Mailshots

[pealo86]

I've recently started my postal marketing campaign which is targeted to local businesses.

I work as a self employed website designer and am trying to build my client base. I already have a few clients in my portfolio but I'm having difficulty finding additional work.

I sent out 50 flyers (well, postcards) a couple of weeks ago and haven't heard anything (I checked my website traffic on google analytics, and I think a few, maybe 2 or 3, of them actually looked on my website).

I posted out another 100 the other day which should have arrived today, so I'm hoping to hear something from them... but only time will tell!

The thing is, it's proving to be quite an expensive form of marketing, I'm currently only charging £300 for a 5-page website (maybe their put off by my low prices?) so at this rate I'll be pleased to be breaking even!!

I've read on several articles / blogs that it's best to follow up with a phonecall, but won't this just anger people? I would have thought it would just come across as pestering people if I were to ring companies after them not responding to my flyers?

If anybody here is familiar with cold calling / follow-up phonecalls, I'd be very happy if you could share a few tips. Like how to introduce yourself and get your message across without coming across as a typical sleezy salesman?

Here are links to my website / flyer design, if anyone could give any feedback on what I'm doing wrong that would be great.

Oh, I've used url shortening because I don't want this thread to show up in any google searches for my company!

website: link
flyer: http://bit.ly/Jqm7A

Thanks

[Kerrmunications]

Hi there

Don't be too discouraged by your results so far.

A typical business-to-business direct mail campaign, without a special offer, would expect to receive about a 1-2% response. Then, from that response, about 10% might go on to buy.

So for your figures of 50, you could expect 1/2 to 1 person to respond, then less than 1/10th to buy.

You got 2 or 3 responses (people looking at your site), or a 4% response rate, which is higher than average.

If you translate your response rates backwards, let's look at how many you may need to send to get an enquiry/puchase:

For - 1 purchase
You would need - 10 enquiries
Which would mean sending out - 250 fliers

So, if your campaign can be multiplied, for every 250 mailings, you could estimate 1 purchase.

Now look at how much it costs you to mail 250 - is the return of £300 worth it?

What I think you definitely need to do is to hit these people many more times. It's often quoted that a prospect needs to see your message 6 times (although I've seen 7 and 9 quoted too!) before they will act on it.

So, you perhaps need to send the flier more than once, email them, advertise where they might see it, do a press release, write some articles they might read, put case studies into publications they might read, etc.

I loved your flier. My only comment on your site is that all your web work looks very similar, in terms of layout and design, so people might think that you use a standard template to design the work. Could you perhaps do some other mockups or some freebies for people you know, where the designs are noticeably different, and then showcase these too?

Good luck

Claire

[Rob Crossland]

Hi,

I think Claire has given you an excellent answer so I would only add a similar point relating to your site.

Does it sell?
Does it stand out?
Is it targeted to those potential clients?

Perhaps trial a couple of different landing pages linked to different analytics to see what works?

Perhaps offer a bolder - harder hitting message on one ?

[pealo86]

Thanks a lot for the tips!

Do you think it would help to make some follow-up phonecalls? I can't seem to get email addresses for these companies you see. I spoke to a guy from Business Link the other night and he was quite keen on the idea of cold calling after sending out mailshots.

Also do you think it may help to raise my prices so that companies will take me more seriously?

Cheers.

[Kerrmunications]

Yes, following up with a phone call will help. It's another contact with them, and while you may well get knocked back from most of them, perhaps all of them, at least they have had another contact with your brand.

I'm not sure about your prices as I don't really know what the market rates are. How long does it take you to create a site? What sort of a day rate does that translate to? Can any other web designers on here help out to say whether pealo86's rates are too low?

[pealo86]

Great thanks!

Do you know of anywhere I can get general tips on cold calling? I've had a bit of advice but my main aim is to appear nothing like some of the sleezy salesmen I get ringing me all the time. I have a feeling a lot of the calls will result in the receiver becoming angered and hang up on me... although I suppose thats a thing you'd need to get used to with this sort of thing?

With regards to prices, one website I worked on for £300 worked out as about £12 per hour, but the other two I'm on at the minute are looking like it'll work out to be a lower hourly rate. But I've known of several companies to charge more than 10 times my amount for a far less professional service!

[jaffab]

A couple more comments, which I hope will help.

1) On the flyer, you need a pitch, a call to action. Yes, you have the price and the "Visit" request - but not saying why they should. You need the reason, the call. such as "Visit today and save 10% (valid for 5 days only)" or "Generate more business with a new web site today".

2) If you are printing these yourself, it may be possible to add a seperate landing/redirection page per send out. So instead of everybody hitting your web site, you have "www.mypage.com/offer117" - where the landing page "offer117" (which redirects to your main page) is per contact.

This then allows you to track who hits your web site from your mailers, and from this, you have their contact details, and it makes a lot easier for you to call them, as you have their details.

HOWEVER (in big and bold), you cant assume that the people who you post the flyer to (assuming you post) are the people who are interested and visit your web site all of the time. Mr A may get your flyer, but he no longer deals with their IT, so passes it to Mrs B, who doesnt need it for their company, but takes it home and gives it to Mr B, who may want to take a look for his company.

[Kerrmunications]

I'm not so good at cold calling myself, but you could try a book:

"Telephone Sales for Dummies"
or
"Cold Calling for Chickens"

Or there are some tips on the Marketing Donut site:
Telesales | Marketing Donut

Good selling!