities into business for your company.
Now that you’re aware of the main difference between the two activities/services offered, you can choose which service caters to your own specific needs best. The choice that you make depends entirely upon the results that you wish to acquire.
What can Telemarketing Do For You?
? Telemarketing takes the time and cost out of finding new customers or generating interest in your brand, product or service by taking the information directly to your customer.
? Identify excellent potential leads for your own Telesales team to close.
? Creates a more reliable source of data for your Telesales team, rather than buying the data.
? Good Telemarketing Campaigns drive Great Telesales Campaigns
? Excellent Telemarketers remove the need for large periods of cold calling for sales teams.
? Reduces training costs – Great Telesales staff are not always good Telemarketers; there’s a different skill involved and distinct manner required.
? Professionally presents your brand, product or services to potential customers.
? Canvas existing customers to reveal buying trends, or the potential for new business.
? Inbound calling provides a customer service opportunity that can later be converted into further lead generation or sales.
? Inbound Telemarketing teams can staff your ‘Information’ lines, turning simple requests for information into its solid sales leads.
? Outbound calling provides market research activities that can also produce leads.
? Telemarketing can often reveal ‘low hanging fruit’. These are customers who are already prepared to buy a product or service and do not require much (if any) persuasion.
? Appointment making is a People-skill. Experienced telemarketers create stronger appointments.
? Telemarketing helps to provide a stream of appointments based on customers who are looking for precisely what you offer.
? Telemarketing provides customer satisfaction and often exceeds the needs of the customer.
What can Telesales Do For You?
? If you already have your customer data, you need someone to persistently and persuasively convert those leads into sales.
? A professionally trained telesales team increases your conversion rates whilst decreasing your costs per sale.
? A specialist telesales team is often required to convert difficult leads into sales.
? Resourceful telesales campaigns respond to the accurate customer data supplied by well-organized telemarketing campaigns.
? Effective telesales requires specific expertise. Outsourcing that expertise saves money and increases your sales team to meet your current need. The great value of this expandable sales team is that it can easily be reduced.
? Tailor the size of your telesales campaign to your budget.
? Cold Calling needs a particular temperament; reduce potential customer annoyance by employing experienced cold callers who are sensitive but highly persuasive.
? Remove travel expenses by having a telephone-based sales team.
? Leave customers with a professional impression of your company.
If you’re good at speaking to customers about your products and services, but are lacking interest or contact with customers, you need help with Telemarketing.
If you’re great at attracting potential customers, but find it difficult to convert all that potential into business, you need help with Telesales.
Of course, both telemarketing and telesales services can be combined and carried out by the same company, employing them to work strategically as a joint team. One service can generate a pool of potential leads, whilst the other turns those leads into sales. The Telemarketers set up the appointment, the Telesales staff close the deal.
When Telesales and Telemarketing teams work together, planning, coordinating and tailoring their approach, they produce dramatic results. The great advantage of using one team to bring in a constant stream of leads and another team to convert those leads is the quality of communication and interaction that goes into ensuring both services are serving the same goal, the same customer, you.
However, not all companies can provide the full range of inbound and outbound telemarketing and telesales solutions. Always pick a provider that can fully service your marketing and sales needs.
If your business could benefit from either Telesales or Telemarketing services, or if you would gain greater advantage over your competition from a joint Marketing/Sales approach, contact Andy Dickens at….
andy@virtual-sales.com
Thanks to AndyDickens for contributing this article to our Leads blog:
Andy Dickens CEO of VSL(http://www.virtual-sales.com) is a veteran of sales with over 20 years experience. Over the years helped companies of all shapes and sizes to grow their businesses successfully.
Top 3 Tips for Choosing an Appointment Setting Telemarketing Company
March 16, 2009 by Lead Generation Website
Filed under About Leads
Are you looking for a steady flow of appointments with prospects?
For many companies considering using telemarketing, appointment setting is main objective. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve spoken with a client and they tell me “I just need to get in front of them…”
Indeed, if you have a complex or high-value proposition, such as software or consulting services, getting that initial appointment is essential.
So, if you are considering using an appointment setting telemarketing company, what are the top three things you need to know?
Of course, there are many telemarketing companies providing Appointment Setting Services, so understanding which telemarketing company is right for your business is the key to success of any appointment setting campaign.
As an owner of an appointment setting telemarketing company, and having run hundreds of telemarketing & appointment setting campaigns over my career, I’ve learnt to identify the campaigns that work and the ones that don’t.
So, here’s my top three tips for choosing the right appointment setting telemarketing company for your business.
1) Do they have the right sector experience?
2) Can they be credible at the right level?
3) Are they used to setting the right volume of appointments?
These are all critical areas in which to evaluate any prospective appointment setting telemarketing company; let’s look at them in turn:
1) The right sector
How important is it that your appointment setting telemarketing company has previous experience of your market. Well, from our experience, it’s a considerable factor in the success of any appointment setting telemarketing campaign.
Sector experience brings a level if understanding, often a subtle one, that helps ensure success. Simply having working in a particular sector previously means that your appointment setting telemarketing company will be understand all the nuances of the market and companies they re calling into. Small aspects such as internal terms, job titles, jargon, organisational structures vary so much from sector to sector that it’s very difficult to teach.
Believe me, this does make a difference. Thing about the last time you were called by an appointment setting telemarketing reading a canned script. As soon as you asked a question and they had no idea what you were talking about, what do you think about the prospects of actually meeting the company?
2) The right level
Again, this is a critical, but subtle thing that you should always look at when considering appointment setting companies. If you’re trying to get a meeting with a senior-level decision maker, and let’s be honest, that’s all decision makers, what will they think if you’ve got an 18-year old calling them?
Wherever possible, seek to match the appointment setting telemarketing consultant with the target prospect. For example, in my appointment setting telemarketing company, we only work with senior, experienced telemarketing consultants for appointment setting campaigns.
Why? Because we set appointments with senior decision makers. Our people have worked in senior management roles; they’re credible when it comes to pitching a departmental head or CEO. Appointment setting requires your telemarketing company to establish credibility within seconds. This is achieved by more than a script – it’s achieved by presence.
3) The right volume
We generally work with Directors of small companies who want us to get meetings with very senior decision makers in medium to large companies. Why? Because as an appointment setting telemarketing company, we specialise in high-quality and low-volume appointments.
That’s right; we’re not interested in setting 3 appointments per day for our clients. If you’re looking to keep a team of hungry salespeople busy with 15 meetings per week each, then we’re not the type of appointment setting telemarketing company for you.
Equally, if you’ve got a high-value proposition, and you’re also running your own business, then you probably want an appointment setting telemarketing company that only send you out on well qualified, serious meetings. For a start, you probably couldn’t afford to spend more than two days a week out on sales appointments.
Getting the match right between the volume of appointments you need and then amount that your appointment setting telemarketing company is geared to deliver is important. If you only want a few and they’re a call centre wanting to keep three agents making 100 dials a day, guess what will happen?
So, in summary, choosing the right appointment setting telemarketing company is all about fit. Do they fit your sector, the level of prospect they are calling and, finally, do they fit with your expectations of the number of appointments you want.
Get all these three right and you can expect a profitable and successful appointment setting telemarketing campaign.
Thanks to David Regler for contributing this article to our Leads blog:
For many companies considering using telemarketing, appointment setting is main objective. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve spoken with a client and they tell me “I just need to get in front of them…”
Indeed, if you have a complex or high-value proposition, such as software or consulting services, getting that initial appointment is essential.
So, if you are considering using an appointment setting telemarketing company, what are the top three things you need to know?
Of course, there are many telemarketing companies providing Appointment Setting Services, so understanding which telemarketing company is right for your business is the key to success of any appointment setting campaign.
As an owner of an appointment setting telemarketing company, and having run hundreds of telemarketing & appointment setting campaigns over my career, I’ve learnt to identify the campaigns that work and the ones that don’t.
So, here’s my top three tips for choosing the right appointment setting telemarketing company for your business.
1) Do they have the right sector experience?
2) Can they be credible at the right level?
3) Are they used to setting the right volume of appointments?
These are all critical areas in which to evaluate any prospective appointment setting telemarketing company; let’s look at them in turn:
1) The right sector
How important is it that your appointment setting telemarketing company has previous experience of your market. Well, from our experience, it’s a considerable factor in the success of any appointment setting telemarketing campaign.
Sector experience brings a level if understanding, often a subtle one, that helps ensure success. Simply having working in a particular sector previously means that your appointment setting telemarketing company will be understand all the nuances of the market and companies they re calling into. Small aspects such as internal terms, job titles, jargon, organisational structures vary so much from sector to sector that it’s very difficult to teach.
Believe me, this does make a difference. Thing about the last time you were called by an appointment setting telemarketing reading a canned script. As soon as you asked a question and they had no idea what you were talking about, what do you think about the prospects of actually meeting the company?
2) The right level
Again, this is a critical, but subtle thing that you should always look at when considering appointment setting companies. If you’re trying to get a meeting with a senior-level decision maker, and let’s be honest, that’s all decision makers, what will they think if you’ve got an 18-year old calling them?
Wherever possible, seek to match the appointment setting telemarketing consultant with the target prospect. For example, in my appointment setting telemarketing company, we only work with senior, experienced telemarketing consultants for appointment setting campaigns.
Why? Because we set appointments with senior decision makers. Our people have worked in senior management roles; they’re credible when it comes to pitching a departmental head or CEO. Appointment setting requires your telemarketing company to establish credibility within seconds. This is achieved by more than a script – it’s achieved by presence.
3) The right volume
We generally work with Directors of small companies who want us to get meetings with very senior decision makers in medium to large companies. Why? Because as an appointment setting telemarketing company, we specialise in high-quality and low-volume appointments.
That’s right; we’re not interested in setting 3 appointments per day for our clients. If you’re looking to keep a team of hungry salespeople busy with 15 meetings per week each, then we’re not the type of appointment setting telemarketing company for you.
Equally, if you’ve got a high-value proposition, and you’re also running your own business, then you probably want an appointment setting telemarketing company that only send you out on well qualified, serious meetings. For a start, you probably couldn’t afford to spend more than two days a week out on sales appointments.
Getting the match right between the volume of appointments you need and then amount that your appointment setting telemarketing company is geared to deliver is important. If you only want a few and they’re a call centre wanting to keep three agents making 100 dials a day, guess what will happen?
So, in summary, choosing the right appointment setting telemarketing company is all about fit. Do they fit your sector, the level of prospect they are calling and, finally, do they fit with your expectations of the number of appointments you want.
Get all these three right and you can expect a profitable and successful appointment setting telemarketing campaign.
Thanks to David Regler for contributing this article to our Leads blog:
David Regler is Managing Director of Maine Associates Ltd, a sales lead generation telemarketing agency specialising in telemarketing appointment setting services.
Headline: a Strategic Analysis of B2c Lead Generation
March 13, 2009 by Lead Generation Website
Filed under About Leads
Smart online promotional strategies are always essential for B2C lead generation. If you are specifically selling something online then for generating revenue and creating promotions you need a certain level of B2C lead generation. Companies these days are opting for various techniques of generating sales.
The essential fact behind B2C lead generation is that by giving away something, such as a free product or any other such incentive, you can direct parties to specific products and services. Every working business owner should have a sales lead generation program in place. Some of them can be as simple as getting referrals from existing and new customers. Some can be as elaborate as a lead generation service.
Businesses use lead generation to create new customers. This is an ever constant process. Depending on the financial nature of your business, you can find low cost lead programs to use or you can hire a lead generation service to provide you a list of qualified leads.
Hence, this is how B2C lead generation essentially works.
Well, if you do intend to use a lead generation service, make sure that you are using the services of a reputable company who will stand behind the qualified leads that you will receive. Make sure you get qualified leads and that your prospective clients are able to use your product or service.
For B2C lead generation, if you intend to use a low cost lead generation, make sure the method you chose will narrow down the lists of prospects to those clients that are likely to use your product or service.
Every business needs a good B2C lead generation program working for them. It should work well as far as increasing of sales goes. There are always different methods of B2C lead generation that you can apply.
Here is the best mix as far as B2C lead generation is concerned:
List all possible marketing channels
Evaluate the fit between these channels and your business / product / service attributes
Choose and try channels
Review success and track metrics such as cost/click, cost/conversion, cost/sale
Adapt your marketing strategy
Thanks to Lalita N for contributing this article to our Leads blog:
Author:
Author is expert in email marketing, presently render her services to Rupiz Xpress that helps you in building email marketing campaign, B2C Lead Generation, Email Marketing, Email-Campaign.
Do With a Very Small Mailing List
January 27, 2009 by Lead Generation Website
Filed under Mailing Lists
It’s still true; the money is in the list. Building a list is as important today, as it was yesterday.
No matter how big or how small your list is the names on your list are your prospects. They need to be taken care of and be fed with quality information and products.
Quality emails means great informational email articles, reports, ebooks or a mini-course, and your promotional emails.
The free info should be related to your product topic, which you want to promote, even if it is only indirectly. And your promo should be related to the product you stand for as well.
Mail out to your list about three times a week, with free informational emails three times in a row and after that you send them a promotion, exactly in that order.
Believe me, they will love you for it. Never overload your mailing list with info emails and promos too many times a week. Stay with the advice I give you, which has been very effective for me.
If your prospects get too many mailings a week, they get tired of opening your mail, especially if you send them more promotional then informational mail.
But if you give them a quality mailing three times a week, they are going to look forward to it.
And remember, the emphasis is on ‘quality’. Many beginning marketers only have 40 to 50 people in their mailing list. But that doesn’t mean that these people in your list don’t need attention.
You want to start treating your mailing list very special from the first person that gets on it or go to www.build-huge-list.com. Make each one of them very special to you And you need to become very special to them. That’s a very good rule to go by.
You are going to building yourself an excellent reputation from the moment you start your list. Even if it is just an incredibly small list you still need to take care of them.
The first person that subscribes to your list is worth gold. And your list will grow, if you start building your mailing list the right way. This means, you have to put up your own mini site with an enticing squeeze page.
Setting up a mini site is very easy. There are some free videos that show you step-by-step how to do it. Get them and follow the instructions.
A squeeze page is where you have an opt-in offer. Like an ebook, software, quality report or even a newsletter they can subscribe to. It just needs to be quality information for free, that makes it worth for your list members to sign up for.
This will make your mailing list grow in no time as long as you promote your mini site well.
And I can’t say it often enough. Write articles! It’s the most effective way to promote for free.
Even a mailing list of let say 40 people can be a ‘huge’ gold mine. If you build up a terrific relationship with your prospects, this list can make you more sales then a list of 500 or go to build-own-list.com. And it will grow continually anyway. It’s all about how your relationship will start and develop.
The best way to keep in touch with your mailing list is to put yourself on a schedule as described before. By doing so, your prospects will remember you and it will build trust between you and your prospects.
Never forget, every person on your list counts towards your online success. So, go to work and schedule your list, no matter how small or big it is.
This is exactly how I started my own mailing list. And it has worked perfectly for me. I love my list. They are all wonderful people. They know who I am and I know who they are. Not on a personal basis, but through trust and loyalty, that has been built up between us.
You can do the same. Honor your list. Always think about the fact, that there are real people behind each name. People you can give real good quality products and information to and who in return will bring you online success.
Thanks to sunVrise for contributing this article to our Leads blog:
No matter how big or how small your list is the names on your list are your prospects. They need to be taken care of and be fed with quality information and products.
Quality emails means great informational email articles, reports, ebooks or a mini-course, and your promotional emails.
The free info should be related to your product topic, which you want to promote, even if it is only indirectly. And your promo should be related to the product you stand for as well.
Mail out to your list about three times a week, with free informational emails three times in a row and after that you send them a promotion, exactly in that order.
Believe me, they will love you for it. Never overload your mailing list with info emails and promos too many times a week. Stay with the advice I give you, which has been very effective for me.
If your prospects get too many mailings a week, they get tired of opening your mail, especially if you send them more promotional then informational mail.
But if you give them a quality mailing three times a week, they are going to look forward to it.
And remember, the emphasis is on ‘quality’. Many beginning marketers only have 40 to 50 people in their mailing list. But that doesn’t mean that these people in your list don’t need attention.
You want to start treating your mailing list very special from the first person that gets on it or go to www.build-huge-list.com. Make each one of them very special to you And you need to become very special to them. That’s a very good rule to go by.
You are going to building yourself an excellent reputation from the moment you start your list. Even if it is just an incredibly small list you still need to take care of them.
The first person that subscribes to your list is worth gold. And your list will grow, if you start building your mailing list the right way. This means, you have to put up your own mini site with an enticing squeeze page.
Setting up a mini site is very easy. There are some free videos that show you step-by-step how to do it. Get them and follow the instructions.
A squeeze page is where you have an opt-in offer. Like an ebook, software, quality report or even a newsletter they can subscribe to. It just needs to be quality information for free, that makes it worth for your list members to sign up for.
This will make your mailing list grow in no time as long as you promote your mini site well.
And I can’t say it often enough. Write articles! It’s the most effective way to promote for free.
Even a mailing list of let say 40 people can be a ‘huge’ gold mine. If you build up a terrific relationship with your prospects, this list can make you more sales then a list of 500 or go to build-own-list.com. And it will grow continually anyway. It’s all about how your relationship will start and develop.
The best way to keep in touch with your mailing list is to put yourself on a schedule as described before. By doing so, your prospects will remember you and it will build trust between you and your prospects.
Never forget, every person on your list counts towards your online success. So, go to work and schedule your list, no matter how small or big it is.
This is exactly how I started my own mailing list. And it has worked perfectly for me. I love my list. They are all wonderful people. They know who I am and I know who they are. Not on a personal basis, but through trust and loyalty, that has been built up between us.
You can do the same. Honor your list. Always think about the fact, that there are real people behind each name. People you can give real good quality products and information to and who in return will bring you online success.
Thanks to sunVrise for contributing this article to our Leads blog:
Two Common Direct Mail Mistakes. and How to Avoid Them
January 27, 2009 by Lead Generation Website
Filed under Mailing Lists
Ask the ListGuy
“What are the most common Direct Mail Mistakes and how can I try to Avoid them?”
Successful direct mail doesn’t depend on fancy, four-color design or “creative” copy.
Mistake No. 1: Not renting the right mail/email list for you.
Do you know what the most important part of your direct mail campaign is? It is the mailing list. No matter how beautiful your graphic design is, no matter how slick your ad copy is, if you mail to the wrong mailing list, your mailing is doomed to failure. Remember, a mailing list is not just a means to reach your prospects, it IS your prospects!
The best list available to you is your “house” list—your list of customers and prospects who previously bought from you or responded to your marketing efforts.
Typically, your house list can pull double the response of an outside list. When renting outside lists, make sure to consult with the list provider to make sure you are getting the most up-to-date names available and are renting the best possible list segment or segments of the targeted list.
Mistake No. 2: Not having an offer.
An offer is what the reader gets when he responds to your mailing.
To be successful, a direct-mail package should sell the offer, not the product itself. For example, if you have a Kick boxing Gym, don’t sell that you are a kick boxing Gym, sell your offer—Free Introductory class. The offer is the free class the benefit to the Gym is the opportunity to convert satisfied class participants into members.
Make sure you have a well-thought-out offer in every mailing. If you think the offer and the way you describe it are unimportant, you are wrong.
Here are some effective teasers: free brochure, free analysis, free consultation, free demonstration, free trial, free sample, free catalog…it doesn’t always have to be free.
Your copy should state the offer in such a way as to increase the object reader’s interest to respond to whatever it is you offer.
Great Mailing Lists
Thanks to Great Mailing Lists for contributing this article to our Leads blog:
“What are the most common Direct Mail Mistakes and how can I try to Avoid them?”
Successful direct mail doesn’t depend on fancy, four-color design or “creative” copy.
Mistake No. 1: Not renting the right mail/email list for you.
Do you know what the most important part of your direct mail campaign is? It is the mailing list. No matter how beautiful your graphic design is, no matter how slick your ad copy is, if you mail to the wrong mailing list, your mailing is doomed to failure. Remember, a mailing list is not just a means to reach your prospects, it IS your prospects!
The best list available to you is your “house” list—your list of customers and prospects who previously bought from you or responded to your marketing efforts.
Typically, your house list can pull double the response of an outside list. When renting outside lists, make sure to consult with the list provider to make sure you are getting the most up-to-date names available and are renting the best possible list segment or segments of the targeted list.
Mistake No. 2: Not having an offer.
An offer is what the reader gets when he responds to your mailing.
To be successful, a direct-mail package should sell the offer, not the product itself. For example, if you have a Kick boxing Gym, don’t sell that you are a kick boxing Gym, sell your offer—Free Introductory class. The offer is the free class the benefit to the Gym is the opportunity to convert satisfied class participants into members.
Make sure you have a well-thought-out offer in every mailing. If you think the offer and the way you describe it are unimportant, you are wrong.
Here are some effective teasers: free brochure, free analysis, free consultation, free demonstration, free trial, free sample, free catalog…it doesn’t always have to be free.
Your copy should state the offer in such a way as to increase the object reader’s interest to respond to whatever it is you offer.
Great Mailing Lists
Thanks to Great Mailing Lists for contributing this article to our Leads blog:
