One of the biggest mistakes businesses make with marketing is assuming that because you SENT a marketing communication, someone has actually SEEN it, thereby sending FAR TOO FEW communications required to get the job done.
At TMT we hold events very often throughout the year, and many people do not realize just how much marketing we do to drive attendance to these events, mostly because they don’t all SEE everything we do.
But the truth is that many people GET the marketing but don’t pay attention, therefore think they don’t “SEE” it. People don’t articulate it this way when you call. “Did you get the invite we sent?” Their response: “No, I didn’t.” They often did, but it got filtered via their in-box or human spam filter in the mail room or ignored by them, pitched when they sorted the mail over the trash can or in a mass delete.
So, here’s what’s necessary to get an offer “SEEN”…
1. REPETITION
If I asked you to finish these lines – “Plop-plop, fizz-fizz, __________” or “Have a Coke and a _______” – there’s a very good chance you would be able to finish them without thinking. Why is that? Mass repetition of the same message over and over again. Often members will cringe at the idea of sending three to five e-mails or making four to six phone calls to the same prospect in a short period of time – but that’s what’s necessary to bubble their attention up to what you’re calling about. One e-mail? One hello? Forget it. Don’t send anything if that’s all you’re going to do.
Results in marketing require a LOT of repetition. How much? Honestly, who can say with all the variables that go into each campaign. Yes, I’ve heard the 5X, 10X or 30X, but really, there’s no way anyone can say with absolute certainty what the number is, due to the vast variables in every situation. Online is going to be different than offline. Lists, and the relationship with the sender, vary greatly and DO have a tremendous impact on whether or not someone “sees” (pays attention to) your campaign and offer. But I can tell you that it’s definitely more than one.
2. MULTIMEDIA
Another critical key to success is using more than one media to get your offer in front of your prospect (or customer, if that’s who you’re marketing to). E-mail broadcast open rates are in the 20% range IF you’re successful. That means 80% never opened or saw your message. Someone cannot respond to a campaign if they never RECEIVED it. Further, many of the cybertools being used will deliver a false “open” read of a message, so my guess is that the actual open rate is much, much lower. In telemarketing, you’re above average if you can get to the decision maker 20% of the time AFTER making four to six calls. One call? Forget it.
Even direct mail doesn’t have a 100% delivery rate, although these days your chances of getting someone to see your offer is MUCH higher if you use it vs. the digital marketing methods available. But if you couple calls with direct mail, social media outreach and e-mail all pushing the same offer, your chances of getting an appointment double vs. simply cold outreach with NO marketing sent in advance. A big key to success in a campaign is using MULTIMEDIA all pushing toward the same offer. We always use e-mail, direct mail, telemarketing and social media when promoting something like our fall Roadshow or Boot Camp events. We also initiate our client coaches and Captains to get their groups registered and attending.
3. MEMORABLE MARKETING
Quick: Tell me an e-mail campaign you received today. Can’t recall a SINGLE ONE, can you? That’s one of the reasons I still love and use “lumpy” or “object” mail. It gets “seen” and remembered more than any online post, e-mail or social media campaign you’ll ever run. When I speak at events, people often come up to me and say, “I’ve been getting your LETTERS for years!” and will recount something I’ve sent them, like the $1 bill letter or the monkey campaign, worry doll, etc. They don’t say, “I’ve been getting your Facebook ads or e-mails and calls for years.”
They HAVE, but they don’t recall them, or they never received them due to the handy spam filters you all so diligently implement. That said, the ONE social media that is most memorable is YouTube. (By the way, if you aren’t already, you should go ahead and subscribe to our channel to get TONS of free, and valuable information to use in your MSP business! TMT Youtube Channel). I will get people saying they’ve watched my videos, because a good video makes a bigger impact than an e-mail or post.
For example, one of our members, Derrick Weisbrod, Healthcare Technology Advisors, sent out the “Pizza” campaign we designed years ago to go to CPAs during tax season. It was a letter that gets delivered with a pizza from a local pizzeria. Out of 30 sent, he secured six appointments, or achieved a 20% response rate. The campaign cost him a total of $3,000 because he made sure he bought pizza for the entire office and didn’t send cheapo stuff. But at $3,000 total cost for six appointments, that’s a cost per appointment of $500 – which is DIRT CHEAP compared to what you’d spend on a Google PPC ad. Hopefully he’s moved that into a MONTHLY campaign, coupled with phone calls and follow-up…rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat…
This should go to show you… one of the most important elements of getting an OFFER to work is to make sure it gets SEEN, and one of the best ways to do that is via unusual mail!
