Posted by: Troy White
March 20, 2009
Issue #634

How about a 75% open rate
with them apples?

Fellow Business-Builder,

Some interesting stuff in the past week.

Love to see the immense interest, passion, and emotions flaring up over some of The Total Package articles. 

My question to some of those who commented on those posts … “Do you put the same amount of time and passion into your marketing?”

I sure hope so! 

Amazing how much passion is being put into debating some of Daniel and Clayton’s posts. 

If some of those who are leaving page-long comments are investing half that time in their marketing, they would most certainly never be without lots of paying customers.

As well, thanks for the great feedback and ideas left based on my “Going Postal” article from last week. 

I found some great stuff in the past week I wanted to share.

First, a quote that I loved:

"Not everyone actively uses e-mail or has a MySpace or Facebook page, but they have a mailing address and they do want to know about sales, particularly right now with the state of the economy."

- Jon Berg, Web sales and marketing manager for gravitypope.com

That’d be me! 

Someone who has e-mail (a flaky e-mail account at best), but doesn’t respond to sales pitches from it … very rarely anyhow.

Let’s talk about inexpensive ways to get to your buyers:

Are you leveraging community newspapers?

And yes, this does apply if you are in a business-to-business market.  You just have to look at what papers and newsletters (print ones) are going out to your ideal target market.

But, if you are targeting consumers, have a look at these numbers:

Community newspapers reach:

77% of affluent Canadians
75% of women
76% of parents
75% of homeowners*
(Community Media Special Report 2008)

(This is from a study in Canada, but the numbers would be the same anywhere else for those using quality community newsletters).

Who reads them?

The most recent survey showed that 74 percent of Canadian adults read the last issue of their community paper. That figure was even higher in some provinces; in Saskatchewan, it was a record 83 percent. The study also revealed that 76 percent of adults with household incomes over $75K are regular readers, as are most adults with a university education. 50 percent of the surveyed readers do not read any daily newspaper at all.

Think about this now.

If you target a higher income family that you cannot reach via e-mail or newspapers, this is a potential goldmine.  74 percent of your ideal buyers read the community paper regularly. They earn more money, they are better educated, and they are looking for appropriate products and services (see the survey below for more details).

The best part?

The price of community newspapers!  To get a quarter-page ad - $50.  Full page (with color) - $150.  That gets you in front of thousands of targeted prospects (you can choose which community you advertise in by the average income in the community, choose communities that have a higher percentage of golfers, have more than average numbers of school-aged children, or have a significant number of boomers and seniors). 

All it takes is a little research on your part and you can tap into a very powerful source of potential buyers. 

To add to that … community newspapers are filled with crappy advertising!  Yours done right, using the information you pick up for free through The Total Package, and you can get some exceptional results.

Definitely worthy of some testing.

Right now, with the economy as it is, people are traveling less and spending more time at home, and in their yards. What better way to reach them than through a paper that 74% of them open every chance they get. 

Try and get that through e-mail!

One other inexpensive marketing tool at your disposal

The lowly flyer

What amazes me with these little unsung heroes of direct marketing is the sheer impact you can get with minimal dollars invested.

Here in Canada, we can send “unaddressed admail” to as many homes or businesses as we want for $0.11/per piece.  So, we can go to 1,000 businesses for $111. 

Where else can you get that breadth of distribution? For that price?

Especially now that you can do geographic and demographic targeting of those businesses and individuals?

Thompson Rivers University received a 1.43% response rate to its latest flyer campaign!  Higher than the industry average for addressed direct mail … at a fraction of the price.

"The sheer volume and ability to geo-target by postal code keeps my cost per inquiry low and, in general, helps to build brand awareness."

– Thompson Rivers University

These days, you can also very selectively target
who receives your flyers …

Let’s say, for instance, you want to target upper-class households in central Canada with an interest in golf?

Targeting like this is not only possible, but cost-effective because it eliminates unreceptive audiences. Again, for $0.11/home.

There are firms that do this for little charge … and are a goldmine of great information for you.

Imagine the power you hold in your hands when you combine neighborhood community newspapers, combined with flyers.

You could be blanketing an entire community (or city) for very little money out of pocket. 

You can select exactly the type of demographic you want reading it.

You can target their interests and hobbies.

And, you can dominate your industry using little used techniques like this.

It doesn’t all have to be through e-mail or in-house database work. 

This is a VERY effective way to generate sales
and build your prospect database …

… Using very targeted, very effective tools available at your disposal.

If you have recently used these types of tools, let me know.  I would love to hear what you did, how it worked, and if you used it to its fullest ability.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Trying times call for more interaction and help from you!

To your success,

Troy White
Editor, Small Business Mastery
Supplement to THE TOTAL PACKAGE

Looking for resources related to this article? Try some of these.

Looking for more of Troy’s articles? Check these out.

Looking for past issues of The Total Package? Click here for our archives.

A Final Note:

If you have specific subjects you would like addressed, or have any comments on what you have seen here, please submit a comment below and I will see how I can help.

"Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.”

–Napoleon Hill

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13 Comments »

1. Comment by Tim — March 20, 2009 @ 10:42 am

   For a site that regularly hits home runs, this was a Grand Slam!!! Thanks so much, Troy - just had to write that,

   Tim:-)

2. Comment by Efrin Saffin — March 20, 2009 @ 10:49 am

   Troy;

   Using traditional marketing methods is just plain sensible - and, I am glad you make it’s case, here. But, I have another problem. I can’t get to the game, let alone play in it.

   How do I get the switch-on?

   I know my topic. I can write. I know my target market. I have the ‘hot’ niche that is waiting for my solution. The targets have money to spend.

   I can’t believe that I am blocking myself. This is not a writers block - I am writing elsewhere - but, not on this project.

   What would you suggest?

   E

3. Comment by Atlanta Private Investigator — March 20, 2009 @ 10:49 am

   We’ve had fantastic success with these kinds of publications. Our first ever ad was in one of these and we got a case from it the first day it ran that paid for the ad for the next three years.

4. Comment by Troy White — March 20, 2009 @ 10:57 am

   Great feedback here… thank you.

   Thanks Tim!

   Efrin… sounds like there is nothing but yourself holding you back from getting this going and successful.

   Probably the best thing you could do is either join/start a mastermind group - or, better yet, get a coach or mentor.

   Sounds to me like you need someone to kick you in the butt and keep you motivated on your project.

   It is easy to let these things sit there and simmer, never quite taking the action to get them going and building momentum.

   The hard part is getting it started.

   But you must… or your golden opportunity is going to disappear.

   Find someone to hold you accountable to the actions you take on your business. That will make a big difference, as it sounds like you have everything else in place to make is a success.

   Let me know how it goes… and go find yourself a mentor or coach!

5. Comment by Dan White — March 20, 2009 @ 11:22 am

   Great article Troy! I would also point out that if you happen to live in a small town, not only does most of the town read their newspaper, they also tend to “take care of their own”… so your ad gets both attention and motivated action. Outsourcing to India hasn’t quite caught on in smaller towns.

   P.S. Being one of those “time-wasters” on this forum you mentioned, can I just say this: these are not “well-thought-out” posts, to quote Clayton. I see this forum the way I see my kickboxing gym. It’s a place to spar and warm up for actual assignments… it’s also a place “vent”… so I don’t have to vent to my annoying clients. Let’s face it, copywriting is the toughest spot on a project. Few understand this except you guys. Very little respect, because “everyone can write”… yet tons of responisibility. Response drops and you’re out the door. But half the time it’s not even your language that gets approved and sent. Oi vey. Then if the numbers skyrocket, the boss takes the credit. One thing I love about Makepeace is he champions the craft. He makes millions because his clients know in their bones his copy spikes their profits. That’s not commonly understood, at the moment… but changing slowly thanks to the web.

6. Comment by Loren Woirhaye — March 20, 2009 @ 11:35 am

   Well, Duh! With all the current focus on the all-singing
   and dancing internet it’s so easy to miss out on easily
   reached groups of people with money… who don’t respond
   to online advertising. I’ve been reading community
   newspapers in my area recently and “thinking” about running
   ads in them. I guess I need to get off my duff and
   start “doing” it.

   Thanks.

7. Comment by Julio R. Mattos — March 20, 2009 @ 11:38 am

   Hey Troy,

   It has been a long time since I actually did offline Direct Response Marketing for my own business, no more accurately to put it, for flyers.

   I have forgotten the basics of offline marketing it would seem, I have mailed to some of my previous clients and received 0.03 Response more then I actually thought would reply.

   I also did it as a test but as marketers we all know the TESTING is the most crucial part of our job.

   Thank you for re-awakening that offline Giant that so many believe is dead and long gone, but totally is not true.

   As a marketer you must use all marketing channels to get your message across to your customers and new potential customers.

   Never stop until you achieve victory or if you do not get a proper response review your copy and your list of prospects to see what’s goiing on.

   thanks again Troy. As usual delivering value.

   Best regards,

   Julio

8. Comment by Troy White — March 20, 2009 @ 12:33 pm

   Great comments.

   Dan, by “time wasters” I do not mean to offend those like yourself who ARE out there actually marketing, selling, and doing good things. I have seen far too many people (on this forum and others), who spend their entire day writing blistering email comments, going on for pages and pages, yet, at the same time, complain that they don’t have enough time in a day or have any money in the bank.

   Those are the ones I want to reach at here…invest some of that time you are investing in forums on your own business marketing.

   THAT will help you grow. I completely agree that many of us who either work from home, or from a small office with few people around, need a place to vent and talk with other like-minded folk.

   Julio, I think alot of people who are fully immersed in internet marketing can agree — print mailings?

   Offline marketing? What’s that!?

   It won’t be long before the gov’t makes it darned near illegal to do — so get on it before one more marketing medium goes away.

   In Canada, we can still legally do fax marketing (one of the few countries that still allows it) - I am betting that will be gone too in a couple years. The government does NOT want to make it easier for you to grow your business… not unless their fingers are in the coffers… that’s for sure.

   Right now we all need to maximize the low and no cost marketing mediums out there… and flyers and community newspapers are an excellent way to do just that.

   Give it a try … you might actually find a huge untapped opportunity!

9. Comment by Steve Newdell — March 20, 2009 @ 3:21 pm

   May I weight in?

   1. E — break it down into very small steps and write a maximum of 10 minutes on that step. Then return to it later. That will get your mind moving and open whatever door you’ve closed. You’ll probably have a big cognition and move way up from there in all of your work.

   2. Some little newspapers get good results and some don’t. Advertorials should be grand. What ever you do be sure to finish with “Discover More at: http://www……...

   sn

10. Comment by Jackie Cooper — March 20, 2009 @ 6:30 pm

    Thanks for the great post Troy! It’s so true and so overlooked.

    I use these strategies regularly for my clients with great success - I just have a couple of questions: You say:

    “Targeting like this is not only possible, but cost-effective because it eliminates unreceptive audiences. Again, for $0.11/home.”

    First:
    I’m presuming you’re still talking about unaddressed mail in Canada? As far as I’ve experienced, Canada Post’s unaddressed mail can’t really be targeted to that extent. You’d have to have a list of actual people fitting your demographics and specifications and this would no longer be unaddressed - it’d be addressed and of course that costs more.

    Please let me know where to find this info regarding targeting using unaddressed mail as I’d dearly love to be able to use more targeting with unaddressed mail - as you say, it’s a fantastic profit booster!

    Second:
    As I understand it, this low cost unaddressed mail is not available in the US - am I correct? I’ve tried to find out previously but so far, it appears that USPS doesn’t provide this service.

11. Comment by Dean Kennedy — March 20, 2009 @ 10:23 pm

    Hi Troy,

    We use both these media on a weekly basis with client marketing projects — and they’ve proven themselves to be good value for getting business, even “one step” ads with an offer.

    Yes, most of the ads in local papers are really bad … although here in Australia our local community papers don’t have such small ad rates. Quarter page more like $400 and full page $2000 to $3000 — although not always, depends on the paper and circulation (our rates are below “bottom of the card” but they’re still at least $7 per column centimetre). We can get distressed space quite a bit for around $500 to $700 for a full page — and us and our clients are geared up to take advantage of it when it’s around. But even at these higher rates we find the media very effective — especially either with a low-cost offer or used in an “advertorial” style story.

    Same for in the letterbox (unaddressed mail) with flyers and postcards. Here unaddressed mail can be delivered by Australia Post or any other company, and the rates are more around 4 or 5 cents per letterbox ($0.04) … more like $45 per 1,000 homes.

    The good thing is the private companies offering the service often break down a suburb or postcode into even smaller areas, so that helps make the targeting stronger if you know your area. We can also choose a mid-week delivery, to arrive with the “regular” mail, or a weekend delivery (”junk” mail time of the week, but for example big supermarkets love it to launch next week’s specials, so readership still can be okay).

    The downside to unaddressed mail is to allow for the percentage that doesn’t get inside the house: kids clear out the letterbox, or the husband/wife not interested in the junk mail throws it out before it gets in front of the right person. But that’s an acceptable payoff for such a low cost.

    Again, most unaddressed material does a very poor job of salesmanship, so standing out isn’t as hard.

    Our clients generally have geographic “territories”, which is why these two media are good at targeting based on geographic location (rather than other types of targeting). So long as the ad is done the right way and gives people a reason to respond now!

    One campaign we did combined unaddressed mail and 3 community newspaper ads: campaign cost $5,000, revenue returned was $82,000 — and this particular client has been running this type of campaign now for about 4 years and keeps on doing it (no need to wonder why with that kind of return!).

12. Comment by Shanika Journey — March 21, 2009 @ 4:35 am

    Great article.

    I am already doing that. Using a community paper is a strong ticket for me here.

    Also the small flyer the size of postcards and business cards distributed in other businesses has actually created a small networking circle for me.

    So, thanks for letting me know I am ahead of the curve.

13. Comment by Paul — March 22, 2009 @ 10:15 am

    Great advice as usual Troy.

    Fliers are far and away the best at getting new customers for my service business.

    Thanks!