Email or letter marketing?

[bf220]

Im looking to drum up more work for the coming season and therefore going to be sending out a letter to potential customers. With this letter I was going to enclose a business card.

With many businesses dealing with email on a regular basis nowadays, Im wondering if I should send the letter this way - saving on costs (stamps, paper, ink etc) OR is it best to send via post with business card and sign each letter individually.

Also, any advice on the letter. What I have is one A4 sheet long, introducing us, bullet point what we do, and thanking them for their time.

Thank you

 

[S-Marketing]

What line of business are you in?

 

[bf220]

Grounds maintenance and Landscaping

 

[S-Marketing]

How have you selected your potential customers?

 

[bf220]

Local knowledge. i.e Knowing they have grounds to be maintained or manage grounds that are to be maintained. They are all local businesses.

Not approaching domestic customers this way, considering flyers but I know myself I mostly throw them in the bin

 

[Toon]

I guess it depends on how much business you would expect to achieve. If it's high value work you're after then putting a letter through the post will catch their attention more, especially if you have the name of the person you're targeting and not just their title. Otherwise if it's low value then email may be better.

 

[bf220]

I think letter is probably the better route then, dont want to look like spam mail.

 

[VITMAN]

I guess that which ever route you take you will need to follow up as the response rate for either email or letter is quite low. On the whole given your situation I would say letter.

 

[S-Marketing]

I agree. If you are determined to use one of those two methods then letters is the one to go for.

 

[XanderMarketing]

Or do both...one week a letter (with a gimmick), next week an email, next week a phone call.

 

[patientlady]

Local knowledge. i.e Knowing they have grounds to be maintained or manage grounds that are to be maintained. They are all local businesses.

As you are being specific show that in your letter. Try to make it seem specific to each company rather than a general mail shot if you can
Dear Mr/Mrs....
I noticed your well planted shrubbery in the car park/fountains/hedges/lawns and we specialise blah blah blah. Spend 30 mins on the phone each day getting the contact names and then either drop in the letter personally or post. Ten good local mail shots per day might be beneficial than 20 poor ones! good luck and pls let us know how you get on and which method you used. Its nice to hear

 

[TheFace]

yea i agree with xander marketing all the way

 

[sitandstay]

Letter is the better option

 

[garyk]

make sure you get a decent list, Ive bought a couple of lists recently which have turned out to be rubbish.

 

[Rob S]

Phone to get the name of the decision maker.

Personal letter with business card and a leaflet showing photos of your work.

Then follow up with a phone call a week later.

 

[TangerineDream]

Both direct mail and email marketing have their place in your marketing mix.
However, I would concentrate on creating a permission based email list,rather than just send out to lots emails to people that you do not know.
You can start by creating a list of emails of everyone that you know and have had dealing with in the past. Then as time goes always ask for email address and if it is ok to send them some info from time to time. (you can also create links on your website to allow people to leave their email addresses if they wish.
Email marketing can be very powerful when used like this.
Consumers are a lot less emotive about receiving an old fashioned direct mail, but you are right it coats a lot more and has a far lower response rate and return on investment. This does not mean it can not be valuable but watch you ROI.
If you would like to speka about email marketing and how it can assist PM me and I can show you in more detail.

 

[TheFace]

yea defo, it cant not work

 

[Janebert]

I wouldn't recommend email marketing in this instance for 2 reasons:

1. If you buy a list and send the email as "bulk" i.e. the same email goes to more than one recipient, then you are actually spamming, as they haven't opted in to receive your emails. The definition of spam is "bulk" i.e. more than one, and "unsolicited" - they haven't asked to receive your emails.

However, it is legal to send individual, unsolicited emails. If a list supplier tries to tell you that the email addresses are "opted in", then, by my understanding, they're not telling you the whole truth. They've probably opted in to "something" - but not specifically you. AVOID.

2. Unsolicited email has incredibly low response rates. One company spent £1600 to send 6,000 emails and got one response which didn't convert into a sale. Wow - that's someone's payrise gone on an interesting experiment in email marketing, which could have been avoided with proper advice!

If I understand correctly, your goal is to get more regular contracts of reasonble value, and you don't need 100s or 1000s of responses. Therefore, I would suggest direct mail to a very highly targeted list (which you seem to have already) and to spend more money and time per recipient, than a mass, unfocused random emailing or mailing.

A way to approach it is this:
1. Don't try to sell the contract or your services on the first contact. I would offer some compelling reason for them to get in touch with you. You can either offer a free report e.g. solving a common landscaping/maintenance problem or how to avoid being ripped off by ... etc. OR some kind of free audit or diagnostic. The aim at this stage is to begin the relationship and to start building a list to follow up with.

2. Don't expect high response unless your offer is insanely juicy. You are better to mail 10 people 3 times, than 30 people 1 time. Pick your highest probability prospects and write 3 letters emphasising different aspects of your offer each time, or even have 3 different offers.

3. Create a follow up sequence for those that respond. Build the relationships by staying in touch - educate your prospects and demonstrate your expertise and professionalism. Become the "go to guys" for grounds maintenance. If you have crafted your offer in such a way that your prospect gives you his/her email address, then you can follow up more cheaply by email.

You might also consider following up by phone, but I think this tends to work better once you've sent them some requested information - you can call to check they received and ask them if it was useful and do they have any questions etc. Just be wary of not being seen as a "telemarketing pest" - you need to be perceived as adding value.

4. Make offers in your follow up and you will make sales.

5. Test and tweak

A cautionary tale: One client sent 2000 letters and only got one response (which did actually convert into business). That is a pitiful response rate. What could she have done differently?
1. Changed the offer from selling the whole enchillada of her service to a smaller, initial step
2. Copywritten the letter better
3. Written to fewer people more regularly - people aren't always ready to buy right now

HTH,
Jane

 

[B2B Sales]

I have to agree with the majority - mailing is much better than emarketing in your case. If you make the leaflet attractive, you stand a greater chance of catching people's attention and receiving a positive response from it.

 

[Freelancer87]

Email marketing is a process that will help you make money if you follow a smart business plan. In order to build your email list in a short period of time, and get subscribers who will eventually turn into buyers, you must give away a free report or ebook in exchange for internet users' email addresses. You must also ask for permission to continue sending them email messages when delivering the free ebook.

Good points.....

Having a plan for your campaign is essential. Don't just assume that a single campaign will bring is the masses. Offer value in exchange for their details (like mentioned above) and give them a reason to keep coming back to you site. Fresh info on the site is good (i.e. through a blog) will help in that matter.

Good luck with your future ventures!

-Dave

 

[jijwhite]

Either method is spam if you don't have permission to communicate with the person involved.

As someone that runs an email marketing company, email marketing is HUGELY powerful and exceptionally cost effective if you have built up your own list of customers/potential customers.

If you want to try and purchase lists and send to these people then forget it. Not only will it cost you a lot of money but companies like mine won't allow you to send emails en masse like this (or not more than once if we find out that your data is a list)

If your looking to drum up some business then there are some simple and effective ways to do this

• Create yourself a free facebook or social media page and get your friends to promote you to people they know
• Get an existing customer to write some words about you and then use this within any way in which you promote your business. What they say about you is much more powerful than what you say about yourself
• Get yourself a simple website/blog created (with something like Wordpress) which you can use then to promote what you do (and also to collect customer contact details)
• Get a few of your existing customers to refer people to you (ask them to provide names of people that might be interested in what you do) and then contact them, mentioning where you got their details from. At least this way, the communication is not totally cold then

You could send a letter but the chances are unless it happens to land in exactly the right place at exactly the right time, it will be money wasted.

Good luck with the marketing in whatever you do and whatever happens keep trying new things!! Marketing is not a perfect science and you will need to try different things to understand the impact they will have. Just ensure that you measure what you do though so you can see the return on your investment

cheers

James

 

[Pearls of Wisdom]

In your case you should be targeting streets with big houses, Large gardens posh areas, shools, colleges, hotels, golf cloubs etc

You need to do marketing plan first

 

[breonsnow]

I have to agree with everyone here...by using a letter and making it a bit more special - it will stand out! ...maybe try:

including a few seeds in a packet (with your logo, phone number and web address on it)

And using the a strap line in your letter "let us help you grow and maintain your grounds" (just thinking off the top of my head, you get the idea)

And then follow it up with a phone call - as soon as you mention the bag of seeds, they will remember the letter and this should spark the conversation!

 

[envirogreenrecycling]

letters can be expensive if it is a big mailshot, but depending on the campaign can be a lot more effective than an email, have you tried a newsletter?

 

[NoMercy]

email marketing = desperate company
letter marketing = desperate company with money and time to waste

 

[iArtist]

Generally Letters should be written by a copywriter who specialises in Sales letters.
See Scott of Scott Copy and design.

The conversion depends entirely on the presentation and content of that letter so don't waste postage on something that will go straight into the bin which most mail outs do.

People sepnd a massive 2 seconds deciding if something is for the 'bin' or worth a further look, so you need to hit them bewteen the eyes straight away.

Goof luck

 

[envirogreenrecycling]

email marketing = desperate company
letter marketing = desperate company with money and time to waste

What way are you supposed to market your business then?

Every company no matter what they offer have a sales technique of some sort,

 

[dagaul101]

Signing each letter individually would be more personal, but ofcourse the email with the business card would still professional

 

[iArtist]

email marketing = desperate company
letter marketing = desperate company with money and time to waste

So Virgin, BT, Dyson, British Gas, Numerous Phone companies and all the other HUGELY successful companies who send promo letters to me are 'desperate'. I hardly think so.

 

[british steve]

Direct mail is the only one I would and do use. Email marketing has been a complete waste of money, I would only ever consider email marketing on an affiliate basis so when it does not work it does not cost me sod all.

 

[Drachsi]

Maybe you could consider another way. Is there a local free or paid for newspaper in your area?

Find out who accepts articles, and write a sheet, that you are offering a free day's gardening to any elderly person in your target area. Supply a photograph which could be published, (make certain your company name is in view)

You need to get people talking about you. Use your Blog to post gardening tips, every week. Maybe local gardening centres would accept a business card or poster? I guess there are many more ideas from other people.

Drachsi.
my name is my web address.

 

[hira101]

you have choose a good way for this purpose

 

[ryan90]

I would opt for the letter route myself. Yes it may be thrown in the bin however this is where a followup call is essential.

 

[Drachsi]

Direct mail is the only one I would and do use. Email marketing has been a complete waste of money, I would only ever consider email marketing on an affiliate basis so when it does not work it does not cost me sod all.

You could also create a virtual flyer on your website and show a link in your normal mail, then if you get visitors/questions you have more to go on.

Drachsi
My name is my website

 

[Rob S]

Direct mail is the only one I would and do use. Email marketing has been a complete waste of money, I would only ever consider email marketing on an affiliate basis so when it does not work it does not cost me sod all.

It depends on your market and your product/service. We get very good response to our email marketing. I even get people saying how useful it is as they keep copies on their files.

 

[iArtist]

I do look at some email marketing, but if they send it TOO often then I have to hit 'spam' filter or unsubscribe.

 

[@nn@]

Hi
And what do you think about mobile multichannel marketing? It allows do the both

 

[Drachsi]

I guess it depends on your message, and if it is the place to locate your customers. Use all types of technology to find customers, not because it is the latest.

Drachsi
My name is my website

 

[Target]

Let's be clear about email marketing. Like any other kind of marketing, it has its place, and produces results when used correctly and appropriately. Dismissing it as useless (or 'desperate') because it hasn't worked for one business is as inappropriate as hailing it the perfect marketing tool. It's neither. Nothing is.

There needs to be realism about the limitations of email. It works best when you send to your own list of people who have voluntarily opted-in. Even then, the general rule of thumb is that you can expect an average of only 20% of such emails to be opened. MUCH less for an bought or rented list. To illustrate the extremes, we've had clients who have enjoyed an open rate of 60% from an opted-in list, and 0% from a rented list.

There's an awful lot of talk here about spamming, most of it technically inaccurate. In the UK the legal position is this. You can send an unsolicited marketing email to any plc, ltd co, public sector organisation, LLP or (in Scotland) partnership without any opt-in. You can send an unsolicited marketing email to any individual (includes sole traders) if you have acquired their email address as a result of a sale or negotiations for a sale, provided they have been given the choice to opt-out, and the email is about a related product or service. Anything outwith these rules IS illegal, and therefore IS spam.

Of course, whether it's a good idea to send such emails is definitely another matter. Most people and businesses object strongly to uninvited email and view it as spam, even if it's legally compliant. So ultimately it does your business no good at all, maybe even generate some bad PR and ill-feeling from potential customers.

For that reason, I'd recommend to forget the idea of an initial random email campaign. Find a way to build your own opted-in list. You need to offer an incentive to join, and it needs to be good. Eg a comp with the prize of free grounds maintenance for 1 year. You CAN make it a condition of entry that they join your email list. It might even generate some local PR.

Why not build this offer into a promotional postcard? Make that the thrust of your message, drive traffic to your website and get people to enter the comp there.

George

 

[channs]

Both Methods Will Work. Make Sure You Offer Your Customers Something For Free, Something Valuable In Exchange For Them Signing Up To Your Email List. You Then Know Who's Interested And Who Isn't And Can MArket To The List With Further Mails. If You Need Any Help Happy To Discuss.