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Marketing Quick Tips
Creating and Implementing Hopper Systems
Part 1
1. Capture Contact Info From Every Prospect You Can: If you're going to run a hopper system (a follow up system consisting primarily of emails, letters, and postcards), then you're going to need to have prospects.
Two areas where many businesses fall flat in regards to gathering prospect information: 1) they do not ask for contact information from prospects that call, come in, or inquire, and 2) they only run ads that cater to "now buyers" and therefore do not generate a very big list of "future buyers." To remedy number one, pre-print lead cards or lead lists that your sales staff is trained to use to capture data. You can use contests or sweepstakes if you have to . And as for getting more future buyers - consider changing your advertising to offer an informational report of some kind that will prompt people who are currently only thinking about buying what you sell to respond and request it - and thus allow you to put them into your database.
2. Calculate Your Budget: There are two schools of thought when it comes to budgeting for a hopper system. The first way is to allocate a certain number of dollars per month to the project, and then determine how many emails, letters, or postcards you can send out to X many prospects with that budget. Another - better way - is to look at your profit margins and determine how much money you can afford to spend ... and then spend it. Here's an example to make the point: If you're a home builder, and your average margin on a home sold is $38,000 - and you have an average of 50 new prospects per week walking through your model home (200 per month), how much can you afford to spend to follow up? If you chose postcard mailers that cost 80 cents each to print and mail, and you sent two postcards per week for 2 months (16 postcards in 60 days), that would cost you $12.80 per prospect. Multiply by 200 prospects, and that's $2,560 over two months. Certainly not a small amount. But let me ask you this - if you had 16 well articulated, powerfully stated postcards in 200 of your prospects' hands - do you think you might add at least one more sale? (hint: yes)
3. Finish Before You Begin: Here's a familiar scenario - you're a few days behind on getting a mailer out to your database, and you put it on your "to do" list for the day. Six days later you notice it on your list and realize that now you're basically two weeks behind schedule. Before you know it, a month has passed and other more pressing things have preempted your mailer. Here's a word of advice - plan out and create a hopper system for a full year in advance if at all possible. Write all the pieces. Send them to graphic design. Simply expect that you won't have time later to fool with them. This brings us to our next salient point ...
4. Never Lift A Finger: The biggest killer of hopper systems is lack of personnel bandwidth to physically get the mailings done. You can use computer programs such as ACT or Goldmine! to schedule mail and email - but ultimately, somebody has to prepare those darn mailers. And who's going to do that? You or the other person in the office wearing 4 hats? Now there's a solution - the MYM Hopper System is a software platform that automatically sends out mail and email without you ever having to lift a finger. All mailers are pre-scheduled and then printed at a digital on-demand printer on the appropriate day and shipped out through a 3rd party mail house ... all without you having to lift a finger. If you'd like more information on this innovative and profitable service, please fill out the short form at the bottom of this page.
5. Make An Outrageous Offer: If a prospect is in your hopper system, that probably means they didn't buy from you yet. And since you are communicating with them via mail or email - you can make them any offer you want without having to make the same offer to others. So do this: give your hopper prospects a fantastic offer to get them to take action. Create what's called a "mega irresistible offer" where you offer at least 4 to 6 separate bonuses for those who purchase. The prospect sees that you are making this fantastic offer available to them and becomes excited to buy. Try different combinations of offers to see what works best - but here's the key - at least 4 to 6 separate bonuses all at the same time. Not one big bonus; that's not as powerful. Make it a half dozen things and you'll see great results.
Need a Hopper System for Your Business? Fill out the short form below to request a Free Online Demo!
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