Everything old is new again. Direct mail may be the oldest form of marketing, but it’s far from dead. According to a 2017 Nielsen study, direct mail represents the third most effective method of reaching consumers and drives more than $160 billion annually in sales.
Direct mail is a marketing strategy that involves sending a physical letter, package, mailer, brochure, postcard, etc., to your prospects and/or current customers. It’s used in both B2C and B2B selling.
Since the beginning of marketing, direct mail has been used to get people’s attention, promote a product or service and even encourage people to take action. Now that we are in the digital age of marketing, direct mail can still be used. Still, it’s important to remember that it is primarily about direct contact with your audience.
Direct mail marketing is a useful component of an overall marketing campaign. It allows you to speak directly with your audience in a way that is both private and personal. If you don’t want your competitors to know about your latest product or service launch, direct mail is the way to go. And if you are interested in building brand equity by speaking to your target customer on their terms, direct mail can be invaluable.
The stats speak for themselves: a direct mail marketing campaign can return an average of $2,100 on that investment. The best part? Open rates can approach 90%, which is much higher than click-through rates. Not to mention that direct mail offers a targeted and personal approach that effectively brings back old customers and brings in new customers.
Think about it for a second. You walk down to your mailbox to pick up the mail. You go back inside your house, close the door, and begin flipping through the stack, sorting it into piles. Magazines… catalogs… bills… direct mail… But wait, one of those final letters catches your eye. The envelope is literally speaking to you!
So you take it, go into the living room, sit down on your sofa, open it up and start reading. You’re relaxed. You’ve decided the letter is worth reading. There are no distractions. It’s just you and the letter…
What are some of the fundamentals to take into consideration?
Define your goals
Think about what you want to achieve through your mail campaign. Do you want to gain new customers? Bring more traffic to your store or website? Inform customers about a new service or product? Having a clear goal in mind at the beginning of your campaign makes it easier to make decisions later on in the process.
Know Your Audience
Before you plan a successful campaign, you need to clarify who the campaign will target and ensure that those recipients will be ready and motivated to respond to your offer. This critical first step to ensure that your campaign will enjoy great results saves time and money by focusing on specific customers for the right reasons.
Call To Action
A successful call to action is one of the keys to close the deal. Call to actions is an easy way to control your prospects’ behavior and draw them towards your desired results. A good call to action should be given equal importance to your printing’s design and content.
