If you’ve been getting dizzy spinning around marketing strategies, cut back to the basics and do something you might not have done in the past – track your campaign (no matter how big or small it is).
Idea Number One: Write a hand card.
That’s right – you heard me. Write a card and snail mail it. With so much technology making it easy to say thanks via email, catch up on someone’s Facebook Wall or meet for coffee through a text message, receiving something hand written in the mail is a great surprise.
There are a variety of ways to get your hands on cards –hand make them, design them specifically for your business or utilize a service like Send Out Cards.
Consider your motive for sending the card. Are you building rapport, trying to secure a face to face meeting, or giving thanks for meeting?
Here’s some wording suggestions, listed by circumstance:
Building Rapport:
I just saw this great [article, blog post, recipe, website] that I thought would help you [insert information here]
I wanted to personally thank you for [insert: recommendation, introduction, advising, etc]
Trying to Secure a Face to Face Meeting:
I have heard [insert something complimentary and specific here] about you.
I would love an opportunity to learn more about [insert something specific here] from you. Perhaps I could buy you a coffee [insert specific time here] and we could chat.
After a meeting:
Thank you for meeting with me. If there is anything I can help you with please let me know
Here is that information we were discussing. I hope it comes in handy for you.
Personalize hand cards as much as possible and ensure you send your message in a timely manner. A good rule of thumb is within 48 hours.
Tracking Your Success:
Consider the cost and number of people you will be sending cards to. You can create an estimate based on the number of meetings, phone calls and networking events you attend in a month. Any one of the 3 options I described before for sending cards should cost just under $2 cad, including postage.
Base the success of your efforts in two categories: quality of relationship developed and number of sales derived.
Add a column to your existing database contact list for card giving. When you send a card, enter the date, the date of any response (or lack thereof) and if a result is generated from this action.
Check back later this week for another trackable marketing idea.
photo credit: ArtemFinland
There is nothing worse than investing time and money in a marketing campaign without the ability to track its effectiveness. Here are 3 scenarios, and some suggestions on how to track them.
A newspaper ad or direct mailer
In the past, you may have put an ad in a local newspaper with your website’s home page and phone number. Or perhaps you went another step further and suggested your reader clip the ad as a coupon or used urged potential customers to “Call for more details.”
By automating your print advertising you’ll be able to see the effectiveness of your advertisement and potentially increase your email database. That means, if the offer is good, but not good enough for them to buy right away, you can retain their information for further offerings or useful information. You can use landing pages to achieve this.
A landing page is a “hidden” page on your website – meaning it’s not on your navigation bar. It has a specific URL, like http://www.vancouvermarketinggirl.com/[insert page here] that is linked to a specific campaign.
Ask for some key information on a landing page – like name and email address. Walk through this promotion if you’d like to see an example in action. Visit ZipLocal and find Salon Montage. Click on the URL on their profile. Fill in the information and within moments you’ll receive an email coupon. (PS, if you did this, you just received a $15 certificate to use on their services). You’ll also be added to their email database which is how you can track how many people participated in your campaign (Don’t worry you can unsubscribe right away if you don’t want to receive their monthly updates).
Ask your web designer or email me for more information on how to create your own landing page.
Many companies also use different phone numbers for each specific campaign. This works well as you can track received phone calls. This could be a good route to go if your company isn’t participating in email marketing.
A Facebook ad campaign
This method can be tracked through Facebook statistics and through your Google Analytics. You can easily see how many people viewed your ad and how many responded. This way you can adjust your message accordingly. Facebook does an excellent job of allowing you to target your campaign by selecting the demographics that fit your criteria.
Email Newsletters
Email campaigns are a brilliant way to keep in touch with current, past and potential customers. Email marketing should be permission based. It’s a good idea to utilize a third party newsletter provider. I use Icontact almost exclusively. I like their pricing, customer service and the ease of their website.
With IContact you can send as many emails and have as many lists of subscribers as you wish. Two good lists to start with would be Current Customers and Potential Customers. This way you can address various topics that are of interest to each group.
When you send your marketing message Icontact takes care of the tracking. You can see in detail how many people opened your email and clicked on links. You can also see who has unsubscribed. I use this as an indicator of the usefulness of the message. In this genre, a straight promotion will usually result in more unsubscribers than a message with useful information as well as promotional.
Feel free to utilize your landing pages through email marketing as well.
