kaiser715
Member
- Reaction score
- 2
- Location
- Central North Carolina
(I am new here at TN, and in way of introduction, am sharing some things I have learned since I started my support business in 1983).
I have a fairly small target market. Most all my clients are partnerships, close-held corporations, or totally family owned businesses, most have 15-100 total employees. Banners and signs won't work for me, I want to find my customers of choice, not have them finding me. Sounds backwards, but it works. I depend heavily on repeat business, rather than a revolving door of new people.
I have had a great return on targeted mailings. I made my own list of prospects that fit my target market. This list initially came from scouring the phone book, noting ads placed in our newspaper's annual industrial edition, and just making a running list of places I saw as I drove around town.
I create and send a personalized letter (mostly boilerplate describing my services, intro and closing paragraphs customized for the prospect) to each, and usually included a tri-fold brochure about my services. When I first started, I tried to identify 10 prospects and mail 10 letters a week, in a three-county area.
For larger companies, I'd send three or four letters, spaced anywhere from a week to a month or so apart, to select individuals within the company. The owner/president, CFO/bookkeeper, Plant manager, etc. Sometimes if the first contact didn't react, another would, to at least get your foot in the door.
I kept pretty good stats on return inquiries when I was regularly doing the mailings, and as I recall, I got a response from about 18%, and about half of those turned into some amount of paying work. Some of them turned into repeat customers, some still are. Not bad for a couple of hours a week, and five bucks or so in postage each week.
The marketing letters always went out first class mail, with my own name and business name on the return label. I think this helped get the letters on the right desks, opened and read.
Also sent to churches...would directly address individual letters to the pastor, church bookkeeper/secretary, chairman of the trustees, etc. Usually had a very high response rate from churches, and would usually sell some service, but seeing how churches usually have too many thumbs in the leadership pie, I'd get one or two calls, and then a friend of somebody's cousin would start helping them, etc, and I didn't get much long-term repeat business.
FWIW, hope this gives somebody an idea for some cheap effective marketing.
I have a fairly small target market. Most all my clients are partnerships, close-held corporations, or totally family owned businesses, most have 15-100 total employees. Banners and signs won't work for me, I want to find my customers of choice, not have them finding me. Sounds backwards, but it works. I depend heavily on repeat business, rather than a revolving door of new people.
I have had a great return on targeted mailings. I made my own list of prospects that fit my target market. This list initially came from scouring the phone book, noting ads placed in our newspaper's annual industrial edition, and just making a running list of places I saw as I drove around town.
I create and send a personalized letter (mostly boilerplate describing my services, intro and closing paragraphs customized for the prospect) to each, and usually included a tri-fold brochure about my services. When I first started, I tried to identify 10 prospects and mail 10 letters a week, in a three-county area.
For larger companies, I'd send three or four letters, spaced anywhere from a week to a month or so apart, to select individuals within the company. The owner/president, CFO/bookkeeper, Plant manager, etc. Sometimes if the first contact didn't react, another would, to at least get your foot in the door.
I kept pretty good stats on return inquiries when I was regularly doing the mailings, and as I recall, I got a response from about 18%, and about half of those turned into some amount of paying work. Some of them turned into repeat customers, some still are. Not bad for a couple of hours a week, and five bucks or so in postage each week.
The marketing letters always went out first class mail, with my own name and business name on the return label. I think this helped get the letters on the right desks, opened and read.
Also sent to churches...would directly address individual letters to the pastor, church bookkeeper/secretary, chairman of the trustees, etc. Usually had a very high response rate from churches, and would usually sell some service, but seeing how churches usually have too many thumbs in the leadership pie, I'd get one or two calls, and then a friend of somebody's cousin would start helping them, etc, and I didn't get much long-term repeat business.
FWIW, hope this gives somebody an idea for some cheap effective marketing.
