SalesBook

Direct Marketing for Salespeople

By Patrick Robbins

Direct marketing is really nothing more than old-fashioned prospecting for leads, and there are dozens of ways to do it-from going door to door, to phone call lists, to more high-tech solutions such as e-mail campaigns, Internet advertising and now social networking sites. But let's face it, today nobody likes door to door salesmen, and nobody likes being interrupted during dinner for a sales pitch over the phone. Internet-based sales are growing more rapidly than any other category, and the professional salesperson today must establish an online presence and migrate his or her direct marketing initiatives to the World Wide Web.

One of the biggest mistakes marketers make in online direct marketing is to try to provide too much information in a single marketing message. Those lengthy emails full of flashy graphics that extend several pages deep almost never get read, and as most marketers and advertising specialists know, people have a short attention span when it comes to advertisements. The better solution is to take a two-step approach, first presenting a short, concise and eye-catching e-mail, and then encouraging the recipient to take an action, such as clicking on a link and going to a web site. The web site, the secondary element in the marketing initiative, is the more appropriate place to present more in-depth marketing material.

Creating an effective web presence and landing page is often challenging, and it may be difficult to integrate all of the many documents of various formats that are necessary to describe and support the product or service being offered. Many sales professionals are turning to SalesBook.com, a next-generation platform for sales professionals, and the only place where a sales professional can establish a complete, end-to-end presence. Through SalesBook, a sales professional can manage both ends of the direct marketing equation-driving traffic through e-mail announcements that something new is on their profile or creating sophisticated campaigns that lead prospects through multiple steps to "qualify" their interest.

The easy e-mail marketing features of SalesBook, along with the lead generation and contact management tools, provide the sales professional with full direct marketing capability-from creating and gathering leads, to managing them, and finally undertaking a wide range of e-mail marketing steps campaign to targeted recipients designed to drive traffic back to the main SalesBook site.

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