Direct Mail Advertising can be an effective marketing tool to target specific customers by offering your company’s products or services.
One of the most important steps in the process of designing a direct mail advertising piece is to nail down the big picture. Focus on who you are trying to reach and decide the two or three points you want to make. Don’t make the direct mailer so general that no one understands what you are saying or what you want them to do.
You want to target a specific age, gender, or interest group and have a “call to action” in the mailer. You will need to tell them to call, bring the coupon to the store or have them do something that will bring about viable results. So plan your message and match the message to a mailing list of customer prospects that would be interested in what you have to offer.
Plan your direct mail campaign with these simple tips:
The Offer
The reason for sending the direct mail piece should be reflected in your offer. What is the incentive that will make it hard for a customer to simply throw the mailer in the trash? You need to attract the reader’s attention and compel them to respond. Base your message on your target audience. Your mail list should have information that allows you to format a sub list of prospects that will benefit from your products or services.
Ask yourself a few questions as you are formulating your message. Why would a potential customer need your product or service? How will this product or service benefit the customer and why is your offer different from others on the market? The most important question is what you want your potential customer to do once they’ve read the direct mail collateral?
Make sure the design and message of the offer relates to the audience you are targeting. It will need to reflect your business objectives and create excitement by appealing to the customer’s emotions. You want to create a sense of urgency while providing a clear and easy way for the customer to act on the information.
Call to Action
It is important to clearly state what you want your customer to do once they’ve read your mailer. The mailer won’t work if the customer just reads the information and files it away. Tell them several times how to respond to your offer. This act might be to make a call, take a coupon to the store, or to fill out a prepaid postcard to send back to you. You might invite them to visit your website and sign up with an email for a specific offer.
Just make sure you clearly state what action you want them to take and urge them to take that action now. This is often done by putting a time limit on the offer.
Once the customer responds, make sure you are set up to track the information. It is important to count any inquiries you receive or the coupons that are redeemed. Analyzing the results of the direct mail advertising campaign will allow you to see what works and make changes to future mailings.
Running a Test
After you’ve determined your target market and the marketing message you want to send, do a test of your direct mailer. You can do this by sending out the direct mail piece to a smaller list of prospects. Each test mailer will be sent to a small list of prospects with a few things changed on each one. Vary the offer, the length of the message or the color of the paper.
Carefully track the results of these test mailers to find out which one results in more responses. Make sure you track responses versus orders. Once you’ve done the test mailers, make sure you use the winners in your larger campaign.
Budget For Your Direct Mail Advertising
In order to determine your budget for the mailer it is important to first get a handle on the costs of the different options. Research items such as how much it would cost to rent a mailing list or hire a writer or graphic designer. Compare how much it would be to print the direct mail piece yourself versus using a printer or an online direct mail website that would allow you to design, print and send the piece from the site.
Check the pricing for postcards, letters, or brochures. If you are going to provide a coupon will it be a separate piece or will it be attached to the mailer itself? Get an estimate on postage for various sized mailing pieces.
Once you’ve gathered the cost estimates it is time to decide how much money you can spend on the mailer. Keep a detailed list of expenditures so you can bump the costs against the tracked responses and eventually determine if the campaign generated profit.