Direct Mail

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When I hear of how my clients have used direct mail in the past they normally have fallen into one of two camps.

Their campaigns have either been a huge success or a massive failure!

If done correctly, direct mail can be a very profitable medium but I would say that 90% of direct mailing campaigns are a complete waste of time due to the design and execution of the campaign.

That's a shame because I get bombarded with direct mail every day, some good but most are very poor!

It's like throwing money into the bin!

The beauty with direct mail is that you can test various headlines and approaches and you can instantly see the results.

For example, I recently received a flyer through the door from a company offering to board my loft. It was the right time for me and the flyer was well designed so I called them up and they duly came out and did a great job.

Whilst having a coffee with the carpenter I told him not to advertise two types of products on the same flyer (The flyer was split into two parts - loft installations and garage conversions)

I told him not to offer two products but to just focus on one and use the additional space on the flyer for some testimonials. He thought this was crazy because "Surely offering two products gives me twice the chance of closing a sale"

Nope!

I will not go into the ins and outs of why it works but he gave it a try and his sales rose by 15%.

There are some awesome tricks and techniques that I use with my clients that get them some great results with their direct mailing campaigns and there are may approaches that you can take.

Here are some tips to help you:

LETTERS or POSTCARDS?

Postcards win hands down for me.

They are cheaper and the reader can't help but to look at it! With a letter you actually have to open it to see what it is!

SENDING A BROCHURE?

Make sure you send a cover letter with any brochure that you send

TEST, TEST AND THEN TEST SOME MORE

No-one has the right to say what will work and what doesn't work when it comes to direct mail.

It ultimately comes down to testing different approaches, tweaking your designs and approach and then testing again

GRAB THE READERS ATTENTION

Whether you send a letter or a postcard you have about 5 seconds to grab the readers attention and this is best achieved with an attention grabbing headline.

The headline is the first line of your letter or the wording at the top or in bold on your postcard.

Make sure you create curiosity so that the reader reads some more!

SALES COPY

Make sure your sales copy concentrates on the benefits that your product and service has to offer. make sure your letter or postcard answers the "WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME?" question that is on your readers mind.

IS IT WORTH IT?

Make sure that you can measure the success of your campaign in terms of return on investment.

Keep costs of what the campaign has incurred and the leads or sales that have resulted directly from it.

You should be able to calculate the cost per sale and also the number of letters you need to send out to get one sale. This will enable you to make better informed marketing decisions.

LANDING DAYS

Think about what day you want to have your direct mail landing on your prospects/clients doormat and post your letters leaving enough time!

Some days are better than others for higher response rates.