Direct Mail Marketing For Small
Businesses
Or
How To Turn
Your Common Sense Into
Profit On The Cheap
A “Freebie” From
MailingSupplies.com
Mail Merry
Systems Inc
May
2006
Download
MS WORD VERSION
Preface
OK,
let’s put things in perspective. You’re
looking at this and saying, “do I really want to sit down and
read all these pages”? “Let me just get to
the good stuff”. Fact is, that it’s all good
stuff, what you miss reading here or there may not make the
difference for you but we have a little motto that we banter
about daily in house. It’s simply,
“knowledge is power”. While knowledge is
not money, few can argue that without knowledge, you’ll never
get any money. Without the power that
knowledge brings you won’t know how to make money.
Hence the next ten or fifteen minutes it takes to get
through this is something you and your business both need to be
successful. Read it once and pitch it, but
remember what you learn.
The author is an individual who spent 25
years in the post office retiring as a postmaster.
After accepting an “early out” that allowed him to retire
he promptly started Mail Merry Systems from scratch in late
1992.
As the business grew a second division was
opened in late 1995 to offer mailing services, data processing
and fulfillment, which he sold off in early 2005.
In sum total he now has 37 years in the business from
both sides of the fence. He has done
business with Fortune 500 companies as well as marketing
companies of all sizes, even people working out of their houses
as he once did. While his background alone
gives him a degree of credibility his pride centers mainly on
the fact that the business grew rapidly and has been
profitable since day one using direct mail advertising, and
later the web. On the pages that follow he
explains it all, focusing on how the little guys can crank up
their sales and turn a profit. No, it’s not
a get rich scheme of any sort, just the practical “inside”
information you are looking for.
Advertising by mail hasn’t gone the way
of the horse and buggy despite the advent of the internet as
many thought it would. Look at the mail you
receive daily and then look at who sent it, profitable
businesses. Our own records show that we
generate as much business through direct mail advertising as we
do through the web. Imagine doubling your
business.
It’s all about the components, the
individual costs of printing, design, mail preparation, list
cost, and postage where direct mail advertising is concerned.
Learn what each is, their related costs and how to put it
all together to be successful.
Sit back, relax and read.
Afford yourself the knowledge offered.
It just may change your business forever.
1
THEORY
It’s All About The Curves!
If you want to grow your business, think
in terms of a plan. Marketing types call
this an “advertising campaign”. Little guys
don’t have advertising campaigns, just plans.
The worst plan is to advertise just once, “sending out a
mailing”. Save your money, your going to
need it. If a business doesn’t grow it will
just stagnate and eventually die. Then you
can utter the words “I tried that once, it didn’t work”, as you
explain to your co-workers at McDonalds why the business you
once had failed.
Your
plan doesn’t have to be weekly or monthly but quarterly isn’t a
bad idea. Twice a year is better than not at
all. But before we get into that subject lets talk about
something called a “bell curve” and how it relates to direct
mail advertising (DMA).
Our bell curve line begins the day we drop
the mail at the post office. Usually 3 to 10
days out you get your first call (depends on the distance the
piece has to travel in the P.O.). If you
track the number of inquiries (not just sales) over the ensuing
days you will eventually reach a peak day – the top of your
bell. At this point, you’ve gotten about
half of the responses your going to get.
Notice however that once we go down the backside of the bell,
our line extends out a much greater distance.
This means simply that you will continue to get an equal
number of calls but it will be over a longer period of time.
How long? The shelf life of a piece
of mail depends first and foremost on the type of piece.
A simple postcard may go directly into the recipient’s
trash, a shelf life of 1-½ seconds. If it’s
a piece that has captured their attention because of design or
the offer you presented it generally is good for about a week –
when they have time to look at it.
Newsletters typically have a week or better – sometimes up to a
month, while catalogs usually are good for a month with calls
for a year (we’ve had them as much as three years later).
That said, now I’ll address frequency of
advertising. Many times I’m told “yeah, we
sent out a mailing last year and got a few calls, it wasn’t
worth it”. If I were to graph the actual
business that was done in sales since the mailing that was done
and pulled out the preexisting customers he had, guess what?
I would see another bell curve but with a slightly
different out-bound curve. His overall
business, his “base” of business, his sales will have increased.
Ok! Here is the
paragraph you’ve been waiting for. Had he
done one, two or more mailings in the ensuing year, each time he
mailed he would be starting from a higher base,
retained business. In other words as
long as he wasn’t going broke paying for all the advertising his
business would have been up 20% or better. A
mailing is just a mailing, continued advertising, even in slow
times builds a successful business.
2. THE
LESS YOU SPEND THE GREATER YOUR PROFITS WILL BE!
Shop
your printing!
Yes, saving money is just common sense,
can’t argue that. So to keep your attention
let me say this. Here is how to advertise
inexpensively, hah! I’ll even use a
politically incorrect word – cheaply! That
is the single most important, underlying theme throughout this
document.
You may have all the common sense in the
world but don’t forget the words “Knowledge is Power”.
Without the knowledge, small businesses have to defer to
those who have it, marketing companies.
Would it be less expensive to hire a lawyer or just pay a
parking ticket? You’re a small business for
crying out loud, you have no business hiring an ad agency or a
marketing company. What you need to do is
simply gain knowledge as quickly and inexpensively as possible –
this blurb or a nine-dollar paperback can give it to you, just
read it.
Earlier you learned that your business
base will increase with each mailing – your business will grow.
When you did your first mailing did you get let the local
corner franchise guy to design and print your piece.
How much did it cost per piece? You
probably got charged for some design time and because of “small
quantity” piece run got charged more per piece than you would
have had you printed 10,000 or 20,000. You
may have spent so much on design and printing that you found you
couldn’t afford the postage to mail them all.
The printing industry for small to medium
size printers has literally collapsed in the past decade.
Bigger fish are undercutting pricing on print jobs they
normally would not have bothered with in the old days.
The price of paper stock, ink, labor and machinery simply
caused many to fail, they couldn’t compete with prices offered
by larger printers. The good news is that
they’re still some around and surprisingly willing to make
highly competitive bids. Additionally, many
are privately owned and don’t have to pay 7% or more of their
profits to corporate as do most of the small franchise print
shops. Shop your mail piece!!!
I’m sticking with printing before moving
on cause there are a few more things to think about.
There will be a section on piece design later but lets
talk about color vs. black and white mail pieces.
In the industry they talk about 1 over 1, 1 over 4, 4
over 4, etc. They are referring to one side
of the piece and the number of colors and then the other side of
the piece and the number of colors. What you
need to know is that the more color used, the more expensive the
piece will be. Do you really need a
photograph (4 color+) on high glossy expensive paper stock or
would a simple cartoon character printed in black on colored
paper stock conveyed the same image or message?
There are still many printers out there
using their old “paid for” equipment that can’t do four colors,
but they can do two. Almost all of them have
quality paper stock they purchased for another job that fell
through that otherwise will just be sitting there gathering
dust. Which is more important?
Sending out a fancy expensive mailing of which you can
only afford to print and mail 4,000 pieces or mailing 6,000
pieces of an acceptable piece that conveys the image or message
you are trying to convey? My money says
you’ll get more customers by mailing the 6,000.
Save the money for the fancy pieces for the day you’re
rolling in dough.
Printers by the way always have what are
called “overs”. These are extra pieces that
they may or may not charge you for. Get them
and put a stamp on them, mailing them individually to somebody
who calls you out of the blue to inquire about your product or
services.
3.
MAILING PIECE DESIGN
Nobody Buys Ugly!
Back in the first chapter I
talked about the “shelf live” of various kinds of mail.
Now let’s take a minute to explore the human mind.
Studies of babies have been done that flashed picture of
decidedly “pretty” mommies and pictures of plain and even ugly
mommies in front of them. Mind you we are
talking babies now – they haven’t been taught a thing at this
point in their young lives, no good or bad habits.
Researchers concluded that there was a decidedly more
positive reaction when pretty mommies were displayed.
Now I don’t claim to be a shrink but somehow it suggests
the desire for pretty is ingrained at birth.
Who knows, maybe where we all originally came from was pretty
and we want to see more, who knows. But I
digress…. Sorry!
One can conclude then that each of us knows
what the word pretty means even though tastes differ.
I like pizza, but not with anchovies.
Beauty it is said is in the eyes of the beholder, now you have
to remember that the beholder is going to looking at your
mailing piece, he be-hol-din’ it in his hand while hovering over
a garbage can. What can you do to make him
hesitate, read or put in his “I’ll look at it later” pile?
You have to capture his attention. On
the street you could yell loudly “hey you!” and get everybody to
look at you. Not so with a piece of mail.
Imitation is the most sincere form of
flattery. Each day you receive countless
pieces of advertising. Some come from huge
companies that have spent a lot of bucks in piece design to get
and hold your attention. Thus if you’re
clueless as to what your mailing piece should look like all you
have to do is save the best designs you see and eventually fold
all or parts of them into your piece design.
Regardless of the piece of mail you’re
sending, the front and back of the pieces will be seen by the
recipient. Those two surfaces are your best
chance to avoid having your piece thrown immediately in the
trash. In that space you have to provide
enough information to say “keep me, keep me”.
The word “Sale” is always big.
“Special Offer” is another. Something
pleasing!
Color helps, certain colors more than
others. Look at the sales papers from the
local supermarket. Seems like a lot of red,
doesn’t it (hint). The colors do however
have to be appropriate to whatever product or services you are
trying to sell. Ever tried to eat mash
potatoes under black light?
Not all of us are blessed with that “artsy”
thing happening in our brains. As a business
owner the success or failure of your business is going to depend
on your use of your instincts and your belief in them.
What you need to do is combine what you think will work
with some sample pieces and if necessary, sit down with a box of
crayons to outline what you want. Then sit
down with your printers design person (if you don’t do it
yourself) and give them a little latitude to build on your
design. If you don’t like the result (trust
your instincts) have the offending part removed or changed prior
to printing.
You will know when you have reached the
final part in the design process, you may even utter the words
“that looks cool”.
There are a lot of other tricks used to get
a recipients attention. I won’t get into
them because most spell m-o-n-e-y. Among
them are pieces that look like: they are from the government,
hand addressed (by machine), have a stamp on them, have a
personalized post-it note attached to the front, and so on, and
so on. Today I received an actual
personalized quote that identified the car I actually drive from
an insurance agent for a national company.
I would hate to guess how much it would cost a small business
whose advertising was not subsidized by a major company to
produce such pieces by the thousands.
4.
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN
Your mailing list can make or
break you.
You can generate the best
looking glossy piece imaginable in full color that cost you a
fortune but it is a complete waste of time unless you get it
into the right hands. On our web sites we
list four different basic types of lists; business, consumer,
walk sequence and new movers. Each has a
specific value and purpose. If the buyers of
your products or services are businesses you click on
D&B to see what is known as selects. If
you advertise to certain residents, click on the
Equifax section to see the selects available there.
If you plan to deliver a piece to everybody in an area
you might also want to click on the
ADVO list section.
Pay particular attention to the
various ways you can choose a list based on what are called
“selects”. As an example, click on D & B,
which is for business lists and note that you can select a
business list based on number of employees, sales, etc.
“Selects,” add to the base price of
a list. Each select has its own additional
cost, some can be as little as $3.00 per thousand to the base
price while others can add as much as $15.00 per thousand. What
is known as “geography” is free as are SIC Codes.
Geography is typically a zip code(s), a carrier route
within the zip, radius, city, county, state, etc., anything that
defines an accepted geographical area.
Between the river and 49th street doesn’t get it.
When you consider the total cost of a mailing, the
additional price of $3, $5, $7 per thousand to target the right
people or companies is trivial. If geography
is all you need, no problem. But for our
business to send one piece to every resident would be a huge
waste of money. Thus “selects” are necessary
in business-to-business marketing unless your selling something
or providing services that all businesses can use.
Target marketing is nothing more
than sending a piece of mail to the person or business most
likely to purchase from you. It allows you
to save print costs and postage. On a normal
day I walk potential list purchasers through the process of
narrowing down their list by getting them to focus on their
current customers. Who are they?
Is age a factor? Wealth? Type of
business? Location? Type of residence?
Etc. Etc. The
person I’m speaking with tends to understand the need only after
I have provided them with what we call a “list count”.
This is a freebie list of how many businesses or
residents are in the geographic area they have chosen plus any
selects they have identified. Most determine
quickly that their budgets can’t support mailing to that many
people or businesses and we either choose more selects, or
reduce the geographic area and run the count again.
Eventually we are not only targeted, but also within the
budget.
What I just provided information
wise is quite obviously not the most scientific thing available.
Where the intended target is based on the likes or
dislikes and/or habits of a certain type of person, you need to
spend big bucks and should stop reading, but I’ll give you an
example. Several years ago we had a
lettershop/data processing/fulfillment operation.
A customer who advertised for people interested in flying
in simulated aerial dog fights was trying to figure out who,
after pilots and ex-military types might be interested in
participating or just riding shotgun (for non-pilots).
He had in fact been mailing to those same people for
years and the need to find “new” potential customers.
What? He asked himself, would be a
common denominator between his known customers and potential
customers. Well, he spent a big buck having
his existing customers “life styles”
examined to determine what other types of people might be
interested that he could target market.
After their obvious mutual interest in airplanes, the results
came back that provided the usual things like average income,
value of residence etc., but they also found the highest common
denominator after those was motorcycle ownership.
He then advertised to similarly situated people and got a
result he was well pleased with. Not as good
as his original target of pilots but good enough to achieve a
very positive return on his investment.
The average small business can’t
afford this type of study. A list derived
from serious “lifestyle” information is costly, they are known
as specialty lists. Most start at $80 per
thousand with minimum fees of $500 plus.
Where business lists are concerned,
businesses that sell things to other businesses have a different
path to target. Every business in the
country falls into a category of other similar businesses
identified by what is called a SIC code.
This is a 4 to 8 digit number (which the government is trying to
replace with another system called NAICS but is having as much
luck as they did in imposing the metric system).
The first four numbers being somewhat general, like
“Agriculture” and the remaining four digits identifying what
type of farm, like “pig farmer”. Business
lists also allow delineations in addition to geography such this
as number of employees, sales, etc. etc.
The cost of any type of list is but
a component of what your total marketing expense will be.
Others costs are piece design, printing, mail preparation
and postage. If you knew your budget for
your next mailing and had estimates of each of the component
costs, you could add all the component costs together and
convert it to cost per piece. Then divide
this back into your budgeted amount and you would have a ball
park idea about how many pieces you could afford to send out and
how big a list you should buy. Get quotes!
It is estimated that last year, 17%
of the population in this country changed residences.
If you are using an old list, it is safe to expect that
17% won’t reach the intended recipient it you mailed out the
pieces at the “Standard” rate as the post office calls it.
“Standard” is what us old timers call junk mail.
Officially it went from “3rd Class Bulk Mail”
to “Bulk Business Mail” before being called Standard.
If a name is on such a piece and the intended recipient
no longer lives there it is assigned to waste by the post
office. You have wasted 17% of your pieces
and the costs associated with each (design, print, preparation,
postage, list) piece and by extension 17% of your budget.
How do you avoid this? Include “Or
current resident” beneath the name on the mailing piece.
Another way is to have your existing in-house list
preprocessed to have the forwarding addresses provided.
Worth the money? Figure that half the
people moved out of your geographically targeted area so you’d
be spending good money to find the other half.
Is it worth it to you?
Companies that assemble mailing
lists are known as compilers. There are
probably no more than 7 or 8 true compilers of lists.
Most, if not all, will not sell direct to an end user.
Companies that typically sell mailing lists are known as
“brokers” or “resellers”. Typically they
have negotiated contractual prices with compilers.
They then “mark up” the price and serve it up to the
mailing public. Thus it is wise to get three
quotes from various brokers – the info they sell has a very good
chance of having come from the exact same compiler.
The only difference is the price. I recently dropped in
on a convention of serious mailing equipment/software providers
in Orlando. Among the booths was a company
representing themselves as list company that sold only to
brokers such as we are. Their advertised
pricing was much higher than what we charge and the lists come
from the same sources. It pays to shop.
5.
WHAT POSSIBLE GOOD IS A CARRIER ROUTE MAP?
“Well, I tried to get the
information from the post office but…”
A large number of the people we
serve are newcomers to direct mail advertising.
They could be a pizza parlor, a dry cleaner, a real
estate office or even a dog walking service.
All have three things in common, they want to be successful,
they want to save money by targeting their potential customers
and they know which part of town (city) they want to advertise
in. This local knowledge (is power) can
serve their interests only if they know how to connect the dots.
If your business is similarly situated, this could very
well be the most important part of this document so stay with
me!
Each zip code delivered by the post
office employs people to deliver within that territory, duh!
They
are called carriers. Each serves between
300-600 businesses and residents. Each has a
route number. The dots you need to connect
to mail to a certain part of town find out exactly which carrier
routes serve which areas. This will allow
you to order a smaller, more focused list with 100% probability
of getting your mail piece to the intended area.
You save money in postage, list, printing and preparation
while getting the highest return on your investment.
Gee, you’re target marketing already!
The information of which carrier
route serves which area is available at the post office but your
chance of getting it without a hassle or wasted trips to the
post office is minimal. Conversely, a
carrier route map can be ordered and emailed to you within hours
in most cases through us for $39.95. The
choice is yours, but please, when you call to order one don’t
whine about what the post office said or did when you tried to
get the information from them. We told you
so.
Once you have a map the next step
is to identify those routes in your targeted area and get a
count of how many deliveries are involved.
This allows you to compute the number of deliveries (pieces)
well ahead of time to estimate the cost of printing, the list
and what the postage will be. Again, the
actual count is available through the post office but….again,
good luck. We can give you the count free
(see sample below) in most cases within 15 minutes of your
inquiry – just tell us the zip(s) and give us an email address.
See the sample count below.
Sample count
|
Geography |
|
Carrier Route |
Total |
City Addresses |
Simplified Address |
MFDU |
SFDU |
Business |
Contact Name |
|
77320 |
HUNTSVILLE,
TX |
8338 |
8338 |
0 |
1602 |
6736 |
0 |
5792 |
|
C001 |
852 |
852 |
0 |
310 |
542 |
0 |
476 |
|
C005 |
600 |
600 |
0 |
215 |
385 |
0 |
412 |
|
C010 |
665 |
665 |
0 |
409 |
256 |
0 |
359 |
|
C011 |
356 |
356 |
0 |
54 |
302 |
0 |
243 |
|
R001 |
505 |
505 |
0 |
9 |
496 |
0 |
368 |
|
R003 |
574 |
574 |
0 |
20 |
554 |
0 |
410 |
|
R006 |
657 |
657 |
0 |
106 |
551 |
0 |
450 |
|
R010 |
501 |
501 |
0 |
4 |
497 |
0 |
393 |
|
R011 |
600 |
600 |
0 |
25 |
575 |
0 |
470 |
|
R012 |
509 |
509 |
0 |
2 |
507 |
0 |
394 |
|
R013 |
487 |
487 |
0 |
19 |
468 |
0 |
385 |
|
R015 |
564 |
564 |
0 |
43 |
521 |
0 |
453 |
|
R016 |
581 |
581 |
0 |
42 |
539 |
0 |
428 |
|
R019 |
418 |
418 |
0 |
146 |
272 |
0 |
254 |
|
R020 |
152 |
152 |
0 |
152 |
0 |
0 |
55 |
|
R022 |
317 |
317 |
0 |
46 |
271 |
0 |
242 |
|
77340 |
HUNTSVILLE,
TX |
10551 |
10551 |
0 |
4669 |
5882 |
0 |
5447 |
|
C002 |
420 |
420 |
0 |
86 |
334 |
0 |
290 |
|
C006 |
1356 |
1356 |
0 |
1323 |
33 |
0 |
341 |
|
C007 |
552 |
552 |
0 |
413 |
139 |
0 |
135 |
|
C008 |
187 |
187 |
0 |
122 |
65 |
0 |
87 |
|
C009 |
712 |
712 |
0 |
285 |
427 |
0 |
389 |
|
C012 |
330 |
330 |
0 |
153 |
177 |
0 |
190 |
|
C013 |
1050 |
1050 |
0 |
834 |
216 |
0 |
235 |
|
C014 |
787 |
787 |
0 |
457 |
330 |
0 |
287 |
|
C016 |
568 |
568 |
0 |
568 |
0 |
0 |
79 |
|
R002 |
490 |
490 |
0 |
0 |
490 |
0 |
382 |
|
R004 |
516 |
516 |
0 |
12 |
504 |
0 |
387 |
|
R005 |
618 |
618 |
0 |
253 |
365 |
0 |
360 |
|
R007 |
704 |
704 |
0 |
0 |
704 |
0 |
625 |
|
R008 |
589 |
589 |
0 |
57 |
532 |
0 |
366 |
|
R009 |
554 |
554 |
0 |
79 |
475 |
0 |
421 |
|
R014 |
553 |
553 |
0 |
27 |
526 |
0 |
422 |
|
R018 |
21 |
21 |
0 |
0 |
21 |
0 |
14 |
|
R021 |
544 |
544 |
0 |
0 |
544 |
0 |
437 |
|
Total |
18889 |
18889 |
0 |
6271 |
12618 |
0 |
11239 |
In general terms,
the wealthier a neighborhood is, the more mail per capita they
receive. The measurement system used by the
post office in determining the length of carrier routes (number
of deliveries) is greatly affected by wealth.
The PPD (pieces per delivery) in a wealthy area may be 8
or nine while a poor area may have a PPD of 1.
Advertisers know that it’s all about “spendable income”.
If they were to target customers who couldn’t afford to
buy a product or service they would just waste money.
If your business
happens to be a marketing company, try walking into a potential
customer with a laptop containing a carrier route map, a count
of deliveries by route and a schedule of printing costs.
You will be able to estimate your potential customers
advertising expense and get a check in your hands before your
walk out of the building.
6. IT’S
A “PER PIECE” THING!
“A
Penny Saved Is A Penny Earned”
We have talked
about the individual components of direct mail marketing.
The final steps are to save on postage and mailing
preparation. A permit from the post office
costs $320 these days ($160 application + $160 annual fee).
If your marketing plan is to simply mail
3,000 pieces just to “see if it works” you really
shouldn’t bother with a permit. You’re
already in the hole by 10.6 cents per piece ($320 divided by
3,000) before postage. Your options are
limited to putting a first class stamp on your pieces or
contacting a letter shop (aka mailing service, mail house, etc).
Many printers now provide the service or know someone who
does. They can save you 10 – 20 cents per
piece on postage but will of course charge you to prepare and
mail the piece. Make certain that
you have this figured out before you have the piece printed.
The mailing service or printer will allow you to use
their permit indicia (in-dee-sha) which takes the place of the
stamp but there will most likely be additional charges if they
have to apply it after the piece is printed.
If all they have
to do is address, tray and take it to the post office they will
typically charge upwards of $20 per thousand.
Most have minimum fees and in most cases such a small
mailing would be below their minimum. Some
will do it charging you the postage they save vs. first class –
but they are few and far between. Many
printers also act as quasi-marketing companies, offering
everything from design, to list, to printing and mailing.
If you already know your component costs you can
avoid being overcharged and know if you’re getting a good deal.
Look for the cost per piece number – what is it going
to cost to get it into your potential customers hands.
Make certain it is clear to your mailer ahead of time
that you required a “postally” certified/stamped copy of the
3602 Form they get back from the post office.
Overcharging for postage actually paid has on occasion
proved to be a problem.
Conversely,
regular mailers who have a true plan often look for ways to cut
their marketing expenses and choose to take all or part of the
entire process in-house. Is it a viable
option?
Yes, but you have
to do the math. Can your fancy new laser
print and address pieces that are acceptable?
Would the “light version” of the mailing software you
bought pay for itself in postage savings and preparation time?
Already you can save list cost so that’s a “no brainer”.
Need to fold or stuff envelopes? An
underutilized employee may fill the bill and kids tend to love
to help “mommy or daddy” do work stuff!
Whatever method
you choose to pursue your plan, it all breaks down to one common
denominator – how much does it cost you per piece to advertise.
It may seem silly to think about pennies but let’s look
at that 3,000 pieces, but mailed each month.
That’s 36,000 pieces a year. Even a savings
of a penny each piece is $360 a year.
Imagine saving 10
cents each! While many people wouldn’t think
of stooping over to pick up a penny, if you had 360,000 pennies
sitting in your change dish at home you’d have a mess and
$3,600! That is the nature of this business
– as a business owner we all think in terms of dollars where
profit and loss are concerned. But direct
mail marketing is all about the pennies because it’s completely
repetitious!
7. SUMMARY
This was written
to help answer questions regarding something you as a small
business owner or start-up needed to know.
Having read it I sincerely hope you’ll understand a little more
about direct mail marketing and how it works internally.
Marketing professionals would laugh at its contents
because it is so basic. But you’re not a
marketing professional; you’re just somebody with a dream and a
limited budget, just as I once was.
Your business will
climb many hills and visit as many valleys enroute to your
ultimate goal of success. Sadly, one of the
items you will consider expendable when times get rough is the
money spent are marketing. Truth is, there
is no good time to stop or cut back on marketing.
Your business is evolving all the time and the more the
world hears about your offerings or services the greater chance
there is of them calling you to do business.
Tape a penny to
your wall alongside your first dollar. One
represents profit, the other, how to get more.
copyright MMS INC 5/1/2006
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