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Direct Mail in Victoria BCDirect Mail MarketingLet Aligned take care of the preparation of your direct mail campaigns. We specialize in Canadian direct mail requirements, and will deliver your mail anywhere in Canada from anywhere in the world. We recommend you undertake a postal consultantation while in the planning stages of a direct mail program. Canada Post can have particular postal requirements in certain classes of mail. If you're aware of these postal requirements ahead of time while in the design stage, you can save yourself considerable time and cost on postage. At the same time you're able to maximize your opportunity to develop the creative elements of your promotional mailings. The key to bulk direct mail is saving on postage costs. This is achieved by the sorting of the addresses on your direct mailing piece. We use specialized addressing software that actually sorts the mailing list into postal walks as mailing pieces are being addressed. This sorting, either LCP (Letter Carrier Pre-sort) qualifies the mailing for a reduced rates. Direct Mail Effectiveness
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Direct mail has three major components:
Advanced TargetingIf you have a database of at least 1000 -2000 postal codes from your customers we are able to use that information to extrapolate a buying pattern of your most ideal type of customer. Then using that information we can tell you where you can find customers that have similar buying habits. The information is derived from Canada Census as well as various consumer information agencies and is strikingly accurate. Example: two men of the same age, both married with one child. They both make the same amount of money and they both own homes of similar value. But do they spend their money in the same way? NO. One drives a Jeep, drinks beer, watches Nascar and listens to rock music. The other drives a used BMW, drinks locally made wine, watches theatrical performances, and listens to classical music. With this advanced targeting we're able to target people most likely to buy your product and avoid wasting your budget on people who aren't! Narrow your marketing down and save your advertising budget in Victoria BCSpend less and market to new customers effectivelyWith so many choices for where to spend your advertising dollars in 2010... Let's weigh some optionsFirst we need to establish a baseline for this comparison. Normally demographics for advertisements will let you know the size of the audience ie. the readership, listeners, visitors, or viewers. This will imply how many people of a specified gender and age, with specific income or spending parameters, pay attention to any one particular form of advertisement. Perhaps you are like me, and rather cynical of those types of demographic breakdowns.What if...
Lets get back to basicsTo establish a solid unit of measurement for market penetration I prefer to use households. therefore we can eliminate the print media terms "x.x readers per household" as a means of beefing up statistics. Lets say that any reader/viewer is with in a household. However if your not in front of THE HOUSEHOLD PURCHACER, your ad will not be as effective as it could be. Options within optionsHow many choices do you have to make once you have decided on a media? In Victoria we have multiple local TV channels, several local radio stations, and heaps of local newspapers. Then we have dozens of local magazines and newsletters for every type of interest you can think of! All of these places sell advertising, offering you the opportunity to get in front of their readers/viewers. All of which boast demographics that may seem appealing, but where do they overlap and where do you miss your coverage?
This is why advertising is often seen as costly and ineffective. These methods offer incomplete coverage, and no means to identify the holes in your marketing. These forms of advertisements do have value, but you should consider as well... A media without an opt-in and complete coverageThere is a media that you can use to ensure complete coverage of your interest group with in your targeted geographic region. While also ensuring that your advertisement reaches the most important person with in any given household (The Primary Purchaser). Plus there is absolutely, positively, no chance that people living in your target region are not exposed to this media. Thus guaranteeing your advertisement will reach the desired reader.
Direct MailNot having a mailbox is not an optionEvery single target member of your target demographic has a mailbox. And normally, the person who checks the mail pays the bills. This gives you direct access to the head of the household. Every household only has one mailboxBy using mailboxes, and households, to breakdown your market you can eliminate holes in your coverage and avoid costly overlaps in your marketing plan. Making Direct Mail Cost EffectiveDo it yourself and pay a lot more...A do it yourself option for direct mail is a costly venture, this is often a prohibitive factor in the decision process. Mistakes people make when they do it themselves:
All these mistakes are costly, and could in turn change a great opportunity, into a waste of your effort. Advantages to working with a professional
Build your IDEAL client list, and contact them for less then $2 eachIf you've watched Dragons Den on CBC, or Shark Tank on ABC then you've seen Kevin O'Leary grill entrepreneurs with a very pointed question... How much does it cost you to acquire a new client?This is a VERY important question all business owners must ask themselves, and their accountant. The answer to this question is directly weighed against the answer to another important question... How much will you earn from each new client you acquire?The answers to these questions quickly demonstrate the health of any business. Maybe you've seen Pitch Men with Billy Mays and Anthony Sullivan. Every story ends with a report like... For every dollar spent on advertising, a lot more dollars are produced in sales.There is a direct connection between dollars earned, and dollars spent effectively advertising and marketing. If you don't know what this number is, you need to make it a priority to determine it. Chances are; your spending more then you'd like to acquire clients, however your clients are very valuable once you have them. Determine the life long value of a good customer.How much do you profit from each sale? Multiply by how many sales per year on average, then multiply by the expected life of the customers loyalty. This is probably a large number, and it's why your in business after all. Good customers that produce regular income are worth trying to acquire, specially if you can acquire them for a fraction of the cost of their value. Are you spending too much to acquire new customers.Most businesses spend too much to acquire new customers, mainly because they don't focus on acquiring the BEST customers possible. I suggest that you try strictly focusing a marketing campaign towards the BEST customers possible, the life long value skyrockets, and you would feel quite comfortable with your advertising investment. Maximize Your Advertising and Marketing ROICreate an ideal demographic for your businessStop relying on demographics that print, radio, and television advertising sales people tell you about. No one knows better who your ideal customers are then you. I want you to create your own demographic, based on almost any parameters, and let us build you a list of your most ideal customers. Our data is drawn from Canadian Census information and is scrubbed for accuracy, and the national do not call list. For example we can create a list of everyone with in a target geographic region that owns 3 or more cars, 5 or more computers, or 5 or more pets. Perhaps it's people who make a six figure income and work in a particular field, or companies that have 30 or more employees that tend to be your best customers. The cost to reach these potential customers is less then you'd expect. Now that we've identified your IDEAL clients, let us initiate contact for you as well.Lets us develop an addressed mail campaign directed at your ideal clients. There is no better way to reach purchasers then by mail. The household purchaser checks the mailbox for the family, and the CEO gets everything with their name on it that arrives by mail . And EVERY address has a mailbox... Simple! Cost vary on design, choice of paper stock, size of envelope, and so on...We're happy to work with your current graphics design team, or make use of our in house services. Our professionals are sure to maintain a consistent brand image with everything we do for our clients. Also we have our professional mail consultant work with you and your designer, before any design starts, to make sure that you're making the most of your budget by clearly laying out options that are in your best interest. Pay LESS then the normal cost of a stamp to mail your letter.Our service will mail your letters, in bulk, for less then you can do it by yourself. Don't waste your time stuffing envelopes either, we do it all for you. Have your letters mailed for only $0.39 each when you send a minimum of 1000. You can anticipate less then $2 per list name for this entire service. For less then two dollars each you will have initiated a professional introduction of your business to all of your ideal customers. And by focusing on your ideal demographic for your business you will be sure to raise the conversion rate of your campaign. We can also follow up in a timely manor with our Outbound Telemarketing Service for an additional fee .
Look at the potential ROI in this kind of campaign
Say that you earn $100 per visit, and a loyal customer visits your company four times a year. And perhaps the loyalty cycle for your type of business is only 2 years. $100 x 4 x 2 = $800 per customer Now say you spend $4000 and contact 2000 potential customers from your ideal demographic for your business. In this case 5 new customers would be the break even on this campaign. I'm sure that the value of a life long, good customer for your business is more than $800. And I'm sure that we can produce a campaign that will generate more then 5 new customers from 2000 well placed letters... What if you were able to return 1% on this campaign?In that case your$4000 investment in advertising would be returned in 6 months, and you would net $12,000! Custom Mailing List CreationDevelop your list of ideal clients, we can locate target markets and mailing lists for you based upon consumer behaviors and specific criteria. We take a highly strategic approach to developing your ideal demographic and narrowing the focus of your marketing efforts to the most desired customers. Benefit: Clearly identify your ideal market. Costs: variable based on parameters Don't get lost in the junk-mailIt would seem ironic for some people to hear me proclaim the above statement, due to how much I advocate for direct mail and mailed advertising. But it's true. I'm going to tell you right now; sometimes ad's can be junk! Pick a good medium to deliver your adJust because it's cheep, doesn't mean it's good! I picked up a Goldstream Gazette today, dated April 30 2010. It looked like a loaded diaper; barely holding in it's contents that were brimming to spew forth. The newspaper no longer represents real-time information, but a tactile experience for the reader to enjoy reading about news that effects locals. However with the desperation setting in to stay alive, the Black Press has allowed themselves to risk offending their only remaining readership by changing the newspaper experience into a cleansing ritual. The volume of inserts in today's paper is ridiculous! So ridiculous that I had to weigh the contents to be able to quantify the offence. Today's newspaper (30% ad's) weighed 87 grams. The inserts weighed 600!That's a pound and a quarter of inserts from box stores and non-local businesses! I wonder about the businesses that are continuing to put money into ad's that run in Black Press publications like this, how could they be getting any action on their ads? Being buried under a pound and a quarter of junk-mail is no way to advertise! Good direct mail is worth the expenseAlthough newspaper inserts are less expensive, direct mail can be tailored and focused to your individual market. This will in turn raise the effectiveness of your advertising dollars. So, before you decide to place a newspaper ad, first take a look at what direct mail can offer your business. |
