Although a lot of attention is paid to digital marketing, direct mail pieces are still a worthwhile consideration for any business’ marketing plan. In fact, even with millennial audiences that are stereotypically pigeonholed into only caring about online marketing and social media, direct mail campaigns are thriving.
If your business is new to the concept of using business mailings, here are a few things to keep in mind.
Pick the right class of mail.
While direct mail campaigns are effective, they can get expensive. In any mailing, you’ll want to minimize the amount that you have to spend on things like postage fees so that you can maximize your campaign’s return. Picking the right class of mail is one factor in this process. While size and content are two aspects of your mailing that can affect your mailing’s price, there are other choices you have control over that can also decrease or increase your costs.
Speed is one such factor. If you really need your mailing to hit customer’s mailboxes as soon as possible, you may not be able to compromise and will find yourself mailing postcards or brochures First Class or Priority Mail Express. That being said, if you have enough lead time and it doesn’t necessarily matter when your mailing hits, sending something through USPS Marketing Mail could save you money.
Use business mailing lists to your advantage.
One of the biggest secrets of sending any mailer is to take advantage of business mailing lists. A business mailing list is a pre-approved list of contacts that can be purchased and mailed to based on a variety of criteria. Such lists are a huge boon for small and medium-sized businesses interested in reaching a particular audience, demographic, or neighborhood that they wouldn’t otherwise have the capability to target. For example, companies such as Trusted Caskets that sell affordably-priced caskets at a fraction of the price could use a business mailing list to reach homeowners reaching older age. By excluding younger audiences who aren’t in the process of estate planning, you will be able to maximize your return. This sort of specification and segmentation can also allow you to craft more unique messages that speak more directly to the audience you want to reach.
Practice good list management.
Aside from avoiding customers who may have requested they be put on “do not mail” lists, good list management can help you increase your campaign’s ROI. Segmentation can be a powerful tool in direct marketing campaigns, and that comes down to good list management. If you know how long ago a customer purchased one of your products, you can tailor different offers to them based on this recency, appealing to them in more dynamic ways. Good list management also helps you measure your marketing’s effectiveness better, ultimately offering you better data.
Make sure to proofread.
It may seem obvious, but you’d be amazed at how many mailpieces are sent out with typographical errors. Make sure that you have another coworker who hasn’t been spending time designing or writing your marketing collateral look at your mailpiece to see if they recognize any mistakes that your brain may have been fixing subconsciously when you were proofing. Triple-check important contact information, dates, times, and prices, too, as spelling any of these items wrong is one of the costliest mistakes you can make in a marketing campaign.
Just because you’re new to marketing with direct mail doesn’t mean that you can’t find success in this medium. If you follow the tips above and take advantage of direct mailing lists to reach the audience you want, you’re sure to execute a valuable campaign.
