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02/23/2006: "Using Direct Mail to Drive Traffic to Your Web site. It's a Marketing Method that Works."

Some marketers get so caught up in online marketing that they forget the value of direct mail. Direct mail can accomplish many things for you. It can get you leads It can get you orders. It can drive traffic to your Web site.

Let's look briefly at each of these.
Direct mail can get you leads.
Direct mail has been used for decades to get prospective customers and clients to send in a form or pick up the phone and call for more information. At that point the business will do its followup in whatever manner it chooses. Some businesses send out a brochure and fulfillment letter. Others make a phone call to the prospect. Others make an in-person call. There are still other follow up methods.

Since direct mail is targeted you are sure to get your message to just the right people. That is, of course, if you have a good list and you mail at a good time. There are many variables where any advertising is concerned.

Direct mail can get you orders.
Just about every magazine uses direct mail to get subscriptions. I've written six to eight page letters plus a lift letter and other inserts for magazine sales messages. Nothing works quite as well to get orders for many businesses.

Direct mail has been used for centuries to get orders. It worked for our grandparents and it works for us. I'll be the first to admit that direct mail has lost some order-pulling power to the Internet. So that's where we look into . . .

Getting traffic to your site from direct mail.
There are thousands of prospects who will never know about you if you depend on the search engines. There are millions of businesses online. Only 10 can get on the first page. Only 30 can get on the first three. And even if you get there, you probably won't stay.

So your best bet is to use a powerful, well-written, hard-selling one or two page direct mail letter to get folks to visit your site. When you get them there, if your site is well written and presented, easy to navigate and ready for business, you'll get their orders.

Keep in mind there are people you would probably never get to your site without using direct mail.

So make direct mail part of your marketing strategy. It is a sure-fire way to drive traffic to your Web site.