Two Percent…
If you expect to sell even 50 rods this year, reaching a couple hundred fishermen isn’t going to cut the mustard – you’ll have to reach at least 2500, and that’s a best case scenario. Read on…
If I told you that I’ve been getting a 5% response to my advertising and marketing efforts, you’d probably think that’s pretty poor. However, if you knew what smart advertising and marketing people know, you’d say that a 5% response is almost impossible for even the best advertising campaign.
Advertising and marketing are the keys to making the public aware of your product or service. Depending on what you’re selling, some folks will be interested and some won’t care one way or the other. So the first thing you have to do, is specifically target that segment of the buying public that would have at least some need for what you’re selling. Assuming you can do that, what percentage of those folks that you manage to reach can you expect to buy what you’re selling? The answer will likely surprise you.
Let’s say you reach exactly 100 people who are in the specific market for your product or service and that you hit them with exceptionally effective advertising. How many can you expect to buy? Well, advertising and sales data compiled from myriad sources over many, many years tells us that if you do everything perfectly, you can expect to have 2% of those you reached actually respond to your marketing efforts. That’s right – 2% is the best case scenario. Hard to believe perhaps, but absolutely true.
I know going in that in order for the vendors at the International Custom Rod Building Exposition to do well, I’m going to have to put 150 rod builders in the hall for each individual retail vendor. These past few years I’ve managed to do that (we’ve been over the 2000 rod builder attendance mark for several years now). But in order to do it I can’t simply rely on a few mentions on internet forums or some word of mouth among a few rod building clubs or groups – to get those 2000 rod builders here, I need to reach no less than 100,000 active custom rod builders. That’s right – 100,000 active custom rod builders. Any less and the Expo vendors would be very disappointed in the resulting turnout and related sales.
This is why I rely mainly on a large direct mail advertising campaign to ensure that we reach enough rod builders to get our 2%. In fact, the research we do indicates that we’re getting closer to that 5% I mentioned earlier. A truly fantastic, out of this world response by any advertising or marketing standard. I’m ecstatic over our yearly response.
Around mid-November 35,000 custom rod builders will receive the postcard shown above. Another 15,000 rod builders will see the Expo ads in RodMaker Magazine. A thousand or so, perhaps, will read about the Expo on the internet. In the end we’ll get our 2000+ custom rod builders at the Expo. Although this seems like a very small number considering the far larger number that we hit with advertising, in reality it’s above and beyond what most any knowledgeable advertising or marketing person realistically expects.
If you sell rods to the public and do any advertising, heed the figures given in today’s entry. You cannot reach too many people with your advertising and in most cases, most businesses fail to reach anywhere near enough. If you build a good rod, but aren’t getting the hoped for sales, it may be that you simply aren’t reaching enough people!
Tom Kirkman
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