Cold marketing? It's become a counter-intuitive strategy for good reason: The basic precept of intelligent marketing holds that mining current customers for increased business is the smartest thing you can do to grow your business. We agree, absolutely.
But what about marketing to unknown prospects? Can your direct mail marketing campaigns be successful using a purchased list of cold leads? The answer is a highly qualified yes. There are several things to know:
1) Never let a cold campaign distract from your current clients.
If cold marketing efforts yield a new customer, but cause you to lose a customer you already have (because the effort consumed too much time and attention), the net for your business is NOT equal; it’s a loss. Yes, you have the same number of customers, but because of acquisition costs, your margins are lower.
You must – and can – keep in contact with current clients as you prospect through cold campaigns. Smart direct marketing can achieve BOTH of these goals efficiently and cost effectively. Best case? They run in your business background as cruise-control marketing. We can set this up for you!
2) Set realistic expectations.
As a rule, cold marketing never performs as well as marketing to current and past clients, at least up front. There are many reasons why. Even the best geographical lists (we generate them from tax records) can have a margin of error as high as 20% - 30%. People move, change jobs, get married or divorced. Therefore, your campaign should appeal to anyone who holds your postcard: at a minimum it should be warmly introductory, communicate a high level of expertise, and present a very strong brand.
To set an optimum impression, Reaching Neighbors sends the best-designed, best-looking postcards in the business.
3) Repetition. Repetition. Repetition.
Wondering if you can mail to a cold list just once to “see how it goes?” Don’t bother! Unless you’re supremely lucky (like Mega Millions lucky), you will be flushing your time, attention and money away. Mailing to cold leads successfully requires repetition. On average, our Realtor and Lender clients begin to see responses after 12 months. With a sustained effort, prospect postcard campaigns – such as neighborhood farming – can and do pay for themselves.
Once a cold campaign sees prospects converted into clients, those folks join your warm customer list – and begin to receive your targeted marketing campaigns that speak more personally to their needs.
Never forget that the very best business growth comes from the customers you already have. Make them your first priority. This approach keeps your marketing costs low while creating momentum. Once you have sold all you can to your existing customers, you can start reaching out to gain more. Done right, cold prospecting with Reaching Neighbors is a viable marketing strategy! Contact us to learn more.
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