Traditional Marketing - Sales, Adverts & Direct Mail

All businesses need to generate sales to grow so it’s helpful to be good at selling, or to have someone in your team who is.

Good marketing makes selling much easier. And, if marketing is used effectively, you should never have to make a cold call.

We’re not all born salesmen but sales processes and skills can be learnt.

It’s well known that people buy from people they like and trust, so earning trust and building rapport are essential.

Some of our quick selling tips are:

• Get pitch perfect. You need to ensure that you have a really good one minute pitch and a clear customer value proposition (or USP).
• Avoid the hard sell. Selling has changed and should be much less pushy. Ask questions and build relationships
• Manage your sales with a good database or customer relationship management (CRM) system. Ensure the sales contacts include the decision maker (as well as influencers).
• Follow up on all quality leads rigorously.
• Your sales team must be given the right marketing tools to support their selling efforts.
• If you don’t have your own sales team, it may make sense to run professional, outsourced telemarketing campaigns.

Real Marketing Specialists has managed successful telemarketing campaigns as important components of broader, integrated campaigns to follow up on leads generated by websites or direct marketing.

Are You Wasting Money on Advertising in Printed Media?

Too many businesses get poor returns from traditional adverts, particularly in printed media.

Too many businesses get poor returns from traditional adverts, particularly in printed media.

Adverts are sometimes seen as the easy route to finding new customers, but in today’s multi-channel world they can be an old fashioned approach. They can be expensive and deliver poor returns.

Get good at saying ‘No thanks’ to advertising sales calls, even when they tempt you with heavily discounted rates: “the effect on sales is extremely hard to measure” (CIM).

(When we talk about ‘advertising’ we often mean other promotion or marketing communications).

Be clear about which trade or consumer media are read by your customers, and only consider running advertising campaigns in those. We recommend to our clients that any campaigns should be focused on a narrow range of publications. Where possible, adverts should be accompanied by free editorial to more than double your impact.

“Creativity in advertising is all about the power of reduction. Write less, say more.”

Why spend fortunes on press adverts when there are so many other marketing techniques which deliver higher returns? Have you considered highly targeted Google Ads or Facebook Ads?

The Benefits of Print Advertising Done Well Are…

• To develop brand awareness and communicate brand values.
• To differentiate and position brands.
• To reinforce brand messages.
• To persuade audiences to think and change their behaviour.
• To drive sales through direct response adverts.
• To give you more control of your selling messages than in public relations.

“I do not regard advertising as entertainment or an art form, but as a medium of information. When I write an advert, I don’t want you to tell me that you find it creative. I want you to find it so interesting that you buy the product.”

Read our blog ‘Are you wasting money on advertising? You’re not alone.’

Do You Have a Good Customer and Prospect List?

If you have a good list or your customers are easy to identify, direct mail may be well worth considering. Print costs are much lower than they used to be, and effective, creative direct mail is more likely to stand out because so much marketing has gone online and we receive much less mail.

Do your sales letters or flyers have clear messages, or are they a somewhat confusing mix of different messages?

Are you speaking directly to your prospects by using ‘You’ and ‘Your’?

Sadly, many businesses find that their direct mail campaigns are let down by poor quality design and copywriting.

Real Marketing Specialists has executed integrated direct mail, email marketing and telemarketing campaigns.

We can plan, design and copy write creative, high impact direct marketing campaigns that result in sales.

Powerful Sales Letters Drive Effective Direct Mail

Research shows physical items like direct mail are more likely to be remembered because they have a higher emotional, more engaging impact than digital materials. It often has a psychological advantage over email marketing.

Our tips for direct mail are:

• Solve problems, address needs and understand prospects’ ‘objections’.
• Focus on benefits and delivering real value, not on features or exaggerated claims or offers. Eg “this is a once in a lifetime opportunity” won’t work.
• Use your customers’ testimonials and voice.
• A three stage campaign – the ‘power of three’ – works well. For example, a campaign could include a teaser mailing, lumpy direct mail letter (enclose some or your branded merchandise) and a follow-up phone call.
• Use direct mail in conjunction with email campaigns.

In the business to business market, exhibitions and trade shows are often an important component in the communications mix; a place to build relationships with customers and a ‘marketplace’ to raise awareness and meet opinion leaders.

You must follow up on any leads quickly and thoroughly:

• Nearly 80% of all show leads either aren’t followed up or are mishandled.
• 48% of attendees only need to hear from an exhibitor once after a show to buy.