Hi,
I am just about to launch my business and was wondering whether the old fashion letterbox drop to companies within a certain area would still work, given this day and age of technology.
could anyone who has had any experience with this form of marketing (whether it is good or bad), please let me know your thoughts?
thanks

"Given this day and age of technology" you definitely need to have a website, email campaign, Twitter, etc., but the old fashioned way of marketing is still very important. Face to face marketing, letters to everyone you know and whatever else you can possibly think of is something you need to be doing, especially in the beginning. Once you have a bit of time on your side you can evaluate what is working and what isn't, and then adjust from there. Good Luck.

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Pam
www.adminetcetera.com

I'll let you know
Now that we are settled somewhere I've just designed a full-color, two sided postcard - we printed 1500 of them! and we are sending them out [addressed and stamped by hand]. I'll be sending out 100 to 200 per week to other businesses in our region [based on zip code, income, number of employees, etc].

So I'll post back and let you know if anything comes of it! But yes, I think it's worth doing - or I wouldn't have invested so much in this one campaign. [Wish me luck! ]

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I am amazed, Tess, and do wish you luck! Very keen to know how it turns out for you.

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Mary H. Ruth/Virtual Writing & Communications
http://www.writingVA.com

I must confess, I am paying someone to address them for me - my handwriting has gotten progressively more attrocious now that I work on a keyboard. And can we say thank GOODNESS for sticker stamps?! Imagine licking 1500 of those things...

I'm keen to know how it turns out as well - will definitely post back with any new info.

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Tess,

I have a client who does small mailings to exclusive groups and all his materials are hand addressed and stamped because people will open hand addressed items (out of curiosity I guess). I thought he was crazy at first but his response rate was 40% which for a mailing is great. Good luck and I too would love to know how it turns out.

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Lee Drozak
My Office Assistant

Hi 'bridgeland', I have tried only half-heartedly with things like postcards and flyer mailouts when I first started. I know at Vistaprint you can quite often get postcards made for only the cost of postage if you use one of their standard designs and that is very handy to then just add a personal note and post out.

I think a lot will depend on the way you send them out. Obviously, don't just send to every business in the are, pick a target market of the ones likely to need your services or to provide work you would enjoy doing. Another good suggestion is to follow up with a phone call a few days after posting, just to say 'I'm just checking to see you have received my card'. Bear in mind also that the person opening the mail is likely to be a secretary who will feel like you are trying to put her out of a job! ;-)

I had a friend who says that she went door to door in the local area business centre and she said she got work from 3 out of 4 businesses. Now personally, I think it could have been they said yes to get rid of her (she can really talk underwater!) and also a lot of them mustn't have been ongoing as she has had a few different jobs since then.

I still say the best thing you can do is network - go to any Chamber of Commerce or business groups in your field of interest, use the existing networks of people you have previously worked with or your friends who mix in business circles, tell anyone and everyone that you are in business and be upbeat, positive and confident when you talk about your business.

Good luck!

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Marie Chandler - your virtual assistant
www.officesupportonline.com.au

When I started my first administrative services business I sent letters to a select group and postcards to another select group. Got NO business from the letters but got FOUR clients from the postcards - two of them I still do work for!

Trying different approaches has always been good for me - letters, postcards, ads in small newspapers. I also went to some networking meetings but they have never been client-producing for me. Although, times are different now. I'll need to add them to my schedule.

Carol
CJ's Virtual Business Solutions
www.cjvbs.com

How do you gather a list of businesses to target your mailings?

Marisa
Actual Delegation

Originally Posted by daisymss

How do you gather a list of businesses to target your mailings? Marisa Actual Delegation

There are LOTS of different ways to do this! Try searching the forum for 'mailing list' and you will find a plethora of threads on this very issue (at LEAST three pages worth)! Personally, I use a combination of the local library (I go online and search the ReferenceUSA database), pull new llc filings from the local paper's legal notices, and I got a 'sample size' mailing list of 100 leads from InfoUsa.

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Lily Chambers, The Virtual Office Goddess, LLC
Author "How to Do Your Own Small Business Bookkeeping"