When it comes to advertising, many owners of growing businesses rely on a handful of resources: a sign on the door front, an ad in the yellow pages, and merchandise bags with their company’s name and logo. A few companies tap other sources (radio, TV, and newspapers), but their efforts are generally inconsistent. No wonder they feel they can’t compete with the big national chains. However, by employing some simple direct mail marketing strategies, you can attract more customers and enjoy the long-term business growth you desire. Here’s how:

• Develop a fan base. Your “fans” are your best customers. Not only do they buy from you often, but they also recommend your company to others. Look through your customer satisfaction research and pinpoint your fans. Where do they live? What products or services do they purchase most often? What problems do they have that your company can solve? By knowing the type of customer who buys from you the most, you can target others in that same demographic.
• Make the right offer. A direct mail offer is what you are willing to give and what you want in exchange for a particular response from prospects. Included in the offer are price, terms, guarantees, and extras. The right offer doesn’t necessarily mean the one that generates the most responses or the one that generates the highest profitability from the individual effort. The right offer is the one that ultimately contributes the most profit to your business.
• Get a response and build a relationship. You need to break through all the strategic communications clutter in the marketplace in a way that’s credible. For example, a drugstore owner can put a photo of a cute baby on the envelope of a direct mail marketing package to get it opened. But the message has to be connected with the photo (promoting a children’s medicine, for example) or it will have attracted attention but not connected in terms of marketing. With direct mail, personalization, tokens and rub-offs, stamps, and quizzes all aid involvement.
• Find a niche or a unique selling proposition. This could mean free home delivery or telephone reminders when it’s time to purchase or use a service again. Another way growing businesses can compete with the national chains is to develop a niche in a target market. Pinpoint what’s unique about your company or what niche you fall into, and target that market directly.
• Analyze response to improve profitability. One of direct marketing’s great assets is that you can easily measure its effectiveness. Using tracking codes and coupons are great ways to determine if a particular campaign is working, as is simply asking, “How did you hear about us?” The more you can measure your campaign’s effectiveness, the more you can improve. But the only way to improve is to test on a continual basis.

—   Alan Bayham, president, Bayham Consulting LLC (bayhamconsulting.com)

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