What’s your most important Social Media site? IN a survey it as shown that for B2B
30% LinkedIn
20% Blogging
19% Facebook
16% Twitter
8% YouTube
6% Customer Community
1% Google
Social Media is starting to evolve as a major tool in a B2B marketer’s tool box. From what I am hearing 32% of marketers are “very” or “fully” engaged in marketing through social media channels. That is compared with 21% last year and to project we are expecting 53% next year.
They are coming in kicking and screaming but they are coming as reluctant players, but here they are.
So why are they on Social Media?
70% - Branding
58% Website traffic building
56% Product promotion
45% Search engine optimization
45% Competitive intelligence
Where are they?
83% LinkedIn
80% Twitter
79% Facebook
60% YouTube
50% Blogging
BUT when asked which channels they place the most importance, LinkedIn was #1 followed by Blogging.
Larson Notes & Satire: I put a high ranking on Blogging. I put a high ranking on any kind of content building. If you do it right you can have your posts stringing in to different SM sites as needed. If you need help we have experts doing it all the time for people.
Getting back to SM. I found 1 key posting tool we have been using and getting results and that is (of all things) craigslist. Ya, lol, craigslist might be a place where you want to be marketing.
Think about it. If you even think you can pick up a quick profitable customer over there, go for it. I know we do.
On a side note spent the day at Graph Expo today, We will have some very interesting new services coming out of those meetings, so keep watching.
“We don’t sell lists, we find customers.”
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Monday, September 17, 2012
Content Marketing & SEO
There have been what we might call radical shifts in Search and the
relationship to Content. Some of this is in part due to Social Media and some
is from the Search Engines efforts to keep content found pertinent, fresh and timely.
How many times have you done a search can come up with a page full of results for
3 years ago? I know I have.
To keep your experience personal search engines have come to understand
content. Believe it or not through integration and monitoring of different
social media sites SE’s are finding ways to keep up.
For you to stay at the peak performance level you need to not just acknowledge
but totally embrace the idea of content as the new king of the internet.
1. Create a process to create:
Have a process in place before you start any content Search Engine Strategy.
Have all or as many as possible internal infrastructure in place from all key
players who will be impacted.
2. Get a Grasp on what you want
to say: What do you want to be saying to your customers and prospects? What
are their needs, wants and desires? Then with matched content using keywords in
your writing to address those issues, go for it.
3. Where should your content
reside: You need to be posting where your customers and prospects are. This could take some study of the social
media sites to know where you need to go.
4. Build your online
relationships: facebook, google+, linkedin, pinterest, merchantcircle,
storeboard, etc. work your 3F’s.
5. Optimize your content:
You need to make sure you are using solid content packed with key words and phrases.
You need to be thinking SEO tactics when you construct your content. Links,
embedded coding, back links to web site. If your content is addressing needs
your clients and prospects have you are right on track to have a winner.
Larson Notes & Satire: If you can share some of the personal you, but
remember to use the right words to push you up the search engine ladder. For social
media people love stories, but search engines could care less.
“We don’t sell lists, we find customers.”
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account
acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-1294
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering
programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your
marketing mix call today and find out.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Get The Telemarketing Bump
Say all you want about Direct Mail, speed, cost, etc. vs. email but it remains a fact that the response rate for mail is so much better.
According to a survey from the Direct Marketing Association the response rate for Direct Mail is 3.4% and email marketing is only giving a mere 0.12%.
The report was from an online survey of 481 respondents and was based off of data from 29billion emails and 2 billion online display ads.
Those are facts from real live programs run by people who know what they are doing.
Larson Notes & Satire: There you have it. The costs are up but the payout huge. If you want more mileage out of your list, mail wins hands down. Now, just think if you do a combo of Mail and Telemarketing.
Now nothing is for certain but when you put direct mail piece together with a telemarketing follow up I can almost guarantee you get a bump in your numbers by 5 to 8%. Now if Uncle Howard’s math in correct you could have a double digit program running. Put in some social media marketing into play and . . .
“We don’t sell lists, we find customers.”
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
Friday, July 6, 2012
Social Media Metrics Exposure vs Frequency
GM pulled of its ads from Facebook, this led many marketers to wonder if advertising on facebook or any social media site is a good thing. It is, and it isn’t. With 900 million (900,000,000) active users can you ignore facebook and all of social media? Is it worth paying for? Another good question.
In a study by Resolution Media and Kenshoo seperatly, they7 looked at the effectiveness of Facebook ads, these 2 companies analyzed global data of 65 billion (65,000,000,000) Facebook ad impressions and 20 million (20,000,000) Facebook ad clicks over a wide range of brands and categories. Now remember these are ad clicks and not what social media or even (in my humble opinion) how social media marketing should be used to get maximum exposure for you.
What is the long term viability of facebook and social media advertising?
“Social media has quickly become one of the preferred channels for brands, and when done right, can foster meaningful relationships between brands and consumers in ways that were never before possible,” says Alan Osetek, president of Resolution Media. “The purpose of this study was to define what ‘doing it right’ means in terms of measureable actions and outcomes, and giving marketers a model for demonstrating effectiveness.”
The study showed that Sponsored Stories and Post Ads receive about double the click-through rate (CTR) of Social and Web Ads, which means that ads with social context resonate better with audience members likely due to a personal connection. Additionally, Post Ads draw more attention because they usually feature special offers and are larger than normal ads. I guess this is true because they did a study on it but, well I usually ignore those kinds of adds myself unless I see it and it really matters to me at that specific time.
The data also shows that higher CTR leads to lower average cost-per-click (CPC) rates, with Post Ads averaging a CPC of $0.24, Sponsored Stories averaging $0.46, Web Ads averaging $0.59 and Social Ads averaging the highest CPC at $0.78. But for advertisers that choose the cost-per-thousand (CPM) model, Sponsored Stories are the most expensive ad type – averaging a CPM of $0.31 compared to Web Ads that averaged the lowest CPM of $0.18. That could become a lot of money, couldn’t it? Hope you have deep pockets for the start up. This might be more pricy than direct mail.
The study also showed a new metric called “Exposure Rate,” which measures targeted engagement on Facebook. This metric determines the percentage of the target audience that you are reaching out to and exposing your message to. High exposure rates correlate to a high CTR and conversion rates, with the ads that reached 76-100 percent of their intended audience also receiving an average CTR of .038 percent and conversion rate of 31.92%. In comparison, ads that only reached 0-25 percent of the intended audience resulted in an average CTR of 0.028% and a conversion rate of 11.81 percent. High exposure rates don’t guarantee success, you need to balance this metric with frequency and I might add time of day, to find the number of times the average Facebook user has been exposed to your ad. The study shows that there is a conversion rate drop-off of 32 percent when ads are shown to consumers more than six times. This means that the ad is being shown too frequently, your target will start to ignore it. Additionally, the CTR averaged 39 percent lower after the sixth impression.
One way that marketers can optimize exposure rate and frequency is by maintaining a CPC above the maximum recommended bid. This is because the study’s data showed that the exposure rate was higher for ads with CPCs that were greater than the maximum recommended bid, driving the average exposure rate up by 11.5 percent. Additionally, the data showed that frequency dropped when the CPC was above the maximum recommended bid, by an average of 1.7 exposures.
Larson Notes & Satire: We all are not made of money and for most of us PFC makes no sense. Social Media still comes down to the 3 F’s, family friends and fans. Nothing else really matters. Keep your F’s safe, close, protected, happy and interacted.
When “they” say “doing it right” what are they really saying? Do I hear spend money? In almost anything I read from street smart marketers and sales people it is interaction. Seems funny that my postings are getting an exposure rate of 12-18%. It does not seem to matter what time of the day it is, the % is almost always the same. Would PFC be a good thing?
Then I need to really question paying a higher rate for CPC. Come on who is fooling who here? I’m not a big advocate of paying for clicks in the first place. Now it may have its place but does have its place but not as the center part of your marketing plan. Think long term, think organically.
Then start thinking trichannel. social, telemarketing, direct mail and watch your numbers really take off.
“We don’t sell lists, we find customers.”
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
In a study by Resolution Media and Kenshoo seperatly, they7 looked at the effectiveness of Facebook ads, these 2 companies analyzed global data of 65 billion (65,000,000,000) Facebook ad impressions and 20 million (20,000,000) Facebook ad clicks over a wide range of brands and categories. Now remember these are ad clicks and not what social media or even (in my humble opinion) how social media marketing should be used to get maximum exposure for you.
What is the long term viability of facebook and social media advertising?
“Social media has quickly become one of the preferred channels for brands, and when done right, can foster meaningful relationships between brands and consumers in ways that were never before possible,” says Alan Osetek, president of Resolution Media. “The purpose of this study was to define what ‘doing it right’ means in terms of measureable actions and outcomes, and giving marketers a model for demonstrating effectiveness.”
The study showed that Sponsored Stories and Post Ads receive about double the click-through rate (CTR) of Social and Web Ads, which means that ads with social context resonate better with audience members likely due to a personal connection. Additionally, Post Ads draw more attention because they usually feature special offers and are larger than normal ads. I guess this is true because they did a study on it but, well I usually ignore those kinds of adds myself unless I see it and it really matters to me at that specific time.
The data also shows that higher CTR leads to lower average cost-per-click (CPC) rates, with Post Ads averaging a CPC of $0.24, Sponsored Stories averaging $0.46, Web Ads averaging $0.59 and Social Ads averaging the highest CPC at $0.78. But for advertisers that choose the cost-per-thousand (CPM) model, Sponsored Stories are the most expensive ad type – averaging a CPM of $0.31 compared to Web Ads that averaged the lowest CPM of $0.18. That could become a lot of money, couldn’t it? Hope you have deep pockets for the start up. This might be more pricy than direct mail.
The study also showed a new metric called “Exposure Rate,” which measures targeted engagement on Facebook. This metric determines the percentage of the target audience that you are reaching out to and exposing your message to. High exposure rates correlate to a high CTR and conversion rates, with the ads that reached 76-100 percent of their intended audience also receiving an average CTR of .038 percent and conversion rate of 31.92%. In comparison, ads that only reached 0-25 percent of the intended audience resulted in an average CTR of 0.028% and a conversion rate of 11.81 percent. High exposure rates don’t guarantee success, you need to balance this metric with frequency and I might add time of day, to find the number of times the average Facebook user has been exposed to your ad. The study shows that there is a conversion rate drop-off of 32 percent when ads are shown to consumers more than six times. This means that the ad is being shown too frequently, your target will start to ignore it. Additionally, the CTR averaged 39 percent lower after the sixth impression.
One way that marketers can optimize exposure rate and frequency is by maintaining a CPC above the maximum recommended bid. This is because the study’s data showed that the exposure rate was higher for ads with CPCs that were greater than the maximum recommended bid, driving the average exposure rate up by 11.5 percent. Additionally, the data showed that frequency dropped when the CPC was above the maximum recommended bid, by an average of 1.7 exposures.
Larson Notes & Satire: We all are not made of money and for most of us PFC makes no sense. Social Media still comes down to the 3 F’s, family friends and fans. Nothing else really matters. Keep your F’s safe, close, protected, happy and interacted.
When “they” say “doing it right” what are they really saying? Do I hear spend money? In almost anything I read from street smart marketers and sales people it is interaction. Seems funny that my postings are getting an exposure rate of 12-18%. It does not seem to matter what time of the day it is, the % is almost always the same. Would PFC be a good thing?
Then I need to really question paying a higher rate for CPC. Come on who is fooling who here? I’m not a big advocate of paying for clicks in the first place. Now it may have its place but does have its place but not as the center part of your marketing plan. Think long term, think organically.
Then start thinking trichannel. social, telemarketing, direct mail and watch your numbers really take off.
“We don’t sell lists, we find customers.”
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
Friday, June 8, 2012
SEO 5 Tips to Bring Organic Traffic to Your Website
You have a website. You finally sat down wrote some content and got it up and running. Yea! It’s done. It’s up. Build it and people will come. Only if they can find it.
You worked hard to get the words just right weaving in your key words soothe copy flows just right. Maybe put in some graphics. Now what?
A website is of little or no use if nobody can find it.
Mastering the organic or natural search ranking has proven to be a fundamental part of the online marketing mix and should be part of yours.
Search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO) is setting your site up for increased visibility in organic searches and work and rework the content are important to hit the higher end of a search for prospect awareness and customer acquisition.
About 50% of people begin their search from the results of an organic search. 70% those people click on the organic listings before they click on a sponsored link. You know those listing in color (pink?) at the top of a search page.
So how can you up in the rankings and not land on page 43? Even if you get up to page 4 you’re lost because most people don’t even look that far back.
1. Create online WOM buzz about your site, product or service. Push out online press releases. There are distribution services on the Web that offer no-cost packages, sites such as PRlog.org, Free-press-release.com and others. Post a link on a news release to your social marketing sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
2. Start an inbound link program. Set up a reciprocal link page. Start a blog roll (a listing of URLs on a blog, as opposed to a website) that contains links from industry sites that would be willing to swap links with your page, keeping in mind that relevance, rank and quality ia paramount when selecting linking partners. Search engines not only hate it but might black ball you for doing what they call link harvesting which is a collection of links from random websites that have no relevance to your site, so find link partners that have a similar or a working synergy to your business.
3. Create great content and a link back to your site. Look into putting original, useful, valuable and action related information with relevant high quality content directories such as eZinearticles.com, ArticlesBase.com and Goarticles.com. This is a great way to increase market awareness, as well as inbound links to your site. Keep your content targeted to the directory & the audience you want to attract. There is also a syndication opportunities, as third-party sites and people may come across your article when doing a Web search and republish your content on their own websites.
4. You web pages should be keyword-rich and related to your business. Make a list of your top 10 to 15 keywords and variations of those words and incorporate them into the copy on your site. Search engines crawl Web pages from top to bottom, so your strongest keywords should be in that order on your home page and sub-pages with the most relevant on the top, the least relevant on the bottom.
You'll want to do the same for your tag lines. Make sure your title and meta tags are unique and full of your keywords. And your alt tags/alt attributions (images) should have relevant descriptions, as well. It all counts when the search engines spider through your page.
5. List your site on any online directories and classified sites you can find by category, region or topic. The more the merrier and getting more push up the search engine page ladder. Some directories like Business.com have a small fee involved but there are many other directories and classified sites like Dmoz.org, Info.com, Superpages.com and Craigslist.org that are free and can be targeted by location and product or offer type.
Then before you start your SEO program, find out how many hits your site is getting now so you can measure both pre and post SEO hit numbers and statistics. You can upload a site counter which counts the number of visits to your website if you want, I find them sort of useless but it’s your site. You can get your site's traffic ranking at Alexa.com or Quantcast.com, or get your site's daily visit average from Google Analytics or another application Perhaps your host does it for you like mine does, then chart your weekly progress.
Larson Notes & Satire: Now understand that natural organic search may take several months for a site to be optimized and gain in the search engines, so be patient. You will eventually see results.
Don’t get trapped by the companies that go out and guarantee number one page ranking. Heck I can do that with my eyes closed. Give me your money and I’ll do it.
But to get #1 page ranking takes time, energy and dare I say talent. It is a combination of all you do, from the front end to the back end of your page, to your url name, to any landing pages you set up, to your social media work to blogging, to everything you say and do on the web.
That is why people come and throw their money at people and companies like mine.
And if you do need a host and or web site we do that as well.
“We don’t sell lists, we find customers.”
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
Thursday, June 7, 2012
The Rule of 40-40-20
So you’re asking what the heck am I talking about. In marketing there is a rule of thumb that 40% of a targeted marketing program or a direct mail project should be n the list, 40% should be in the message and 20% in the creative. It is one of those things that history has shown us is a truism.
It is like a lot of things in advertising, marketing and graphics people want to take short cuts. It happens all the time. (See yesterday’s blog) like when I want to add a mailing program with a telemarketing program. So in a mailing program when we talk 40-40-20 people ask why do I need great creative? I have 80% with the good list and a powerful offer. Well that might work in a solid telemarketing program but when ink hits the paper… it better look good.
But why make a big stink over 20%? If the best you can do is put in a “REPLY NOW” tag, if everything in the page is so important that the whole piece is in a bold type face, try again. With the right deal the right target odds are you will get “good” results but is that what you’re about, good, when you could have great?
Larson Notes & Satire: one of the tag lines I use a lot reads: “Making good businesses great and great businesses even better” That is what we are about. Not just good enough, not making things great but making great even better.
I am a big advocate of the 40-40-20. Yes I will do a 40-40 and leave the rest project and I know I will get blamed for less than stellar results, but in the 37 years of being in business that part has not changed. Clients cut corners when we don’t tell them or give the reasons why. Even when we do, they try to cut.
So next time your thinking about a project, try Me. Blame me. After all I am from the city of big shoulders.
“We don’t sell lists, we find customers.”
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
It is like a lot of things in advertising, marketing and graphics people want to take short cuts. It happens all the time. (See yesterday’s blog) like when I want to add a mailing program with a telemarketing program. So in a mailing program when we talk 40-40-20 people ask why do I need great creative? I have 80% with the good list and a powerful offer. Well that might work in a solid telemarketing program but when ink hits the paper… it better look good.
But why make a big stink over 20%? If the best you can do is put in a “REPLY NOW” tag, if everything in the page is so important that the whole piece is in a bold type face, try again. With the right deal the right target odds are you will get “good” results but is that what you’re about, good, when you could have great?
Larson Notes & Satire: one of the tag lines I use a lot reads: “Making good businesses great and great businesses even better” That is what we are about. Not just good enough, not making things great but making great even better.
I am a big advocate of the 40-40-20. Yes I will do a 40-40 and leave the rest project and I know I will get blamed for less than stellar results, but in the 37 years of being in business that part has not changed. Clients cut corners when we don’t tell them or give the reasons why. Even when we do, they try to cut.
So next time your thinking about a project, try Me. Blame me. After all I am from the city of big shoulders.
“We don’t sell lists, we find customers.”
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Extend Your Reach and Make an Impact
The Reach
In the US there are over 149 million residences, businesses and PO Boxes throughout the country.
Did you know that 98% of people residences and businesses, bring their mail in every day it is delivered and 77% sort through it immediately?
That 15% of all consumers receive at least one catalog and 12% are receiving at least a letter of postcard or flyer from a company looks at and makes a purchase on that company’s web site?
According to one survey of 6,400 online shoppers households that receive printed catalogs shop online more often and spend more time at a company’s web site regardless of age, income, region or education.
The Impact
Direct mail is over 52% of all mail in the United States
The Direct Mail industry employs over 3.1 million people
The global direct mail advertising services is forecast to reach $25 BILLION in 2015.
On average those who receive a catalog spent 28% more and buy 28% more items than those who do not receive a catalog
Direct order B2B Direct Marketing sales are projected to increase 5.4% over the next year.
Larson Notes & Satire: So why am I so excited about direct mail? The percentages and the numbers make if (still) a force to be reckoned with. Think about it double digit percentages? How you ignore it. Then you add in a few other channels and …..
And the growth? Looks like above GNP to me!
I really don’t care of your B2B or B2C. This has to be one of your channels you are using. In any comprehensive lead generation plan I put together I put in direct mail, (usually a postcard) Why? (Let me bang my head against the wall for a second), a direct mail program will net you 1% to 3% return. A telemarketing stand alone program should net you 1% to 3% return. Though in a little Social Media and you are going to be getting 12%-15% return. Most people and companies don’t do it because of the cost or perceived cost.
Oh well you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.
“We don’t sell lists, we find customers.”
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate
P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
In the US there are over 149 million residences, businesses and PO Boxes throughout the country.
Did you know that 98% of people residences and businesses, bring their mail in every day it is delivered and 77% sort through it immediately?
That 15% of all consumers receive at least one catalog and 12% are receiving at least a letter of postcard or flyer from a company looks at and makes a purchase on that company’s web site?
According to one survey of 6,400 online shoppers households that receive printed catalogs shop online more often and spend more time at a company’s web site regardless of age, income, region or education.
The Impact
Direct mail is over 52% of all mail in the United States
The Direct Mail industry employs over 3.1 million people
The global direct mail advertising services is forecast to reach $25 BILLION in 2015.
On average those who receive a catalog spent 28% more and buy 28% more items than those who do not receive a catalog
Direct order B2B Direct Marketing sales are projected to increase 5.4% over the next year.
Larson Notes & Satire: So why am I so excited about direct mail? The percentages and the numbers make if (still) a force to be reckoned with. Think about it double digit percentages? How you ignore it. Then you add in a few other channels and …..
And the growth? Looks like above GNP to me!
I really don’t care of your B2B or B2C. This has to be one of your channels you are using. In any comprehensive lead generation plan I put together I put in direct mail, (usually a postcard) Why? (Let me bang my head against the wall for a second), a direct mail program will net you 1% to 3% return. A telemarketing stand alone program should net you 1% to 3% return. Though in a little Social Media and you are going to be getting 12%-15% return. Most people and companies don’t do it because of the cost or perceived cost.
Oh well you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.
“We don’t sell lists, we find customers.”
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
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P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.
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