According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, around 1.8 million of the 12.2 million small business owners in the United States are Latinos. Despite the well-documented opportunity gaps, Latinos have become the fastest-growing small business owners in the country. That’s more than enough inspiration to start, but how do you keep a Latino-owned business going? The answer is in your marketing approach.
Finding the Right Marketing Approach for You
Starting a small business can take a lot of energy, time, and effort, but getting it off the ground is only the first step. Making sure that you’re profitable and sustainable is bound to take up most of your time, and can be especially difficult if you’re an entrepreneur on a budget. For Latina entrepreneurs especially, it’s important to find a marketing approach that’s highly effective, relevant, but still affordable.
We’ve previously talked about unconventional approaches to this, such as in our article ‘Build an Employee Branding Strategy in 5 Steps’. Marketing through your employees is one option, but there are tons of other techniques that have surprisingly beneficial returns.
Reach Your Clients via Direct Mail
Direct mail marketing, surprisingly, is one of them. Triadex Services outlines that direct mail is still one of the most reliably efficient marketing methods around, offering a high ROI with a low cost per lead. While direct mail may often seem like a relic from times past, it’s actually a pretty great way to get in touch with your market.
This is especially true if you’re trying to reach out to your local community. Whether you have a brick-and-mortar store or are just trying to expand your business beyond your own home, connecting with your market is essential. Even the simplest direct mail material can make a huge impact on your engagement and sales when used correctly. You don’t even need to go all out— a simple yet engaging photocopied flyer or postcard mailed out to people in your area might net you huge returns, for example.
Tracking Your Results
Interested but not sure how you’ll be able to reliably track the results of a traditional marketing method, especially when compared with the straightforward hit counter on your blog? Don’t worry about it. Direct mail is actually one of the few traditional marketing methods that are easily trackable. All you need to do is keep a tally of who responds and compare it with your mailing list and you’re all set. You can even use this data to further refine and improve further marketing efforts, all without needing to invest in expensive data analysis tools.
Want to focus on getting online engagement on your website or blog instead? Direct mail can help with that too. Providing links to your online portals in your direct mail pieces is one way to link your online and offline marketing strategies, especially if your attempts at digital marketing aren’t working. You can even make it easier for your customers by providing a QR code that they can scan, making the connection to your online materials quicker and more convenient than ever.
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These are only a few of the ways you can make direct mail marketing work for you, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. With direct mail, you can be as creative, memorable, and engaging as you want, and you can always rely on it to pull in results.
