hange the offer. This holds true with your direct mail piece or e-mail campaign as well.

5) Testing, testing, testing…very important. If you’re not getting good response on your campaign after the third time around, chances are is you need to change something about your offer. For instance, maybe the “$2.00 off your next visit!” didn’t grab the attention of the viewer. Or, “Buy the whole family’s meals and get free ice cream on your next visit” was not appealing or enticing enough to get the customers attention or business.

The best advice I could give you on how to correctly and affectively get return off your direct marketing piece would be to put YOURSELF in the customer’s shoes! What would make you stop and read the pos

In today’s fast paced world, we see marketing everywhere we go. We see it on billboards as we drive down the freeway, on television, magazines, and on the back of bathroom stalls. It’s everywhere! In order to grow our business we have to get involved.

As a small business owner we don’t always have the necessary funds to do mass media marketing such as television or billboards. We have to get creative and only target our best potential customers. This is where direct marketing comes into play.

If used correctly, direct marketing will give you return on your investment.

So, you may ask yourself “Sounds great, but how do I do this?”. I have designed these easy 7 steps to help you successfully market your target audience and create customer retention.

1) Find out who your target audience is. Is it your current customer base? Or do you want to target specific demographics that need your product or services? Direct marketing involves you as a business owner finding out who your best customer is and marketing your products and/or services to them effectively and directly.

This is in fact is the most important step to starting a successful marketing campaign. Constantly learning about your customer’s needs and characteristics will allow you to maintain and grow your business.

2) What can you commit to each week/month to marketing funds? This is a very important question. With direct marketing, it is important to set up an actual schedule for when your email marketing campaign or direct mail campaign goes out whether it is each week, every other week, or each month.

3) Once your budget is determined you can now decide how you would like to approach your audience. Do you want to blast an email out to your audience every other week then follow with a postcard each week? Whichever strategy you wish to choose, just make sure it is consistent and repetitive. Also, make sure you are able to catch their attention quickly.

This is one of the reasons we named our company Postcard Planet, we are not a fan of envelopes. How many times do you get home from a busy day to open your mail but ignore the envelopes that don’t have a bill in them (yuck) or are from your family?

Postcards catch attention! With the professionalism, creativeness, and quality of the card, you’re bound to catch their attention even if it’s right before they toss it in the trash.

4) Stay true to who you are as a business and stick with a consistent message that works with your company branding. The reason for this is simple: people learn by repetition. You look at some of the larger companies who have commercials every 5 minutes; they always have the same theme going. “Can you hear me now? Good!” or “Mikey will eat anything!” or “GOT MILK?” or my favorite… “BEEF, it’s what’s for dinner”. We all know where these came from because they imbedded it into our heads by being repetitive and consistent with their message even when they change the offer. This holds true with your direct mail piece or e-mail campaign as well.

5) Testing, testing, testing…very important. If you’re not getting good response on your campaign after the third time around, chances are is you need to change something about your offer. For instance, maybe the “$2.00 off your next visit!” didn’t grab the attention of the viewer. Or, “Buy the whole family’s meals and get free ice cream on your next visit” was not appealing or enticing enough to get the customers attention or business.

The best advice I could give you on how to correctly and affectively get return off your direct marketing piece would be to put YOURSELF in the customer’s shoes! What would make you stop and read the post

create customer retention.

1) Find out who your target audience is. Is it your current customer base? Or do you want to target specific demographics that need your product or services? Direct marketing involves you as a business owner finding out who your best customer is and marketing your products and/or services to them effectively and directly.

This is in fact is the most important step to starting a successful marketing campaign. Constantly learning about your customer’s needs and characteristics will allow you to maintain and grow your business.

2) What can you commit to each week/month to marketing funds? This is a very important question. With direct marketing, it is important to set up an actual schedule for when your email marketing campaign or direct mail campaign goes out whether it is each week, every other week, or each month.

3) Once your budget is determined you can now decide how you would like to approach your audience. Do you want to blast an email out to your audience every other week then follow with a postcard each week? Whichever strategy you wish to choose, just make sure it is consistent and repetitive. Also, make sure you are able to catch their attention quickly.

This is one of the reasons we named our company Postcard Planet, we are not a fan of envelopes. How many times do you get home from a busy day to open your mail but ignore the envelopes that don’t have a bill in them (yuck) or are from your family?

Postcards catch attention! With the professionalism, creativeness, and quality of the card, you’re bound to catch their attention even if it’s right before they toss it in the trash.

4) Stay true to who you are as a business and stick with a consistent message that works with your company branding. The reason for this is simple: people learn by repetition. You look at some of the larger companies who have commercials every 5 minutes; they always have the same theme going. “Can you hear me now? Good!” or “Mikey will eat anything!” or “GOT MILK?” or my favorite… “BEEF, it’s what’s for dinner”. We all know where these came from because they imbedded it into our heads by being repetitive and consistent with their message even when they change the offer. This holds true with your direct mail piece or e-mail campaign as well.

5) Testing, testing, testing…very important. If you’re not getting good response on your campaign after the third time around, chances are is you need to change something about your offer. For instance, maybe the “$2.00 off your next visit!” didn’t grab the attention of the viewer. Or, “Buy the whole family’s meals and get free ice cream on your next visit” was not appealing or enticing enough to get the customers attention or business.

The best advice I could give you on how to correctly and affectively get return off your direct marketing piece would be to put YOURSELF in the customer’s shoes! What would make you stop and read the pos

your email marketing campaign or direct mail campaign goes out whether it is each week, every other week, or each month.

3) Once your budget is determined you can now decide how you would like to approach your audience. Do you want to blast an email out to your audience every other week then follow with a postcard each week? Whichever strategy you wish to choose, just make sure it is consistent and repetitive. Also, make sure you are able to catch their attention quickly.

This is one of the reasons we named our company Postcard Planet, we are not a fan of envelopes. How many times do you get home from a busy day to open your mail but ignore the envelopes that don’t have a bill in them (yuck) or are from your family?

Postcards catch attention! With the professionalism, creativeness, and quality of the card, you’re bound to catch their attention even if it’s right before they toss it in the trash.

4) Stay true to who you are as a business and stick with a consistent message that works with your company branding. The reason for this is simple: people learn by repetition. You look at some of the larger companies who have commercials every 5 minutes; they always have the same theme going. “Can you hear me now? Good!” or “Mikey will eat anything!” or “GOT MILK?” or my favorite… “BEEF, it’s what’s for dinner”. We all know where these came from because they imbedded it into our heads by being repetitive and consistent with their message even when they change the offer. This holds true with your direct mail piece or e-mail campaign as well.

5) Testing, testing, testing…very important. If you’re not getting good response on your campaign after the third time around, chances are is you need to change something about your offer. For instance, maybe the “$2.00 off your next visit!” didn’t grab the attention of the viewer. Or, “Buy the whole family’s meals and get free ice cream on your next visit” was not appealing or enticing enough to get the customers attention or business.

The best advice I could give you on how to correctly and affectively get return off your direct marketing piece would be to put YOURSELF in the customer’s shoes! What would make you stop and read the pos

stcards catch attention! With the professionalism, creativeness, and quality of the card, you’re bound to catch their attention even if it’s right before they toss it in the trash.

4) Stay true to who you are as a business and stick with a consistent message that works with your company branding. The reason for this is simple: people learn by repetition. You look at some of the larger companies who have commercials every 5 minutes; they always have the same theme going. “Can you hear me now? Good!” or “Mikey will eat anything!” or “GOT MILK?” or my favorite… “BEEF, it’s what’s for dinner”. We all know where these came from because they imbedded it into our heads by being repetitive and consistent with their message even when they change the offer. This holds true with your direct mail piece or e-mail campaign as well.

5) Testing, testing, testing…very important. If you’re not getting good response on your campaign after the third time around, chances are is you need to change something about your offer. For instance, maybe the “$2.00 off your next visit!” didn’t grab the attention of the viewer. Or, “Buy the whole family’s meals and get free ice cream on your next visit” was not appealing or enticing enough to get the customers attention or business.

The best advice I could give you on how to correctly and affectively get return off your direct marketing piece would be to put YOURSELF in the customer’s shoes! What would make you stop and read the pos

hange the offer. This holds true with your direct mail piece or e-mail campaign as well.

5) Testing, testing, testing…very important. If you’re not getting good response on your campaign after the third time around, chances are is you need to change something about your offer. For instance, maybe the “$2.00 off your next visit!” didn’t grab the attention of the viewer. Or, “Buy the whole family’s meals and get free ice cream on your next visit” was not appealing or enticing enough to get the customers attention or business.

The best advice I could give you on how to correctly and affectively get return off your direct marketing piece would be to put YOURSELF in the customer’s shoes! What would make you stop and read the postcard that you just received? What would make you “Call today”? Most likely it's the same thing that would make your customers respond. Let’s not re-invent the wheel!

6) Follow through with your offer as well as your services. Let’s face it, if you get 100 new customers but you don’t deliver, chances are your campaign was a waste of time.

7) If you’re already busy you still have to market! It's a common misconception that you no longer have to market if you are busy. This is in fact is the best time to start a campaign. Be pro-active! Just because you are busy doesn’t mean you want your current and potential customers to forget about the great products and services that you provide.

Happy marketing!