Whether you are the direct marketing expert of your organization or thinking about using direct mail for the first time, these ten tips are important considerations for every campaign. In the digital age direct mail is still one of the most cost effective marketing solutions available. With direct-mail response rates for reasonable offers ranging on average from one to three percent, many quality campaigns have significantly higher conversion rates.
Use First-Class Postage: It has been proven that direct mail using first class postage gets a 98% open rate. It has also been shown that using other classes of postage can end up with the mail thrown away by mail carriers (although illegal, it does happen). With an almost 100% chance of being opened, this is one indispensable tip direct mailers should always follow.
Focus on Your Headline: Often the sale happens with the headline. Your message is pertinent and compelling or … not so much. Getting the headline to engage the reader to become interested, read further, and respond is key.
Use Random Fonts for Addresses: Random fonts create a sense of handwriting by using up to six different styles for each character and have of late become quite realistic. Better still, have people actually hand write your envelopes. This real human touch removes the impersonal sense direct mail can have. Using either of these addressing methods, for recipient and return address, can be effective at removing one barrier some people have when receiving direct mail.
Include a Business Reply Card: Business reply cards will make it extremely easy for the recipient to respond. Your BRC can also have the recipient’s unique information printed on it, making it even easier for them to respond to your offer. Make it easy for your potential customers to respond and they will respond more often.
Sing Your Unique Praises: What special need does your company fulfill? What about your service is unique compared to the competition? Your customers have specific needs and you offer elegant solutions, let them know you understand their need and bring something special to make their lives better, their work easier, or their day more enjoyable.
Make a Special Offer: A discount goes far towards bringing a customer in for the first time. Your quality of service or product will keep them coming back, but until they become a customer they won’t know that. Do make the offer special, though. When defining what that means to your company, ask yourself what one new customer is worth and offer accordingly.
Use Coupons: Much like business reply cards, coupons make it easy for your customer to take action. As a reminder of your offer, coupons cannot be beat. Holding an item of value with your company’s name and offer on it is, to many, the equivalent of cash. A $10 coupon is often seen as worth a very real ten dollars. When possible, use dollar amount rather than percentages. Percentages are only numbers. Dollars are money.
Say Less: People don’t need or appreciate a long verse of reasons why they should come to you. Be concise and articulately express your information with as few words as possible. Let the customer fill in the blanks with their imagination. Provide the facts and offer. Bullet points work wonders.
Stay Positive: The connotation of anything negative is that the bearer of the message holds those same bad qualities. Always be positive and upbeat. Sales situations are typically empathetic in nature, meaning the customer will respond in kind to the tone of the message. People are most likely to react favorably when a solution to their problem or need is presented in a positive, affirming voice.
Be Friendly: Are you friendly when a customer walks in the door? Perhaps some of your best customers have become real friends. Without taking it to the point of being fake, present that sense in your direct mail, too. Use this with respect and you will go far to winning many new friends.
One final tip, and this makes it eleven: Direct Mail should stand out from the rest and be among the best designed, most visually appealing item in the mailbox. Be colorful, use your logo proudly, and invite people into your world.
If you are looking for quality print and production packages to promote your business or organization, and need an expert to get needed results, Priority Pak can help. With over 30 years of genuine service, we offer an à la carte menu from concept and design through list generation, printing, mailing and data entry that many organizations and corporations make use of. For more information on getting the right materials together for your own direct mail campaign, contact us today!