10 commandments for success in bulk email direct marketing

Is the only way to find a solution to your problems in advertising - ask your buyer. This - the ultimate truth.
Claude Hopkins

First commandment. Do not use the term "direct marketing" in vain.

This, however, and not so simple. As already mentioned, many people associate the direct marketing of transfers of information, confusing it with direct mail advertising. Others believe that it is - advertising with direct feedback. There are also an inventor who invented a name like "conversational marketing" or "marketing based on a database.

In fact, (I repeat once more), direct marketing - one of the species or, more accurately, marketing techniques, involving the operation by which you go to a consumer or potential customer directly, or whether it goes directly to you.

The challenge is to establish direct personal relationships with customers.

The stronger the relationship will be, the better for you. Short-term action without a specific targeted strategy ultimately doomed to failure.

Second commandment. Create your own database.

Some experts believe that the meaning of bulk e-mail marketing - creating a database of their customers. This approach is somewhat simplistic, but without reliable information and its effective use of success is not achieved.

It should apply to databases sober and do not pay attention to the many theories proliferated in recent years. What is a Database? - Just ordered list of names and occupations of your customers with the associated information, embodied in the computer memory. Through this, you can always get in touch with people. Related information includes information about the age of clients, place of residence, frequency of purchases, amount spent, the nature of shopping, etc.

For example, if I know that my client's family of six people, including four children, then it is better to offer a car-type "Range Rover", not "Porsche". When the car is already there and the client's income is large enough, I will likely offer him one and the other.

Commandment Three. Remember about positioning.

Positioning is a very important factor for successful work and the correct orientation.

Take, for example, a credit card. Her appearance was preceded by a positioning in the market, showed that people appreciate a novelty as a prestigious facility in the field of commerce and fun.

Both motives are reflected in distributed worldwide letter-advertising, beginning with the words: "Frankly speaking, this card does not everybody can afford."  The phrase has remained unchanged for 13 years.

For some time we have conducted a campaign of travel, and her motivation was the thought of an excellent opportunity to travel with comfort. We have focused on describing the luxurious and comfortable environment, only listing the residence.

However, studies have shown that future tourists showed more interest in it to the places of residence, rather than for comfort. And only when the potential they have turned into real tourists, the conditions of travel comes to the fore. This discovery was made possible by information about how to perceive the service potential and actual consumers. It has influenced and changed the positioning of advertisements.

Fourth Commandment. Know the true value of the consumer and invest accordingly (no more, but not less).

One day we visited the director of marketing for one of the well-known companies. We showed him the advertisement of our client. It advertised bag with numerous pockets, which is in great demand.

Soon, a former guest himself began offering a similar bag, but ... for half price. He knocked our product from the market at one stroke. Why? Yes, because he did not try to short-term rewards. He knew how to bring him each customer over time, if he wanted him for a long time. So he set himself the task of "recruit" customers affordable price. Our client is sought only for immediate profit.

Correct tactics can be developed only on condition that you have any idea how much the consumer is able to pay within a certain time. Otherwise, your actions are like buying a pig in a poke. "

The Fifth Commandment. No good deed goes unpunished. Respect your customers.

When Joe Dzhirda, himself a successful car salesman in the world, was asked how he does, he replied:

"I understand that by signing a deal to sell the new machine, I can take credit for and following a deal with the same customer."

Best consumer - the one that you already have. New cost you four, six, even ten times more expensive. After all, with a good product your customer will always be satisfied. Why should he bother? No good deed goes unpunished.

Research in the U.S. showed the reasons for which consumers stop shopping:

4% - moving to another place, or death,
5% - friendships or family ties with people from other companies,
9% - competition,
15% - dissatisfaction with the quality of goods
68% - lack of contact with the seller and his indifference to the consumer.

Thus, the vast majority turns away from you simply because of what they think - you're ambivalent. They think that you do not care. Как быть? What to do?  One way out - often to write to their customers.

And really, how many letters should be made available in a year? To answer this question, let us imagine the following.  You find a potential buyer, persuades him to become your customer, and he suddenly out of a stranger becomes your personal friend. How often do you write to your friend? Наверное, не реже двух раз в год. Probably at least twice a year.

If you see something new - an idea, proposal, product that might interest the person - tell him about the letter. Further depends on how often you get something new.

Sixth Commandment. Testing. Used it relentlessly.

You do not want to spend money on testing? You and so you know everything? - Then you better not engage in marketing.

Should I worry over choosing the new name of the goods and services? - Worth! And the pain - this is the test that is able to increase business results in an average of 30%. Only by testing, research, you can:

Are you familiar with a simple technique that requires no special investigations? You make two announcements about your product with different advertising messages in the header. At the end of each text you are offering a free sample products. Then you publish an advertisement in a newspaper or magazine, while part of the circulation comes with one headline, while another part - with the second. That announcement, which caused more requests for a free sample, and will be most successful.

Try to formulate a treatment that would not only persuasive but also unique.

Seventh Commandment.  Search for new technologies and come upon them!

In the good old days, postage, addressed to the buyer, have improved its response to such an extent that sales increased respectively by 50 and even 100 percent. Today, technology allows everyone to send letters without much difficulty.

. Since 1960, the amount of memory operating systems of computers has grown at about 20 000 times, and their speed - in one million times. Technique and Technology of miracles. In the U.S., for example, a magazine for farmers, "Farm Journal" is produced segmented circulation. Farmer, specializing in breeding of dairy cattle on one side of the road, as it receives a log, but the farmer, who lives opposite and the leading beef cattle, get another, different from the first .  This was possible due to the database.

I am a layman in technology. I do not know about, even in devices such as a switch, let alone a computer for me and did a mystery. Nevertheless, I try to understand what it means many things for my client. New equipment and technology pushing the limits of knowledge.

Eighth commandment. Do not miss opportunities - for that bear a flexible budget.

If you know how much you can get from a client for some time (roughly speaking, how much it costs), then based on the number of buyers, which you can attract to your product (at an acceptable cost), you can construct your budget. If your business can attract new customers at a cost of 50 to 50, spend as you wish. If you have enough money, do not limit yourself to a predetermined budget.

Ninth Commandment. Know your real and likely buyer. In order to know better - have resorted to research.

Jerry Hasinger, a brilliant expert from the United States in the establishment of new funds, once said: "I do not know why people respond to calls to form a new fund, and to know that I do not want."

 It was thought at one time and me. Однако заблуждение прошло. However, confusion has passed. We must know why people respond to this or that proposal. Even more important to know why they did not respond.  Understanding can be achieved only through research. To this end, we created a whole department and invested in a lot of money.

Often the desire to enter the direct contact with the buyer through direct mail advertising can result in that letter to a client flying in his garbage can. ПThis occurs because of the fact that we do not know anything about the recipient, his interests, his lifestyle, thinking. Therefore, our letters are not read with interest, but annoying, like an uninvited guest.

What? Conduct research. After receiving the answer, again enjoy a researcher. If you answered 12%, to ensure your future, you must show the greatest interest to the remaining 88% - those who have not responded.

The principle of "yes / no" was developed smart guys in the magazine "Reader's Digest" when they started thinking about the question of why some readers will respond, but others do not. And also on the fact whether we can make our respondents who did not respond. How? - Provide the right choice by the readers!

Proceed. There are people who say "yes", and there are those who answer "no". And if you try to convince those who say "no" to change the answer to "maybe" and then try to offer them your product? And it works! Similar successful solutions appear because you have to think about your customers. And so your thoughts do not wander in the empty space - research is needed.

Tenth Commandment. Use direct marketing in all cases.

It is believed that bulk email direct marketing - a special case and should not be confused with other areas of our business. Это наивная и устаревшая точка зрения. This is a naive and outdated view.

How worried and busy people trying to make an authoritative name of your company! How much they invest in advertising to achieve this. And when it comes to e-mail advertising, the same people send carelessly printed, poorly drafted letter cheap. Is it worth to spend money on nothing?

However, consumers are taking it anyway. For them the letter - the same person of the company. Approximately 70% of recipients of mail pieces recall its content for almost nine months. Is capable of doing TV commercials? After three months of receipt of mail pieces determination of people to opt for a proposed (and very expensive) services grew by 248%, compared with those who did not receive mail messages.

In other words, direct marketing has tremendous power of persuasion. If you are aware of that, once a home is your goal - to provide credibility for the future. Then you will use direct marketing in all areas of your business life. And not just with consumers but also with suppliers and, most importantly, with your own staff. You will use direct marketing and for small transactions, and for major operations.

Until you understand that direct marketing is directly related to all that whatever you do, a major success, you will not get.