Digitisation and automation made it quick and easy to extend personal attention to anyone requiring it at the moment.
In the marketing world, however, the most common responses to businesses reaching out to customers through direct marketing and telemarketing is silence or a disconnect tone.
Reactions like these should NOT stop you from learning about direct mail marketing and telemarketing. Nor should you stop using these business strategies to your full advantage.
When done the proper way, direct marketing techniques, such as direct mail and telemarketing, can be quite effective at generating sales.
I think you’ll agree with me that the word “telemarketing” is an anathema to business owners and potential customers alike. As a business coach, I am here to share with you some direct mail and telemarketing strategies that can turn struggling direct marketing efforts into effective marketing tools which grow your business.
Direct Marketing
When it comes to direct mail marketing, the first step is to determine what type of campaign would best work for your business. I have come up with a list of steps you should follow to produce a highly effective direct marketing plan:
Start by choosing the most powerful benefit that customers receive from your product and build your message around that.
- Create an attention-grabbing headline. Tug at their heartstrings. Emotions, motivations, and goals are the most powerful tools you have in your toolbox.
- Form a sales message. Make use of that head-turning headline you made. Then, provide relevant information. Finally, motivate readers to move with a call to action. A call to action doesn’t have to just be words – brochures, order forms, or reply envelopes can be just as or even more effective.
- Build your mailing list. If possible, build your own – only you know who your customers are, after all. If you lack the time, I suggest purchasing an existing mail list from someone else.
- Compare the cost of mailing against cost per order.
- Test and improve your campaign and find out how you can improve your direct mail marketing plan.
Formulating your direct mail marketing plan using this system can help streamline your target market/s and your approach.
For instance, it will help you determine whether to target the local market or to go nationwide. It would also make it easier for you to send out your marketing materials to attract a new set of customers.
It’s also IMPORTANT to make adjustments as needed in order to obtain better results and to minimize the overall cost of your campaign.
Telemarketing
Similar to direct mail marketing, I have also come up with the necessary steps you should take in order to develop a successful telemarketing campaign.
While telemarketing may carry a negative stigma with it, it can be quite effective, provided that you:
- Start with a strong pitch, one that takes the most powerful benefit you can offer the customer and put it front and centre. You have seconds to convince customers to listen to you. Make them count.
- Set yourself a goal. Entering every sales call with a clear objective in mind keeps you focused for the duration of your call.
- Plan ahead. While conversations don’t follow a script you don’t have to go in blind. Prepare for this by devising a list of probable tangents, questions, and topics.
- Start off broad with general questions and get into the specifics as the call continues.
- Make sure to express that you appreciate the time they took to converse with you and give verbal cues to show you are paying attention
- Be an active listener. Listening – and by that, I mean making a conscious effort to hear and understand the customer, not just seeking out keywords. It is one of the most valuable skills anyone making a sales call can have.
- Be polite and courteous. NEVER make the person you are talking to feel manipulated or talked down to.
- Keep calm. And let the conversation flow.
If you feel like your telemarketing campaign is falling flat, one of the best ways to improve it is to simply ask. I suggest refining your campaign with an outsider’s perspective.
Talk to the people around you how they feel about telemarketing calls and take note of what they love and hate. Then, add your personal reactions to telemarketing as well. It’s a little thing which can go a long way towards crafting better approaches and plans.
Telemarketing can be intimidating to even the most hardened salesperson. But that doesn’t have to mean it has to be difficult.
These steps can be the difference between a successful conversion and a disconnect tone.
Direct mail marketing and telemarketing done right
Direct mail marketing and telemarketing don’t have to be a source of angst for you. Or for your customers, for that matter.
When executed properly, direct marketing initiatives can be a great tool for improving your business. It can help increase your visibility and bring in new customers.
I’ll help you learn how to improve your business using direct marketing strategies. I’ll also show you how to improve yourself as a business owner.
In my time doing business coaching, I have seen too many business owners who are simply out of their depth or who lack the skills to effectively run a small business.
If you feel like your business just isn’t working for you anymore, and you feel like something needs to change, set up a time to talk with me. I’ll help you learn to love your business again and get you moving back to where you want to go. Contact me now.
You can also discover more advice on how to improve your business when you purchase my new book, So… How’s Business?
In it, I discuss common pitfalls in businesses and business owners that I have observed during my years of experience as a Melbourne business coach. I also reveal the secrets on how to avoid these pitfalls. These can help you learn how to make money and build a better lifestyle.