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If you are shopping for a pair of new running shoes, how long does it typically take you to make a decision? If you’re picky, the process could take months. No matter which industry you operate in, sales cycles have the potential to take longer than they should.
While factors do include picky shoppers (even I have been known to look far and wide for the perfect dress), certain marketing tactics can still persuade the most challenging prospects.
A recent survey reported that 74% of businesses say sales cycles are getting longer. That translates to spending more resources (time and money) to generate flatlined results.
In running my own business, PostcardMania, I’ve faced this and much more, yet kept our growth on an upward trajectory. In fact, last year set a new revenue record for us at $119 million, and we’ve grown 239% faster in the last five years than we did in the previous decade, averaging 17% annual revenue growth now versus 5% then.
Here’s a breakdown of the road-tested marketing tactics that have helped me accelerate our growth and shorten the sales cycle.
Related: How to Shorten Your Sales Cycle and Convert More Leads
Step 1: Expand the top of the funnel by increasing leads without spending more — this is how I lowered my average cost per lead
About 28% of businesses say generating leads is a challenge. My top strategy is simple: Don’t stop marketing, and remain consistent.
When the pandemic hit in 2020, many companies decided to cut back on their marketing budget, but I held fast.
My decision to continue marketing consistently throughout the pandemic resulted in a 9.24% increase in leads — an additional 186 leads a week — without any increased costs or doing anything differently. After all was said and done, PostcardMania’s annual revenue was up 10% that year despite the chaos.
But for those who cut back on their marketing, research shows they likely suffered.
A recent study examined the long-term effects when two large brands under financial pressure cut back on advertising. One cut their marketing spend by 27% and the other by 65%. In the first quarter following the cuts, the first company saw revenue drop 66%, and the other was down 51%.
This study just goes to demonstrate something I’ve been saying for decades: You need to market consistently, week in and week out, if you want to grow your business.
It doesn’t matter which marketing channel you choose. Just make sure you’re tracking your marketing and responses so that you can attribute your new customers and sales accurately to know what’s working and what isn’t.
Once you know what works for your business, do more of it! And if you can, put it on autopilot.
One of my clients, a real estate investor, implemented a direct mail automation that automatically sent postcards to people who visited his website for more than 30 seconds without converting. After mailing just over 100 of these mailers, he closed two new sales worth $70,000.
Since these automated campaigns run daily, this means you could have new leads every single day. This would compound over time and eventually generate a whole new list of new customers for you.
Related: How I Built a Sales Funnel That Generates Over $80 Million
Step 2: Review your lead follow-up funnel and consider creating a better balance of online and offline communications
Following up with prospects is just as important as generating new leads. In my experience, the right balance of online and offline communications helps move leads down the sales funnel to purchase.
And the research backs me up here — studies show that integrated direct mail and digital campaigns elicit 39% more attention than single-media digital campaigns. In fact, nearly 2 out of 3 consumers (60%) say they are extremely or very likely to respond to advertising they see across multiple channels.
Follow-ups are like reminders, and you need to send out a lot of them to provoke action. Ideally, these reminders happen simultaneously in order to keep your brand top of mind. So if you are mailing postcards weekly, you should also be running online ads on Instagram, Facebook and Google, as well as SMS messages and email.
These channels all work together to bring prospects back to your website or pick up the phone to make a purchase. Professional marketers are in lockstep on this: 91% believe integrating direct mail and digital has a positive impact on campaign performance.
At PostcardMania, we continue to mail postcards every single week, but we also prioritize pay-per-click ads, remarketing, video-based ads on social media and daily email blasts. All of these methods together have helped us continually increase our revenue year over year.
Related: How to Boost Your Business With Direct Mail Automation and Retargeting — a Detailed Beginner’s Guide
Step 3: Explore other marketing channels to replace some of your email touchpoints
You are generating leads with consistent marketing, executing online and offline follow-up, but what if your marketing messages aren’t even being seen or opened? This phase of the sales funnel can last for some time before a prospect makes a final purchase.
Email is a top method of communication for businesses, yet emails have a low open rate of 37% — and it could get even worse as more consumers are ignoring emails or mass deleting them. I know I do! One study showed that emails and text messages were the top two most irritating channels when it comes to being bombarded with marketing.
About 33% of businesses struggle with declining open rates, but they can be improved by launching the right marketing campaigns
Instead of focusing on what is standard, focus on what works. The main marketing strategy I’ve used to draw prospects in has been direct mail, and that has never changed for the past 27 years.
I’ve built my business from the ground up with zero capital, primarily based on direct mail marketing, and today we make over $100 million in annual revenue. We started out mailing 1,000 postcards a week advertising our services, and now we mail over 230,000 a week.
The facts also don’t lie; research confirms that direct mail has a much higher open rate of 90%. A business can also get around open rates altogether with postcards, catalogs or brochures since the recipient sees the message and images immediately. This gives your business a better chance of making a lasting impression.
Another direct mail advantage: less competition in the mailbox versus the inbox. Personally, I dislike fielding hundreds of emails every day. The USPS reports the average household receives 7,750% more emails than mail pieces per day — an average of two direct mail advertisements as opposed to 157 emails a day.
All of these methods together have helped us continually increase our revenue year over year. I’ve tackled my challenges head-on with these marketing methods, and I know with effort, you’ll do the same.
SSI co-founder Ilya Sutskever. Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP
