Ever expect something great to come in the mail and you go out each day awaiting it only to find “junk” in the box instead? Lots of big companies are putting a lot of money & resources into changing your mind about labeling those pieces as “junk”, they want you to see them as “treasure”. There are effective and non-effective ways to direct mailing, I’ll give you my thoughts in today’s edition of Manic Marketing Monday.

So of course, there are a lot of ways to market your business. There are both expensive and cheap ways to market – some very effective and some you wish you never even tried! Direct mail has been around for quite a while and continues to be a pretty effective way to get someone’s attention about what you have to offer as a business. The competition can be stiff though if you don’t know a few “musts” in this specific world of marketing. Here they are:

  1. First off, get your mail piece professionally designed. I’ve seen several postcards from local businesses that I pull out of the mailbox and immediately put into the trash. These are cards that have an over abundance of words, lack of graphics/images, are almost solid white, and I can’t tell which is the front and which is the back. If this card is gonna compete with the others in my mailbox, it’s got to look good.
  2. Have a clear message. Some of the best marketing campaigns are the ones with a simple and clear message. It can be funny, serious – it can make me aware of an issue, or can just make me laugh. A good message is one that immediately connects to it’s audience. It should be something that relates to most people & especially to your target audience… and to do so quickly. I’m not gonna read a postcard for 5 minutes before I realize that it’s relevant to me… I’m gonna give it a quick 5 seconds to get to the point.
  3. Size matters. In this case, the size of the direct mail piece matters greatly because of the competition. If your card is a standard 4×6 postcard and it’s in the same mailbox as an 8×5 postcard… do I really need to go on? Smaller gets overlooked almost every time.
  4. Offer something. This card should not be just an introduction card, “Hey, we’re here!” It needs to have value and offer something of value: coupon, special limited time pricing, free something… make it worth the card holder’s time.

Direct mail can be a very effective marketing tool if you keep these tips in mind. But also know that if you chose direct mail, you need to invest for a long-haul campaign. Using a multi-card approach with at least 3 mailings, will give you the best chances at getting a good response rate… which is around 2%. That’s 2% of the total mailing responding to it. So if you send out 5000 pieces, a good rate would be 100 people responding (sorry to sound like your 8th grade math teacher). Although, a 1% rate is a bit more realistic.

One last very important aspect to keep in mind = know your target audience. Direct mail does not work well for me, my audience is a very specific group… not every house hold is looking for design – nor is just any business. But if you own a auto repair shop, your audience is very general and wide open. You may not want to mail a campaign to just anybody with a physical address, you may need to narrow down your target audience.

I hope these tips help in your thought process in whether direct mail is right for your marketing needs. Here are a couple of great articles that can help you understand how direct mail works and the variations of it: choosing a mailing list   direct targeting -vs- every door direct marketing

scottJ

owner/artist Brown Cow Design