Marketing mailshot or telesales

[paul andrew]

Which way would you go mailshot telesales or both.
 
What would you put in your mailshot and how many pages.
 
How would you introduce your company on the phone
 
Is there anything that really annoys you in a mailshot or telesales calls

[Business Brian]

I'm actually planning a postal campaign at the moment - it'll include a letter on headed paper introducing ourselves, and then an A4 leaflet for our offers.
 
 The reason I'm planning that method is because a letter is basically a text advert, and a director or sales manager might not care to site and read much text at all. The limits of a postal campaign. However, a leaflet can show information in a very targeted visual manner. Even better, a leaflet can be passed around, and even a leaflet discarded on a table is still marketing for you to anyone who may happen to pass by and glance at it. A letter, being more personal, will not have that effect. Also - make a follow up telephone call in about 2 weeks about posting, to enquire as to whether there is any interest. If not at the moment, they have your details anyway.
 
 There are plenty of cheap printers around as well, so it shoul only cost me a couple of hundred pounds to actually get all the stationary printed, with postal costs on top. I'm actually intending to send out to small numbers of businesses ni a highly targeted way. I would rather not be inundated with business, especially as the majority of inquiries would almost certainly be about design, and I would rather not fuss too much over that aspect. My core business is SEO and internet marketing - bringing the traffic in. Design and webhosting I offer as sweeteners.
 
 Oh - and have you read some of the local marketing tips posted up on marketing? some good ideas there.

[bizal]

a couple of hundred quid for a few flyers!!! ooch for on average a less than 1% return. Ever thought of prospect profiles instead?

[Business Brian]

A few flyers? I can get 10,000 full colour A5 leaflets done for £99.
 
 1% return of that equals 100 sales - 1 sale equals a minimum of £500 in web design, hosting, and especially marketing - 100 x 500 = too much work for me to handle in just one month, which is why I'd send out in salvoes and work according to received response.
 
 But maybe you should start a thread on prospect profiles? Sounds like a topic worth discussing by itself - and I know you'll find it hard to resist.

[paul andrew]

A few flyers? I can get 10,000 full colour A5 leaflets done for £99.
 

Hi Brian
 
Any chance you can let me know where you get your flyers done.
 
Thanks
Paul

[paul andrew]

Has anybody had any dealings with  www.eldmedia.co.uk. They are offering to send out 14,000 postards out to my targetted customers for what seems a reasonable price. Whats your thoughts on this
 
Regards
Paul

[Business Brian]

Hi Brian
 
 Any chance you can let me know where you get your flyers done.
 
 Thanks
 Paul

 Try: www.impact-digital-print.co.uk
 
 

[paul andrew]

Try: www.impact-digital-print.co.uk
 

Thanks Brian, Nice website:)

[allsetnet.com]

a couple of hundred quid for a few flyers!!! ooch for on average a less than 1% return. Ever thought of prospect profiles instead?

We Know someone who spends a minimum of £1000 advertising, using these 'Flyers'.
He stated to us that, if he got few customers, he got his money back.
He never made a loss so far.
We are seriously considering this form of advertising now.

[JamesSmith]

Considered this ourselves recently.  Either e-mail or postal mail.
 
 With e-mail I feel we could be branded as spammers.  Postal is different however, may very well give this a try soon.

[Business Brian]

I've done some work helping out local printing companies - the people who use them for cheap leafleting seem to consider it a very worthy investment. Although there's a low hook rate, it's also low cost. And the more expensive your product, the more you could potentially gain from it.
 
 I should try and get my own leaflet design finished and take it in tomorrow - once my campaign starts proper I'll give good report of it - what was done, how it was targeted, where it succeeded, rate of return, etc. Hopefully a worthwhile guinea-pig experiment.

[bizal]

We Know someone who spends a minimum of £1000 advertising, using these 'Flyers'.
He stated to us that, if he got few customers, he got his money back.
He never made a loss so far.
We are seriously considering this form of advertising now.

Flyers like all advertising if it provides an ROI is good. The biggest problem we have seen though is the lack of affective targeting.
 
A good example of one of clients is as follows:
 
2,000 letters send out re support contracts (IT) result: less than 1% and a closer rate of 1:3.5 ish
 
We then managed to get profiled data and lots were sent out in 150 per time.
 
Result 12-14% initial response 42% with follow up call.
 
( closer rate will been known soon)
 
Interestingly the reduced cost of sending out the letters i.e. postage printing etc nearly paid for the increased price of the data.
 
This is all due to the fact that we send out letters to people who we new were looking to buy in the next 2 months. i.e. why send out a broadband flyer to people who have bought this service in the last 8 months?
 
Good luck

[Business Brian]

That is the big point - targeting.
 
 For example, when I send my leaflets out, I not simply going to target businesses because they are businesses - I am going to go through random sections of the Yellow Pages, see who doesn't have a website - or has a poorly built one. these are the people more likely to be thinking about needing my business internet services - the design, the hosting, and the marketing. Even if the rate isn't high, I figure it'll be higher than simply random mailing.

[allsetnet.com]

I do agree with Brian and bizal about the importance of effective targetting.

The big question is:- How do you achieve that?.
I already posted a thread asking the question.
If you consider those who appear to have an immediate need for your product, how do you know, whether these have already done their homework and decided to select others?.
If you decide not to include those who appear to have your product and have no immediate need, how do you know whether those are not considering to change suppliers?.
The topic is very complicated and there is no simple answer, however, it may help to follow certain guidelines/rules of thumb which I already asked for in my previous thread.

[Business Brian]

I think that's a big part of the marketing in the first place, though - you are never going to get a 100% conversion rate. Marketing is all about trying to get the highest rate of investment, which is often very dependent upon strategic targeting. But, ultimately, marketing is a form of risk - you never know if the marketing investment will pay off. That's why marketing has become such a high-powered business - people will pay a lot of money if you can ensure that the investment not only pays off, but also more than pays for itself.