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Small Business Advertising - Direct Mail Candy Promo Gets Sweet Results

Written by: Jerre Blodgett

Article Overview: Here's a direct mail promotional idea that worked well for a corporate client selling big ticket electronics gear. With a little imagination, you can do something like this to create new business for your growing company.

Small Business Advertising - Direct Mail Candy Promo Gets Sweet Results

If you've read my other direct mail advertising articles, you'll note that I like sending direct mail on a frequent basis to the same list of prospects. The better the prospects (matching demographics with your "ideal client" criteria), the better the results. When I built my printing company using direct mail, I found that many new customers had saved a number of my direct mail pieces before they ever called.

This candy themed direct mail campaign was a fun promotion, and got far better results than expected for my client. This promotion had three parts and featured popular Jelly Belly brand candies (we used the original brand): We did three separate mailings to the client's 30 top prospects. Each mailing included a jar of Jelly Belly candies with an attached small brochure that contained a recipe for "a sweet solution to their needs" - our product message.

Did you know that if you mixed a Chocolate Pudding, Cappuccino and a Peanut Butter Jelly Belly you get a Mud Pie? Or, if you mixed Very Cherry with Chocolate Pudding you'd get a Chocolate Covered Cherry? By mixing Chocolate Pudding, Crushed Pineapple, Top Banana, Strawberry Jam, Very Cherry and French Vanilla you'll get a Banana Split. You can go to the Jelly Belly website to find more fascinating combinations, and this is not an ad for their products! But you get the idea.

Each promotional mailing carried a message tying the product to the concept of here's a recipe for "A Sweet Solution To Your Needs!"

This campaign received tremendous response from the target market. My client had a goal of 20 first time appointments and they got 30. They targeted 15 demos and they got 25. They targeted sales to three of the prospects and got 18. This promotion was a huge success. Cost? About $200 per prospect. Adding my fees for masterminding the promotion, under $5,000 to win over $5 Million in new business.

For more ideas on how to use direct mail promotions to build your business, see my other articles here.

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Article Tags: advertising articles, banana strawberry, candies, chocolate pudding, client criteria, direct mail advertising, frequent basis, fun promotion, jelly belly, mail campaign, mail pieces, mud pie, peanut butter jelly, printing company, product message, strawberry jam, sweet solution, target market, top banana, top prospects



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