How to Generate More Leads with Direct Marketing  

If you want to grow your business, you will need to mix inbound and outbound marketing techniques to reach more people. Sometimes clients will find you (inbound marketing), but there will be a time when you will need to learn how to reach your prospects directly (outbound marketing).  

How to Find Your Customers  

If you’ve been in business for some time now, you might have heard about “The List” — a list of people you are going to communicate with so that they will know your business and you can build relationships with them.  

Lists can be: 

  • Warm — people on the list are engaged; they already know who you are or they know the person who introduced you to them 
  • Cold — people who have no idea who you are and are less likely to engage with your messages at your first attempt 

You can get a list either by buying one or building it from scratch. As a general guide, purchasing lists is risky. It can work well if the list is warm and the owner of the list is a person/business you trust — so always work with an organisation that has a communication history with the people on the list. You may be able to find such a list at local organisations (for example, your local Chambers of Commerce) or held by companies you consider as strategic partners – although GDPR has made list-sharing much more restricted than in the past.  

On the other hand, building a list could be a cheaper – and better – method for you to contact people. The downside is that you need to invest time and effort in adding people to the list — so perhaps consider hiring someone to build it for you. This is because you must take the time to ‘farm’ your database. You ought to nurture the people on the list in order to make connections for long-term relationships. The more you can communicate directly with a potential buyer before going for the actual sale, the better.  

Remember people need to know, like, and trust your brand before they will want to buy from you … so, the warmer the list, the easier it will be to achieve your goals.  

How to Use Your Database to Sell  

As a general rule, you should aim to be collecting information every time a potential client gets in touch with your company. You want to have contact details for both prospects and current customers to maximise the return on your marketing efforts.  

Once you have contact information and people have agreed to receive commercial messages from you, you can get in touch through four main channels:  

  • Email  
  • Direct mail  
  • Phone  
  • Walk-ins 

Let’s see some best practices for each marketing channel.  

 1)  Email Marketing  
  • When endorsed emails (emails that are sent out under the name of an individual or organisation that is familiar or credible to your target audience) are ready to go out, ask the email list owners to introduce you to the people you want to contact. As they do so, make sure you give people a reason to answer your emails in the future. For example, you could maybe add a giveaway or a promo code 
  • Send email sequences (3+ emails) to increase your chance of triggering reactions. Ideally, the entire series of emails should benefit from an endorsement for better open rates 
  • Test different subject lines and measure the open rates and reads — you could even run subject lines as ads to see which ones are the most effective before you embark upon an email marketing campaign 
  • Keep endorsed emails short. Use these messages to direct people to a landing page where they can get more information 
  • If the email isn’t endorsed, go for a long-form email in which you give recipients all the information they might need to persuade them to take action 
  • Place the call to action (CTA) several times in the body of the email (and not just at the bottom) because not all readers will read all the way through the whole message  
  • Avoid email spam words in your subject lines so that your emails won’t automatically get sent to the Spam/Trash folder   
  • Build multi-step campaigns: first, get the people to connect with you (because they’re not on your database yet), and then communicate with them regularly before you begin to push a sale  
  • Make sure you have a great offer that people won’t want to refuse   
2)  Direct Mail Marketing  
  • You can use flyers, catalogues, brochures, postcards or any other forms of simple mail that will be posted through your potential clients’ letterboxes  
  • Do your numbers. Get a clear idea about the print and posting costs so that you know how many sales you need to make to cover your expenses. Then make sure you send out enough messages to achieve the number of clients you will need to make a profit 
  • Flyers are generally much cheaper and work better than a catalogue; however, the latter can be excellent for launching a new product or service in the local area 
  • Simple mail works much better if it’s personalised; send handwritten, personal messages that aren’t going to look like junk mail   
  • All communication should include an offer and a way to respond (CTA) so that you can measure the return on investment (ROI)   
  • Test what are known as “lumpy mail ideas” so that you can be noticed by the people you most want to do business with going forwards. Send very targeted messages to small groups, not just paper, but perhaps a little gift or something that will help you stand out from your competitors   
3)  Telemarketing  
  • Set clear goals for any campaign before you start ringing people 
  • Plan phone-mail-phone campaigns to increase engagement. Start with a call, let them know there is a gift coming in an email, then call back; this is a simple trick to get past the gatekeeper 
  • With telemarketing, persistence is critical for reaching the right people 
  • Make sure you assign tasks to your best salespeople; personality is essential 
  • Ensure that you are aware of all existing laws – GDPR and other privacy laws – and review them regularly, then align your campaigns with them to avoid any fines or other legal issues 
  • Provide all telemarketers with a script so that it is easy for them to communicate your message effectively 
  • The headline/opening question is essential. Your script should lead people somewhere; ideally it should prompt them to admit that they need help or suggest that they need to look at things differently 

NB: Brad Sugars, ActionCOACH founder and CEO, explains everything you need to know about telemarketing scripts in his book, “Instant Sales”.   

  • Teach your salespeople to say how long the call is expected to last when they begin the conversation.  
  • Don’t try to close a sale during the first connection. Get people to take action through a simple step, such as simply agreeing to receive further information 
  • When making outbound phone calls, always assume the sale. Use when you agree to do business, not if you agree to do business 
4)  Walk-ins  
  • Walk-ins and “popping in to say hi” only really work if you are doing it to build your client database, not for closing sales the first time you meet. Make it about creating or consolidating a relationship   
  • Always introduce yourself clearly. Be friendly. You are building the “know, like, and trust” factors with the people you meet 
  • Don’t jump in and start making conversation about your business. All you want to do is get to know your audience. For example, ActionCOACH coaches often knock on the doors of companies in their areas to invite them to a networking event 
  • Target people who are your ideal clients and build the business one step at a time  

What’s Next?  

Pick one of the four direct marketing techniques listed above and start thinking about how you can make it work for your business. Identify offers you could make to capture the attention of potential clients. Which ones will encourage a direct response? 

Then, either find a database or build a database. If you already have one, start making phone calls or sending direct mail, emails, or ‘lumpy mail’ – and do it consistently. Direct communication is vital for business success, so you don’t want to waste time. Put proper time and energy into your campaign and the results will soon start to come.