5 Keys For Direct Mail Success
Having success with direct mail isn’t automatic…but that doesn’t mean it’s complex. A little work and a little thinking can help your direct mail piece succeed. Here are a few tips:
1. Have a Hook
If you’re investing in direct mail, make sure you give your target audience something to respond too. There are thousands of options to choose from such as free trials, order discounts, and free shipping. Make your audience take notice by integrating these into your direct mail campaigns in a prominent place. Also, make sure your incentive is time based to encourage people to take action now. Give a bonus to the first 100 responders or make it a “Limited Time Offer.” Capture their attention then give them a reason to do it now.
2. Know your audience
Direct mail can be expensive. In addition to the fix costs spent on creative, there are variable costs associated with printing and postage that need to be managed. This means you need to do a thorough job of analyzing your list and targeting only those prospects who have the highest probability of responding. Don’t think of direct mail as mass mail. It needs pinpoint accuracy to be cost effective. This is as true for B2C as it is for B2B lead generation. Simply taking an old list and sending them a postcard is pointless. Do your homework and segment your audience by their buying profile. Then target people who are ripe to buy just as you would when making a sales call.
3. Personalize your content
Similarly, as your profiling your target audience, take advantage of this information to personalize your direct mail piece with variable print technologies. Start by incorporating the person’s name into your creative, but then go a step further and customize your content to appeal to specific details you know about them. This could be as simple as discussing familiar aspects of their industry, neighborhood or family. One great example of how to do this is including detailed data about past purchases and related products they might be interested. The more you can do to relate with each target prospect the more likely they will be to respond.
4. Streamline your buying process
One of the easiest things to do is probably the most important; streamlining your buying process. Make it simply for people to respond and take further action. This includes incorporating an 800 number and an online storefront dedicated to the offer of your direct mail. Don’t simply send people the front page of your website and hope they find what you were showing them in your direct mail. Help them through the process with dedicated content and a clear path toward your preferred result.
5. Follow-up
Streamlining your buying process should also include actively following up on every opportunity. This doesn’t mean you should call every person on your direct mail list. It means you need to have a plan in place for tracking warm responses that don’t turn into sales as well as those that do. Utilizing personalized urls (Purls) and Personalized Landing Pages is an effective and affordable way to get detailed tracking information of your direct mail performance. These tools can tell you who is taking an interest in your offer even if they don’t identify themselves online. With that information, you can quickly follow-up with email or a phone call to provide additional information and incentives profile that customer and hopefully close the deal.
(via Business 2 Community)