Old School and New School Coupons Come Together

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Coupons have been around for a long time. Recently, they have moved firmly into the digital world where a new generation of users are downloading them to computers and mobile devices.

In this week’s episode of the Duct Tape Marketing podcast I visited with Steven Gray of Money Mailer and Brent Dusing of CellFire.

Money Mailer is the clear leader in the direct postal mail coupon space with deliveries to over 190 million homes. CellFire is picking up steam delivering mobile coupons. The pair appeared on the show in part to promote a joint venture aimed at merging their specific mechanisms to the benefit of consumers and advertisers alike.

I think it’s a great move frankly. The mobile coupon market is still in the pizza and fast food world of the teen, but from my experience teens (especially teen girls – of which I’ve raised several) are pretty hot on coupons for stuff in the mailbox.

Marketers like Victoria’s Secret, Gap, Old Navy and some independent locals are finding that teens can be driven to their stores with good old fashion free stuff offered in the mailbox.

So I’m thinking that if Money Mailer can take that mentality and attract an advertiser looking for a younger demo and marry it with a mobile play – good stuff could finally occur in this space. Some ifs, but a good partnership.

This episode of the Duct Tape Marketing podcast is brought to you by att.com/onwardsmallbiz. Resources for the small business owner.

Mature Media Never Looked Better

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

With the rush to capitalize on the new media hype, don’t forget your older, wiser, more mature options.

Targeted direct mail, with a telephone follow-up and a useful, information rich, call to action is more effective now than ever.

The competition in the mailbox is pretty slim these days, so creating smart campaigns that take advantage of people’s lack of time and attention, but offer content, connection and perhaps, community is a very smart play today.

In the words of the Girl Scouts – make new friends, but keep the old – one is silver and the other gold.

If you’ve abandoned proven offline marketing strategies now is the time to consider coming back and taking full advantage of what integrating the two can do.

So, how are you kicking it old school with success these days?

Vertical Response adds multi channel tool

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

The race to be the biggest, baddest, boldest email marketing service is a grueling one. There are a handful of providers that do a lot of things right and would make a very good fit for most small business marketers.

So, the decision on using one over another usually lies in a detail or two. Is the interface simple, do I like the template, how do they report tracking, etc. Vertical Response, a San Francisco based service, has what I think is a pretty compelling competitive advantage. Vertical Response takes that position that email marketing is direct marketing and also offers traditional postcard marketing services as part of an integrated package.

Customers simply upload their artwork for a postcard and create a campaign based on their list and Vertical Response will send out a high quality postcard mailing via 1st class postal mail.

Small business marketers can greatly enhance their chances of building trust with prospects if they can deliver education based messages via email, snail mail and the telephone. The more integrated and, for the matter, the easier it is to do this, the more likely it is that you can adopt a systematic approach to marketing.

Try this out for a while. Create a list of 500 of your hottest prospects. Write a simple report that gives out some valuable tips related to your industry and then send an email, postcard and phone message inviting these prospects to simply come and get this free information. Do this 100 leads at a time (hint: Jigsaw) or 500 at a time, do this for six months and your business will take off.

The right list is a big piece of the puzzle

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Direct marketing pros will tell you that a great offer, sent to a lousy list, will most likely get lousy results. But finding great mailing lists is tough, particularly for the small business owner. Compiled lists from companies like InfoUSA are better than nothing, but often produce less than desirable results in terms of accuracy and freshness.

About a year ago I wrote about a start-up called Jigsaw. Jigsaw is out to solve the inaccurate, incomplete and out of date mailing list data problem by employing you to keep the list fresh. Jigsaw’s model for keeping their data records up to date, by offering users an incentive to add to and change records, is so successful they have built a user base of 350,000 members and a mailing database of over 7 million in a little more than a year. I think they might on to something.

Their service is perfect for the small business marketer as they can help you locate very hard to find B2B records and unpublished buyer names at a fraction of the cost of any service I have found. Phone verified leads from some boutique mailing list firms might cost $10-50 each, with Jigsaw, accurate names can be had for a $1 (or free if you contribute data to the list).

Jigsaw records come with mailing address, direct phone numbers and email addresses making them perfect for the kind of multi-channel, education based lead nurturing process that is the most effective way for a small business to market.

When you can successfully target your offerings to right people you can concentrate on working a much smaller mailing list with multiple touches and substantially increase your ROI and response.

Trick or Trust?

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

When it comes to direct mail letters, getting the envelope opened is a very big part of the game. I get asked often what should go on the outside of an envelope to get a prospect to open the letter.

As always part of that depends on the list. If this letter is being sent to a group of existing clients you many want to give some hint as to what’s inside.

If you are sending your offer to a list of suspects who don’t know you, I prefer a little mystery. Make the envelope as simple as possible so they are curious about the contents. I would test a plain white envelope with just return address. Don’t do as so many companies do and try to disguise the letter as some official IRS or bank business. This type of trickery may indeed get more of your envelopes opened, but by dubious means. What kind of message does that send.

Trust is the most important part of the small business marketing hurdle. Don’t prove yourself untrustworthy before you get a word out.

Putting Some Fun in Email Marketing

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

MailChimp is a very simple yet effective email marketing tool. It is a service that essentially allows you to easily create and send HTML emails to groups big and small.

They have take the work out this task and maybe even injected a little fun in the process. One of the core points of difference is their pay for what you send model. There is no monthly fee just a small fee per email actually sent.

No matter what your email marketing plans however, I do suggest you get and read their free 50 page email marketing guide called Designing, Coding and Delivering HTML Email. HTML email, email that looks like a web page, offers great impact but does come with its own set of challenges. This guide is one of the best I’ve uncovered that addresses those common challenges and gives you advice on best practices to get your email read and acted on.

Like all good software services they have a free trial. Go check them out. For many small businesses this could be the right solution.

My Secret Envelope Trick

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Standing out in the crowded mailbox is one of the chores facing any direct mail campaign.

I’m a big fan of the regular old direct mail letter in the regular old #10 regular envelope. Problem is, that delivery mechanism can be, well, regular.

One of my secret weapons (okay, not really so secret, just rarely used) is to employ the #12, not so regular, envelope. The primary difference is size. A standard #10 regular business envelope is 4 1/8 x 9 1/2 in size while a #12 is – 4 3/4 x 11. This little extra size allows your envelope to stand out and get attention, whether you are mailing a handful or thousands. It also allows you to include some oversized materials inside as well.

While they may cost a little more to buy, you can still use regular first class postage on them. I believe the extra attention, sales and appointments are worth the extra cost.

You can acquire #12 envelopes from most any office supply store, your local print shop or online printers such as Action Envelope.

Opt-In Email Deliverability Checklist

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Getting your opt-in email opened is one part of the equation, but you can’t get them opened and read if you can’t get them delivered.

Sparklist, an email marketing service provider, is offering a handy email deliverability guide, Opt-in Email Marketer’s Checklist for Inbox Delivery that features 10 very solid recommendations to help increase your email deliverability and identify service providers who care about fighting spam and working with legitimate marketers.

Notification of this white paper came from another service I like – White Paper of the Day – a daily email notification from DMNews promoting marketing white papers from a variety of sources.