There have been various mailing systems throughout the years. Few people use direct mail or snail mail in today’s terms. However, direct mail is still used for official communication, bills, and bank statements. Some companies still use direct mail for marketing, however, they are few in the continent. More marketers are turning to use different forms of electronic mail – SMS and email.
The choice of how you send out your parcels and documents is dependent on your target clientele, where they are located, and the systems available in their country or town. In most cities in the continent delivery services using private companies works fine as long as your clients have a traceable physical address. In smaller towns, door to door deliveries may not be possible. In such a situation they would have to pick their parcel from the couriers’ office.
Bus companies also have elaborate overnight delivery services to different towns and across borders. They are cheaper. Should you decide to use these, your client is contacted by SMS using the phone number provided and they then go to the bus company’s parcel office to pick their package. Entrepreneurs have been using these for a while now. All said there is still an opportunity to fine-tune courier services offered especially to small towns.
When you sell your products online through an established online market like Amazon, then it is not necessary that you get involved in the logistics as Amazon has its warehouses and you can move products directly from manufacturers to its warehouses without shipping them to Africa before being shipped to the client. If you produce the products it still makes sense to use Amazon as the cost for you is negligible compared to your shipping directly. However, when you sell through your own website and less established online markets, you will need to handle your own logistics.
a. Choosing A Mailing Company
Several factors go into choosing a mailing company that will provide the quality of service you are looking for. These include:
i) Reliability: the shipping and delivery company needs to be reliable. This means their schedule should be exactly as indicated in their marketing material. They should also be able to communicate should there be changes in schedule.
ii) Capacity: the company should have the capacity to handle your shipments. If they are limited in the packaging they offer and your products are bulky you may continually have a problem getting your shipments out.
iii) Pick n pack/end to end services: Companies that are able to pick your orders from your address, pack – including poly wrapping – and, ship them, will make your work so much easier especially if you have a small team. Normally, there is no extra cost for them picking the parcels.
iv) Connection with other down the line providers: If a company has a delivery partner down the line this is to your advantage. For example, if shipping from Nigeria – Abuja to Kenya – Mandera the company would have a partner to work with after the parcel gets to Nairobi – probably a relationship with a private line or bus company that can deliver to your client in Mandera. In the event the relationships are not established, having an office in the end country is a great alternative.
v)The destination of your parcel: Large shipping and mailing companies from a country will tend to have cheaper rates for shipments to their home country. If there is a major service provider to a country you mail to they may be a good option. However, do not compromise quality for the price.
vi) Reputation: The reputation of a company built over time will give you an indication of whether or not you should be doing business with them or not.
Your shipping company can help you grow your business or kill it before it has gained traction to take off. Its reliability and how it handles your parcels are perceived as a direct reflection of you. Choose the best company you can afford for each region you sell to.
b. Choosing An E-Mail System
Email marketing systems ensure you are able to send bulk mail and track their performance. There is a wide range of mailing software to choose from. Costs will vary depending on the number of subscribers to your mailing list. Since mailing lists offer trial periods for free or before getting to a certain number of subscribers, you can try the different systems before settling on one.
Email systems can have hundreds of features. Below are 20 features that you should consider before making your decision:
⦁ Ability to upload your own branded templates: Alter generic templates with the images, logos, colors, and fonts. You can add graphics and links to your email making it more interactive than you would with giving it a good professional look.
⦁ A/B Split Testing: Create different versions of your email campaign and test to see which version is more successful.
⦁ Anti-Spam Checker: Test your campaign to see if it will get flagged as spam. When an email is flagged as spam it will be deposited into spam boxes instead of going into the inbox
⦁ Capacity: This is the total number of subscribers the system can take.
⦁ Contact Lists Management: You can export or import your contact lists, have multiple lists segmented contacts according to particular demographics or interests.
⦁ Duplicate Email Checker: The system automatically checks for duplicate email addresses in your contact lists.
⦁ Ease of use: it should be easy to install and use the mailing system for both you and your team.
⦁ Industry Comparison: A comparison of the performance of your campaigns against industry data.
⦁ Integration: the ability to integrate with the other systems that you are using.
⦁ Location Tracking: You can track and view the approximate location of your contacts.
⦁ Message Personalisation: Send personalized emails.
⦁ RSS to Email: Emails are automatically sent when an RSS feed on your website or blog is updated.
⦁ Schedule mail: and send it at an optimum time for your client. This also allows you to do a series of marketing campaigns to attract clients to your products and services.
⦁ Social Media Buttons: Social media buttons that allow your emails to be shared on social media platforms.
⦁ Spell Checker: A tool to spell check email content exists.
⦁ Subscription forms and Unsubscribed Contacts: Forms for your website for people to subscribe to your mailing list and an unsubscribe link that will help them opt-out and keep track of email recipients that unsubscribe.
⦁ Surveys: Tools are available to help you create and insert surveys into your email campaigns.
⦁ Tracking of Performance of Email: this is the ability to track how many emails did not arrive at the destination address, were deleted or forwarded to additional recipients.
⦁ Triggered Campaigns: These are auto-responding campaigns that are triggered by customer behavior.
⦁ Video: Allow you to embed video content into your email.
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