Page 179 - Duct Tape Marketing

Duct Tape Marketing

you can start very small, test very quickly, and easily expand your efforts
when you have a winner.

My advice to almost every one of my clients is to start with direct
mail campaigns, focus on creating letters and offers that deliver a pre-
dictable response, and then—and only then—look to add other forms
of advertising to expand and enhance your message. It is unreasonable
to believe that a marketing message that does not pull any response in
a direct mail letter will fare much better in a half-page ad in a news-
paper. However, an offer that does well in direct mail will often also
do well in other forms of media.

Personalization Builds Trust
Another very compelling aspect of direct mail is the ability to

personalize each and every piece sent. You naturally start by person-
alizing an envelope with the recipient’s name and address, but other
forms of variable printing allow you to address specific industry needs,
provide geographic or neighborhood references, and list variables or
headline variables such as headache sufferers vs. back pain sufferers.

There really is no end to the ways that you can creatively craft and
personalize a direct mail piece to the point that it feels almost as though
you created that one mailing just for the person who received it.

The Perfect Testing Platform
Direct mail also offers the best opportunity to test and track

your advertising efforts. You can send as few as one hundred pieces of
mail and assess with a certain degree of accuracy whether you stand
a chance at meeting your lead generation goals. Further, you can
send a hundred pieces of mail to a member of five different mailing
lists, or with five different headlines or offers, and get an immediate
sense of which is the best. The low-risk, quick response, and low-cost
nature of this form of testing makes it the best place to start your
advertising efforts.

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