If you thought that direct marketing was only for businesses with a lot of capital to invest in advertising, think again. Because of the internet, direct marketing is now possible for any business. The internet makes direct marketing not only easy and effective, but affordable, too.
Years ago, there were only three ways a business could have the advantages of direct marketing for their business. This included hiring door to door salesmen, telephone solicitors or spending money on mass mailings. None of these were cost effective. Today, because the internet allows us to send newsletters, e-mails, press releases, bulletins and articles electronically, direct marketing is now something than anyone can afford.
There are many different types of direct marketing and all are aimed at getting the word directly to a customer about your business. How you choose to use direct marketing is up to you and will also depend on the type of products or service you sell. You can try one or many different ways to reach out to new customers and also keep in touch with old customers. Direct marketing, such as the services provided by Newsletter Magic, makes sure that you are never far from your customers.
Direct marketing has many different forms but because the internet allows them to all be sent virtually the same way, you can now mix and match the different ways you contact your customers. There are advantages and disadvantages of each type of direct marketing that you should know before you start. Here is a list of some direct marketing ideas and how they can work for you:
Newsletters
Newsletters work very well for just about any business. You can have some creative fun writing a newsletter about your business and also talk about the industry that you are in. You can add jokes, crossword puzzles and other off topic items by visiting a site that offers public domain graphics and jokes. Incorporating these into your newsletter is easy.
The only negative aspect about using a newsletter is that it does not create a sense of urgency. This is more of a direct marketing tactic to use when you are reminding people about your business rather than trying to sell something.
E-Mail Ads
These are effective for any business and are exceptionally good at soliciting a special sale. If you want to sell something quick, have a special going on, these can work for you. You can write them as a press release or use a very brief description of what you are selling in the subject body. You do not have to be a noted author to come up with a clever e-mail ad.
The only drawback to using e-mail ads is that you do not want to fall into the trap of using only e-mail ads to advertise your business. If you do not break up the ads with newsletters and informational material, your customers will think that you are only interested in trying to sell them something. Although that should be your intention for staying in business, it is not good to advertise this fact. Break up the easy e-mail ads with newsletters or bulletins. You can send them all out through a service like Newsletter Magic.
Autoresponder Ads
A direct response marketing tactic, these work well in creating a sense of urgency to a new customer that they must buy right away. Because you are giving them only a limited time to buy and are basically saying goodbye after the last ad (if it does not produce a sale) these are better used on new customers instead of existing customers. You never want to say goodbye to someone who had purchased something from you.
Press Releases
Again, these are like e-mail ads and are very effective. They should be sent out intermittently when you have something special that you want to sell. You can pack more of a punch in with press releases than you can with a simple e-mail ad. There is no drawback to them, except to make sure that you also send the same customers material that is not so sales oriented.
News Articles
Like newsletters, these can be sent out to existing and new customers. They generally have something to say about your business that is timely and relevant with current events. At the end of the news article, you should mention your business and how it can help, The only drawback with using news articles is that like newsletters, they are soft sell.
Clearly if you use a mixture of the aforementioned types of direct e-mail marketing you can really capture the attention of existing and potential customers. By using a service like Newsletter Magic, you can set your products up to reach as many customers as your business can handle. What is direct response marketing?
