10 Tips for an effective mail piece
- Get a professional design: There is nothing worse than getting an eye sore in the mail. Designed properly, direct mail promotions can make your business boom and generate great sales. Designed poorly, your campaign may fail with a deafening thud as potential customers drop unwanted mail into wastebaskets everywhere. Though you may think you’re saving money by attempting graphic design at a particular direct mail piece yourself. But essentially, unless you’re a professional graphic designer who understands the necessities of a direct mail piece, you’re costing yourself much more money than you think you’re saving. We believe that graphic design is the delivery system for the message you offer to your target market. A message informs, but design is the force that attracts first, and then delivers the message. And if your design cannot convey that critical message you’re wasting your money and time.
- Get personal! Send a unique message: Utilize Variable Data Printing to your fullest and send a personal message to every individual on your list. Too often business owners insert their usual brochures into envelopes, stuff the mailboxes, send out postcards and hope for the best. Bad move. Out of all advertising vehicles, only direct mail creates an intimate communication with your customer. Make your mail piece as personal as you can to give it a feel of on-on-one communication.
- It’s not necessarily what you mail - it’s who you mail to! Target recipients very precisely. Direct mail design means nothing if the person reading it does not want or need your product/service! Though design is very important to convey the right message, it would be better to send out a postcard that is horrible designed to the right people then it would be to send out a great looking postcard to the wrong people! For example, if you are marketing your house painting services, you don’t want to just mail your postcards to every address in the area you are targeting. You may end up putting postcards in condo mailboxes, apartment complexes and townhouses where the owners have zero control over the color of their house and zero need for your service. When you market this way you are just throwing money away because that’s exactly where these people will put your postcard- in the trash! Instead, you want to make sure you are mailing to a list of people or businesses that will have an interest in what you’re offering. To get good response rates you have to accurately target good prospects for your business. How do you do this? Well, step one is to research your current customer base. What demographics are you dealing with (typically you will look at their age, location, average income, etc…). This is where Pinpoint can assist you in getting a mailing list of people or businesses meeting your ideal criteria.
- Use only quality content: A lack of quality content will rob your direct-mail piece of its selling-power. What makes quality content? It is simple and straightforward. It is factual, rather than boastful. It calls the reader to action and sparks interest. It answers their questions, solves their problems, and meets their needs. It puts the reader first, the offer second, and the company a distant third. It persuades people to respond. Quality content takes practice. In some cases it may even be extremely beneficial to hire a copy writer.
- Identify with your prospect: Talk to your customers and prospects. Find out their problems, their concerns, their needs. Address those things in your messaging, before you mention anything else. Tell them what they want to hear. Not what you think they should hear. Once they feel that you understand their needs, the flow of business will seem almost effortless.
- Follow up with your recipients: This is one of the biggest mistakes made in direct mail marketing. No follow up. How many times have you received an interesting offer in the mail, but put it on your desk because you’re too busy at the moment and say “I’ll get to that later”. Unfortunately for most direct mail campaigns “later” may never come unless you follow up and remind your prospect of that interesting offer or product. A campaign is not a single effort of anything – this is why do you think they call it a “campaign”. A campaign is a sustained effort over time. Typically 10-15 days after the direct mail piece has been sent out is a good time frame to make a follow up call.
- Communicate a benefit – Which in turn creates a call to action: Recipients want a reward or at least an end benefit for reading your postcard or opening your mail piece. That reward should be a clearly defined message that expresses a genuine customer benefit. Give your recipients a great offer. You want these recipients to take action after reading your direct mail pieces. To encourage them to take the action you'll need to entice them - with a coupon, a free trial or sample, or a special deal that's only available for a limited time. A great offer will turn your recipients into customers and get them out of their houses and into your store.
- Keep it simple: This relates back to the design aspect and is often overlooked; keep your design simple, clean and fresh. Too many words plus one little postcard equals a direct mail piece that won't be read. The same goes for a brochure that has so many images and text on it that you can't tell which side is the front and which side is the back. You want to get a lot of information on your direct mail piece, which is fine, but don't forsake your design for content. A cluttered piece will simply not be read. One tactic to get around this is to send out multiple mail pieces to the same person with different information highlighted on each of the pieces. Another tactic is to include a few benefits on the direct mail piece and then include a call to action that directs the customer to your Web site or pick up the phone for more information.
- Consistency yields Results - Mail frequently A single direct mail piece is soon forgotten. Wait too long between mailings, and customers move on to other suppliers. The secret is to maintain a regular schedule of mailings. A healthy mailing schedule is roughly once every 4-6 weeks. You can mail to the same list again with a slightly different mailing and still garner worthwhile results. Tired of mailing them the same message? Change it up, use direct mail pieces to reach your existing customers – to thank them for their business, to remind them of a scheduled service (like an oil change or teeth cleaning) or to sell them products that complement something they already bought, the possibilities are endless. As long as it’s consistent and you begin to create a sense of branding for your company, your direct mail campaign will sure to pay off.
- Have your direct mail reviewed by an objective third party: First impressions are everything, and if your first impression is a confusing one then you’re sure to lose the interest of the recipient fast. It’s great that you and everybody in your office understands the message you’re trying to convey, but will the prospects you’re sending it to get it? Don’t risk conveying a confusing and misleading message. The direct mail piece shouldn’t leave the reader asking questions about the piece, unless it’s a call to action. The direct mail piece should be simple and easy to understand. Have a third party, preferably outside of your industry, review your mail piece before you send it to thousands of people. Just because something makes sense to you, doesn’t mean it will make sense to your prospect.
