Should You be Using Buckslips?

Hi:



Buckslips are a low-cost marketing tool that allow you to make offers to your customers. They're especially effective because they are often inserted in billing and other similar correspondence and they get noticed by customers.



You can put one together using various desktop applications and it's probable that insertion will not increase your postage costs. Think this is clutter? As the article below points out, buckslips can actually make your overall mail piece more effective.



While often used by large companies, they are just as effective for small businesses and an easy marketing tool to add to your mix. You can create one that you can use for an extended period of time.



I have a client that uses these in all invoices for website purchases offering 20% off the next order on selected categories of merchandise. They've been highly-effective in driving repeat business. If you're thinking of an expiration date for such a coupon, make it as long as you possibly can...much more action that way.



Here's the article from Target Marketing Tipline:
http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/story/story.bsp?sid=83915&var=story

GA

"10 Low-Cost Ways to Market Your Business"

10 low-cost ideas for marketing your small business.

See:

http://www.melissadata.com/enews/marketingadvisor/articles/0712/1.htm

Original Source: Reprinted from msn (www.msn.com). Joanna L. Krotz is the co-author of the "Microsoft Small Business Kit" and runs Muse2Muse Productions.

GA

Small Business Brief

Check out this resource which a customer recently sent me.

http://www.smallbusinessbrief.com

Tagline..."Fetching the Best Small Business News"...

There are tabs for:

Marketing & Sales, Finance & Legal, Website Development, Entrepreneurship & Management & Employees.

Looks like a great forum for small business owners to exchange ideas.

GA

FREE Direct Marketing Publications

With all information available today you might ask why you need one more magazine or newspaper...but, really, there are several publications you can receive, without cost, that you should consider:

DIRECT

A monthly with in-depth articles on direct marketing. You can also subscribe to a variety of e-newsletters here.

http://subscribe.directmag.com/subscribe.cfm?tc=NNWEB

DM News

This free weekly (50 issues per year) covers the direct marketing industry in its entirety and can be read online - or you can get a paper subscription w/o cost at www.dmnews.com.

TARGET Marketing

Lots of helpful how-to articles.

http://www.submag.com/sub/tk?pk=webm06/

Internet Retailer

Do you operate an Internet business? This is the magazine for you.

http://www.internetretailer.com/IR/USA/

This is a small sampling of the free direct marketing magazines that are currently available - but these are the magazines I think a small business would most benefit from.

Happy Reading!

A Suggested Direct Marketing Primer...and Info from the USPS

Hello Again!

I (and anyone in the direct marketing business) would highly recommend:



Bob Stone & Ron Jacobs. Successful Direct Marketing Methods. 8th edition by , New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007.

for those who want to get a good, basic insight into direct marketing in an entertaining format.



This edition has JUST been published (I believe 11/14/07). Get it vs. the previous 2001 edition (7th).



You can find this at Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Successful-Direct-Marketing-Methods-Stone/dp/0071458298/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196374017&sr=8-2



Also, if you are looking for some basic tools (including a free ROI calculator) for direct MAIL visit the USPS' (United States Postal Service) "Tools & Resources for Direct Mail":



http://www.usps.com/directmail/toolsresources.htm



GA

Welcome to the DM for Small Businesses Blog!

I've created this blog to address the direct marketing needs and concerns of small businesses.

It's probably appropriate to state WHAT "direct marketing" actually IS.

The Direct Marketing Association (U.S.) defines direct marketing as:

"The interactive use of advertising media to stimulate an immediate behavior modification in such a way that this behavior can be tracked, recorded, analyzed, and stored on a database for future retrieval and use.

Direct/Interactive Marketing uses channels of distribution with no middlemen. It's the store or showroom where the copywriter is the salesperson. It's two-way communication.

Measurability is a key feature and advantage of direct marketing. The response can be in the form of an order (direct order), an inquiry (lead generation) or a visit to a store for purchase of a specific product(s) or service(s) (traffic generation). The database allows marketers to target their best prospects and best customers, building relationships with customers and maintaining their loyalty."

Source: Direct Marketing Association (U.S.) 2007

Direct Marketing now accounts for 50% of total advertising expenditures (http://www.the-dma.org/cgi/disppressrelease?article=1015) because it works!

This is a forum for discussing how small businesses can put direct marketing to work to generate returns in an increasingly competitive and costly business environment.

I'm a direct marketing consultant based in Tucson, AZ. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to field them and try to direct you to the resource(s) you need.

GA