Taking The Sting Out Of Seasonality

Mail Marketing To Harmonise Cash Flow

Seasonality is an issue in most businesses across many industries.  We tend to see it in our industry as well, a lot of my customers have talked about the slow month or months. I had a conversation with one of my customers lately and it made me think about mail marketing. Mail marketing is still a fantastic channel for your business, however, the efficient deployment rules of mail marketing to your database have changed radically.

If you want good return on investment on mail marketing, you need to efficiently define your target market for each offer. It is of no use and in fact may be damaging to you to send non targeted mailings. A plethora of non targeted mailings will lead to fatigue in your target market. Fatigue is something which you need to avoid,  it is something that will damage your Patients’ perception of your Practice.

So, who do you target, how do you target them and what campaign do you use? Initially you need to define your target search by your campaign, certain campaign offers will attract different people. For instance, you have a great campaign offer on a new high end product. Who do you target in this case, set your search terms for mid to high technology buyers whose purchase was made four plus years ago. When you have your mail merge list, mail them a carefully thought out mailing. You’re doing that right?

To get the best results you need to be able to really define your targets, so lets try that mailing for mid to high technology buyers whose purchase was made four plus years ago and who expressed an interest in high technology. What do you think being able to define the search down to that target group would do for your return on investment. The key to the search return is the ability to search data that you have actually put into your CRM system. In order to define your target, in order to reach your target with maximum impact, in order to attain maximum return on investment, you need to enter all the relevant data in searchable fields in your CRM.

What about a campaign for a new entry level product, fantastic product at a great price. Who do you target for that campaign, what search terms do you undertake? Entry level buyers four plus, what about test no sales in the last year who voiced price as a major concern? Again, that targeted data is only available if you have entered it. You can see where I am going with this, mail marketing campaigns are only as good as your targeting permits. Your targeting is only as good as your data search permits, your data search is only as good as your search facility permits and finally it only matters if you have entered the data in the first place.

When you have all those parameters right, you can then plan out your mail marketing campaign on a six monthly or even yearly basis. Utilizing your mail marketing to increase foot fall and business levels during your traditionally slow times. Cash flow is king in any business, why not take every opportunity possible to harmonise it?

Regards

Geoff

About Geoffrey Cooling

Geoffrey Cooling is an Irish hearing care blogger and the author of The Little Book of Hearing Aids and Audiology Marketing in a Digital World. He has been involved in the Hearing Healthcare Profession since 2007 when he qualified as a hearing aid audiologist. He has worked in private practice and for a major hearing aid manufacturer. He has become recognised as an authority within the field of hearing care and hearing aids.

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