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I could start this article out by telling you how to generate leads during the summer slow down. But the summer is almost over and many printing companies start cycling up when school starts.
I could also start suggesting headlines for a direct mail postcard campaign, suggesting pain questions, offers, and calls to action.
I could tell you about how to put on a seminar to inform your prospects and customers about direct mailing services or designing things that are print ready or how to manage all the forms in a business.
I could suggest a telemarketing program that follows up your mailings by asking prospects if they saw your special offer. If they didn't you could tell them about it, ask them to place an order, or ask when they will be ready—all in direct sales mode.
I could tell you how to identify 10 prospects that you wish you could do business with and how to attack them in blitz fashion.
Sure I could tell you about any one of these, but wait…
I could tell you about a blitz style canvassing effort where office buildings are attacked with flyer handouts, free pads, coupons, and business cards that are dropped off.
I could easily write an article on each and every one of these, but the good editors of this magazine only allow me so much space.
A Many Splintered Thing
The point to this list is that marketing is made up of many, many, many, many things all working together. In fact, the activity above represents our marketing plan for the summer. Every day when I start my workday I start working on one of these action items, develop it further, carry out my responsibilities or manage the others, and move on to the next action item.
As a business owner my job is to market the business, to develop business, and to manage the respective activities that make up those things. Some I do myself, the rest I delegate. Everyone is a marketer. Everyone contributes to the marketing plan implementation. That is the mindset at our printing company, and should be at yours.
Now, since I said I could tell you about these things let me review some quick details about a few of them. Pick some that work for you and implement them. Only implement what you can do completely and what you can afford to do emotionally and financially.
Direct Marketing Seminar
You are an expert. That is your positioning in the marketplace. People like to buy from experts; they trust experts and have confidence in experts. Invite your mailing list recipients to a free seminar. Ask the local Chamber of Commerce to let you borrow a room. Bring in subs from Subway (I am not a paid endorser of Subway; it just works in an article). Give away a book as a hook to get people there. Offer a sign up sheet for a follow up appointment with you, and deliver your seminar. It's like making a sales call on 20 people if that many show up. The seminar can be anything related to your business that you are more an expert in than your prospects.
Direct Mail
Mail monthly, regardless of your volume or financial situation. Target smaller lists and mail to them consistently. Develop an order form to mail to vertical markets. We just did a mailing to 60 speakers and authors in Illinois. Find other vertical target markets. Mail to your Chamber of Commerce member list or other association list in your target market. Be relentless with mailings. Be consistent. Don't get hung up on the creative art, just touch prospects with something on a consistent basis.
Telemarketing
I haven't had great luck using telemarketing to get appointments, but I have had luck getting orders by following up on mailings. Questions like: "Did you see our latest offer?" and "Can we include you in it for this month?" will result in orders. Be creative. Don't be just like every other telemarketer that interrupts your client's dinner. These telemarketing calls are follow up calls, not first touch calls.
Canvassing
Canvassing is a term for walking through office buildings or from business to business, handing things out or dropping them off. These are not sales calls. Whatever you drop off should instigate a phone call. Use hooks; use freebies; leave business cards at all locations. Yes, a lot of buildings do not allow solicitations. You're not soliciting. You're dropping off information.
Top 10 Prospect Targeting
For as long as I have been in business, there have always been prospects that I wanted to do business with that, for one reason or another, I have not been able to get. In a slow period or even on a consistent basis, I personally meet with them to talk about marketing since that is my expertise. The conversation invariably turns into a printing conversation. I have even been able to turn marketing calls into paid marketing consultations where I end up with the printing business, too. They are paying me to take their printing orders—a double hit. As I tell our salespeople, someone will get an order from the big guys. It might as well be us. Now is the time to target the top 10 or top five that you have been wishing for.
All of these things work together. Marketing is all about the number of consistent "touches." That's another way of saying marketing is made up of many, many, many things. These are only a few of the components of a marketing formula. There are others that work. Add these to your list and don't stop.
Happy marketing!
Al Lautenslager is the president and owner of The Ink Well in Wheaton, IL. He is a certified guerilla marketing coach and a contributing columnist to entrepreneur.com, the online pversion of Entrepreneur magazine. He is co-author of "Guerilla Marketing in 30 Days" and author of "Kick It Up a Notch Marketing — 25 High-Impact Marketing Strategies for Printers." Contact him at: al@market-for-profits.com.
author: by Al Lautenslager