MSP Marketing Blog

These Costly Mistakes Will Tank Your Direct Mail Results

Most dabble and sloppily, hastily put their campaigns together – but direct mail is NOT a media you want to be careless about due to the work and costs you’ll put in. Better to invest the time in getting it really, really right and dialed in before you launch. Read full article and comment →

An Often Overlooked Marketing Method That Can Make You Millions

This week and next, we’re taking a look at a marketing topic I know really well AND have made millions from: direct mail.

Yeah, I know. Pfui. I just lost about 80% of the readers who saw “direct mail” and went back to scrolling Facebook or Instagram. So sad. If only cat memes put money in the bank…

I consider myself extremely fortunate to have learned direct marketing for prospecting and making sales early in my career, when social media, paid searches and even e-mail weren’t what they are today because direct mail is an excellent disciplinarian.

Get it wrong, and you can lose a considerable chunk of money fast; but, of course, if you get it RIGHT, you’ll have a media to play in that your competitors are too cheap, too lazy and too shortsighted to use.

So first, a SHORT list of the primary reasons why you want to use direct mail in your marketing mix:

• It allows you to reach a prospect that cannot be reached in any other way.

This is a BIG one. Some prospects will never be reached by social media (they aren’t on it), e-mail (you don’t have their e-mail or permission to e-mail them, they’ve opted out, filtered you, etc.), referral (no connections to them), paid search (they might *not* be looking at all right now, or using that medium), canvassing (the gatekeeper isn’t letting you in) or even organic SEO (they aren’t searching actively, and if they WERE, you’re now competing against everyone else).

• It has a MUCH more reliable delivery rate than e-mail.

Delivery, open and response rates are in the toilet for e-mail and are getting worse. You’re lucky if 20% of your e-mails actually make it through, which means 80% of recipients NEVER SAW YOUR COMMUNICATION. If you take the right steps, you can confidently get 99% to 100% of your direct mail delivered.

• It is a TRUSTED media.

E-mail, online ads and even “cold” telemarketing calls have a very low “trust” factor, particularly with people who don’t know you and have no relationship with you. NOTE: This is not to say you don’t use those media; all things being equal, an e-mail and follow-up call can surge response 10X when PRECEDED by a direct mail piece.

• It triggers a deeper level of emotional response.

A study conducted by Bangor University showed that the PHYSICAL materials (direct mail and other printed marketing) generated more activity in the brain, thereby making a deeper, more lasting impact.

These benefits can have a huge impact to your bottom line…when you do direct mail RIGHT. It DOES take extra planning, effort, and of course, money. So be sure to come back next week when I’ll discuss the six most common mistakes I see happening and advise you on how to avoid them.

When Is It Good To Scare Your Customers And Prospects?

Halloween is upon is, as is my final installment of scary business stories. This week is a lesson in spooking your own clients. Because the need for IT services can be easy to shrug off until you’re faced with disaster.

A force of nature hits and they’re not properly backed up. A “ghost” clicks a link in a phishing e-mail (because no one ever wants to admit they did it).  Michael Myers goes digital and hacks their network. Read on the for the “Tale Of The Sales Call Coming From Inside Your Business.”

People who think opportunistically get a bad rap – but EVERY tragedy carries with it big opportunity, and there are two sides to every coin.

As an IT firm, YOU benefit every time a new ransomware attack makes headlines, a new regulation goes into effect for data protection or a vendor announces they’ll discontinue support for their software (Windows 7).

But do you quickly do everything you can to capitalize on the opportunity such tragedies and problems may present? Read full article and comment →

4 Ways To Keep Your Marketing Out Of The Graveyard

What does every SMART marketer dream of? An offer so good it brings in quality clients in droves.

I recently received a piece of mail that came SO CLOSE, but, alas, their campaign fell short of what it could have produced. This week I share with you the “Tale Of The Dead Marketing Campaign.”

The postcard was mailed in an “invitation”-type envelope from our local Bentley dealer. I’m assuming they got my name from a visit to the dealership a few years ago, or perhaps targeted by zip code for high-end homes. The offer is a good one: they’ll give you a Bentley to test-drive for two days. VERY smart.

However, I called and left a voice mail and e-mailed them my interest but never received ANY follow-up, as in ZERO.

This is such a waste, it’s painful. As a marketer, I know all too well how damned difficult it is to get prospects to respond, so you HAVE to be ready with fast, aggressive sales folks who will take those calls and follow up, follow up, follow up. Inbound leads are tiny sparks of interest that need to be fanned, nurtured and fueled carefully like smoldering kindling when building a fire. Read full article and comment →

Are You Scaring Away Potential Clients With These Mistakes?

As a lover of Halloween and all things spooky, my favorite time of year is here. But there are things that truly frighten me, like bad business practices. So gather ‘round for the “Tale Of The Lost Prospect.”

Often we’ll get this e-mail from a member: “I ran the X campaign and got Y leads, but none of them closed and they’re all thinking it over. What can I do to get them to buy?”

Tough question. The true answer is to get in a time machine and go back to the beginning of the sale and not screw it up.

The “I need to think it over” response is code for “I’m not certain about buying from YOU.” Not price, not terms, not anything, although that is the way a prospect will articulate their reason for not buying. Or they’ll simply tell you they need to think it over and then proceed to ignore your calls and e-mails.

Once you’ve met with and quoted a prospect, it’s enormously difficult to UNDO their opinion of you. Certain judgments have already been formed and an aggressive follow-up can make things WORSE by making you appear needy and desperate, pushing a prospect further away. Read full article and comment →

Five List Management Tips That Will Make Your Marketing And Your Business More Valuable

Last week I revealed to you that the secret to above average results in your business is the care, development and management of your list. Now that you know the secret and you’ve had some time to think about it, you’re probably wondering what you can do to make your list a true asset.

Here’s a quick list of disciplines for list management that you might post up somewhere as a reminder to you and your marketing team:

1. GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE STAYS. Someone needs to own the cleaning, updating and segmenting of every new lead that comes into your organization. This is especially true if you’re doing a lot of marketing and generating any significant number of leads. Otherwise your list will be full of duplicates, spam, not-right-fit prospects and other useless contacts, giving you false numbers, slowing down your sales team and clogging up all marketing efforts.

Read full article and comment →

This Is The Single Most Valuable And Important Marketing Asset In Your Organization

Harken unto me as I reveal THE secret shared by highly successful entrepreneurs, sales professionals and marketers that is completely missed by the masses. This IS the difference between businesses that enjoy above-average results and even extraordinary success and the vast mediocre majority. What is it?

They are obsessed with the care, development and management of their LIST.

Without a doubt, your list is the single biggest asset in your business. If you were to sell your company, what is the buyer REALLY buying? Your software licenses? Your employees? Your office furniture? Nope. They’re buying your CUSTOMERS, which is another way of saying your “list.” The more productive a relationship you have with your list – specifically how responsive they are to you – the easier, more lucrative, more stable your business becomes.

But is YOUR list an actual asset? Read full article and comment →

Critical Strategy For MSP Sales Success: Negative Preparation

From sales expert Jack Daly: there’s hardly anything that goes on in a sales call that couldn’t be anticipated before one’s arrival. I would modify that slightly: there’s hardly anything NEGATIVE that goes on in a sales call that couldn’t be anticipated and PLANNED FOR before one’s arrival.

A couple of years ago at the Chicago Roadshow, mid-morning the first day, the power went out. Supposedly a squirrel met his untimely doom with a transformer.

No lights, no microphone, no air conditioning and no projector. I was onstage at the time and paused only for a minute to make a funny comment about the power being off, but then kept right on speaking. Many commented how impressed they were with my composure. One even railed on Facebook that all women entrepreneurs and feminists ought to take note of “how it’s done!” I found all of this funny.

There was only one reason I was able to go on with the show: NEGATIVE PREPARATION.

I had this same situation happen at one other event years ago and was woefully unprepared for it. It cost me dearly in sales because I was so dependent upon that PowerPoint that I was barely able to continue going. The room became swelteringly hot and I lost my voice – but I learned. Read full article and comment →