You might think that direct mail marketing is old hat and therefore ineffective in the current days of email marketing, social media and online ads. If so, you’d be wrong.
When you do it right, direct mail can be highly effective. It is now quite rare to receive direct mail in your letter box, and that’s one reason why it attracts your attention when it does arrive. Emails, on the other hand, can get lost in the crowd in your inbox, and it’s little different with online ads.
What you want is to maximise your return on investment (ROI). That means achieving a good response rate for a reasonable cost. Here are five tips that will enable you to do this:
1. Use direct mail marketing together with other channels.
Direct mail is most effective when used in combination with other marketing strategies in an omnichannel approach. Emails, social media and advertising, whether online or offline, can all be part of that. However, you should make sure your message and branding are consistent across all these channels.
Check out our most recent blog article, ‘Email Versus Direct Mail: Which One Wins?’
2. Make sure you have a good mailing list.
If you are sending your mailshot out to the wrong people or businesses, or they are no longer at the address you have for them, you are wasting money. Apex Direct Mail can cleanse your list by ensuring there are no deceased people on it and that you have taken into account all changes of address, for example.
A good place to start is always your existing customer list. Once you’ve cleansed it, you are ready to send out your pack. If you want a bigger list, identify the kinds of people that are most likely to respond to your mailshots and develop a profile for them. You can then buy a new mailing list of prospects who match that profile. Apex Direct Mail can provide bespoke demographic databases that will enable you to target the right people.
Take a look at our data processing service, where we ensure you are mailing the correct targeted audience.
3. Design an effective mailshot.
We can advise you on mail item size, final pack weight and how to save on postage costs. Different types of paper will work well for different audiences and products or services, for example. These vary primarily by weight, finish and shininess.
Crucially, your mailshot needs a clear message and a strong call to action. Recipients should know within a few seconds what you are offering and what you want them to do. You may only have a few seconds before your mailshot goes in the pile that ends up in the recycling bin.
4. Test what works well.
Direct mail marketing can have response rates of 1% to 5%, but generally you achieve response rates of 1% to 3%. To get as high a response rate as possible, you can test different versions of the mailshot by varying the layout, headline, wording, visuals, offer or a multitude of other things. The type and size of the paper you use can also play a role.
Then you can send different versions to different groups on your list to find out what works best. To maximise the response, you can offer people a variety of ways to respond: by mailing, phoning or emailing you or by going to a specified web page. Give your recipients a code to use when they respond to you: a different one for each version of your mailshot.
You can view our bespoke distribution and fulfilment services here.
5. Evaluate the response to your mailshot.
You also need to keep track of the costs of each version of the mailshot. When you put the cost and response rate together, you can work out the cost of each response and how profitable each mailing has been.
Keep track of all this information, so that you build up a store of data and knowledge. You will learn more about your target market with each direct mail marketing campaign you run. As time goes on, each one should end up being more effective than the last.
Whatever the requirements are for your campaign, please feel free to get in touch and see how we can help you.