Smart marketers know competitors are listening, watching, reading
Don’t bother advertising if your message is something you don’t want spread to all your competitors. Advertising can be quite effective at telling them what you’re up to. If you want only certain people to know, use direct mail or email.
Know your segments
This is one of the most basic rules of marketing. If your marketing does not break down your approaches by segments, it is not as effective as it could be. In order to develop solid plans and achieve measurable results, you need to understand—as completely as possible—every customer and prospect segment, and market to each accordingly. Continue reading
A client recently expressed concern that the contents of her company’s direct mail introduction package to prospects was too repetitive. It repeated five main points (their unique selling or value propositions) on the outer envelope, the letter and the enclosed brochure. Having worked with one of the most renowned direct marketers in the U.S. for over 12 years, I felt comfortable giving her this guidance and I thought I’d share these gentle reminders with you as well.
Time-Tested Direct Mail Letter Package Tips
Short of having a promotional offer to showcase in the letter, your goal for the direct mail letter should be to reiterate the key messages that will differentiate your organization from the reader’s current supplier. Repetition is ok; a prospect needs to hear/see a key message several times before it sinks in. It is then that they will begin to associate those messages with the brand. Ideally, they’d see these key messages repeatedly over a brief period of time and consistently expressed via a number of channels – direct mail, advertising, publicity, web, email, social media, etc. So, coming up with a way to follow-up with your target audiences starting shortly after they receive the initial direct mailer will only make your campaign stronger and more effective in the long run (e.g., a follow-up mailing, calling/voice mail message, LinkedIn message, email, etc.)
Know Your Priorities
The list of prospects is the most critical make-or-break aspect of a mailing – the mailer has to be sent to the right influencing or decision making person. The envelope is the second most critical, because you need to compel the recipient to open the mailer – if you have a promotional offer, feature it as a teaser on the envelope, with a deadline. The actual contents are third on this list and again, you should be striving to differentiate your organization from their current vendor(s) and earn instant credibility and trust. If you have a promotion, tout it in a Johnson box and in the P.S. and add a sense of urgency with an offer deadline.
Very few people read direct mail letters top to bottom these days, so you need to call attention to your key messages with bullets and other formatting techniques. A call-out box or side bar with one or more testimonials can subliminally exclaim how much your customers appreciate your company. They’re candid opinions about your business’ responsiveness, quality and prices will build at-a-glance credibility.
Following a strong introduction letter package mailer (letter, brochure, customer testimonials and teaser outer envelope), I recommend following up within two weeks or so with a letter, phone call and/or email. This follow-up could include a special limited-time-only “first order” offer for your list’s “tier 1” prospects.
Revisiting and Reanalyzing is a Good Thing
I hope these back-to-basics reminders help you take a second look at your introduction mailer with a fresh eye. Who knows, just one or two tweaks could mean a noticeable boost in responses! And it wouldn’t be fair to sign-off this post without mentioning that testing and measuring is always the best practice to evolve and improve any direct mail campaign.
Our motto at Johnson Direct is “Marketing That’s Measurable.” It’s not just a tagline, though. Among the greatest advantages of interactive marketing is that it is extremely measurable. Return on investment can be clearly calculated by looking at analytics that measure innumerable actions within your website, including how many times you successfully converted a user. A conversion is defined as a user completing an intended call to action. Whether it is selling more widgets or gathering contributions for a charity, or simply filling out a short form, just about every website has at least one desired conversion, and most have many.
Time upon time I’m asked if direct mail still works and without hesitation the answer is a resounding YES!
However, with over 200 million people now on the do-not-call list and over 33 Billion SPAM emails zapped world wide each and every day, mail is again the go-to option for direct marketers and it’s going to have to work even harder and more effectively to produce the results you need to succeed.
Some advice on how to make your next direct mail program a winner right now:
1. Mail first to your existing customer base.
A lot of people spend a disproportionate amount of time on acquisition instead of trying to cross-sell and/or up-sell their current database. Begin where the “low hanging fruit” already exists – with current and past clients. Also, begin a formal referral program to your already loyal clients.
2. Spend more time on list selection, refinement and testing.
It’s a fact that your list is the most crucial element in direct mail success, yet most direct marketers still do not spend enough time on list research and spend even less time testing lists. In order for your mail to work more efficiently for you, first spend more time on list selection and list testing.
3. Test more offers in your next direct mail campaign.
It’s also acknowledged that next to lists, the offers that you make will have the greatest impact on your response rates and ultimately on your return-on-investment. Thus, test some offers and please think outside the box – don’t limit yourself to what’s been done in your industry alone.
4. Be innovative in your mail presentation.
Test different formats with your established controls. Be bold, be basic, but please be different. Try a different size, a self-mailer, even though you know that “self-mailers rarely outperform packages.” Try something dimensional and/or add a premium to your current control.
5. Turn a negative into a positive.
Promote that fact to prospects that you will not call them – especially those signed on for the do-not call list — but still wanted to let them know about your products or services, thus you decided to mail them.
By staying the course, ignoring testing and not doing much if anything differently, you will be risking your current success with mail. Now is the time to let your direct marketing prowess shine.
