If marketing is a pain, you're doing it right

I run a design/marketing agency... Not very well perhaps, but we get by! Most of our clients are well-meaning, enthusiastic business professionals who seem to regard marketing as an essential but pain-inducing and expensive aspect to their business lives!

I suspect that the reason that most people generally don't enjoy marketing is because they feel that it is a case of pouring money into a seemingly never-ending pot, with little or no ROI! The problem is, as we see it, that businesses have been utilising outmoded forms of marketing to get their message across!

Ask someone you know to read a newspaper/magazine. Then ask them to tell you the names and services/product of brands that advertised in that publication. Quiz them to ensure that they actually saw the advert or if they imagined that they saw the advert. Now walk outside your office and tell someone - anyone, what you do (hopefully you have your elevator pitch prepared and ready). Now consider the effort vs price equation of both forms of getting your message across.

We believe that in a B2B communication environment actually talking to people, engaging them in dialogue is the best way to get someones attention!

The same principle can be applied to direct mail. Watch someone sort their mail at their desk in the morning. Generally speaking they will form two piles - one to read and one to glance at on the way to the bin. It is easy to get your message into the first pile, regrettably it doesn't involve: a mail merge, 10,000 addresses from a list factory and a ppi/frank. What it involves is a handwritten letter to a researched contact with a genuinely interesting subject and a definable benefit. It is in a handwritten envelope with a stamp on it - there's no guarantees in this business but the recipient has to be pretty cynical not to read it. Then of course for it to be truly effective, the sender follows-up the letter with a phone call.

Both getting out there and talking with your client base and handwriting letters are the more difficult way of doing things. People generally plumb for the advertising and mass mailouts because they fervently hope that they will bring in business - and it feels like you're doing something - right?

Here's what you could do...

Take your mailing database, sort it roughly into good leads at the top and bad leads at the bottom (by location, size of business, recency of data, etc...) Now throw away (or file for a sunsequent campaign) the bottom 90%. If there is still a lot of data throw away another 90%. If you spend your marketing budget on these people, you are far more likely to generate a good ROI.

Ask an impartial, hopefully alert, professional/client to look at your business and to come-up with what they like about it, what is quirky, different, cost-effective, stand-out about your business and frame your approach accordingly.

Most people we meet have a skewed impression of their brand's usp!

If you are really dedicated, split your remaining database into thirds and try a different approach with each. Try a "fun" tongue-in-cheek approach, a cold, commercial approach and something in the middle - you might be surprised by which one converts the most leads.

Finally at the end of the campaign, divide the cost of the entire campaign, including postage, your time, print costs, printer ink, envelopes, design time etc. By the number of good leads it generated and you will know the cost per lead.

Divide the number of conversions by the number of leads and you have a conversion ratio.

Note down these facts so that you can subsequently gauge the effectiveness of future campaigns.

If this all sounds like too much pain, ask a really switched-on agency to help you with it, but be wary of companies that actively encourage you to go the mass-market route.