big-business marketing on a small-business · pdf filebig business marketing on a small...

BIG-BUSINESS MARKETING ON A SMALL-BUSINESS BUDGET

BIG BUSINESS MARKETING ON A SMALL BUSINESS BUDGET

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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JOIN THE DIGITAL GENERATION

WEBSITE

SOCIAL MEDIA

DIY DIGITAL?

SNAIL MAIL OR SALE MAIL?

DIRECT MAIL RETURN ON INVESTMENT

SIMPLIFYING DIRECT MAIL DELIVERY AND DESIGN

TEST, MEASURE. TEST, MEASURE. REPEAT

FIND YOUR SWEET SPOT AT THE INTERSECTION OF DIGITAL AND TRADITIONAL MARKETING

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BIG BUSINESS MARKETING ON A SMALL BUSINESS BUDGET At the speed of light (or close to it), digital marketing has leveled the playing field for small businesses competing with big businesses, turning marketing on its head and making it “do-it-yourself” and “free of charge.” Instead of asking, “How do I match their reach?” small businesses are using online tools and social media along with traditional tactics to challenge competitors with smart, targeted marketing practices.

The most successful small businesses learn how to leverage digital tools and tactics while retaining historically-proven tools, such as results-driven direct mail.

So, how can you find the sweet spot at the intersection of digital and traditional marketing?

JOIN THE DIGITAL GENERATION The online world offers a plethora of unique tools: from websites and blogs to social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. In addition to the most well known social media sites, there is an ever-growing list of choices with which to reach customers en masse at a negligible cost.

The question is where to begin?

WEBSITE Starting with a website serves two important purposes: 1) advertising and branding 2) increasing sales opportunities. The key is to build and maintain a dynamic site that lets users find what they need quickly and easily. Be sure to provide extras that make sense for your business and goals, such as product comparisons, calculators, industry updates, links to related information, giveaways, or how-to videos. Most importantly, make your site relevant and keep it fresh. Users come back to a website because they find it useful and they learn something new every time.

To drive traffic to your site, continually optimize the website to get to the top of the search engine results page. To begin, create an XML sitemap. There are many online tools that offer free XML sitemap generation such as www.xml-sitemaps.com. The service will scan your website and create the sitemap.xml file to add to the website. Make sure that the web link for the sitemap is http://www.yourcompany.com/sitemap.xml. This will enable search engines to find your site’s sitemap. If broken links are identified in the sitemap generation process, the specific URLs can be retrieved for a nominal fee, typically $5 to $10. Next, submit your website link for the XML sitemap to major search engines and indexes (Google, Yahoo, Bing and AOL). In a homebusiness.com article, Search Engine Optimization Tutorial, Randy Duermyer offers do-it-yourself tips for everything from selecting the right keywords and domain name to creating useful keyword content. “New content should focus on your targeted keywords whenever possible,” writes Randy. “Repeat your key words and related words in your text, but don’t overdo it to the extent where your content looks like spam, is grammatically incorrect or doesn’t serve its purpose.”


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SOCIAL MEDIA Web 2.0 defines social media as websites that don’t just provide information, but allow users to interact with the information. For instance, it asks for your comments, lets you vote on an article, or enables you to share information with a friend or colleague. The real power of social media is that as your customers engage with you; ultimately they become your spokespeople, promoting your company to their co-workers, friends, family and followers. By communicating about your company to the people who trust them, they are more likely to do business with you. When your customers communicate about your company to the people who trust them, the customer’s followers are more likely to do business with you.

It’s easy to get started.

1) Create a profile for your business on Facebook, post regularly and offer an incentive for users to “like” you. Here’s a tip: check out this step-by-step guide to create a “like” incentive tab on Facebook: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/create-like-incentive-tab-facebook-29079.html 2) Build a company page on LinkedIn and start networking. LinkedIn’s option for displaying the recommendation of “people you may know” is a great feature for expanding your connections and networking opportunities. Ask long-standing customers to write recommendations and testimonials on your products or services. Having an active group keeps users engaged and gains publicity for your business; be sure to involve your leadership team by getting them to follow and participate in group discussions. 3) Use Twitter to share industry updates, helpful facts and exclusive sales. Because Twitter is essentially a micro-blogging platform, you can let everyone know who you are and what your company does. The dynamics of Twitter are different than other social media platforms and there are some strategies you can implement to gain followers. Best practices suggest that you follow other users regularly, be an active contributor by tweeting and re-tweeting about other user’s posts often, don’t tweet on your page more than once every couple of hours or you risk the possibility of becoming annoying and lastly, don’t promote your company directly. Focus on industry specific topics that are interesting, post company announcements and updates and avoid the ‘salesy’ promotions and coupon offers.

Most importantly, spread the word:

• Add your website link to all literature, business cards, stationery, newsletters, press releases and publications.

• Include all social media icons/links to promote your pages on your website, business

cards, email signatures and any other outbound communications.

• Attract followers and gather email addresses through giveaways.

• Post your website on your building, on cars, at tradeshows, and on t-shirts.


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DIY DIGITAL? Should you do-it-yourself or splurge on a consultant? Before you call in the cavalry, recognize that there are many cost-effective, free, resources to help you join the digital age:

• Contact SCORE, a nonprofit association dedicated to educating entrepreneurs and helping small businesses get started, grow, and succeed across the U.S. This association offers online workshops and confidential business counseling services at no charge.

• Call a local college or university and offer a hands-on internship to a student studying digital marketing, web design, or social networking. Give them the opportunity to launch a website and/or introduce social media to your business. This will get you extra marketing help at no cost and will give the student the chance to take on a real-world assignment and build a résumé.

SNAIL MAIL OR SALE MAIL?Too often today, traditional direct mail is abandoned in favor of its far more glamorous counterpart; digital marketing. However, the data tells a different story; there’s no substitute for this results-driven workhorse.

Even in a world dominated by laptops and smartphones, regular, repeated mailings are a great way to drive results, especially when sent to carefully culled lists targeting a specific demographic. If your mail piece is good, it can demand attention from readers on a one-to-one basis. This gives you a shot at catching your prospects‘ interest without their finger being poised to click, as it would be when reading an email.


DIRECT MAIL RETURN ON INVESTMENT The proof is in the numbers: Zairmail, a direct mail services provider, illustrates the power of direct mail with the following example of ideal returns:

Number of pieces you will mail: 1,000

Total cost of the mailing: $550.00

Percentage of response you expect: 5.00%

Percentage of respondents you expect will buy: 50.00%

Amount each respondent will spend: $50.00

Number of responses: 50

Cost per response: $11.00

Number of buyers/donators: 25

Cost per buyer/donator: $22.00

Cost per piece: $0.55

Total revenue: $1,250.00

Return On Investment (ROI): 227%

Number of orders per customer lifetime: 6

Total lifetime revenue: $7,500.00

Total Return On Investment (ROI): 1,363% Source: http://www.zairmail.com/articles/Direct_Mail_Return_On_Investment_Tools.pdf

Direct marketing is an especially useful tool for small businesses because it allows you to:• Focus your resources where they are likely to generate the best results.• Speak directly to current and potential customers.• Track and measure the success of your marketing campaigns. • Test your marketing campaigns to see which ones work best.

All types of businesses use direct mail to acquire customers, retain customers and encourage sales. If you understand your customers and target your mailing effectively, direct mail can be a highly personal, highly successful form of marketing.

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SIMPLIFYING DIRECT MAIL DELIVERY AND DESIGNHow do you know how much to spend on a design? What if you don’t have the budget? The good news is that numerous companies, such as Microsoft and Xerox offer do-it-yourself direct mail templates. But, before you start sorting through all the different template choices, you must meet the 60/30/10 rule to be successful:

“The vast majority of your effort should first and foremost be focused on the quality of your mailing list,” says Marc Rubin, from software vendor Satori Software. “Data shows that 45 million people change addresses annually and approximately one out of every six families move each year.”

Some easy ways to get started on your mailing list:

• Find a reputable list broker to get highly-segmented lists with verified up-to-date addresses.

• Use local lists from trusted sources – new residents, associations and chambers of commerce.

Once you capture your list, manage it in-house to save money and ensure quality. If direct mail is a regular part of your marketing plan, consider using a digital postage meter. A meter can save you up to 5% over standard rates for Priority Mail or Express Mail and allows you access to commercial base pricing and other postal discounts.

Quality of Mailing List: 60%

Message/Offer:30%

Content/design: 10%


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TEST, MEASURE. TEST, MEASURE. REPEATLike any other marketing strategy, set goals and measure periodically to ensure you’re making progress. How many visitors is your website getting? How many click-throughs to pages, articles and links? Are you receiving more calls? More emails? More conversions?

To test, you need to mail to a list large enough to ensure adequate responses for accurately determining your response rate. A good rule of thumb is to test between 1000 and 5000 pieces to start. That way you will get a sufficient number of responses back from your mailing to determine what your response rate will be. Your response rate will vary depending on your product, industry, target market, and other factors, so no general rules apply. For instance, a sub-0.2% response rate is common in the credit card industry, whereas some nonprofit companies experience response rates as high as 50%. This should not discourage you; rather, it highlights the necessity of tracking your mailing’s response rate. If you fly blind, you will only have a vague idea of your campaign’s success; you risk losing money and wasting opportunities.

Tweak and test some more. Look at each tool separately, evaluate your return on investment, tweak again or move on.

FIND YOUR SWEET SPOT AT THE INTERSECTION OF DIGITAL AND TRADITIONAL MARKETINGIt doesn’t matter the industry or size of your business; a well-planned, well-executed marketing strategy made up of both digital and direct marketing techniques can drive traffic to your company, increase sales and give you an edge over the competition.

For more details check out this infographic: Recipe for Success: Discover why mixing Direct Mail with Technology leads to big results.

With today’s low-cost, no-cost options, the challenge is taking the first step. As mentioned previously, if you don’t have the budget to develop a website, try popular, free and easy-to-use social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Continue to use direct mail, taking advantage of free on-line templates and cost-effective, time-saving digital postage equipment.

The key is to start small and test one or two tactics, measure and adjust, and then add another.

With time and experience, you’ll develop unique digital and direct mail marketing strategies that work best for your business. Additionally, these strategies provide the best tactics to reach more prospects, more customers and win more business.

http://www.delivermagazine.com/2012/04/recipe-for-success-infographic


ABOUT NEOPOST USA Neopost USA, headquartered in Milford, Connecticut, is the American operating company of the Neopost Group, based in France. With its two flagship brands of Neopost and Hasler, Neopost USA parters with its customers to help them achieve higher levels of effficiency, control and value in their mailing operations.

Neopost USA is known for its broad line of mailing and shipping systems and mail support equipment, such as mailing machines, postage meters, folder/inserters, address printers, tabbers, mail sorting and tracking systems and mail center management tools. Its equipment and systems are supported by a combination of direct sales and a network of independant dealers providing sales, supplies and service to their customers.

For more information on Neopost USA, visit www.neopostusa.com

Follow us on Twitter: Follow us on Facebook: @NeopostUSA @NeopostUSA

9Neopost USA logo is a trademark of Neopost SA. All other trademarks and/or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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