Direct Marketing involves presenting your products, services, or brand directly to your client without using an advertising middleman.
It includes everything from internet marketing, direct mail, telemarketing, face-to-face selling, and direct response advertising. Of all these, the method that has proven to be timelessly effective is direct mail marketing. This means that ignoring direct mail marketing and its proven effectiveness is almost the same as losing money on a daily basis.
For this reason, it is fundamentally important to implement direct mail marketing in your business and to do so in the right way.
Because just as a product needs to be different in order to stand out and lead to more sells, the direct mail marketing strategy you use also needs to be different if you want it to be memorable and effective. If you do the same thing everyone else in your industry is doing, you will struggle to take off.
That is where this article comes in. Here is how to effectively use direct mail marketing to boost your sales and overall business.
It includes everything from internet marketing, direct mail, telemarketing, face-to-face selling, and direct response advertising. Of all these, the method that has proven to be timelessly effective is direct mail marketing. This means that ignoring direct mail marketing and its proven effectiveness is almost the same as losing money on a daily basis.
For this reason, it is fundamentally important to implement direct mail marketing in your business and to do so in the right way.
Because just as a product needs to be different in order to stand out and lead to more sells, the direct mail marketing strategy you use also needs to be different if you want it to be memorable and effective. If you do the same thing everyone else in your industry is doing, you will struggle to take off.
That is where this article comes in. Here is how to effectively use direct mail marketing to boost your sales and overall business.
Identifying your Direct Mail Audience
The first step before you start any marketing campaign is always to have a clear understanding of your target audience. You need to know and have a crystal clear understanding of your potential customer’s needs and preferences.
A good understanding of who your customer is will help you know what approach to take when marketing to them. For example, if you are marketing to an older demographic who check their mailboxes often, sending a letter or a postcard could be an effective way to reach them. Once you know this, you can begin to work out the moments in the buyer’s cycle when it would be best to reach out to them with a physical piece of mail.
A good understanding of who your customer is will help you know what approach to take when marketing to them. For example, if you are marketing to an older demographic who check their mailboxes often, sending a letter or a postcard could be an effective way to reach them. Once you know this, you can begin to work out the moments in the buyer’s cycle when it would be best to reach out to them with a physical piece of mail.
Understand the Buyer Cycle
Your prospects will likely be in different stages of the buyer cycle, and a wrong move from you could make them change their mind altogether. What does this mean? Well, it’s simple: you need to be conscious of your prospect’s stage in the buyer cycle.
If a prospect subscribes to your mailing list, they are a “cold lead”. They will likely not appreciate getting a postcard in the mail explaining your company policy and pricing. This is why almost everyone throws out those free coupons.
The best approach is to make your offer relevant to the needs of your prospect. Let the physical offer match the needs that the prospect expressed online.
If a prospect subscribes to your mailing list, they are a “cold lead”. They will likely not appreciate getting a postcard in the mail explaining your company policy and pricing. This is why almost everyone throws out those free coupons.
The best approach is to make your offer relevant to the needs of your prospect. Let the physical offer match the needs that the prospect expressed online.
How to build successful campaigns
- Track your campaigns. Typical inbound marketing campaigns have automated tracking solutions, so why shouldn’t you track your direct mail efforts too? This is the only way to tell what’s working and what’s not.
- Be visual. Try to minimize long blocks of text and make your material as visually appealing as possible. Find a beautiful relevant image and make it the highlight of your content. This will draw your audience in instantly.
- The customer needs to know what step to take next. This should be clearly provided in the material. Limit yourself to one call to action per direct mail, and make sure this call to action is bold, dominant, and obvious.
- Try to target people who are hard to reach online. These also need to be people who regularly check their mailboxes. An easy way to identify them is to look out for prospects who have expressed interest but have not responded to digital outreach after a certain period of time.
- Make sure everything ties back to online efforts. This will help you track your campaign even better. For example, direct your customers to use phone numbers with unique extensions, or perhaps use unique codes to redeem their offers.
What mistakes to look out for
Believe it or not, there is are several wrong ways to do direct mail marketing. Using these methods will without a doubt guarantee failure. Here is what NOT to do with your direct mail marketing campaigns.
- Not identifying the right audience. The rule of thumb with direct mail marketing is simple: the more you target your most responsive prospects, the more effective your mailing efforts will be.
- Renting a bad mailing list. Make sure all the lists you mail to are up to date, reliable, and carefully selected to match your criteria. Ask questions whenever you are not sure.
- Not cleaning your lists regularly. Scrub them of duplicates, inaccurate addresses, outdated addresses, addresses of people who are deceased or in prison, among other things. A good place to start is to use the National Change of Address list.
- Failure to present a compelling offer every time. This should be a no brainer. Make people want to buy from you with special offers, gifts, or some sort of special deal.
- Not making your message personal. Make the prospect feel like you are talking directly to them. Show them you understand what they need. Can you address them by name? Or perhaps offer a personalized URL? Establish some form of rapport with them and they will be more likely to buy from you.
- Not indicating a call to action. Or having too many call to actions for that matter. This has already been talked about a little earlier on, but it is worth mentioning again. The prospect needs to know exactly what to do next once they get your direct mail.
- Not making your creative components good enough. This includes everything from your title, offer, description, and benefits. Appeal to them and connect to them directly.
- Failure to test continuously. Everything runs out of gas eventually. This is why you need to continuously test your material and fine tune it continuously. Times change, people change, and your competition is getting smarter every day. You need to be on top of things at all times to remain relevant.
The Key is in Automation
In the end, the key to success with direct mail marketing is automation. Automate sending the right information to the right client at the right time, and tracking all your efforts in the process, and you will have massive success with direct mail marketing.
With the right creative, targeted approach, classic mail can be a highly effective way to personalize your communication with your clients, leading to huge success.
And if you need help with any of this, feel free to contact us!
With the right creative, targeted approach, classic mail can be a highly effective way to personalize your communication with your clients, leading to huge success.
And if you need help with any of this, feel free to contact us!