71. If you'd really like a response from a personal letter, include a return envelope in it with a live stamp on it. It'll either increase your response or it'll drive them nuts.
72. Anytime you run a successful long-term direct mail campaign, test the variables in subsequent mailings. Testing price is the most important; higher prices may sell better.
73. Take your time writing. No one will ever know the one-page letter they received took you three weeks to write. Just make sure when you send it, it's perfect.
74. In a direct mail solicitation, don't be afraid to ask for the order several times. If the recipient doesn't call or send an order, the piece fails. For best results, be very explicit and tell the reader exactly what you want him to do twice in the body copy, and again in the PS.
- Jeffrey Dobkin, www.dobkin.com
75. Be a joiner. The more you get your name out there the better. Join clubs and organizations. Belong to the local Chamber of Commerce. Put yourself and your company in the Yellow Pages. Some inexpensive, even free ways of getting your name noticed are to send in your picture along with a short letter about what you do to the business briefs section of the Sunday newspaper. Most papers have this and most are free.
76. Gas station approach. Also, make up some flyers with pull tabs on them with your name and phone number and ask every 7-11, convenience store, gas station etc. that you can find if you can hang one on their bulletin board; most will let you. Do as many of these as you can and you will start getting calls.
- Mike Shaver, independent agent
77. Pay it forward. Pay others in complimentary businesses a finder's fee to give you business.
- Source: 301 Do-It-Yourself Marketing Ideas: From America's Most Innovative Small Companies
78. Brown bag it. My best marketing idea so far has been a monthly program called Women and Investing Brown Bag Lunches. One day each month I hold a free, no-sales meeting for women only, who want to learn more about investing, in my office conference room. They bring their own lunches and we meet for an hour on a specific topic that I briefly "teach" and then we all discuss. It's very interactive. They bring their real life examples and questions.
It's easy to put together, it's low-cost and helps the public view you as an expert. I never know how many I will have but since it,s in my office, that's OK. The women bring their friends and help with spreading the word.
- Drue McCracken, McCracken Financial Group
79. Back to the Yellow Pages. Have defunct companies' phone messages refer customers to your business (with you paying the balance of the Yellow Pages fee in return).
- Source: 301 Do-It-Yourself Marketing Ideas: From America's Most Innovative Small Companies
80. Card-carrying marketer. I started carrying a few cards for people I meet who do not have a business card. They fill it out with their name, address and phone, and I can write what they are interested in on the back.
- Tom Chaffin, Freedom Equity Group
