Direct marketing is, in my opinion, by far the most effective means of advertising available to almost any small business. There are unending ways in which direct marketing can be conducted, but all successful campaigns have several things in common.  First, you must target the audience most likely to be interested in what you have to offer. Second,  you must understand what that audience needs and how any products or services you offer can fulfill their needs. Third, you must tell them how you are going to solve their problems better than any other option out there. Fourth, you need to provide clear reasons to respond right away. And finally you must provide clear instructions on exactly what they need to do right now to benefit from your offer.

Most business people who are aware of direct marketing think of it in terms of long hype filled letters that they have received for some particular product or service. However, not all direct mail is like that. Direct response mailing for professionals needs to be considerably more… well professional in it’s presentation. In my opinion the most lucrative use of direct mail is for businesses that can use it to pull in customers or clients who will use their services over and over again.

Business to consumer is the most traditional use of direct mailings. However, business to business may well be the most valuable form of direct mail. When mailing to consumers there is often a focus on making an immediate one time sale as opposed to using the approach to develop a relationship. In a business to business direct marketing approach you are much more likely to be interested in finding new long term clients,  rather than making a quick sale.  In this situation the effectiveness of your mailing is not measured in immediate sales, but rather in long term clients or customers who may pay you many thousands of  dollars over a period of years.

So here is my story of the six figure direct mailing I did. The health care industry was in a state of severe upheaval and change. Managed care had wiped out or severely hurt many psychologists in private practice. I was one who suffered these times.  Now I only do a very narrow specialty that does not rely upon insurance companies at all. However, back then I was, like many others, entirely dependent upon insurance companies for my income. The problem with insurance companies was not only poor pay, but an incredible amount of work needed to even get paid by them.  You needed a billing specialist just to deal with the companies on a daily basis.  Traditional referrals from other health care providers became problematic due to the complexity of the insurance situation.

For some years I had been very gradually  transitioning  to  working  in rehabilitation centers and long term care facilities, because I had experience in those populations and knew that once I was able to get a contract with such a facility I would have  a steady flow of referrals and a much less complicated billing situation. However, I had always wanted to maintain a traditional outpatient office as long as it was financially viable. Managed care made it no longer viable for me in a very brief period of time. I decided that I needed to close my office and move to a full time consultation practice.

However, in order to make that change I needed to get a number of contracts with facilities, and I needed to get them as fast as possible. Complicating the situation was an explosion in relatively large companies marketing to these facilities claiming that they could better serve their needs than individual professionals such as myself. In reality these companies were often no more than glorified marketing and billing services for local practitioners whom they hired for a percentage of the profit. However, they had full time marketing people and slick presentations to try and take every facility they could get. Once they got a contract any practitioner who had worked there before either had to come work for them or lose all the business from that facility.

I knew from experience that the people who really understood the situation in such facilities were the social workers. While the big companies were marketing to the corporate people or facility administrators, the social workers were the ones who had to deal with the services they provided on a daily basis. I knew that may social workers were quite disillusioned with the quality of services these companies provided and also had the behind the scenes power to influence the administrators who made the decisions on contracts. But how would I find the social workers who had a real need to make a change in service providers? It would be impossible for me to call them all and go to meeting after meeting to find the ones that might be receptive to me.

Direct response mail was my key to success. I  made a large list of facilities in my geographic area,  knowing that I only needed a very small number of contracts to fill my schedule. I created a very professional   letter addressed  to the head of social services in each facility. I laid out my experience and credentials. I discussed the problems they likely experienced using the large companies that I was competing with, and my main selling point was that they would have a direct line of communication with me as person who provided the services. I also made it clear that I currently had a number of contracts and was only looking for a few more to fill my schedule. I strongly, but very politely, suggested that they contact me right away if they were in need of my services.

I sent out the letters all in one mailing and had no idea if I would even get one response. The next several days were very anxiety producing. I waited and hoped. Within one week I had enough responses to fill my schedule and ended up turning down contracts. I had gone from a very difficult situation to a very secure situation with one letter! I continued to service those facilities for many years and made hundreds of thousands of dollars as a result of that one letter. I continued with many of  them until I decided to no longer to that work. It was actually a sad day for me when I quit doing that kind of work as I had made many friendships with facility staff members. That one letter was the most effective marketing tool I have ever used! You may be able to do something very similar if you follow a similar approach in your  business niche.
 

The first thing the salesman did is to try and divert us into buying a new Ford version of the type of car we were considering. Rather than accept we had no interest in that car, we had to endure the sales pitch before he would take us to look at the car we came to see.  That  was the first mistake that made it much less likely I would want to buy from him.  He seemed unmotivated to take us to see the car we wanted to see, I suspect because his potential commission was not as much.

However, the thing that really made me certain I would not buy from them was his response to a question I asked. I recently bought a 10 month old Ford F-150 from a  Chrysler dealership where a friend works. I had gotten a great deal on  a very nice truck. However, I had been unable to figure out how to use one particular feature of the navigation/audio system.  Being that the I bought it from a dealership that did not typically sell  Fords, I had been thinking that I would stop by a Ford dealership the first chance I got to ask someone who would probably be able to explain to me what I needed to do,  or tell me if there was a problem.

I mentioned to the salesman I had a question that maybe someone there could answer and briefly explained the problem .  His first response to me was  "Where did you buy the truck?" When I told him that I had gotten it at a Chrysler dealership he showed absolutely no interest in helping me locate someone at his dealership that I could speak with about the problem. He just insisted I needed to go back to that dealership to ask them about the issue. Amazing! It would have taken him maybe a minute to point me in the direction of someone there whom I could ask about the problem since it was a Ford vehicle, but he wasn't interested in making the effort to do even that. He essentially was taking the "not my problem" approach. He then went on to try and sell a car to my wife. What he did accomplish to was make absolutely certain we will never buy a car from his dealership!  He was an amazingly lazy and short sighted salesman. Remember this story the next time someone asks you about something that might not make an immediate sale for your business.

Right now we have three major players in the internet  services arena- Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. It would be a travesty if Microsoft was able to buy their way into a two way fight with Google. I am relieved that Yahoo has rebuffed them for now, but I remain concerned as Yahoo obviously has some real business problems. I hope that they invest in innovation to compete with Google and force the bar higher for first class service to internet users. That can only be  good for individuals and small businesses. However, if  Microsoft had been able to buy their way into a two way fight with  Google the tactics they would use  to compete would  likely to have little to do with innovation or service to the community.

Well done Yahoo!

 Does that sound a little strange to you? Doesn't  it make sense to accept business from anyone who is willing to give you money? In my opinion the answer to that question is clearly NO! In business there are short sighted approaches to increasing the cash flow, and accepting anyone as your customer is one of them. Most people would agree that using misleading tactics to manipulate people into buying from you is not a good way to run your business. However, many  otherwise rational business owners think that they "can't afford" to turn down the business of any willing customer. This is a particular temptation when just starting a business and the cash flow is tight. However, the risk to the long term success of the business is greatest just at that time.

 So  why would you be choosey in accepting customers to your business?  One answer is obvious to anyone who has ever run a business. There are always a small number of people who can't afford your  services, but that doesn't stop them from trying to buy from you. The mortgage crisis of 2007 -2008 is just the result of the banking industry going right down that road with sub-prime borrowers.  For some reason they thought that they could make a quick profit on a very risky customer group without it coming back to bite them. In doing so they have contributed greatly to taking  down the entire economy into what looks like a recession.  If it weren't for the ripple effect on the rest of the economy it would just be their just rewards. Some small businesses take just such risks with questionable customers. If you accept customers who will require you to  go to collection agencies to  get your money, it is likely to be a very poor business decision for you.

 Another group of  customers who many business owners will avoid are those that are seen as "problem"  customers.  You know the ones. They complain about everyone and everything in their lives. Nothing you can do will meet their unrealistic expectations of what you (and the rest of the world)  owe them. Often times this type of customer can be identified by their angry demeanor and complaints about other competitors in your industry. If you spot them early it is best to pass them by and let someone else deal with the headaches.  While they may be well able to pay you, working with such people is likely to be a nightmare not worth experiencing for most business owners. The art here is identifying them as early as possible so you can make a decision. The hard part is knowing how much of their complaints about  your competitors may be  actually accurate and  presents an opportunity for you. Being aware of the reputations of others in your  business can help greatly in this regard.

 The customer groups above are easy for most businesses to let pass by. However, there is another group of customers that you need pass on as well. These are the customers for whom your products or services will not meet their needs.  Many businesses take the approach that it is the customer’s responsibility to decide what to buy,  and the business owner tries to sell as much as possible to any willing buyer. This strategy is very short sighted and destructive to the growth of your business. If you sell something to a customer who is ultimately disappointed with you,  they are likely to place the blame on you, whether that is justified or not. It is much better to tell someone up front that you don't think your offerings can meet their needs than to make a sale that is destined to disappoint the customer.  The  best way to avoid this situation is to clearly describe your products or services without the excessive hype that dominates much advertising. Tell them clearly what you provide so that they can make an informed decision. It is even better if you can talk about their needs to see if what they think they want will actually do what they are seeking.   You many find that some other product or service you offer may better meet their needs, or maybe you can't meet their needs at all.  If you can't meet their needs then it is always best to try and refer them elsewhere. Many times this will result in future sales to them when what they may need is better suited to your business.

With all that said I have decided to make a committment to myself to begin a more regular schedule of postings to this blog. The topics are entirely based upon what I feel like writing about and it is likely some will be general marketing and others related to internet marketing.  While  I don't consider myself a newborn in internet marketing, I think I am an adolescent in that area. I still have much to learn but have spent a lot of time and money learning from some of the best minds in the business.  I think I now have a pretty good grasp of the realities of internet marketing and it isn't that different than marketing on the street, just different tips and techniques. In contrast to my adolescent status in internet marketing, I consider myself a veteran of real world marketing of a small business in the community. I have learned a lot  about  OnStreet (as opposed to Online) marketing over the past 20 years.  In my opinion many of  the principals are the same regardless of  whether you are marketing your business in your neighborhood or worldwide on the web.

I am turning on the ability to comment on my postings here and I hope you do so. However, all comments are moderated to avoid spammers and other people with nothing meaningful to contribute to a discussion.  I encourage you to make comments and ask questions as you wish. Thanks!

Eric

No matter what the media, nothing happens unless you attract the attention of prospective buyers. This a foundation of the successful marketing of any business. In internet marketing this concept is often evaluated by the traffic that you receive to your web site. However, the factors that determine how much traffic you can generate are only somewhat related to the actual content of your web site. The amount of traffic you can generate to  your web site comes down to how skillful you are at the  two fundamental ways one gets attention in any media. You can earn it, or you can buy it.  

On the internet earning your traffic  results in you being found in what are called the “free” or “organic” search results on the major search engines such as Google, MSN, and Yahoo.   When your prospective customers do a search on terms of interest to them using one of the major search engines they will be presented with a list of  web pages found that the search engine believes is the most relevant to them. These are the “free” or “organic” results. They will also see ads, but that will be discussed below. Many people are under the assumption that the highest raking results they get on a search engine are the “best” in some way.  In this game it really is winners take all! If you are not on the first page of results the attention you attract is greatly diminished. In fact, if you don’t make it to the second page of results, then you often might as well not even be in the listings at all because folks usually won’t search past the second  page at most. This type of web site marketing is often referred to as “search engine optimization.”  You can hire a search engine marketing firm or learn how to do it yourself. Winning at this game  is not rocket science, but it is part science and part art that requires a constant work  and attention to maintain your success.

Buying your traffic on the internet is usually done by purchasing some form of advertising from someone who already has high traffic to their web site or email contact list. The most widely used forms of advertising are the banner advertisement and text advertisements. Banner advertisements were all the rage when the internet first became popular. However, their  effectiveness diminished greatly to a point where many people began to see them as a waste of money. However, they can be used effectively as long as you have a plan and clearly track your return on investment.  More common now are text advertisements which were largely brought  into the forefront by Google. You can see Google text advertisements on their search results pages and on millions of individual web sites across the internet. If you want to generate traffic fast,  and are willing to  pay the money to do so,  text advertisement are the most popular method.  Google, MSN, and Yahoo are the major players in this market, but Google is still clearly the big dog in this pack.

As you can see your web site marketing strategy must first be focused on getting attention. Attention first requires that someone is exposed to your message. You can earn the exposure, you can buy it, or like many businesses you can do both.  Earning the attention is a long term focus and requires skill and consistent commitment of resources. However, it pays off almost indefinitely and likely much cheaper in the long run than buying it. Buying the attention is much faster to get results and allows you to test ideas without committing the resources to earn attention. Any comprehensive web  site marketing strategy is likely to include both methods.

Most people are aware that Google offers a free keyword suggestion tool that can help you find keywords that are relevant to your business. Keyword research is fundamental to almost every aspect of internet business. If you fail to pay attention to this very basic aspect of internet marketing then you are almost certain to struggle in your business. The keyword suggestion tool can be found easily by doing a search for “Google keyword suggestion” and going to the google page at the top of the search results.

The next very powerful tool is their site analytics software. You need an Adwords account for this one, but it is an amazing tool that tracks visitors to your site. This tool allows you see a wealth of data about how they found you and whether they are converting to customers and/or leads on your site. Similar software costs hundreds of dollars and is not nearly as user friendly and powerful. Using this software is an absolute must for any serious webmaster.

Last, but by no means least, is their suite of tools appropriately call webmaster tools. This is a collection of tools to allow you to find out many things such as how many  pages you have in their index, any problems with your pages,  and most importantly a very detailed list of the pages on the internet that link to you.  This list is the heart of understanding why you do, or do not, rank for search terms of interest to you. In my opinion this is the most valuable tool that Google could have ever created and is a relatively recent addition to their offerings.  Simply said, it rocks!

The most convenient way to be able to monitor the page rank of your site, and any others that interest you, is to start using the Firefox web browser. I have included a link below which gets you a FREE copy of Firefox with the Google Toolbar installed. Firefox is one of the most powerful free tools you can use for monitoring the success of your internet marketing efforts. I works on Windows and Macintosh equally well. There are numerous extensions you can add to it in order to do things not possible with either  Internet Explorer or Safari. I suggest you get it now!

Here is where you can get the Firefox with the Google Toolbar installed to view page rank of any site!

The quality of the screenshot images rendered by the google video service I used to present this presentaion was not good enough to clearly show a PageRank green bar in the firefox browser. Here are two images that should give you an idea what the PageRank bar looks like. PageRank is shown in a small green bar just above the top of the page displayed in the browser next to another label that says "bookmarks."