Direct Mail Advertising is a potent tool to deliver your company’s message right to your customer’s door.
The US Postal Service has a program tailor-made for those companies who wish to learn how to implement a direct mail campaign. This method is used to increase your business by getting out a call to action. It is important to learn everything you can about this marketing method. The more imaginative and organized you are, the better the results will be.
On the US Postal Website at http://www.usps.com there is a direct mail center that will provide you with information and tips on how to run a Direct Mail Advertising Campaign and make it produce the results you want.
US Postal Website
This website will help you understand Direct Mail and allow you to learn how to utilize marketing collateral to grow your customer base. You will also learn how to plan your first campaign. This planning includes showing you how to budget and how to design your first offering.
The website will also walk you through how to build a mailing list and how to maintain the list effectively. There is information on software that can assist you with the design and printing of a mail piece with a professional appearance. This website also has tools to help you figure out the most cost-effective way to mail your Direct Mail pieces.
How to Start
Start by looking at the direct mail pieces you receive at home every day. What do you like about them? What pieces make you stop and look, and which ones do you barely glance at before you toss? If you have responded recently to direct mail collateral you need to spend some time and figure out why you responded and what about the ad appealed to you.
Then spend a few minutes and narrow your focus. Who are the customers you are trying to appeal to? Define your target market by gender, age and other things. Then make sure you understand what motivates them.
Mail List
It is important to create an appropriate mail list. If your product or services are targeted toward senior citizens, you don’t want a mail list made up of thirty year olds. Your ultimate goal is to have a list that is tailored to your company’s specific needs. The more focused your list, the better chance you have of getting customers to read your mailer instead of throwing it away.
Writing Direct Mail Collateral
Since you’ve already decided who you are marketing to, now you need to define what message you want to deliver. The easiest way to do this is define one or two objectives that you want to deliver to your target market.
It’s time to design the collateral and write the text. Keep your objectives and your audience in mind and then start writing as if you are speaking directly to one of these customers. Use easily understood terms and words. Stay focused on your outlined objectives. Then spend time focusing on the headline. This is one of the most important pieces of the collateral because many people will not go past these first few words if you don’t capture their attention.
If your target market is young women who have children, find someone who fits this profile and have them read the direct mail piece. Get their comments and input and make any changes before you complete the design. You may want to do this several times before you finalize the direct mail collateral.
What is the hook? Make sure it’s not just the price, but what the customer will get for that price. Your marketing piece should highlight what makes your store, product, or service special. Hook the customer with the benefits and when they get to the price they shouldn’t be turned off.
Pricing
While it is important to sell the benefits of your product or service, if what you are selling creates sticker shock, you’ve lost a potential customer. Many direct mail campaigns fail solely on price. Make sure you’ve done your market research on the pricing and make sure the customer has a reason to call you. If you are unreasonably priced, you’ve wasted the money for the mailer.
Call To Action
When you were designing your mailer you focused on the message you wanted to deliver. Part of that message should have been what you want your customers to do. Make sure you tell them what to do next. You can’t reap the rewards if they just look at the mailer and file it away for later.
Did you want them to send in a card for more information? Then you need to tell them to send it in, not once, but two or three times. They won’t act if you don’t tell them what to do, so make sure the needed actions are spelled out in the mailer. For example, “Bring this card to the store before Memorial Day and besides the 10% off on widgets, we will give you a free six inch potted plant.”