Email vs Direct Mail
RE: "E-Mail to Play Increasing Role in Budget Mix" (Direct Newsline 4/30)
As you know, I am NOT an Internet Marketer! -- I am a Mailorder Marketer, but ...
In September, 1999, we established a website when more & more of my paper & ink subscribers began asking where they could buy our products online. The site was profitable by January, 2000 ... by June, 2000, about 12% to 15% of my revenue was coming from the Internet.
From June, 2000, thru June, 2001, my Internet revenue grew steadily; from 12% of gross revenue to about 35%. -- No big jumps ... not even when I started our Affiliate Program in January, 2001 ... just a steady growth pattern.
To make a long story short, in June, 2001, I asked myself a question I had asked myself a thousand times in my mailorder business ...
Where are my customers coming from?
So ... I went back to day one (September, 1999) and looked at EVERY order we had ever received from my web site. I looked at them all, one-by-one ... it took days - but - when I had finished, I discovered the Real Secret to my success.
After going through ALL of the orders ever produced from my web site - one-by-one - I discovered that ...
Eighty Three Percent (83%) of my web site orders had come from web site visitors originated by my "Mailorder Marketing" campaigns ... NOT from my "Internet Marketing" efforts!
That's right ... all of my Internet Marketing, Advertising, Affiliate Program and Article Writing had only produced a paltry 17% of my "buying" customers ... the other 83% came directly from my mailorder marketing campaigns (with email follow ups, of course).
That lead me to the conclusion ...
You can still make a fortune in direct mail without ever selling anything on the Internet - BUT ... You can NOT make any real money on the Internet without using Mailorder Marketing.
Starting in September, 1999, I put my web site URL on every mailorder sales piece that left our offices. -- That little act alone produced 83% of the "buying" customers who have visited my web site.
On the Internet, your customers have to FIND YOU. -- That means you must continually market your web site ... using every trick in the guru's book ... to generate traffic to your site. -- Even then, all you're doing is preaching to the choir.
Using known demographic profiling, in the mailorder business, you FIND YOUR CUSTOMERS ... then, tell them what you have and how they can get it from you on the Internet.
People who visit, or contact, you from a mailorder campaign are NOT the customary Internet Surfers; other Internet Marketers; or Freebie Seekers, you get by marketing on the Internet. -- They are people who are looking for what you have but don't know where to find it.
Knowing where my "buying" customers were coming from ... Guess What? -- I doubled and redoubled my Mailorder Marketing campaigns last fall. -- Instead of spending 80% of my time doing Internet Marketing, I realigned my priorities and spent 80% of my time ...Marketing my Web Site by Mail!
Today, almost 90% of my revenue comes from my email campaigns - but - over 80% of my email & online orders still come from my direct mail customers.
Rather than budgeting more for email advertising, it would be wise to budget more toward including the Internet online purchase options in your direct mail campaigns.
Try it ... your bank account will like it.
---
Email vs Direct Mail - To learn more about this author, visit Jim Straw's Website.
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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