It’s election day here in the People’s Republic of Boulder. (I know, it’s a little weird… Boulder prides itself on being weird)
Anyway, here’s a technique I’m been testing. I like what I’m seeing so far, am tweaking as I go, and it’s too early to say if it’s a keeper, but I thought you might like to see a campaign in progress, warts ‘n’ all. Kind of like reality TV…
So, to set the stage, this campaign includes direct mail, a webinar, telemarketing, social media and marketing automation, ie autoresponders and other follow up driven by Infusionsoft.
My target niche for this campaign is Boulder County owners of businesses generating from $2.5M to $25M in revenues. The product is a piece of technology with a price range from $20K to $80K.
First step: I pulled a list of about 1400 from Reference USA, sliced off the first 100 alphabetically for my test and sprinkled in a few names from my “warm list”. I pulled the Reference USA list online through my local library, as I demonstrated for you in a previous episode. See [blog link]
List in hand, I uploaded it to my Infusionsoft app. [IS link]
Next, I created a postcard with an invitation to a recurring webinar on a topic of interest to my market and mailed out 100, using SendOutCards. [SOC link]
Then it was time to “smile’n’dial”, calling each owner, getting past gatekeepers, voice mail, etc. to set appointments for a one-on-one product presentation.
Before starting the calls, I wrote a script and rebuttals to get past all the flak and through to my prospects.
I rehearsed them, and revised them as I went, refining each time I learned something from a live interaction, to the point where (I think) they’re pretty effective. I even had a little streak going where twice in a row I was able to pick up the phone, make one call and get an appointment. And it’s not uncommon now, once I get through to my prospect. (Do you see the obvious marketing flaw in this system?)
Also, before calling each owner, I looked them up in Linkedin, and if possible, requested in introduction through someone in my network.
Result so far after two weeks: Nine appointments, with two postponements reducing it a total of seven. It’s a little early to verify, but each appointment should be worth $2310.00 on average, so in time that’s worth about $16K, for a part-time venture over a two week period, including set up time. I’ll update you in about a month or so.
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