About Direct Mail
Direct mail advertising is a tried and true method for businesses to advertise their products and services.
Direct mail advertising can be a comparatively low cost method for businesses to advertise and yet generate large profits. There are various options to choose from and it is important when choosing a direct mail campaign that you ensure the mailer isn’t boring and that it hasn’t been overdone.
Direct Mail Marketing
Direct Mail Marketing refers to the process of designing and sending advertising messages directly to the customer via traditional mail delivery. This advertising method doesn’t utilize other media options. In a traditional direct mail campaign this means there is no television, radio, or online advertising used to distribute the information in the advertisement. The ad that promotes a company’s products or services goes straight to the consumer from the company.
In this electronic age, direct mail advertising has also evolved to include email advertising campaigns. Email campaigns need to be different from traditional mail campaigns. The emails need to be short, to the point and generally are text only, while “snail mail” campaigns generally do better if they are in color and have pictures or graphics.
First Steps
Both traditional and email direct mail advertising is sent out to lists of unsolicited prospects. Unsolicited direct mail and email means that the person receiving the ads hasn’t asked for the information. Direct Mail campaigns have specific legal requirements they need to meet. The state and federal government regulations governing unsolicited mailings need to be understood before you design and send out a mailer or emails.
These lists might be previous customer lists for the business, or they could be lists of names and addresses or email addresses that are purchased from other sources. The first step in designing your direct mail campaign is to gather or purchase your mailing list.
At this point you need to design or have a marketer design the mailing piece or the email you wish to send. Once it’s designed you need to have the direct mail piece copied and then mailed through the US Postal Service. Or if the direct mail campaign you designed utilizes email, you can go through a service that will distribute your email to your list or send them out individually on your own.
Call To Action
A good direct mail campaign is designed around a specific call to action. This could be a well written email alerting customers to specific discounts if they act now or a marketing flyer with a coupon for a specific reward for trying a service or product if they are among the first 200 to call.
This call to action, the offer and the limit on time or numbers is one of the reasons direct mail advertising works well. These campaigns are focused and have specifics that can be traced and measured by the business doing the advertising. The results of direct mail advertising can be easily judged to determine the success or failure of a campaign.
Direct Mail Options
There are various forms of direct mail and these include flyers, postcards, letters, and brochures. Examples can vary from preapproved credit card offers, free trails, catalogs and offers of free diners if you try a service, as well as many other types of marketing collateral.
The mail pieces are more effective if they are sent to targeted leads versus blind leads. Targeted leads are those people that expressed interest in the product or service. These targeted lead lists will generate a larger return on investment than sending out a bulk mailing to people who haven’t expressed a prior interest. When you are buying a direct mail list make sure and seek targeted lists.
Professional Direct Mail Advertising Versus Do-It-Yourself
There are advertising companies that will help you find a targeted list of potential customers and design the mailing collateral for the campaign. They will also help implement the direct mail campaign and will often analyze the results and implement changes based on those results for the next one. Professional advertisers will provide you with proposals that detail your options with them that will include parts of the service or everything from design to implementation.
Depending on the size of your company and your market, you may want to run all or parts of a direct mail campaign on your own. One option is to check with the local chamber of commerce for mailing lists. There are companies who sell them, but make sure and check the source. You might consider running two or three direct mail campaigns with different offers. Then track your results and make appropriate changes for the next campaign.
Direct mail advertising can be an affordable and easily implemented marketing tool that often generates quick results.
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