Before you start any advertising campaign using direct mailing, you should have a few objectives in mind.
For direct mailing to be effective you should be getting returns in the order of five percent from the result of your mailing, anything lower is no good.
If you’re a smaller company, you should be making enough from your direct mailing campaign to cover the costs of the mailing; this includes printing costs, postage, paper and the costs of mailing list if you purchased one. That is to say you should be recovering your direct mailing costs with the returns in customer inquiries.
Direct mailing can considerably boost the sales of your product, if you proceed in the right direction, and you don’t want your potential customers to consider your leaflet as another piece of junk mail. So how do you go about making your message stand out from the rest?
First of all develop a good mailing list, the longer the list the more potential customers you’re likely to attract. The next step is to choose what you’re going to send in your mail. You may choose a letter, catalog, brochure or flier with a free sample attached. You may also decide to start a series of promotions to attract customers.
Whatever content you choose will depend on your market, however generally the most cost-effective type of mail is a two-sided color postcard.
You may opt for a bigger format in order to attract more attention, or one with an odd shape, which ever you decide to choose, postcards are usually the most successful in drawing attention to your product.
Once you’ve chosen what form your message should come in you must get the message down in the best possible way. Try and keep it straightforward, specific and easy to understand.
Try and make your offer enticing and attractive, it should be able to draw your audience, make them want to learn more about what you’re offering.
Once you’ve sent off your direct mail, think of sending a backup, for one piece of mailing is much more effective if it’s followed by a second offer or promotion, or a variation of the first. This way to proceed is more effective, for it introduces the offer and is followed by an enhancement in the second mailing.
Generally if there is a frequency or multiple mailing the returns are better, you will simply be underlining the importance of the previous offers and will most likely be on your potential customers’ mind more than others will be.
A good strategy is to give a time limit on your offer, this will stimulate people to react and not to push it aside for later, by that time they will have forgotten you exist!
You can also add a toll-free number or e-mail making it possible for people to contact you for free.
If you keep these strategies in mind for your direct mailing, you will surely receive successful returns.
