by Jeff Finkelstein
11. One shot mailing vs. multi-step campaign
In this tight economy, many companies are slashing their marketing budgets. One of the ways that you can stay ahead of the competition is to use a multi-step marketing campaign to promote a high value product or service.
Due to cost, a lot of direct mail campaigns are a single, one-shot mailing. However, studies have demonstrated that it takes 6-12 interactions before someone turns from a browser into a buyer. Potential buyers need to feel comfortable with you and the organization before they open their wallets to buy.
If your company is attending a trade show, for example, a multi-step campaign can be an ideal way to squeeze as many solid leads out of your expensive event marketing budget.
Here's how this might work:
3 weeks prior to the show: Send an oversized postcard, letting people on your customer list in the surrounding geographic area know that you'll be in town at the trade show. Give them a link to a microsite (a 1-5 page website with information just about this trade show). Give people a way to schedule a time to meet with key people at the booth.
10 days prior to the show: Send an oversized postcard to the pre-show event list (you can get this from the event organizer for free or for a small price), to drive more traffic to the booth. Let them know that they can win an iPod or another great gift if they stop by the booth.
5 days prior to the show: Send a smaller postcard to anyone who visited your trade show booth last year, with detailed information on what new products you're going to feature in the booth this year.
2 days after the show: Send a personalized thank you letter on nice letterhead, signed by a real person, thanking them for stopping by the trade show booth. This can also be sent out via a personalized email as well.
10 days after the show: Send out the winner announcement. To find out if they won, they need to go to the microsite, where they can also fill out a contact request form.
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