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.
However, everyone serves a purpose in life, some as a good example and some as a warning of what NOT to do, so this is a good jumping-off point for a few critical lessons in successful lead generation and client acquisition.
FIRST: Ask yourself what is the most outrageous, valuable, attractive offer you can make to a new prospect that would be difficult for them to say “no” to, getting you in the door and giving you the opportunity to win over that account? WORK ON THAT.
Too many people have ZERO offers or incentives for new clients and subsequently shut off all lead flow but the most desperate buyers. As Halbert often said, only the hungriest fish bite at the crappiest bait.
Going head-to-head to be their IT department may be a leap too far, so you need another way to engage. When I was selling marketing agency services, it was damned difficult to get a company to switch agencies of record (marketing agencies sell their services, similar to managed IT services).
To overcome the “We’re fine” response, I offered to add e-mail marketing to their current marketing activities as a test to bolster current campaigns. That allowed me to offer something new that many agencies weren’t doing at the time (or at least not doing well) and gave me an inroad to that account.
That offer may not work today, but at the time, e-mail was a HOT trend and not many people knew how to make it work like I did.
SECOND: If you do have such a bold offer, make sure your promotional piece SHOUTS it in the headline. This offer is buried in seven-point invisible and would be missed by most people, thrown away unread, assuming it was just a promotion for selling cars, not giving a two-day free test drive.
THIRD: Make sure your ENTIRE team knows of the promotions you’re running, especially the person answering the phone. ALL inbound leads need to be captured and tracked so they are not forgotten and overlooked. Whoever the sales manager is over there ought to be fired. Clearly they are asleep at the switch.
FOURTH: Stop doing one-shot anything. I received ONE mailer. No follow-up by phone, social media, e-mail and no second, third or fourth mailers. On the second mailer, I would have taken pictures of people test-driving a beautiful Bentley, all smiles, with a “This could be you!” headline.
If you’re running a promotion and only plan on doing ONE anything – one e-mail, one call, one letter – then don’t bother. Prospects need a LOT of reminding, nudging, cajoling to respond. People are BUSY. So they got my attention and even got me to respond (!) but failed because there was no follow-up.
Don’t make these mistakes, or your coffers will be empty with old bones and moths while the sounds of ringing phones is replaced by the haunting silence of your dead marketing campaign.
If you’re interested in a FREE custom marketing roadmap and consultation to help you avoid these pitfalls, go to www.technologymarketingtoolkit.com/consult and book your consultation today with one of my top advisors.
