For Direct Mail Lead Generation Success, Clone Your Best
Customers.
I don't relish being proven wrong. But a while back I sat down
to discover who my best clients were. I wanted to increase my
revenues. I figured that the best way to do that was to discover
who my best clients were and to then go after more firms that
were like them.
I had hunches about who my best clients were, but my hunches
were proven wrong. So I adjusted my marketing plan accordingly.
And doubled my income that year over the previous year.
If you want to increase your revenues and lower your cost of
acquiring new customers using direct mail, then I invite you to
learn from my mistakes.
Measure your gross sales by client
The first thing I did was look at my books for the previous
three years, and break out my income by client. I wanted to know
which clients had given me the most business in dollar volume. I
had a hunch that my most lucrative clients were businesses that
sold their products and services using direct mail, or used
direct mail to generate sales leads. I was wrong. The clients
who added the most to my bottom line were marketing
communications companies who did not have an in-house direct
mail copywriter.
Measure your gross sales by region
Another hunch that I had was that my best-paying customers were
from outside my city. The majority of my clients are. Yet when I
added up the column for revenue by client, I discovered that the
two clients who gave me the most money last year were located
within a half-hour walk of my office! I was startled.
I had assumed that, because most of my clients were located
outside my city and province, then most of my revenue came from
those sources. What I did not take into account was the volume
of well-paying business that I received from two local clients.
Measure your gross sales by country
Another assumption I had was that at least 75% of my clients
were located outside Canada (I am located in Canada). Wrong
again! The figure was more like 30%.
Measure gross sales by deliverable
One hunch of mine that was on target was how I earned most of my
income. I suspected that the majority of my revenue came from
writing direct mail packages for my clients. I was correct. The
numbers proved it. In previous years I had written ads,
websites, brochures, radio and television commercials, scripts
for corporate capabilities presentations, packaging, factsheets,
white papers, case studies and slogans. But they did not compare
with the volume of business I earned writing direct mail copy.
What I learned
1. Your numbers never lie. The safest way to invest in direct
mail lead generation is to study your books to discover where
your revenue comes from.
2. Your most frequent buyers are not necessarily your most
lucrative. Studying your books, as I did, shows you who buys
from you most often and who gives you the most money. If you
have products and services that differ widely in price, then
your most lucrative clients may actually be the ones who buy
least often, but who buy your higher-priced offerings.
3. Sometimes your best customers are closer than you think. Sort
your most lucrative customers by zip code or postal code, as I
did, and you may be surprised by what you find.
4. You can't know for sure unless you measure your results.
Enough said.
How I profited from what I learned
1. I narrowed my focus to writing direct mail letters only.
That's what my best clients were hiring me to write.
2. I increased my marketing efforts in the United States to
increase the portion of my revenue that comes from that huge
market.
3. I started giving better customer service to my local clients,
stopped taking them for granted, and stopped acting like a
hotshot who could afford to lose their business (since I
couldn't, and since no one likes dealing with an arrogant
supplier).
4. I narrowed my focus to business-to-business clients only
because that's who my best clients were, and that's who I liked
working with.
5. I prepared a year-long marketing plan for reaching direct
marketing firms and marketing communications firms who met the
profile of my ideal client (based in Ontario, no in-house
copywriter, 15 employees or fewer, business-to-business clients).
Conclusion
The greatest benefit that I gained from analyzing my client base
was that I narrowed my focus to a niche market. The result? I
doubled my income within 12 months. And started saving money by
only promoting my services to a narrow slice of the market. You
can, too.