With the new year already started, it’s time to start thinking about ways to grow your business. One important decision you need to make is whether to launch a new product or service and if so, which one to choose. There are a number of factors to consider including price, quality, and most importantly, the demand for your product or service.
Don’t worry – we’re not going to pitch you a new product or service! We’re going to show you a faster, more efficient way to get the data you need without having to launch a separate product or service.
Here’s the idea behind our approach: Let’s say you’re the owner of a flower shop that’s been losing money hand over fist. One day, you get the bright idea of mailing 20,000 letters to college students around the country with the aim of getting them to buy a bunch of flowers as a surprise Christmas present. You decide this is a perfect way to test the demand for a new product or service you’ve been developing that will allow your customers to order flowers and have them delivered on campus.
Let’s get started by taking a look at how you can put this idea into practice.
Create A Mailing Database
The first step is to create a mailing database. This is pretty self-explanatory. You’re going to need to gather the information for each of the individuals you’ll be mailing. You can either do this manually, which can be time-consuming, or you can use a third-party tool to automate the process.
Set Up Autoresponder Emails
The next step is to set up automatic reply emails for the people who receive your letters. You’re going to want to choose a service that provides a free trial and then set up autoresponder emails to follow any action (i.e. opens or clicks) on your part. For example, if someone clicks on a product link within one of your letters, you’ll want to be able to notify them via email that the product was interesting and that you’d like to explore it further.
Choose A Product Or Service
With your mailing list set up and ready to go, it’s time to choose a product or service to promote. Remember, you’re trying to find a product or service that’s going to generate revenue quickly and effectively. While the demand for your product or service may be there, it’s still uncertain as to whether or not it’s actually going to sell. What you need to do is choose a product or service that you believe is suitable for the audience you’re trying to reach. For example, if you’re trying to sell car accessories to college students, it might not be the best idea to promote an appliance company’s products.
Determine The Overall Budget
The last step is to set an overall budget for the entire project. This is mostly going to be determined by how much you’re willing to spend on stamps and paper (about $1,200 for the 20,000 letters), but you should also think about how much you’re willing to spend on staff to send out the mailings. If you’ve got a full-time employee who’s going to be doing the bulk of the work, you’ll want to factor that into your budget. What you need to keep in mind is that the more you spend, the more you’re going to earn. This could be money well spent if you’re able to land a few high-quality customers who become regular or semi-regular purchasers of your product or service.
As you can see, this isn’t an impossible task. You don’t need to have a science degree to put this plan into action. All you need is a computer with internet access, a phone, and some time off work to devote to the project. Hopefully, this article will help get your creative thinking and get you started on the right foot.