Today, many companies put so much focus on digital marketing that it can be easy to overlook direct mail, a powerful strategy that can give you tangible results.
One advantage of direct marketing is that it’s predictable and inexpensive. Plus, when tied together with technology, the results are measurable. No matter what type of business you run, this type of marketing has the potential to help you attain your lead generation goals.
When planned, implemented, and executed correctly, you’re looking at a predictable number of leads coming into the pipeline every week or month. With that said, we’re going to share some quick tips for direct mail marketing that you can start executing today.
Let’s get right into it.
1. Identify Your Target Audience
Like any other form of marketing, knowing your target audience is important in delivering the right message to the right people. Ideally, the better you know your audience, the easier it will be for your marketing team to create an effective campaign.
For example, your target market can be CPAs, truck drivers, or retirees. Knowing the audience helps you to avoid blanket marketing, whereby you send irrelevant mailings throughout a postal code.
There are contact list brokers who can help you get a list of your potential clients. By selecting based on demographics such as geography, industry, and company size, you can be sure you’re getting the highest probability of conversion.
2. Keep the Contact List Clean
Your mail contact list is the heart of your direct marketing campaigns. Without it, you can’t engage in any kind of marketing. So, old contacts and incorrect addresses are a waste of investment. It’s your responsibility to ensure the list is always accurate and up-to-date.
You don’t want to spend money mailing brochures to people who no longer live at certain addresses. Create one centralized database for your contacts to make it easier to manage.
Try running your contact list through the database of National Change of Address to find any inaccuracies. Alternatively, you could contact your list broker to inquire about an updated list for the one they sold you.
3. Make Your Mailpieces Impressive
The message or content on your mailer is important to the success of your entire campaign. You want to ensure the content showcases all the important benefits that offer value to your target market. People usually look at things such as prices, quality, and convenience.
For example, if you’re an HVAC company, you want to ensure the mailer has all the services your offer, special deals, quotes, and your expected arrival after a customer schedules a repair or maintenance.
You can offer a gift to prompt your targets to take action. Also, ensure to offer as many benefits as possible and always keep the promises you make. Basically, your content should give your audience a reason to buy or subscribe right away.
4. The Design Is Important
The design of your brochure or piece gives the first impression about you. Don’t overlook that impression, as it’s usually important in how your audience will perceive your message.
Use graphics and colors to support the content, but don’t fill the piece with unnecessary text in an attempt to be unique or stylish. Just keep the formatting simple and readable.
Ensure the envelope has a headline that gives an overview of the content. Personalize the piece as much as you can while still making it relevant to your audience.
If the content is long, break it up with white space or graphics.
5. Leverage the Power of Headlines
In direct marketing, headlines are powerful tools to help create a message that resonates with your target customer. The truth is that most people don’t pay attention to all the advertisements you send. This means using headlines to create something that is attention-grabbing at first glance is crucial for your business (ie. residential painting or snow removal)
You want to ensure that your headlines are precise, exciting, and gripping. Consider enlisting the services of an expert copywriter to help you develop headlines that are appealing and relevant to your content.
The trick when crafting headlines is to write down as many ideas as possible before selecting the one that fits best. Keep in mind that if you can’t grab the attention of your audience, they may not read the rest of your content.
6. Personalize Your Mailers
In any form of marketing, personalization is important in creating messages that are powerful and effective. Ensure your customer name is used in the piece. Also, add pictures of your business or staff to make a personal connection with your audience. (ie. coin-operated washers and dryers and coin-operated washer and dryer parts business)
Some services are available to add scents to your envelopes if you want. Also, you may want to ensure that the addresses are handwritten because printed options have a higher chance of ending up in the trash can.
Ideally, you want to get as many people as possible to read the content of your mailers. So, take the time to personalize the envelope and content.
7. Always Follow Up
Don’t just send one letter or postcard and stop there. A passive means of communication limits the response rate, and this means your lead generation will be low.
Don’t forget that there’s competition out there, and to stay ahead of it, it’s always a good idea to have sequential mailings. Remember to reference your previous mailers whenever you send the second or third mailing. Use multiple steps and media to ensure your campaigns are successful.
Direct Marketing – The Takeaway
Direct mail marketing can be an important strategy to add to your marketing mix. There are high-quality printing services out there that can help to ensure your marketing is successful.
To be successful, tie other marketing to your mailings and plan and prepare mailings for about three months. Don’t forget to measure the results after each campaign to see how close you are to attaining your goals.
The correct results will help you to make the right decisions and streamline your future campaigns.
Also, ensure to invest time in finding the right printing company for your campaigns.
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