Both!
A mailshot that is sent out without being followed up is a waste of money, infact there is a law in Narnia that says its illegal!
Not strictly true about the law bit but if you are going to the effort of doing a mailer, target it and follow it up. People get lots of mail, some will go straight in the bin, others will be left on the desk and one or two may action on it straight away, the idea of following it up is to give those who still have it on their desk a gentle prod, some will not be interested but some maybe and if they had not had the call may have lost the letter and gone elsewhere instead.
Failing that a couple of tips for you.
Get a great mailer done, give the recipient a reason to reply.
When sending them out do so on a staggered basis, so that follow ups are easy to do. Example 1000 mailers on Monday sent out, followed up on Wednesday, assuming directed to a contact may speak to 5-10 per hour (designated contact), to get halfway through could be 2-3 weeks after they receive the mailer and therefore may have forgotten or gone to another competitor and those at the end of the list may even get swept under the carpet.
Where as if you send 50 a day, its much easier to manage and if you do it by sector as well you may see a trend that allows you to improve your target ratio even more.
This is an area of business that I cover via www.shasar.co.uk and if there is a requirement would be happy to quote or you are welcome to use one of the special offers which between now and Dec 25th 2006 get an extra 10% off.
Shay
A mailshot that is sent out without being followed up is a waste of money, infact there is a law in Narnia that says its illegal!
Not strictly true about the law bit but if you are going to the effort of doing a mailer, target it and follow it up. People get lots of mail, some will go straight in the bin, others will be left on the desk and one or two may action on it straight away, the idea of following it up is to give those who still have it on their desk a gentle prod, some will not be interested but some maybe and if they had not had the call may have lost the letter and gone elsewhere instead.
Failing that a couple of tips for you.
Get a great mailer done, give the recipient a reason to reply.
When sending them out do so on a staggered basis, so that follow ups are easy to do. Example 1000 mailers on Monday sent out, followed up on Wednesday, assuming directed to a contact may speak to 5-10 per hour (designated contact), to get halfway through could be 2-3 weeks after they receive the mailer and therefore may have forgotten or gone to another competitor and those at the end of the list may even get swept under the carpet.
Where as if you send 50 a day, its much easier to manage and if you do it by sector as well you may see a trend that allows you to improve your target ratio even more.
This is an area of business that I cover via www.shasar.co.uk and if there is a requirement would be happy to quote or you are welcome to use one of the special offers which between now and Dec 25th 2006 get an extra 10% off.
Shay
Upvote
0
Shay said:
To an extent, but it depends on the qty that you are mailing. The discounted postage service wouldn't exist if it weren't for bulk mailings, and the vast majority of these are not followed up.
If you are only doing a small run though, yes, I would agree. You can still achieve postal discounts and follow up but I think you have to mail 250 a day, so it would be hard for one person to keep up with that. You could maybe do it with two though. I haven't had to do this for a client for a long time, so I'm not tto sure of the volumes, but I believe it's 250 a day. When you think you can get about 40% off the postage it is worth looking at.
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Getting noticed by people who may want your product or service when they are likely to buy is really hard work. The volume of cold calls our potential customers get makes them increasingly difficult to get hold of but I would prefer it over a mailshot everytime. An email shot now seems to be a complete waste of time no matter how targetted you are, thanks to the age of spam. Weird really because somebody must be making money in this way or they wouldn't spend money on generating spam.
Upvote
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G
GreatSEO
- Original Poster
- #6
Barry/Anthony
The question that you ask and are discussing here has a number of different answers dependant on the product or service that is being promoted. It depends on the story you are trying to relay and also on the way that it is put across.
If you were trying to sell your standard van ice cream you would just advertise a price of 99p and sell your 99's at the beach as everyone else does however if it was an indulgent devon ice cream you would sell to a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT AUDIENCE...
If you feel that this is relevant to you i would not mind helping you out in anyway that i can FOC. You can contact me via PM and we can take things from there.
Regards
Dave
The question that you ask and are discussing here has a number of different answers dependant on the product or service that is being promoted. It depends on the story you are trying to relay and also on the way that it is put across.
If you were trying to sell your standard van ice cream you would just advertise a price of 99p and sell your 99's at the beach as everyone else does however if it was an indulgent devon ice cream you would sell to a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT AUDIENCE...
If you feel that this is relevant to you i would not mind helping you out in anyway that i can FOC. You can contact me via PM and we can take things from there.
Regards
Dave
Upvote
0
H
hw27
- Original Poster
- #7
Hiya!
Out of the 2 options in your question, a mailshot definitely gets more attention, higher response and can be filed/kept for later consideration. If you allow for a reply device in the mailshot you can ask the prospects if they're interested (or not, or maybe) and when will it be appropriate to contact them again so you can gain lots of info in this way.
I run a mailing house which can provide you with all the direct marketing services you may need (on time and on budget). We can assist you in all the practicalities of direct mail prior to releasing the mailing and help you through the process in detail from concept to release or broadcast.
The services we offer include mailing, data processing, data analysis, enclosing, collation, print sourcing and purchase, email and fax broadcasting as well as online and offline direct marketing consultancy.
I can't post a link to our website as I haven't porsted enough but please PM/call me if you want a chat about this.
Hanne Widmer
t: 05600 751947
m: 07812 170090
Blue Spiral
Out of the 2 options in your question, a mailshot definitely gets more attention, higher response and can be filed/kept for later consideration. If you allow for a reply device in the mailshot you can ask the prospects if they're interested (or not, or maybe) and when will it be appropriate to contact them again so you can gain lots of info in this way.
I run a mailing house which can provide you with all the direct marketing services you may need (on time and on budget). We can assist you in all the practicalities of direct mail prior to releasing the mailing and help you through the process in detail from concept to release or broadcast.
The services we offer include mailing, data processing, data analysis, enclosing, collation, print sourcing and purchase, email and fax broadcasting as well as online and offline direct marketing consultancy.
I can't post a link to our website as I haven't porsted enough but please PM/call me if you want a chat about this.
Hanne Widmer
t: 05600 751947
m: 07812 170090
Blue Spiral
Upvote
0
G
GreatSEO
- Original Poster
- #8
Hanne
Would you be saying a mailshot is more effective due to the fact that your a mailhouse.....????
I believe that a quick phone call to assess whether there is interest there and a name grabbing exercise can give you a good prospect list to then send the mailshot to. This will inevitably drop your costs considerably. If the letter has the right content you can make the prospect aware that they will receive a call later....
Upon calling them back they have an idea of who you are and why you are calling thus increasing your response rate dramatically and reducing your costs considerably. Not to forget you need to abide by the TPS and the MPS to ensure that you are not fined in any way.
As stated before if you wish to discuss this further at the best prices possible for the results delivered then please contact me by email [email protected] or phone 0208 207 1217. With an impressive 100% success track record with delivering a return on investment i think we need to talk
Best Regards
Dave
Would you be saying a mailshot is more effective due to the fact that your a mailhouse.....????
I believe that a quick phone call to assess whether there is interest there and a name grabbing exercise can give you a good prospect list to then send the mailshot to. This will inevitably drop your costs considerably. If the letter has the right content you can make the prospect aware that they will receive a call later....
Upon calling them back they have an idea of who you are and why you are calling thus increasing your response rate dramatically and reducing your costs considerably. Not to forget you need to abide by the TPS and the MPS to ensure that you are not fined in any way.
As stated before if you wish to discuss this further at the best prices possible for the results delivered then please contact me by email [email protected] or phone 0208 207 1217. With an impressive 100% success track record with delivering a return on investment i think we need to talk
Best Regards
Dave
Upvote
0
Being in the same industry, I would disagree that calling first to gain interest is a viable option as it then moves away from being a mailshot. Of course as a marketing tool this still has its uses but how many of us when pushed will say not interested but a month down the line will think I wish I would have taken a further look at that as it may have been handy? Doesn't mean business related, could be anything but I know I do it be it on the high street or if someone emails me, mailshots me etc.
Upvote
0
T
telemax
- Original Poster
- #10
Hi There
From my point of view mailshots have had their day, they seem to just go into the bin.
Both cold calling on the phone, and/or in person hav proven to be the most effective way of gaining business. However, you have to be very persistant and keep at it, no matter how bad things seem to be going.
I've been doing it lots of years, I'm happy to give you 10 minutes of my time if you need any tips...
Tel 020 8181 5250
11am to 5pm, will be off this Friday though
Kind regards
Jonathan
From my point of view mailshots have had their day, they seem to just go into the bin.
Both cold calling on the phone, and/or in person hav proven to be the most effective way of gaining business. However, you have to be very persistant and keep at it, no matter how bad things seem to be going.
I've been doing it lots of years, I'm happy to give you 10 minutes of my time if you need any tips...
Tel 020 8181 5250
11am to 5pm, will be off this Friday though
Kind regards
Jonathan
Upvote
0
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