Quality vs. quantity. Which do you want?
Every marketer has a dilemma. Do they want a lot of leads or a few good ones? Do you want a lot of website traffic or would you rather have only a few, but very qualified leads visit your site?
Basically it is a numbers game.
You need a lot of people to tell you “no” so you find those few that say “yes” – and mean it.
Success in direct marketing involves having a program in place where you reach a large number of people, but can prosper if only a small percentage actually respond. Direct mail pieces that you receive every day in your mail box cost a lot of money to create, print, and mail. Yet if only 2% of those names on your list respond you are probably going to make money. So this means that 98% of the letters were sent out needlessly?
As marketing has moved online, the cost of reaching out has decreased dramatically. Instead of putting together a $1 letter or a $3 catalog, everything can be done on the internet for a fraction of the cost. Email is almost free to distribute and a good looking HTML email can be created for a few hundred dollars. The web site landing page is going to take some time, effort, and expense, but everyday we all see many websites that look like they were done inexpensively. The marginal cost of contacting one more person is very low. So low in fact that these days we have spam filters that catch most of the email delivered to us and we don’t even take the time to look at it.
Social media is growing as a marketing tool. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and too many others to name have joined email as powerful email marketing tools. It may take time to build a large list of Twitter followers, Facebook friends, or YouTube subscribers. Yet we can be certain that they work or we wouldn’t be inundated with these messages daily.
So back to the question: do you want quantity or quality when you are marketing online?
Actually you want both.
You need to reach the largest audience possible because, like any good direct marketer, the number of people that will ignore you is huge. That is quantity. Check out some of the marketers on Twitter with 25,000 followers. Do you think they really can read all of those messages?
But from this almost universally unresponsive crowd a few people are going to respond. They actually click on your Tweet link. They “like” your Facebook page. They watch your entire YouTube video. They comment on your web site blog post.
The key to success is what you do next.
These individuals have made the first move. It is your turn to present your message to these interested people. And then to start a dialog with them about yourself, your products, your services. And most importantly what you can do for them.
This is quality.
And where it gets to be fun and interesting. No successful salesperson can turn down the opportunity to present their message in hopes of making the sale, of completing the transaction. While all of the social media and other online tools can be effective in reaching out to an audience, they can be just as powerful in creating a type of relationship with an interested individual. Personalization, message, timing, and the offer all make or break the sale. And programs such as webinars can bring people together almost as if they are in the same room.
So our experience is that you want both quantity and quality. Concentrating on one alone will make it very difficult to become successful. In our business it is the personal touch that makes people keep coming back. And we want to use online tools to make that happen.
Good luck with your program!