Growing Your Business through Direct Mail
Direct mail marketing that works well is attention getting, easy to respond to and can be targeted to your specific audience. Most small business owners aren t familiar with how to make direct mail work for them. How can you get your message out?
How / When to use direct mail Generate inquiries Make special offers Obtain leads Advertise Conduct research Drive people to your web site
How / When to use direct mail Postcards do not have an envelope to open, may reduce postage costs, and have a sense of informality that many people appreciate. Postcards are a great way to let people know about special offers and new products or services. Place a code on your direct mail piece to track your ROI - return on investment.
How / When to use direct mail Worst time of year: between Thanksgiving and New years, unless you have a special holiday offer. Best time of year: mid January through May. Early fall.
What direct mail consists of 3 fundamentals of direct mail marketing: Benefits you offer Creative / Copy Mail list Experts say: 40% driven by the mail list, 40% by the offer 20% from the creative package
Mail List Narrow your search to your audience. Business-to-business lists can be categorized by type of business, industry, revenue, size, location, etc. Residential list may include household income, age, location & credit rating. Mail to the decision maker.
Creative People look at marketing in 2 steps. 1. Skim things over 2. Read more in depth or look in more detail Your recipients make decisions based first on AESTHETICS.
The Envelope Professional - avoid the appearance of junk mail. Create a level of curiosity. (Excluding a return address or hand writing the to address on the envelope are 2 ways to arouse recipient curiosity.)
Creative Does it look like you and nobody else? Are you edgy like Rolling Stone Magazine? Are you handmade like Starbucks? Are you natural like Aveda? How are you unique? What are you promising to fulfill? What values drive your business?
We don t see things as they are. We see them as we are. ~ Anais Nin
Benefits People don t care about your business. They care about their problems. Offer a solution! Get in their skin You copy vs. They copy Outline benefits of your product/service Be personable
Creative / Copywriting Legibility - easy to read text Short sentences, bullet points, headlines, indentation, pull-quotes, kerning and tracking - add emphasis Readability - easy-to-comprehend text Fonts & colors - think about contrast.
Creative / Copywriting Your reader has a short attention span Your reader has a 3 rd grade reading level Use creative license
Don t tell them how good your goods are; tell them how good your goods make them. ~ Leo Burnett
Benefits Your product or service is the most important aspect of any direct mail campaign. If your product or service is bad, no offer will make up for that.
Copywriting Ask for action because the whole point is to get a response. Make sure it is easy for people to respond. All of your contact information should be prominently displayed - more than once.
Testing / Repetition Offer Advertising copy # of repeated mailings required Mail list Once you ve got your finger on what works well, you can confidently spend your marketing $$.
Testing / Repetition Patience: Stopping your marketing efforts prematurely is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. Focus your ad budget
Testing / Repetition 9 impressions before action For every 3 times you put a message out, a given person will only see or hear it once. ERGO: run your marketing message up to 27 times before you see an appreciable result.
Testing / Repetition Reaches fewer people many times, rather than a lot of people once. Response tends to increase with repetition. If you send to the same list more than once, your 1% response can be 10%...
Benefits Learn why people say "no" Find out why people do not respond to your offer. Why they abandon your online order form. Why they do not ask you for a proposal on their next project. Then counter those reservations. Broadcast why people say "yes" Get testimonials. Build case studies. Use real people, real users, real customers in your advertising.
Use Your Website PDF downloads of your brochure. Stream product demo. Mail directs prospects to a landing page. Contests, Coupons, Quizzes, Polls, etc.
Measuring Success Look at your ROI differently. What s the long term? Don't focus on what you spend, but on what you will earn over time.
Budget Budget for all costs associated with direct mailing design, mail list, printing, postage, fulfillment, and follow-up. Understand the difference between fixed costs (i.e. postage) & variable costs (i.e. printing). Consider using a mail house to handle and sort your volume work. It can save an enormous amount of your time for a relatively low fee.
Suggested Reading Guerilla Marketing series Dan Kennedy The Ultimate Sales Letter