My business is what's known as a micro-business. There are very few companies in the world as small as mine. And I like it that way. It was my goal from the start to run an online business from my home and stay small -- in physical size, that is.
You see, although I'm not much for hiring employees, I certainly don't mind growing the bottom line. And that's what this article is about.
Today I'll be presenting a new offline tie-in marketing campaign that is helping me grow my bottom line. And it can help you grow yours too, no matter how small your business may be.
But first I need to tell you what I mean by "Time To Go Offline"...
Don't worry, I'm not suggesting you cancel your ISP account and take your business into a brick and mortar structure. I'm simply suggesting you add an offline strategy to your existing online presence.
Big businesses are doing it and so should you.
If your small business can't afford to do the types of offline marketing "big" cyberbusinesses are doing -- things like television and radio campaigns -- you must use other offline marketing methods to grow your website's bottom line.
So how does one utilize smart offline marketing tactics that cost little, yet are effective? Thought you'd never ask ;-)
Here's my own example that I welcome you to follow:
I have just implemented a simple "offline" plan that anyone with an online business can follow. I like to call it putting my website in their hands. And it is quite literally just that.
At bizweb2000 we've developed a simple full color brochure, or mini-catalog, which contains our full range of products and services. I'll cover brochure design and distribution issues later, right now I'll remain focused on the strategy itself.
Implementing this new marketing strategy:
This week we've begun distributing our new print "mini- catalogs". Like most strategies we've use, we implemented this one on a shoestring budget and it has already begun to bring in new sales.
So who gets these free mini-catalogs and why are they buying?
Every new customer.
Including a free mini-catalog when we ship orders costs just pennies. When our customers receive their order they are presented with a full line of related products and services. Does this really generate more sales?
In a word, yes! Now, instead of reading email that says thanks for the great product, the feedback comes along in the comments section of a new order! Why?...
A customer who is pleased with their purchase is very likely to buy another product or service from you. By putting your related products and services in their hands at delivery time, you increase your chances of a repeat sale even further.
Who else gets these free mini-catalogs?
Our growing base of past customers.
As internet competition grows in every area, it is important NOT to forget about the customers you've already served. If you are taking orders at your website, your database of customers is growing. What are you doing with this database?
If you're smart, you aren't just letting it build for some future plan. Remember, people move physical addresses every two years on average. By the time you get around to using that database, it may be useless.
You need to start contacting these people now! And you can do it for pennies. My own mailings are just $.16 each using US bulk rate mail. That's cheap. (More on this in a minute.)
Think back to when you fulfilled your first order online. Have you added and products or services since then? More than likely the answer is yes!
Well, these past customers probably have no idea about your new products and services. Don't you think it would be wise to tell them? (Note: If you think your email newsletter is doing this for you, consider how many undeliverable messages you get each week. E-newsletters are great, but keeping up with lost subscribers is impossible. A low-cost direct mail campaign is the answer here.)
Now, you may be thinking, "Gee, this is pretty simple stuff, Jim. I mean, direct mail and catalogs have been around forever. What's the big deal?"
The big deal is that VERY FEW online businesses are using this strategy. Even big ones. Heck, I've bought tons of stuff online over the years. So far I've received just a handful of catalogs from these same companies. Ever buy something from Amazon.com? I have. But I've never gotten anything except my order from them.
One company where I buy my computer equipment, cdw.com has mailed me a catalog every month since my first purchase. I've bought lots of stuff from those catalogs. I suspect their marketing strategies have a lot to do with their rising stock price and reputation!
Starting to get the point?
Remember, there is simply no better place to introduce new products and services, than to your own current and previous customers. Rather than "hope" they remember your URL, why not put it in their hands occasionally?
If you do not currently have a plan in place to send brochures or catalogs to your customers, you need to start thinking about it now!
So that you can get started right away, here are the details on how we created our mini-catalog and how we're distributing it cheaply and quickly...
First, let's talk about the catalog itself.
While I refer to our printed sales piece as a "catalog", it is important to know that your catalog doesn't have to be big. Mine is just four pages. If you don't have enough products or services to fill even four pages, fear not. You can go as simple as a single page "sell sheet". This is a professional, full color, glossy sheet that introduces your best products or services.
As I said, it doesn't have to be big. But it does have to be professional.
Sure, you can put together something quick and easy in say, Microsoft Word, or Publisher. You can even print it out on your color inkjet. But the fact is, you'll get exactly that. A piece that looks like it was created at home and printed on an inkjet. It won't be nearly as professional as the real thing.
If you don't plan to do it professionally, consider writing and distributing a simple letter instead. A poor quality catalog is much worse than any simple well-written letter.
Here's how we designed our full color catalog at bizweb2000..
As many of you know, I'm not big on design. Although I managed to design my www.bizweb2000.com site all by my lonesome, it is far from perfect. (While many have praised the site's content, others have dogged the somewhat awkward, non-flowing style.)
This is why I now have a designer in-house. And while my designer has not gotten to fixing up my handy work at bizweb2000.com, she tackled this catalog and completed it in a matter of days using a program called Quark Express.
Quark is a full featured design program made especially for print jobs like catalogs. If you've done any design work on the web, forget what you know. Design for print is a totally different beast. If you're planning on designing your own print catalog and don't have Quark, consider buying it. The program costs about $700 but is well worth it. If you don't want to learn Quark, consider hiring a designer who owns it.
After calling many print houses we quickly found out that most accept files in Quark format only. (At least the ones we called!) Therefore, getting Quark was a no-brainer.
Once we had the catalog laid out in Quark, we shopped around for the right print house to give the job to. When you get to this step, be careful. The price range for the very same job can vary by thousands of dollars from printer to printer. After much searching we located a company that was reasonable. As expected, they preferred Quark file format, but we were prepared.
Okay, moving right along...
Above I mentioned that you'd need a strategy for getting your catalogs into prospects hands. This is important to consider before finalizing the layout your catalog.
I decided that my own strategy would be to include a catalog with every product I ship from my office. Nothing special needed for this strategy, just a lot of catalogs.
However, I also decided to mail a catalog to every customer who had purchased something from my site over the past two years. If you plan on doing this, the time to consider it is BEFORE you have your catalogs printed. Why?..
Well, for a mere $115 you can get a bulk mail permit from the US Post Office. This enables you to mail at the cheapest rates possible. Rates for mailing my small catalog were as low as $.16 per piece. That's cheap.
All you have to do is visit your local post office and ask for a bulk mail permit application. Once you secure your permit number, add it onto your catalog layout so your print house can print it on all your catalogs. This will save you that step when mailing. And this is a big time saver.
Note: Before giving the final go ahead for printing, bring a sample to the post office who will be doing the mailing. They will check it to be sure it adheres to all bulk mail regulations.
Once you have your catalogs printed, it's time to distribute them. Slip one into every package that leaves your office. That's simple. Just be sure the extra weight doesn't change your postage rates on typical order shipments.
Next, mail a catalog to every customer who has ever bought from you! Hey, that's what you've been growing a database for! I recommend you use Bulk Rate Postage if your database contains over a few hundred addresses. Bulk mail can be a little tricky, but it's a good thing to learn if you are a U.S. based business...
The bulk mailing process itself can be a bit intimidating. In addition to the bulk mail permit I mentioned , you'll need a bulk mail program that can process your mail in the format the post office requires. After researching a few of these programs I went with software from http://www.mysoftware.com.
Their combination of MyDeluxeMailList and MyPostageRateSaver CD cost $149 but was well worth it. With these tools I was able to import all my addresses from Microsoft Access and automate most of my bulk mail campaign.
In addition to filtering out the non U.S. addresses (which can't be mailed to using bulk rates) their program purged my duplicate addresses, setup and barcoded my labels, and sorted my bulk mail by zip code for processing. It also printed my address labels, tray labels (that's how bulk mail is organized) CASS certificate and other necessary paperwork that the post office requires.
Although it was a bit of a learning experience the first time around, the lesson was invaluable as a small business who plans to use direct mail more in the future.
I now have 500 catalogs going out to past customers every week for the next few months. Now that's a big boost for business!
Well, that about sums it up. Did I completely scare you away from this offline tie-in strategy? Although it sounds like a lot, it can be taken one step at a time and implemented by anyone.
Save this tip and refer to it when you're ready! And if you're considering implementing this strategy but don't want to go through the learning curve, stop by http://bizweb2000.com/design/catplan.htm and check out my mini-catalog. If you like it there's a planner you can fill out to get you started.
And remember the whole reason for using this offline tie-in strategy...
"There's no customer like an old customer."
Don't ever let your best customers get away. Make the effort to get your newest products and services in their hands and they'll reward you by purchasing again and again.
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