Quick Offline Marketing Tips (Part 2)

(From the tutorial, Marketing Your Online Business in the "Real World")

Don't give up just because of a bad campaign.

It takes time, practice, experimentation, and self-education to develop good marketing material. You can always use the Internet to help you refine your ad copy at low cost, then attempt to duplicate your success offline.
It's critical that you track the results of each campaign. You might find that two different brochures mailed to the same list produce vastly different response rates. Or you might find that the same brochure mailed to two different lists (one you rented, the other you personally compiled) produces significantly different results. You won't know for sure until you try it and monitor the results.

Follow up.

Most people don't buy right away. They could be too busy at the moment, don't have enough money when they get your brochure, perhaps they need time to do a bit more research, or maybe they just don't feel like they can trust you yet. Try out a variety of brochures, sales letters, postcards, etc. - different people respond to different things.

Offer an easy way to order.

Include an order form, for example. If your profit margins are high enough, consider including a business-reply envelope as well (make sure you do the calculations - the extra costs associated with including another envelope, especially if it's postage-paid, will detract from your bottom line. It makes it harder for your campaign to turn a profit.)

Offer an easy way to contact you.

Most people expect to see not just your website URL, but also a phone number and physical mailing address that they can use if they have questions. People are often afraid that they'll be "scammed", so anything you can do to add to your credibility will help.

Treat your customers well.

This shouldn't even need saying, yet think about how many times you've encountered bad service! Aside from being just the polite thing to do (everyone likes to be treated respectfully), there's a lot to be said about the lifetime value of a customer: someone who's purchased from you before is more likely to purchase from you again if they're happy with what they got.

Track your campaigns.

There's no reason for you to blindly guess at what's working - you can get hard proof what does work so that you can refine and refocus your time and effort to maximum benefit.

PREVIOUS: Quick Offline Marketing Tips (Part 1)
NEXT: Tracking Your Offline Campaigns

Please contact us to request reprint permission.