The last few times I have stopped by the post office to check the mailbox I’ve observed something interesting. Along the long smooth marble-like floor and hallway are at least five little, tall tables. I like to call them the “junk mail” sorting tables. They stand worn and tattered from years of post-mailbox checkers sorting through the handful of mail they just gathered to chuck out the stuff they don’t want. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been silently thrown away right on these five tables.
Marketing budgets are tighter than ever before. As I talk with prospects and current clients about their marketing budgets and to help them uncover their overall ROI and where they could head to lower costs while bringing in more leads, the conversation typically goes something like this:
Me: “You mentioned that you are running some print ads currently, what is your conversion rate on those?”
Prospect/Client: “I am not sure; I haven’t been measuring it. But I got a couple of calls recently from it.”
If you are still spending hundreds or thousands of dollars and not having a good understanding of the return, why do you continue to do it? This is something I don’t think any true-blue inbound marketer will ever understand.
Big Stinkin’ Disclaimer: I am not saying that all direct mail and print advertising is bad. In fact, Keenpath has engaged in some of this ourselves. But I say that with a big but, we measured it. We had about a 0.75% conversion rate. This doesn’t even touch or get close to the 15% average conversion rate we get consistently through inbound marketing though. I’ve talked to some people that have had great results, while others said it was a complete waste.
How to reduce marketing budget while bringing in new business
The purpose of this post isn’t to dog on direct mail. In fact, one of my inbound marketing friends Dale Berkebile has a great objective article about average direct mail conversion rates, check it out and if you need help with a direct mail campaign contact him.
Calculating your business goals
First, take a few minutes with yourself and the right internal person and calculate how much new business you’d like to bring in.
Second, think about the percentage you want to dedicate to inbound marketing efforts. (Inbound marketing campaign leads cost 62% lower than outbound marketing dominated campaigns)
Third, look at your current lead to customer conversion rates and then think about what you could do to improve it. (How about some lead nurturing?!)
One of the most frequently asked questions I get when talking to a prospect is this: How do you bring leads inbound? What do you have to do to do this?
Simple: Take this funnel below as my answer visually, but with a descriptive text: start at the top of the funnel with a website visitor finding you from a search or social media, or another way, convert them by having a truly compelling offer, and then nurture them by guiding them to more information and resources, and then engage the sales process when they are ready. A well-thought-out sales process will be important in this step.
Wrap up
Take the time you need to objectively look at your current marketing program, align it with sales, and then company goals. After you do this, the goal setting process can be aligned with an inbound marketing plan to work toward the goals, while reducing cost per lead, and is measurable so you know what marketing efforts are great and which are not so great!