Direct mail campaigns have not always had good reputations. Before the days of email and texting, direct mail campaigns and telemarketing were the chief tools marketers had at their disposal. Most people received several pieces of junk mail each day and usually dropped it into the trash can or recycling bin without even reading the first sentence.
Today, junk mail is a less common occurrence. In fact, receiving a direct marketing solicitation is such a novelty that many customers will at least take a moment to read it just to see what it says.
If you want to kick off a successful direct mail campaign, there are five steps you should take before you drop the envelopes in the mail.
1. Set a Budget
Decide in advance how much you’re willing to pay for the campaign. Typical costs to consider include a copywriter and/or a designer to develop your solicitation, paper and printing costs, and postage costs. If your solicitation offers a discount on your goods or services, you’ll also have to figure how many discounts you can honor and still make a profit.
2. Engage in Sales Prospecting
Before you blanket the city with a mass mailing, take a few minutes to think about the people who are most likely to respond to this campaign. Homemakers? Fortune 500 executives? Teenage boys? Once you know your target market, you will need to create or buy an appropriate mailing list. Sales prospecting is an important part of your mailing campaign kick-off. If you’re not getting your advertisement into the right hands, it doesn’t matter how many pieces of paper you mail out or how good a deal you are offering.
3. Write and Design Your Advertisement
For the best response, hire a professional copywriter and/or a designer to craft the advertisement you will send. Your advertisement needs to catch the prospect’s eye immediately and interest the prospect enough to keep him or her reading – or at least skimming – to the very end. Your advertisement should also feature one or two specific calls to action. Some ideas for calls to action might include calling a toll-free number to place an order, visiting an Internet site, or opting in to receive text messages from your company.
4. Offer an Incentive
If you choose to offer an incentive, such as a discount on your services or products, make sure that information goes in a place where the customer will see it as soon as he or she picks up your mailing. If your solicitation is a letter, refer to the incentive on the outside of the envelope – “Open here to receive $25 worth of hair care products!”
5. Be Prepared to Handle Any Results
One of the worst marketing mistakes a company can make is to actively solicit new business that it can’t handle. Customers who give you a try once and find out that the item you advertised is sold out or that it takes over an hour to get a seat in your restaurant probably won’t be back. Make sure you’ve got a plan in place to provide new customers with service that they will never forget.
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