Question: How do you feel about cooling/heating/plumbing contractors and services being marketed to retail customers via the web versus direct mail?
Answer:
You know, as much time as I spend on the internet, I’ve yet to see a PPC ad or webpage install a furnace or fix a busted pipe. I’ve never seen a letter change an air filter, nor heard a radio ad that would tune an a/c or stop a leaking faucet. Kidding. Sort of.
Everything listed above is media. Please don’t ever mistake media for message. Media’s job is to deliver the message by first getting attention; after that, it’s your job to keep the attention long enough to get the sale. (And by ‘sale’ I mean, phone call, appointment, web hit, image boost, referral, whatever.)
The digital arena is a media, just like mail, radio, newspaper, and newsletter. It is part of a team of media players, each with specific roles, all required.
An email campaign is a big loser just like a postal mail campaign is a big loser if you get the market and message wrong. Sure, the internet does have the innate ability to go worldwide, but unless you’re running service calls in Tanzania, that doesn’t matter much. It can be changed instantly, multiplied (“scaled” as they say) at virtually zero up-cost as opposed to numbers of letters sent.
Yet this benefit’s “mass attractiveness” has nearly nullified the gain. In other words, say thank you to the SPAM world for saturating the inboxes of your customers to the point of near blindness. So, to get better results, people email more, further diluting the ‘specialness’ and potentially their credibility in the process.
No, we’re not dogging email alone. Give us a little time and we’ll dog radio, newspaper and direct mail. They’re all fabulous; they’re all flawed. But it’s foolhardy to think the internet is the end-all savior of marketing. It is a media.
Now, your website is indeed a representative of your store, your story and the starry-eyed reasons you were called to serve. It can and should become a virtual walking, talking company rep, advocate, salesperson, scheduler and referral generator.
There is not another single media that can accomplish as much as a solid website. Your website is of immense value and importance in the media mix. A rotten or non-existent one screams, “Behind the times, resistant to change, stuck in the ‘gonna get to it’ abyss.”
A fantastic one, with customer centered (instead of company centered) information, education and ultimately persuasive passion is your 24 hour a day salesperson who never asks for a raise. (Need help with your site? Get a PowerSite demo by emailing [email protected].)
In fact, I could say that about any of your media-driven messages. It’s just that your website has far more customer freedom, with virtually unlimited time and space to involve your customer.
Make your direct mail sell and introduce your website. Plus, make your website sell and introduce your direct mail. “Sign up here to get special offers by mail and email.” “Click here to receive our newsletter full of customer-only messages and benefits.” Get it?
If you’ll make your media a ‘team’ instead of solo players, they’ll all play – and work – much better together.