We hear it all the time . . . 'I tried direct mail once, and it didn't work.' or 'We tried giving something away for free once, and it was a big flop.' or 'We started collecting the names and addresses of our prospects and customers, but we didn't see any immediate benefits, so we stopped.' These marketers are all playing the game of Drop and Hop. They try something once and expect quick and easy success. Instead, they fail, and drop that and then hop to something new in the hope that the new thing will be the magic answer they have been searching for. By playing the game of Drop and Hop they are ensuring that they can 'never' succeed. You can't master anything by 'trying it once.' Imagine someone saying, 'I tried golf once -- it didn't work.' You are not going to play golf successfully the very first time you pick up and swing a golf club. It's impossible. It takes persistence to succeed, and more importantly, it takes proper guidance from someone who already knows how to play. The same is true with developing your marketing skills. You cannot try any marketing method once and hope for a successful outcome. That's not realistic. The first time you do anything, you should be looking at it as a learning experience -- something you can improve on. Here are five tips to help you replace Drop and Hop with a winning marketing strategy. 1. FIND AN EFFECTIVE SYSTEM Find a proven effective marketing system that you can dedicate yourself to learning and applying. Think about it; isn't that what you would do if you wanted to learn anything new? Why take years to recreate the wheel when it has already been created? Our Give to Get Marketing Solution is such a system. We explain exactly what you need to do to attract hundreds, even thousands of prospects and customers to your business. You can get the details here... https://www.givetogetmarketing.com/marketingsolution.html If you don't choose to learn our marketing system, please choose someone's system. You can't succeed in marketing with guesses, or even from a few tips here and there. You need a 'complete, step-by-step system,' and you need to stick with that system until you have mastered it. There really isn't any other way. 2. SET REASONABLE GOALS We once helped a client put together a direct mail letter to help raise funds for a local youth athletic program. We ran into our client about 6 months later and asked her how her mailing effort went. 'Okay, I guess. But we didn't get the response we were hoping for, so we stopped using it,' she said. 'We're going to try something else.' I asked what kind of response she received and she said, 'About 20 responses, but I was hoping for 50 or 60.' I then asked her how many letters she had mailed out, and when she told me '100 letters,' I could hardly believe it. 20 responses out of 100 letters is a 20% response rate -- that's fabulous! The normal response rate for direct mail is less than 2%! At the beginning of our project we had informed our client that a 2% response would be reasonable to expect, but instead, she had her heart and mind set on 50 to 60 responses from just 100 letters. That kind of response rate just isn't reasonable to expect. Our client had an incredibly successful and effective direct mail letter that she could have been using to make her program a success, but since she began with an unreasonable goal, she gave up, and hopped to something much less effective. A classic game of Drop and Hop. Don't let unreasonable expectations destroy your chances for success. Find out what is reasonable and then set your goals based on those findings. Before you do any kind of marketing effort, you should have a pretty good idea of what kind of response would be reasonable to expect. 1-2% is the standard expected rate for most prospecting efforts. Once you have a solid customer list, and you market directly to that list, then your response rates should go up dramatically. 3. TEST SMALL Never spend a great deal of money on a marketing effort that has not been proven successful. You must look at each effort you do as a test. You need to discover if you are contacting the right prospects for your product/service, and you need to discover if your offer is one that will get them to respond. You can only determine these things by testing first -- and you should always test small until you are confident that you are directing your marketing efforts at the right people with the right offer. You need to develop your marketing knowledge and skills, before you can see success. It's impossible to do this by trying something once and then hopping to something else. Stick to it and learn all you can. 4. TRACK YOUR PROGRESS The way you will determine if your marketing efforts are on track is by keeping track of your numbers. a. How many mailings did you send out -- or how many calls did you make, or how many flyers did you hand out, etc.? b. How many people responded to your offer? Now divide b by a and you will have your percent of response. If you mailed out 100 postcards, and you received 3 responses, then your percent of response is 3% (3 divided by 100). Only by recording these numbers and comparing them with different efforts will you be able to determine if you are improving your results as you improve your marketing skills. 5. IMPROVE YOUR RESULTS This is where 'learning' comes into play. In order to improve your results, you need to learn new skills, and then practice them until you become proficient at them. For instance, do you already know how to write a headline that attracts your best prospects like a magnet? Do you know how to make a magnetic offer that your prospects can't refuse? Do you know how to present an effective Call to Action and Sense of Urgency that gets your prospects to respond to your offer immediately, rather then putting it off and forgetting about it? If you don't know how to do these things, then you are just spinning your wheels and getting no where. Remember, knowing something and being able to do it successfully are two totally different things. I know how the game of golf is played, but I can't play it successfully. Once you have a solid foundational knowledge about how to market your business with an effective marketing strategy, then you can learn new techniques that may help you to increase your response rates. Find people that you know are successful and learn everything you can from them. Once you do that, you then just have to be persistent in practicing what you learn. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright © 2000-2023 by Joe Gracia - All Rights Reserved. All content, graphics, and HTML code are protected by US and International Copyright Laws, and may not be copied, reprinted, published, translated, hosted, or otherwise distributed by any means without explicit written permission. For Reprint Policies and Details Click Here. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Return to MARKETING TUTORIAL ARTICLES Index Page Click Here to Receive Your FREE Marketing Idea-Kit Return to the Give To Get Marketing Home Page
Click Here to Contact Us Give to Get Marketing 611 Arlington Way Watertown, WI 53094 Copyright 2000-2023 Give to Get Marketing Site Map |
Free Marketing Idea-KitCLICK HERE to See What You'll Receive |
Click here to learn how you can start attracting customers to your business like a magnet!