Three marketing tips that work

Want to get your name out there through traditional direct mail marketing, but without the costs and headaches of brokers? Here are some secrets to do-it-yourself marketing as experienced by Josh Anderson of the Allen Investment Group of Raymond James & Associates Inc in Newtown, Penn.

1. Identify creative resources. He and his partner acquired the equipment needed to produce the pieces in-house and bought a list of local residents from the town county office for a fraction of what they would have paid to a list broker.
2. Don’t rely on one message. The mailings’ content varied. Some provided information about the Raymond James philosophy or discussed topics like developing an investment policy statement. Others offered invitations to dinners that focused on investment-related themes.
3. Be patient. Every envelope included a response card and an invitation to call the firm’s offices. They ran the campaign for about 18 months and Anderson says it accomplished its goal: “Our direct mail efforts resulted in a lot of assets through three or four key relationships. Because we were mailing to the right community, one hit could be a huge win–it could be a home run. And in our case, we actually got that.”