Defining Your Marketing Goals
As you create and launch your Spring and Summer direct mail efforts, make sure that you have specific goals for each campaign.
By defining your goals early on in the process, you are more likely to create direct mail offers that work, and remain focused on the task at hand.
What should your goal(s) look like?
Goals vary from business to business. Depending on your operational efficiencies and preferred method of lead generation, your goal may be to generate phone calls, website clicks, or simply to increase awareness and ward off competitors.
Most lawn and landscape businesses prefer to receive phone calls, however, you may be able to generate more sales leads by offering prospects a "free download" or special offer (such as a discount coupon) if they complete a form on your website. To determine the best method of lead generation, it is important to test various strategies.
For example, target a local market containing five or ten thousands homes. Then, divide this area into two segments which you can mail different offers to. For one segment, offer a deal that requires them to respond by phone. For the other segment, offer a deal that requires a website form completion or some other trackable response method.
This process is called split-testing.
By split-testing multiple response methods, offers, and sales copy -- you can determine which advertisements produce the best ROI. From there, you will have a "control" advertisement which you can use to test other offers against.
In theory, your ads should perform better and better with each update and improvement to your direct mail postcards and flyers.
Marketing is about reaching the right audience at the right time, persuading prospects to take action, and learning as you go.
For more tips on how to create successful direct mail postcards and flyers, download the FREE Lawn & Landscape Marketing Checklist.
Good luck and have an excellent season!