Ask a Business Expert

A: If you really want to aggressively market on a shoestring budget, the first thing is to eliminate as many non–prospects or people who have no intention of ever buying from you as possible. That probably just ruled out most of your mass market vehicles, such as radio, TV, or newspaper. This would leave direct marketing to a highly qualified list. Today, we are able to purchase lists on just about any group of individuals that you could possibly imagine. You can also cross–reference or filter out to the umpteenth degree. Understand that there is a specialty magazine for every lifestyle and demographic you can identify. Example: if you wanted to market to affluent hunters who live in Missouri, you would employ a list broker to find those individuals who read hunting magazines and own Gold American Express cards within a certain Zip code.

The next step, after you have identified your list, is to decide what to send them. Remember one basic rule: "copy is king". A well–written postcard, letter, email, or even telephone message is not only inexpensive — t can also be more powerful than the most expensive graphics.

Inexpensive marketing is about friendly reminders of who you are, what you sell, and what benefit you have to the right group of people on a consistent basis. Let's look at some of the marketing vehicles to achieve this goal:

• Postcards work with a simple and catchy quote on the front, and a short statement of who you are and what you do on the back. The negative with postcards is that they generally require a campaign of sending between three and six before the prospect responds.
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• Telemarketing can work and can be done in a socially acceptable way. I have seen successful telemarketing campaigns that have worked on the premise that they want to leave 15–second messages on answering machines. Many people refer to this as pinpoint radio advertising because you are giving an oral message to someone who has a high probability of buying from you. This generally works best when you have an existing client base.
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• My preference is the modified long copy letter with an offer and a response tracking vehicle. The letter is a 1–2 page letter with logo on top, 4–6 paragraphs where each paragraph is between 4–8 lines. In each paragraph, a benefit oriented phrase is underlined, capitalized and bolded. At the end of the letter, there must be a PS that is also underlined, capitalized and bolded. When someone reads a letter such as this, they generally read the logo first, then the PS, and finally the underlined portions from the bottom to the top. We receive letters like this all the time and subconsciously appreciate that the writer has highlighted the important parts. This type of letter should make a compelling offer for the reader to take immediate action. The goal is to offer something of value FREE. It might be a tip book, or a top ten list–some type of "how to" document.

You have choice of response vehicles — they can call you, email you, send back a business reply card (I still like this the best since it is the easiest to track), or even fax back a sheet. You will therefore know exactly how many responses you are getting from your total mailing. And then you even have a list of very qualified prospects. One word of caution which might sound contrary, you might want to consider eliminating your Web site address. There are many mailers who do this on purpose on this initial mailing. If you force people to your Web site, you might never get any other response.

Similar concepts include Web positioning and pay–per–click Internet marketing. More and more people turn to the Internet as their first source in looking for a service or product. While there are many books written on Web positioning, there are so many Web pages today that it's almost easier to use one of the pay–per–click services. Overture.com is a great place to start to learn more about paying a fee for your name to appear as a paid advertiser on a Web search. You can pay as little as 10 cents a click for someone to go to your Web site.

As powerful as Overture and Google are in pinpointing prospective customers and clients, remember one thing — Overture still does mailings as well. The key in aggressive shoestring marketing is narrowing your list of potential customers or clients.