By Heidi Richards

“There is only one way to judge the effectiveness of a
marketing piece, and that is by the number of responses you
get.” - Heidi Richards -

Multi-step marketing is a simple yet extremely powerful
strategy when you use it to its full potential. Multi-step
marketing is selling people who have contacted you and asked
for information about your product or service; a great way to
build your own mailing list of prospects and customers.

You are able to send multiple mailings to those same people
from which you have created your own mailing list. The key to
multi-step marketing is following up with the prospects using
an intensive direct mail campaign. How do you develop your
multi-step marketing campaign? Follow these four simple
steps… click here to read the entire article.

Step One
Use some sort of direct response advertising to obtain your
“leads.” Your ads should have a powerful headline directed at
your target audience that causes them to read the rest of the
ad and respond. The purpose of your ad is to arouse the
reader’s or listener’s curiosity, getting them to call. Always
offer them something for free. Your goal in step one is to
generate leads.

Step Two
Your prospect reads the ad and calls - leaving her name and
address or she writes to you for more information. Using voice
mail almost always generates more leads because people want
things quickly and easily. Thank the prospect for calling,
state a couple of major benefits, and end by asking for her
name and address. The message should be between one and two
minutes - no more. The goal in step two is to record your
leads.

Step Three
Send your direct response offer to the prospect. These
prospects fall into one of three categories. We’ll call them
cold, warm and hot prospects. A Cold prospect is slightly
interested; she is looking and will not buy. These prospects
represent a small percentage of your inquiries. A Warm prospect
is very interested, but not ready to buy. They represent the
majority of your inquiries. A Hot prospect is very interested
and ready to buy. They also represent a small percentage of
your inquiries.

Step Four
Follow up with mailings to prospects who didn’t buy. Repeat
this step again and again. According to “Sales and Marketing
Magazine,” 80% of all people who inquire about a product buy
that product within one year, but not from the company that
made the original contact. Why? Because the company didn’t
follow up. It generally takes at least five contacts with a
prospect who showed interest in the product or service you
offer before they will buy from you. If you are successful with
the initial mailing, you can expect 30 to 70 percent in leads
turning into customers with follow up mailings.

You don’t have to change the entire mailing each time.
Generally changing the cover letter and making minor changes to
the mailing is sufficient. Remember that one of your biggest
expenses is getting the prospect. By following these four steps
you can watch your sales and profits sky-rocket!

Excerpted from The PMS Principles - Powerful Marketing
Strategies to Grow Your Business - www.pmsprinciples.com - ©
2005 - Heidi Richards

About the Author: Heidi Richards is the author of The PMS
Principles, Powerful Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business
and 7 other books. She is also the Founder & CEO of the Women’s
ECommerce Association, International www.WECAI.org – an Internet
organization that “Helps Women Do Business on the WEB.” Basic
Membership is FREE. Ms. Richards can be reached at
www.HeidiRichards.com or heidi@wecai.org.