Small business owners are finding it more and more difficult to reach their audience and are frustrated with social media that takes up a lot of time and doesn’t bring them a financial result. Many of my client family members have used Facebook ads with little to no success.  They can’t seem to reach their prospects with their organic social media posts anymore either. People aren’t seeing their posts on Facebook the way they used to and social media traffic is way down, too. Most of them have also tried marketing by email. Again, they tell me they are frustrated because a small percentage of their list actually clicks on or opens the emails they send.

Some have turned to search engine optimization for their website and still found they haven’t gotten results that bring them enough prospective client family members.  By the time many of my client family members hire me, they have tried online marketing and are tired of the lack of results they are achieving.

They are asking, “Now what?”.

My answer is old-school marketing!

I tell them if you really want to cut through all the background noise and get the attention of your prospective client family members you are going to need to use what worked before you relied on online marketing.  I tell them they can still use their online marketing like their blog posts and website and social media accounts combined with off-line marketing and this is what is going to make all the difference in their business success.

Let’s look at some of the marketing that works and has always worked that many business owners got away from when they shifted to online marketing. My experience tells me that when you blend off-line marketing with online marketing you will have the right campaign that will get your brand and your products and services in front of your ideal target audience.

Back To Basics

What always worked in the past still works and that is direct mail. In fact, I think direct mail works better than ever before. My own case studies with my client family members and in my own businesses are the proof I rely on.

Think about how many emails you get a day. Some might be communication you really need and I bet much of it is spam or promotions. Am I right? Email can be overwhelming and because everyone uses it in business because it cost nothing to send,  email can be overwhelming and your inbox can be a place you don’t like spending time with.

I believe email is over saturated and this is why so many emails go unopened and why people sending out promotional emails report a low click rate.  I admit it.  I quickly delete most sales and promotional emails and unsubscribe if I receive emails that are constantly selling me anything.  There is no time for the amount of email that streams in each day.  So, emails go unnoticed.

How do you get the attention of your prospective client family members then?  I advocate using direct mail. While you might think snail mail is dead, I will tell you it is alive and is being used by smart marketers and influencers.

Think about this… how much snail mail do you currently receive as compared with email? I am certain it is a very low number. That is the best news ever!  Why?  Because when people receive a small amount of something it tends to stand out and be noticed.  I know most of my competitors are busy relying on social media and their websites and email campaigns and aren’t savvy enough to be using direct mail and that is great news! When I use direct mail and they aren’t I cut right through the noise and clutter and get the attention of prospective client family members.  Direct mail not only gets opened it has a high response rate – higher than online promotions!  I am guessing if you are using any type of marketing to promote your business you want a high ROI (return on investment) for the money you spend, right?  Me, too! Direct mail will give you just that.

More people will see what you send them and more people will respond to what you send them and isn’t this exactly what you want? So, your first takeaway from this article is that direct mail is alive and thriving!

In a saturated online market, your business can now stand out. By using this marketing channel your business will get the attention of your prospects and a segment of them will respond.

My own findings are that direct mail has a higher conversion rate and better quality leads. I have had a better return on investment for my own businesses with direct mail and when I do account-based marketing handling the online and offline marketing strategies for client family members, they also report a higher percentage of their targeted prospects to convert to client family members and are in fact getting a huge ROI.

I recommend you consider saving money on your online marketing and spend some of that money on acquiring client family members with direct mail. Direct mail works and you can increase your revenue when you go back to this basic marketing strategy.

In addition to preferring this type of marketing, I also get amazing results with ABM.  I select marketing strategies for about 100 prospective client family members who are my ideal dream clients. Then I personalize my marketing messages just for them. Each contact has a personalized strategy that we build to communicate with them to develop a relationship.

By doing this personal outreach we get in front of high-value prospective client family members with very well thought out and crafted messages built just for them.  We focus our marketing time, energy and money on specific prospects and connect with them to create conversation and to build a relationship.  We spend time communicating with these prospects person-to-person and not by a general campaign sent to the masses.  We find that using ABM qualified leads grows our business and our business prospers.

Host Live Events

Once businesses went online people forgot how much human beings like to connect in person. I believe personal connections produce the best leads and generate the most income for a business.  I have been conducting live events for over 20 years and teach my client family members to do the same.

They don’t have to be a great speaker and they don’t need a lot of people in the room. All they do is invite their dream prospects to a live event that they are hosting.  Think of it like this … I want to begin a friendship with you … I invite you over so we can break bread and get to know each other.  Now translate this to building a business relationship.  I invite you to a live event so that we can get to know each other and you can get to try on my expertise, products, and services. How do I reach you?  With direct mail, of course!

I have generated over $500,000 with only 15 ideal prospective client family members in a room and I simply offered them my services at the end of an event where I actually helped them and made a difference for their business. They got to see my value. I didn’t sell them at all.  I asked them to apply, to work with me if that resonated with them.  And they did.  This is for sure an old-school strategy and one I continue to use. One of my client family members did her first event and quickly made $83,719 dollars during her one-day event!

Summary And Actions

It is time to realize that online marketing is not the be all and end all it seemed to be. Online marketing has saturated social media and email and no longer has high returns.  It is time to go back to basics and the old-school marketing tactics that are proven to work.

The time to jump into action is now while everyone else is focused solely on the wrong ball and hoping and wishing to make money and get prospects with their online marketing campaigns.

I suggest you run a direct mail campaign to the dream prospects you identify with account-based marketing.  Invite those prospective client family members to some type of live event and give them a lot of value at the event. Allow those dream prospects to connect with you and get to know your products and services. Don’t focus on selling to them. Focus only on sharing some information, education, tools, resources, and value that will help them. Simply give, give, give. Create value, value, value. Then, give them an opportunity to buy your products and services at the event.

Keep In Mind …

I don’t want you to finish reading this article and to think I am advocating that you walk away from all online marketing. I am not saying that.  Continue to blog, have an updated website, use social media and search engine optimization and Facebook or other types of pay-per-click ads if you are getting results.  Send out emails if they get opened and responded to.

What I am advocating is that you re-visit the old-school marketing that works even today. The marketing I have shared with you works even in the days of online marketing. The great news is that very few small businesses are using this old-school marketing and so it will really set your company apart and allow you to get noticed. The marketing I have shared with you will get you in front of your prospective client family members fast and will create an ROI for you.

I recommend you combine offline marketing with online marketing for the best results. Here is a case study of how we have done this for one of my client family members.

Case Study

This client family member has educational products aimed at parents and pre-school pre-directors and owners. She was not getting a lot of eyeballs to her blog, her website or on her social media posts. Facebook ads had stopped working for her, too. She was frustrated with her lack of opens when she sent emails to her subscribers, as well.

We created a live event where she offered educational training for parents as well as pre-school directors, owners, and teachers.  We then created a list of 100 ideal prospective client family members for her products who she could invite to her live event. We personalized a mailing for these prospective client family members.

We also created the event in Facebook, did social media posts about the event, sent out emails about the event and had a landing page for the event.  Everyone who received the direct mail and who did not enroll in the live event was sent a reminder postcard, personalized for them, to attend the event.

We discovered of the 18 people who enrolled, only 1 person discovered the event with our online marketing tactics. The other 17 people who attended the event came from the off-line marketing strategies.  It was my client’s first live event. She simply showed up, being her authentic self and shared some of her products and told stories of how they made a difference for the children.  She shared the products and let those attending experience playing with the products and explained how this helped children learn.

She also had a few case studies and testimonials from parents, directors, and teachers.

At the conclusion of the event, she offered the products for sale.

Her product sales were just under $30,000.

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