Reach Your Best Qualified Prospects in Marketing fields

If you’re looking for an effective way to reach a highly specific and qualified audience, consider sending direct mail to the subscriber list of a well-targeted magazine. There are specialized business and consumer magazines to reach every audience imaginable. Unfortunately, the cost to run a good-size print ad with enough frequency for your message to penetrate in many of the national publications may be prohibitive. A great alternative–particularly for B2B marketers targeting specific industries or individuals based on their job titles–is to select a magazine that reaches your best prospects and rent its subscriber list for a direct-mail campaign. Some publications offer their lists as a combo buy along with advertising, and others make them available separately. Depending on how the list you choose is segmented, you may decide to mail to a portion of the list or all of it. Just be sure to mail at least two to three times to the same list for maximum results.

Marketing Communications

* Publish a newsletter for customers and prospects (it doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive). Develop a brochure of services.
* Include a postage-paid survey card with your brochures and other company literature. Include check-off boxes or other items that will involve the reader and provide valuable feedback to you.
* Remember, business cards aren’t working for you if they’re in the box. Pass them out! Give prospects two business cards and brochures – one to keep and one to pass along.
* Produce separate business cards/sales literature for each of your target market segments (e.g. government and commercial and/or business and consumer).
* Create a poster or calendar to give away to customers and prospects.
* Print a slogan and/or one-sentence description of your business on letterhead, fax cover sheets, and invoices. Develop a site on the World Wide Web.
* Create a signature file to be used for all your e-mail messages. It should contain contact details, including your Web site address and key information about your company that will make the reader want to contact you.
* Include testimonials from customers in your literature.
* Test a new mailing list. If it produces results, add it to your current direct mail lists or consider replacing a list that’s not performing up to expectations.
* Rather than sending direct mail in plain white envelopes, use colored or oversized envelopes to pique recipients’ curiosity.
* Announce free or special offers in your direct response pieces. (Direct responses may be direct mail, broadcast faxes, or e-mail messages.) Include the offer in the beginning of the message as well as on the outside of the envelope for direct mail.

Advertising for improving marketing sales

* Advertise during peak seasons for your business.
* Get a memorable phone number, such as 1-800-WIDGETS.
* Obtain a memorable URL and email address and include them on all marketing materials.
* Provide Rolodex® cards or phone stickers preprinted with your business contact information.
* Promote your business jointly with other professionals via cooperative direct mail.
* Advertise in a specialty directory or in the Yellow Pages.
* Write an ad in another language to reach the non-English-speaking market. Place the ad in a publication that market reads, such as a Hispanic newspaper.
* Distribute advertising specialty products such as pens, mouse pads, or mugs.
* Mail bumps – photos, samples, and other innovative items to your prospect list. (A bump is simply anything that makes the mailing envelope bulge and makes the recipient curious about what’s in the envelope!)
* Create a direct mail list of hot prospects.
* Consider non-traditional tactics such as bus backs, billboards, and popular Web sites.
* Project a message on the sidewalk in front of your place of business using a light directed through words etched in a glass window.
* Consider placing ads in your newspaper’s classified section.
* Consider a vanity automobile tag with your company name.
* Create a friendly bumper sticker for your car.
* Code your ads and keep records of results.
* Improve your building signage and directional signs inside and out.
* Invest in a neon sign to make your office or storefront window visible at night.
* Create a new or improved company logo or recolor the traditional logo.
* Sponsor and promote a contest or sweepstakes.