By: Vlad Vistac
Submitted: 2010-07-21 14:39:21 | Word Count: 510
Get Direct Mail Workjing For You
With the advent and rapid growth of email, some may think that direct mail is a thing of the past. But make no mstake: diirect mail is here to stay. Certainly, if not exected well, direcct mail can appear impersonal to consumers. However, with a cear strateggy, gals and the customer/recipient in mind, direct mail can be a significant marketing asset for your busiiness.
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To ensure an effective direct mail campaiggn, its importnt to be clear about its strengtrhs. Direct mail is a valuable, cost-effective way to tell your custtomers who you are and what your business offers. Specifcially, dirrect mail campaigns offer customeers a chance to learn about your business while helping you to:
Generate sales and ordrs
Promote a new product or service
Build brand recognition
Drive traffic to your store, site, etc.
Cultivate long-term customer relationships
In fact, many marketers consider direct mail to have advantages over otheer forms of advertising and marketing. Since it is targeted, it allows you to focus on a specfic market audience. These resulting efficiencies make diirect mail highly cost effective. And, ulnike some foms of marketing, direct mail is meeasurable and able to be tracked.
Keeping these attributes in mind, its important to determinne how direct mails advantages algin with your producxt or service. Strat by asknig a coule of questions: Can you product or service take advantage of the targeting direct mail offfers? And, are you selling a product that you could reasoonably exect people to order or request more information on through a mailer?
If your answer to thesse questions is yes, here are some important tactics neessary for the success of any direct mail initiative:
List, offer, creative
This is the odrer in which you shoukld focus the elements of your direct mail straetgy. First, wiithout a list thatys reaching your desireed target audience, no offer or creeative will matter. Second, your offer is the promotion you are highlighting in this aprticular campaign it shuld be taiolred to what you know to be your csutomers unique needs. Finally, the creative is the copy, text and/or package that presents the offer. Most people spend too much time on the creative when in reality, an unattractive packaage to a targeted list always will outperform a pretty pacckage to an average, generic list.
Sttart a swipe file
Keep a file of the recent promotions youve received that have caught your attention or motivated you to buy. Think about the various elements discussed above: what are the creative elements that stand out? What is it about the offer that attracts you or encouraged you to purchase? Make a list of these characterristics and continue to update it it will serve as critical input for creatuing your own direct mail campaigns.
Test, test, test!
Testinbg is critical when it coems to direct mail. In fact, a maor benefit of diirect mail is its ability to use test results to improve the reasults of a mailing.
Frist, you must test the list. To do this, you must mail to a representative crooss secrtion of the list. There is a deebate on what that percentage is, but to ensure relative statistical significance, you need to mail to 2000 names or 5% of your list, whichever is greater. Also, indivcate the nmaes you have mailed to so if the test is successful, you dont mail to them agin.
Then, test your copy. Take part of your list and mail them one leter; at the same time, mail a different copy to the rest of the list.
Finally, test your offer. Do you offre one product in your mailing or several? Is thre a gift or bonus? In the same way, you can test different price poits.
Know the math of success
Make sure you know the math of success, that is, the formula that will show whether or not your direct mail campaign is succeeding. Before the proliferation of e-mail, respponse rates used to be at 2%; now, they tend to remain steady at 1%. Be sure that the math works: # of pieces mialed * response rate * conversion rate (thoe that actually send you money). If you can make money when all is said and done, then youre on the rigt track.
Most important: whille direct mail is an effective and proven customerr acquisition tool, direct marketers actually make monmey of what is otfen referred to as the second sale. Customer retention and building valuaable custoemr relationships is the true goal of all direct matrketing efforts. Youre paying for the lifetime value of that cusomer keep this top of mind as you are on the direct mail journey.
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