How To Maximize The Power Of Direct Mail

In order to have the best-performing mail pieces, you need to carefully plan your campaign:

1. Create (And Understand) Your Target List

Your target audience is extremely important. You need to know as much information about them as possible. This includes such things as age, gender, type of residence, purchase history, family, general interests, birthday and so on. The more you know, the more specifically you can target them with the right offer.

Many times, you will want to purchase a list of prospects. In order to best target the right prospects, you will want to know as much about your current customers as possible. If you don’t know a lot of information about your current customers, you have the option to profile your list. This will give you information you can use to target your prospects.

2. Grab Attention With Design

The first thing your mail piece needs to do is grab attention. Your design is what does it. A boring mail piece will end up in the trash. You must carefully consider images, color, size and layout in order to maximize your performance.

Did you know that larger-size mail pieces, otherwise known as flats, have a bigger response rate? They do cost more in postage, so make sure to consider that. There are other regulations beyond size to pay attention to in design as well. It is best to consult with your mail service provider before printing your design. They can let you know of any problems and save you money on postage.

3. Hone Your Messaging

The tone and word choice of your messaging is critical. You need to be concise and eliminate technical terms. You should also avoid abbreviations or acronyms, as they can easily be misunderstood. Keep your language simple, and tell them exactly what you want them to do.

Use bullets and bold fonts for wording that needs to stand out. Your focus should be on the benefits to customers and prospects, not on your product or service. How are you helping them? Benefits sell for you. If you are going with a postcard or self-mailer, limit your wording. Let your images speak for you. The less copy you have, the easier it is for people to absorb and enjoy looking at. Don’t stress them out with overwhelming copy and design – if you do, it will end up in the trash.

4. Offer Value

This is what drives people to buy. Your offer needs to be very clear; a bad offer will not get people to respond. Your messaging tells them what to do; your offer gives them an incentive to do it. Using the word “free” gets the most response, so if you can give something away for free, do it. Keep in mind the free item does not need to be the one you want them to purchase. It just needs to have value.

“Percentage-off” is also good. Keep in mind that the higher the percentage off, the more people will respond. Make sure there is a time limit on the offer. Consider what you can offer that is most appealing to your audience. Offers are usually the first place you start testing. Segment your list, and test one offer to a select group while sending a different offer to another. The one that works the best is the one you should use for the rest of your list.

All four of these components work together to drive direct mail response. So, if one is weak, it affects the entire campaign and can cost you a significant amount of money. Take the time to plan out each of the four before creating the mail pieces. The more time you spend preparing on the front end, the better your back-end results will be. Set real, trackable goals so that you know what is working and who is responsible for what.

You can easily track mail pieces with campaign codes, coupon codes, special landing pages, text codes and phone numbers. You can even ask people to bring the mail piece with them when they make a purchase if you have a location they buy from. The most important thing is to track your results. You will not only learn what you sold and to whom, but how each person responded. This is great information to add to your data.

The more ways you give people to respond, the more responses you are going to get. Make it easy for them to order. Most people now prefer to order online, so if you haven’t been using landing pages on your mail pieces directing consumers where to order, that should be something you do right away. Even fundraising mail should have a URL for people to make a donation right at the moment. Once the purchase decision is made, you want them to do it right away.

Are you ready to create a powerful direct mail campaign?

Article by Summer Gould

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i2i@i2idirectmarketing.com

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