Although you might have guessed it by now from what you’ve already read,
but nothing drives the point home like repetition.

Have you ever heard a jingle that you just can’t get out of your head?
Jingles usually include a tune that is easy to remember and it REPEATS itself.
Because of these two details, you are humming that tune for the rest of the
day. And if you’re ever looking for a product like that, you’ll remember that
one first.

Of course, it doesn’t have to be jingle to be memorable. Repetition is a
simple, yet effective way to create name recognition and an identity for your
self. Some will do this with their logo or a catchy company name and then
plaster it wherever a customer might be. And keep it there. Repeat the ad
or the message in the same spot over and over.

The beauty of repetition is that it is simple to continue. Just renew an ad for
a few months to see if people are reading it.

But you may have to wait longer than that—and that’s okay too. By creating
interest in your product via a standard ad, you’re helping to increase your
identity in the market. A person may have to read it twenty times before
they take you up on your offer, but eventually they will. And the more they
see your message, the quicker the response time.

Perhaps you can also incorporate a consistent special with your ad. If the ad
runs on a Monday, then you can advertise the week’s special deals. This
way, even if the person isn’t interested this week, they see what kinds of
specials you have and what they can expect. If they need to make a
purchase, they’ll look to your ad for the deal.

Perhaps you can offer a discount with the ad. This is a popular method of
advertising because you will start to find that customers will use the coupon
on a regular basis. This shows that they look for the coupon each time your
ad runs. Even if they use the coupon each time they do business with you,
they may also be buying your product or service a lot more often than they
would have if you only offered a deal once in a while.

How long do you have to wait for results? This will depend on your particular
market and how high your demand is at the time. In some cases, new
customers will trickle in, but in time grow to be a substantial customer base.
In other cases, the business will surge.

Even if you only get one customer, their repeated purchases will make the
repetition worth it.

DIRECT MAIL MARKETING

If you’ve ever found ‘junk’ mail in your mail box, then you’ve seen the power
of direct mail. Of course, you might think that since you throw the letters
and cards away that everyone does. This is just not the case.

Small business owners have reported that direct mail is actually the best way
to attract new customers. Why is this? First of all, by using direct mail, you
are reaching a large customer base without having to compile a customer list
or find a target market. Two, direct mail marketing isn’t overly expensive,
nor is it time-consuming for you to send out.

You will need to start with your Unique Buying Point and create interest from
there. Customers need to want to read your mail. You might want to start
off with a question for them to answer for themselves. Perhaps, “Do you
want to lose weight/stop smoking/make your life easier/etc/?” Start then
with the overall solution of your business or service. What are you offering
them?

Give the customer an educated discussion of how your business will suit their
wants and their needs. This is the time to treat your potential customer like
someone special. Don’t use technical terms unless your target audience is
aware of them. Treat each person as though they were your best friend and
you’re letting them in on a secret. This is a great way to make the recipient
feel like they’re special.

Let them know that if they send back their address and contact information,
you’ll send them something in return. This could be a simple office supply
with your logo to something more useful. A lot of businesses are sending out
free reports that target customers would enjoy. For example, if you’re
starting a diet company, then you could offer a report on the ‘top ten ways to
lose weight without counting calories.’ They’ll appreciate this report and then
be intrigued by what else they can order from you.

In return, you are adding to your customer database and you can now send
more targeted advertising to those that reply. This is really the quickest way
to find out more about your audience and get your sales up.

And doe printing out these initial letters, the cost is minimal. It’s the words
that matter. Find someone that can write a great sales letter (or do it
yourself if you’re handy), and then try a batch of one hundred letters to see
what your response is. If you get a lot of responses, then send the initial
letter out to more people.

Direct mail is a great way to market your business.

WRITING THAT FREE REPORT

A big blunder in marketing can start as early as the free report. You can not
afford to lose a customer in this first attempt to reach them, so here are
some things to watch out for.

You don’t want to focus the report on your product. While this sounds
contradictory to what we’ve said before, let’s think about the purpose of
advertising. You are trying to focus on how to correct a customer’s problem
or address their need. Why would you talk about the product?

This is meant to be something that a customer can use outside of your
product. They are still deciding and they don’t want to feel pressured into
buying something because they got something free in exchange for their
information. Make them feel that you want to help them, not that you’re
trying to make that sale.

Talk about the customer and their needs. Describe their lives and what
happens to them on a daily basis. Give time-saving tips or other lists of
things that can help them (and don’t involve your product by name). When
you do finally mention your product, you’ll be sure to have a captive
audience. Involve them emotionally in the ways that your product can help
their lives.

You also don’t want to tell them too much about the product and how it’s
made. This is something that you might need to know, but it’s not
something that is going to be interesting in a product. Again, you want to
focus on the customer’s needs, not the product.

You will want to show them how to address their problems or needs at the
end of the report—by buying your product. At this point, they will have had
a lot of useful information and an idea of your concern for them and their
needs. You can now introduce your product and how it can help them solves
their issues. Give information about how to contact you or order the
product.

A good free report is one that looks to educate the customer outside of the
sale. Customers can tell when something free is actually just another
attempt to make a sale—and that can leave a sour taste in their mouths.
And you may lose the sale entirely.

A free report can be a great way to build your customer contact list, but only
if you put your customer’s needs first.

MAILING LIST MATTERS

While you can get a few leads through direct mail advertisements, there are
other ways to build leads and your customer database. After you’ve already
gathered the lists that you had initially and the ones from your direct mail
campaign, where else can you go?

You can also rent a commercially available list. Of course, you are just
renting it, so you can only continue correspondence if the person responds.

From this list, you have addresses to which you can send your sales letter or
other advertising one time. Realize that the list will also include addresses
that deliver whatever you send out to the list owners. This helps to check if
you are abusing the rented list.

So don’t try to cheat the system and mass mail everyone. This just makes
you and your business look bad. Plus, you will get billed for every time you
send something out in addition to the one time.

The list owner will want to see what you are sending out before giving you
the list, so be sure that you already have something ready when you start
your calling for lists.

You will also end up speaking with a list broker to find more mailing lists that
you can use for direct mail campaigns. You may find list brokers in your
local yellow pages or online. These people are very helpful and deal with the
list owners so you don’t have to.

The only problem with a list broker is that the smaller you are, the less
inclined they may be to work with you. You will probably end up talking to
several brokers before finding one that will work with you. And they are paid
by the list owners, not you.

Also note that list brokers don’t have to be in your state—you can use
brokers from anywhere.

Have a clear idea of the people that you want to target with your direct mail
advertising. If you want to target specific business with so many employees
or clients, then you need to specify this. The more specific the better, so
that you can send out information to those that you are targeting with your
product or service.

Mailing lists are invaluable ways to generate leads for more business. Look
into building yours today, or finding someone else that can help you.

MORE ABOUT MAILING LISTS

Just when you thought we’d said everything, not quite.

Mailing lists can be compiled from two different sources. The first of which is
the most useful—respondent. Respondent lists include subscribers and
buyers of certain products or loyal to specific companies. This is invaluable
for you in determining who you will be able to target. If you’re selling surf
boards, you don’t want to target dog lovers necessarily. When you have
more details about your prospects, you have a better chance of replies.

A compiled list is one that includes anyone—those with driver’s licenses or
any other list from public information. Unfortunately this is just too
widespread to be helpful for targeted marketing. You want to be everything
to a few people, rather than nothing to a whole bunch of people.

So with a good idea of what you want to direct your advertising to, you’ll be
able to find a list compilation that includes it. Of course, you will probably
have to rent a large list (3000-5000 names) because smaller batches aren’t
always possible. Of course, if you only send your mailing out to some of the
names and it works, then you have more names to send it out to.

In terms of sales letters bouncing back, you’ll want to try to get your
money’s worth out of a rented mailing list. People will move and businesses
will change, but try to find out from the list owner how often the list is
checked for accuracy. If it’s checked regularly, you may still get bouncebacks,
but overall, you’ll get your advertising to everyone.

You can choose list options as whether or not the subscribers have credit
cards or not. You can also select only men or women or those with certain
credit cards. In these multiple option instances, you can select one trait and
then specify further. If you want those that are dog lovers with credit cards,
that can be compiled.

With this ability to be focused in on a certain part of the population, you’re
more likely to get responses than if you had just distributed flyers or made a
commercial. And you’ll have done it for a lot less money.

While the process of learning about mailing lists seems more tedious than
helpful, you will find that this is a way to generate leads and business like no
other.