Where to Start
Most novice marketers have definite fixed ideas about direct mail that are way off base—most often in the area of what to spend and how much to do. You should determine what you are able to spend for your marketing budget, spend it, and determine the maximum number of leads that you can create. For instance, I’ve heard this statement quite often: We aren’t that large of a company. How could we send out 2,000 postcards all at once? What if they all call?” seems like a valid concern, right?
Here is the reality behind it; unfortunately, they won’t all call. However, a good deal of them very well may and making sure that your traffic in is not more than you can handle is something to think about. Truthfully, there is no sure way to tell exactly how many people will call if you haven’t done this type of marketing before. Think of it this way. What would happen if they did all call? You may not be able to handle all of them, but you would handle as many as you possibly could, right?
In this scenario, you would have maximized your income for that time period providing you could close up all those callers! You can also explore the idea of expanding your operation to handle the number of leads that you can create.
What if you didn’t max out your promotion at the very start? You can afford to send out 4,000 pieces every two weeks but you think that you will simply get too many calls to be able to handle them all. You, instead, send out only 2,000 and the response is decent. However, you still have some down time where you are having to try to “manufacture” sales.
You saved four hundred dollars in marketing money but you had enough down time where you could have closed quite a few more sales than you did. The question now is “Which gives me more money in my pocket? Saving four hundred dollars on marketing or closing quite a few more sales and earning an extra couple of Gs potentially?” More than likely the answer is to spend as much as you possibly can on your marketing, right?
By spending all that you can afford on marketing when you start a program you maximize your income almost immediately.
