034 : Shaun Caldwell – Direct Marketing Works!

My guest this week is Shaun Caldwell, the owner of Charlotte Print a graphic design, printing, and direct mail company, providing startups to seasoned businesses with direct response marketing services. He has experience in all aspects of design, branding, and promotion. With the goal of helping small businesses make a great impression, Shaun, by way of his industry connections and Charlotte Print’s proprietary technology, has been able to reduce product costs by nearly 25% while offering a product line nearly twice more than the competition.Direct Marketing Check List

In this episode Shaun answers 3 questions –

1. What are the risks on relying solely on internet marketing?

As people have moved their attention online, there’s been an increased access to products, goods, and services, which has also increased competition. The market is crowded! Email inboxes are full. But emails have a shorter shelf life. Email open rates are only 20% as opposed to 52% with direct mail.

Increased competition has created a crowded marketplace, which has made it harder to stand out.

2. What are the benefits of direct mail?

• It allows you to show your brand’s personality. Templates used by email marketing campaigns are very similar. With direct mail, you can be more creative. You can sign the card, which is more personal.
  You can be unique. You can stand out.
• It’s more engaging. You have to touch it, which gives you a better chance of having your message be seen. With a banner ad (online) if a person doesn’t want to see it, they can click it away.
• It allows you to reach people where they make their buying/selling decisions, at their kitchen table.
   

3. What does an integrated approach (on and offline) look like?

Google did a direct mail campaign, with the goal of promoting Adwords. They sent a letter to targeted individuals, pitching the prospect of getting leads through Internet with Adwords, and offering a discount to sign up. Response was great, and helped get Adwords up and running.

Or, it could be for an in-store promotion, you could send a mailer saying, “check your email” which gets a tangible letter in the customer’s hands, but also directs them back to your online campaign.

Direct Marketing IS NOT DEAD but very much needed in today’s market.
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