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Direct Mail: Top 10 Rules for Success
Better-Letter
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1. Begin with the end in mind.
First of all, let's talk about metrics. Metrics are crucial to the success of any direct mail campaign. A little forethought about the goals will ensure that your direct-mail campaign is a major success. What do you consider success? Planning is everything. Define the criteria for measuring success by tracking cost per lead, response rate, and Return on Investment (ROI).
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2. Target your very best, most potential customers.
When you are procuring a mailing list, always make sure that the data you’re retrieving is targeting your best customers and flourishing with opportunity for the unique requirements of your business. The biggest advantage that direct mail has over other advertising mediums is that you can directly and specifically target your best customers. With direct mail, you don’t waste your advertising dollars blasting your message out over the airwaves to everybody. Your best customers meet a very specific demographic criterion. Target them specifically. Direct Mail is a sniper rifle. Every other advertising medium is a shotgun. Aim accurately!
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3. Be absolutely clear about the benefits to your customer.
The goods and services that you are offering is the best factor contributing to the success of any direct mail campaign. The hypothesis, proposal, or invitation must clearly state the features and the benefits to the customer. Remember: features don’t sell… Benefits do. How does your product or service benefit them directly? What is in it for them personally? That is one of the things that makes direct mail so effective… you can target your offer to a very specific group and predict with some accuracy how they’ll respond. This is where time-limited offers, freebies, or other benefits can tip the scales in your favor. Decide on one main benefit rather than throwing in too much information for the customer to focus on. Keep it simple and relevant. Make sure that you call them to some kind of action, i.e. buy now, call today, limited time offer, etc...
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4. Employ QR Code technology into your mail piece.
The goal with direct mail is to capture their attention, peek their interest, then play to their curiosity with an irresistible offer and call them to action. You want them to take the direct mail piece that is in their hand and immediately scan in the QR Code and go to your website. Your “Call to Action” should involve scanning in the QR Code and moving the customer to your online portal. Your website should have all the information they need to make a purchasing decision and close the sale. Also, the branding, colors, and imagery of your website should match the look of your mail piece. Be consistent.
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5. Do not overlook even the smallest detail.
Careful oversight of fulfillment and mailing services is crucial. Make sure your documents are proofed and ready before submitting into production. Make sure you supply all the required data fields when you prep the data. Make sure the number of records you send over is the correct number from your master list. Verify everything. Make sure everything is producing and printing properly. Let multiple people proofread.
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6. Test and then test again.
Every mailing you send out is part of your active test marketing. The effectiveness of your direct mail campaigns can always be perfected by testing and retesting the mailings you are promulgating. Timing, message clarity, creative effectiveness, response rate, offer, and other criteria can easily be gauged through tracking the data and monitoring response rates. Document every statistic and track the variables over multiple mailings. Do not skip this step. It is imperative that you figure out what is working and what is not. Do not make assumptions.
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7. Measure & evaluate.
Measure results accurately and track your success factor-by-factor and campaign by campaign. This is how you will determine the cost per lead and ROI. This will help you budget accordingly for all your marketing efforts. It pays to know the truth. So don't ignore the truth.
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8. Mail repeatedly to the same list. Be consistent.
Response rates go up with each consecutive touch. Don’t mail to a list just once, get frustrated and give up. Make sure your offers, your branding, your color schemes, your messaging, your contact information, etc… is consistent mailing to mailing. You also want the branding to match whatever you’re doing with any of your marketing projects. You want the customers to recognize that this is related to the previous offer they received earlier. Response rates go up with each consecutive hit.
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9. Make it easy for all your customers to respond.
Optimize the design of your direct mail pieces to elicit a response. Remember, customers will tend to want to respond using different communication mediums. Don’t limit their options. Offer customers a choice of response mechanisms and repeat them often. Always have a QR Code, but also include your written web address, email, phone #, etc… This will greatly increase the probability of rapid response. Don’t just talk about your product or service and assume that the customer will be so impressed that they’ll do whatever it takes to contact you. Give them options. Keep it simple. Always repeat the offer and the expiration date. Call them to action.
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10. Enjoy the fruit.
Now that you have tested, evaluated, and executed your successful direct mail plan and enjoyed a very healthy ROI, you have all the tools you will need to confidently and proficiently pre-plan your next direct mail campaign. Always remember, direct mail is proactive rather than reactive. Manage and direct the entire “marketing to purchasing” process.
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