Unsolicited or unaddressed mail generates an estimated £130 billion in sales each year, according to the Direct Marketing Association.  They claim that 80% of mail is opened and looked at, but the number of people who act on that mail is very different.  The marketing industry works off approximately a 1% response rate for addressed direct mail – which means 99% goes to waste and, quite rightly, creates issues in environmental circles.

So how can you use this method more effectively?

• Target Your Audience – we talked about targeting yesterday and it’s crucial to know who you’re talking to and what they value.  Your response rates will increase the more you target.
• Buy some great creative – it’s worth spending money on professional graphic design and printing, so your mailing stands out from the crowd.
• Make an offer – give the mailing some value, so people might hang on to it.
• Use recycled stock, or paper from sustainable sources – don’t make a bad situation worse.
• Personalise your mailings wherever possible – you get a better response from addressed mail.

You also need to remember that your audience can opt-out of receiving mailings, so if you are sending direct marketing, you must check your list against the Mailing Preference lists to ensure you are working within the guidelines of the Data Protection Act.

Mr Varney put much of that growth down to the way they have diversified their attractions and targeted in on key markets for each one.  This is one of the critical elements of strategic marketing – and I was thrilled to hear him highlight the importance of marketing in his business; the second biggest visitor attraction operator in the world.

Whilst your company may be smaller, focusing on key target audiences is no less important, so what tips can you take away from Merlin’s example?

1. Know who you’re talking to – you need to understand who your business wants to communicate with.  If you target ‘anyone’, you’ll get ‘no-one’
2. Really understand your audience – the more you know about them, the better.  If you can focus in on your target industry, or target customer and understand their needs and problems, you will be better able to promote your products and services
3. Speak their language – When you know your customers, you appreciate their needs and can then talk to them in a language they understand and promote the benefits they value
4. Diversify your products – if different products suit different audiences, target different people with different products and messages.  One message definitely doesn’t suit all.

Well done Merlin – and thank you for highlighting the importance of marketing.

Using a business model centred on party-planning, with marketing and sales activities limited to women’s homes, and with a strict ‘no men allowed’ policy, Ann Summers became a household name.  This approach may be viewed as sexist by some – in the politically correct times in which we live – but it proved hugely successful for the company.

Jacqueline really understood her customers and targeted them perfectly.  As a result, she built a company which has a gross annual sales turnover of £150m.  The group ranks as one of the most successful and profitable private companies in Britain and Jacqueline has earned a place amongst ‘Britain’s 100 Most Influential Women’.

We hope you’ll agree this is a great example of a successful business woman and a marketing model centred around your customers.

Under the watchful eye of retail expert Theo Paphitis of Dragon’s Den fame, the most influential buyers in retail will be meeting Britain’s undiscovered design talent, and they’ll be stocking the best of what they see.

If you have an original product that you believe could be successful, but have yet to find a market for it, call 0207 874 6617 or email highstreet@mavericktv.co.uk.

Good Luck!

For the past few years, we’ve used Google in our house to find things we needed and usually recycle our telephone directories as soon as they arrive – but there are 338 pages of advertising in this year’s telephone book for our area.  (On just one page I looked at, there were 100 business listings and adverts – that’s approximately 33,800 businesses who think seem to think this method of advertising is working for them – so I must be wrong… am I?)

Please let me know your experiences, so we can include them in future advice to our customers.

Thank you.

Whilst some companies believe only corporates or plcs need to understand and utilise branding, I’m afraid it affects every business; large or small and it’s crucial to your success.

Your brand is often the first impression of your business – if someone walks past your shop or office, or visits your website, they will make all kinds of decisions about you just based on your logo.  It sounds unfair, but we do exactly the same thing when we meet someone face to face – we rely just 7% on what they say and make the rest of our judgement based on their body language and the tone of their voice.

Imagine, just for a second, a Mercedes Logo.  Then consider what that brand conjures up to you, in terms of the culture of the company, the type of person who might buy Mercedes, the mission of the company, their target audience and key messages.

Chances are you may never have owned a Mercedes, but just from a logo, you’ve jumped to all sorts of conclusions about the company – and what you think you know about them.  Yet all of that can be collated often from just a simple collection of shapes, lines and sometimes words.

If you can do that with Mercedes – a brand you’ve probably heard and read a lot about, what are people perceiving about your business from your logo?  They may never have heard of you before, but they will be reading things into your branding – the question is, do they like what they see?

David Cameron MP must have been cringing as he listened to such an inflammatory interview which has placed the Conservatives right back at the centre of the class row they’ve been trying so hard to avoid.

But, this isn’t an isolated incident – our staff, agents and representatives say things to our customers every day; some of which we would rather they didn’t – but what can you do to protect your company?

• Your team are a reflection of your business – and the first step is for them to understand how important that is
• First impressions are crucial, so you need to ensure ‘front-line’ staff have sufficient training and motivation
• If your employees are driving company cars, or wearing company uniform, your business will be judged by how they act – both good, and bad
• Could you bring standards and procedures into place that reduce the variability of service delivery and clarify expected standards of behaviour?
• Your team are a reflection of you – if you act improperly in front of customers, your team will likely copy
  

As we eluded to in that last point – it’s the business leader that everyone will typically follow.  You can’t blame your employees before you’ve taken a long, hard look in the mirror and asked yourself what message you send about your own business, in terms of your appearance, your attitude, your customer care and all the other aspects of marketing your company.

Nottinghamshire Council announced yesterday that it planned to shed up to 1,500 jobs and Birmingham City Council is expecting to cut 2,000.  These cuts, says the Independent, are mirrored across the country.  (Visit http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/cash-crisis-hits-town-halls-from-truro-to-aberdeen-1904125.html for the full story.)

So what does this mean for your company?

• If you only deal with the public sector, now could be a good time to look at alternative markets.  Are there organisations in the social, not-for-profit or private sectors who could use your product or service?  If so, what relationships do you need to build / what networks should you consider joining?
• 20,000 cuts means 20,000 job seekers; many of whom will have great contacts into the public sector and an understanding of tendering for work – could they be an asset to your company?
• If you are marketing your business to the public sector, they are highly likely to be focused on savings – if you can save them money, that may save jobs.  Focus on that element of your product or service and you may get a hearing – particularly if it’s a fast payback.
• A significant number of people losing their jobs are likely to set up their own businesses.  If you help start-ups, that could prove a great opportunity for you – can you perhaps be proactive and approach the local authorities to offer training and guidance to people who may want to take that route?

As always, opportunities abound in any ‘bad’ news – you just need to look harder for the positive outcomes sometimes.  Spotting these opportunities – and getting our customers in front of them, so they can take advantage – is what we do as marketing consultants – if you don’t have someone in-house watching for these opportunities, you should maybe ask for some outside help from a local marketing company.

Carte Blanche is offering one lucky ‘intern’ the chance to live for 30 days in an apartment adjacent to the agency’s headquarters in Montreal.  Applicants are being encouraged to upload as much as 10 megabytes of images, video and text to showcase their talent.

Whilst this will generate excellent viral internet exposure for the agency (as we’ve just demonstrated), could it also be the beginning of a new recruitment trend?

According to the GSMA Mobile Media Metrics (published for the first time on Friday),  nearly half of the total minutes spent on mobile internet were spent on Facebook Mobile; highlighting the social media trend too.

With an increase in smartphone ownership (now reckoned to be 20% of the British population) could this be an area your business might find opportunities?  For more details of the report’s contents, visit http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2010/feb/08/facebook-rise-mobile-web-use.

We’re at the start of another marketing revolution, which is incredibly exciting – 3G mobile penetration in Western Europe rose from 17% in 2007 to 29% in 2009, and it’s forecast to reach a whopping 67% next year.  (Japan is already at 91% and Morgan Stanley estimates that $43 billion was made from the mobile internet in Japan in 2008.)

Of the 400 million active Facebook users (doubled since last summer), half log on in any given day; sharing 5 million pieces of content a week and uploading more than 3 billion photos each month.  On average, they spend more than 55 minutes a day on Facebook.  Those who access it via their mobiles are twice as active (For more, visit http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article7028215.ece)

If you’re not excited yet, you should be!