Trying to figure out the best approach to promoting your home business can be a bit of a challenge—after all, there are so many factors to consider. Do you go for the cheapest, the broadest outreach, or do you try to target your marketing to the appropriate prospects? Do you go the old fashioned route with direct mail or do you put more of your eggs into digital marketing?
Digital marketing refers to marketing on line—your web site, e-newsletters, e-mail promotions, and internet advertising. Direct mail, of course, refers to paper pieces that you mail directly to the prospects home or business address. For years, direct mail has been considered one of the best ways to reach prospective customers for all sorts of different businesses, but more and more people are turning to their computers when they consider making a purchase.
In order to make the right decision for your business, I think you need to know two things—first, what is the industry standard for your line of business; what are your competitors doing and how are your customers trained to look for information? Secondly, you need to know how your current customers go about gathering information. Ask them how they found out about you and where they go for information? If the bulk of them say that they found out about you online, then that is where you should put most of your marketing resources.
Even in traditionally paper-heavy businesses like the performing arts (theatre, dance, etc.), more and more ticket-buyers are getting all of their information online. Does this mean that you should do away with your direct mail altogether? Or maybe you just need to scale back to create more money and resources for digital marketing? You will need to decide what is right for your business and your budget but be sure you take into account what is happening with YOUR target market—not what is going on in other industries.
See Also: Bring it Back to Target Marketing
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