All posts by manu.bhardwaj

Direct Mail marketing is very effective tool that small-medium businesses can leverage to prospect and acquire customers. It is both an art and a science that requires giving a serious thought to every direct marketing campaign and improving it over time by testing and incorporating the learning. And even when you have mastered the above mentioned approach, it is possible that your arduous efforts might not yield the expected results, if you don’t take the following factors into consideration – Do’s: Test and change: The success of Direct mail marketing relies heavily on testing. Segmenting your customer base, trying different Ad copies, experimenting with different offers and even changing marketing collateral every time could yield varying results. Proof read your copy: Make sure your messaging is thoroughly proof read for grammatical mistakes and that the sentences are easy to read. The message should be clear, crisp and precise to stick with the reader. Leverage existing studies: Scour the internet and Direct Marketing resource for case studies that might be relevant to your campaign and capture key insights from those studies. Not only will they help you manage your expectations from the campaign, but also provide you with best practices to incorporate in your own campaign. Plan ahead: Think ahead and plan what you want to do with the response for your campaign. For example, if your campaign is geared towards driving users to a website, plan the flow that you would expect a user to follow. Do you want them to fill out a questionnaire or do you want them to register, or perhaps you want to learn more about their demographics. Think through these aspects before you send your mailing. Don’ts: Confusing call to Action: Don’t make it difficult for the prospect to figure out what you want him to do. He should be able to quickly understand the action that the mail piece wants him to perform. Bloated/Hyped content: If your mail piece has extensive content or you mention something that is hard to believe, chances are that the prospect will immediately lose interest and get rid of your mail piece. Unattractive headline: The headline of your mail piece says it all to the prospect and he is immediately going to decide whether to read further or not. Don’t write a cliché headline or something that is not going to get noticed. Marketing piece design: Don’t use design and themes that have no relevance to your product/service or for that matter your core message. Make sure the art, graphics and pictures etc. strengthen the underlying theme of your campaign.

A business’s success in Direct Mail Marketing depends on the type of the business and how diligently it is done. There are certain businesses that are a great fit, especially the ones that require building a local presence or presence in defined geographies. However, there are certain businesses that are not such a good fit. For example, businesses that rely primarily on internet users and have products and services that can be consumed only in the online context. Never the less, Direct Mail Marketing offers certain advantages that set it apart from other marketing channels – 1. Directly targeting your customers A good quality mailing list, crafted with the right selections and purchased from a reliable and reputed source that updates their data frequently, can help you connect with people who are more likely to be interested in your products or services. Whereas if you focus on internet traffic only you are likely to get generic visitors who may or may not be interested in buying from you. A mailing list can help you targets women, seniors, other businesses etc. There are a number of Demographic and Behavioral variables available to select the right audience for your business. 2. Flexible spending Direct Mail Marketing Ad campaigns give you the opportunity to spend as per your budgets. Sending postcards, letters or brochures is a cost effective solution to get your message in the hands of your customer. You can also choose to have your offer included in coupon books that have a large reach and the cost is split with other businesses. 3. Reach more customers For most small businesses, a number of their potential customers are not computer and internet savvy. Direct Mail Marketing helps reach that segment which is not likely to find your business or learn about your products on the internet. And even if most customers were using the internet, just by building a website you cannot make sure that they will frequently visit the site and purchase from it. Direct mail will end up in the hands of the people that you select and the communication will be tailored for them. 4. Promotions and deals increase sales Sending promotional offers and coupons that are tied with holidays or major events for your customers (for example their birthday or anniversary) can be an effective way to realize sales growth. And doing that on a regular basis with controlled pricing segmentation can even impact the life time value from those customers. In summary, Direct Mail Marketing can offer many advantages that other marketing channels don’t, as long as the campaigns are designed and executed well.