Useful direct marketing tips to help you develop your marketing strategy.
Some of you may have heard that a prospect needs to be contacted by a business an average of 7 times before they will buy. In essence, what this relates to is that regular contact breeds familiarity, with which comes a feeling of trust, as they regularly come into contact with your business.
With this in mind, we have developed some tips to help you make that contact with your prospects, such that you will become implanted in their thoughts via different, interesting mediums.
Here is our 7 Touch Marketing Plan
- Direct mail – Contact new prospects by direct mailing, as it gets you past the gatekeeper, spam traps. Make your creative interesting, relevant and memorable. Stand out from the crowd by sending a little gift, as this is more likely to create a memory with the recipient. Email – Send regular weekly / monthly emails informing them of the latest industry news, breaking news, changes in legislation etc. Make sure you are the one in the know and you are the one to inform your customers first. Make any sales emails relevant to your customers.
- Telephone follow up – Follow up your initial contact with a telephone call. People are more likely to take your call if they remember you from recently receiving your literature, or from connecting on LinkedIn, visiting an event etc. Make the call interesting and not pushy, perhaps opening with reference to the gift you might have sent them.
- Social media – it may be Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ etc. however whichever social media you choose, do your research and make sure it’s where your ideal clients hang out and talk. Be the first to comment on the latest news, events or relevant topics. As for LinkedIn, join the groups where your ideal clients gather and contribute to group discussions. Ask questions, be helpful and establish yourself as the expert.
- Face to Face – get out there and get noticed! Networking, exhibitions and events are all great ways of getting your face out in the open. Go where people meet and make sure you create a great first impression. Dress appropriately, develop a short, informative but snappy “patter” (many networking events offer everyone a 30 second / 1 minute “pitch”) that will make you memorable, take lots of business cards and make sure they’re eye catching. Ensure any literature you have is relevant and up to date.
- Get known as an “aider” rather than a “pusher”. By this I mean take the attitude that you’re there to help people connect with others who can help them, rather than you’re there to get sales. This will build your reputation, as well as create an unpaid sales team from which you’ll find you get more referrals and with that, work will come!
- Organisations – find industry related organisations or websites where your ideal clients gather, participate and get involved with the industry and get noticed. Join where invited, then get involved, be helpful and establish yourself as the expert.
- Speaking Engagements – guest speaking at an exhibition or conference is a great way to build you reputation and publicise your business. Look for opportunities, otherwise create your own seminars!
In summary, the more you’re seen, either in person, online or via direct marketing, the more familiar you become to others and that builds the rapport that will bring with it more chances of success. Some things may take longer than others to come to fruition – you can’t expect the phone to ring constantly after only one networking event. As the saying goes….slowly slowly catchy monkey!
Finally, measure your results. If you are doing something that works, carry on doing it. If something isn’t working, consider changing it, however only if you have given it a fair shot.
We hope you found our 7 Touch Marketing Plan helpful and welcome any feedback.
