The dos and don’ts of direct mail marketing campaigns

Using direct mail marketing has a wide range of advantages and can greatly benefit your business. This marketing channel not only reaches out to customers increasing brand awareness, but it will also embed your company’s name in the mind of your prospects. 

Postcards, flyers, and catalogues are common examples of direct mail and here at Lloyd James many of our clients integrate these forms of direct mail into their customer and prospect marketing strategies, click here to take a look at some of our case studies.

Why is direct mail marketing so successful?

On your customer’s doorstep
Most customers look at their post on the day it is delivered, and research shows that customers usually rummage through it immediately. In marketing, being able to get in front of your target audience is everything, and that’s one of the main reasons why direct mail is so advantageous.

Flexible
Direct mail serves a variety of different marketing goals. It can be used as an invitation to your company’s event or a short-term promotional tool, such as a money off voucher. This approach would be great for a younger company that is looking to drive initial use of their product of or services.

Postal marketing can also be used as a reminder approach, whereby a business can prompt a customer about their relationship. As well as this, Birthday cards, holiday reminders, or even Newsletters that give that individual a glimpse into your company is perfect for businesses not looking to generate quick sales.

Easily measurable
Direct mail is one of the most measurable, easily trackable via unique campaign codes, coupons, QR codes, specific phone numbers, and campaign URLs/landing pages. By using one or all these approaches, you will be able to track the success and measure the response of all your direct mail activity.

Use direct mail in a 360 marketing approach
Direct mail is a great tool on its own but can provide even better results when used in conjunction with other marketing channels. It can utilise a message, develop a brand, generate short-term return, or even gather important information.

A profitable marketing campaign depends on a variety of factors, overall the process hangs on the ability to reach the target audience, communicate a clear message, and monitor the results. Recent times have seen a trend with digital marketing and online media being pushed to the forefront of activity expected from marketing departments. However, direct mail still remains a very important part of the marketing mix.

Tangible
Unlike any other form of marketing, direct mail enables you to put a physical item into the hands of potential client. As soon as a letter or leaflet lands on a doormat a first impression is created. Unlike digital marketing in the form of emails and paid ads a mail piece is a tangible item, you can hold it and interact with it, so why not use it?

By investing in every area of your mailing such as a simple branded envelope, it can lift your mailing astronomically. This could be your first ever contact with this prospect. Make sure you hit it off with a good first impression.

Dos and don’ts of direct mail

Do – create a specific audience selection
Think about your product, who it would be best suited for, and focus your marketing efforts there. Research shows that direct mail can have a great engagement rate, but to make this happen you must research your target market, subsequently saving money and generating better results from your direct mail campaign. Contact us to find out more about targeting and creating prospect audiences.

Do – add testing phases into your campaign
After you’ve carried out research and defined your audience, testing is a key part to any marketing strategy, so send out a few test batches ensuring you have a way to track engagement. This can be a voucher code that’s tracked according to how many customers use it, a form fill which the customer then returns to you, a phone number to call or an email address to contact. That way you can easily keep track of your results and decide on how to build and optimise the campaign moving forward.

In addition to testing your campaigns, we also recommend adding in seeds to the data. Mail seeding is when a person from your company is placed in the data to track delivery, and to assess the visible appearance of delivered messages. By doing this you can make improvements to the campaign directly, as well as identifying problems with print production and postage.

Do – add strong CTA’s
The most eye-catching mailer can be delivered to the right audience at the right time, but if it hasn’t got a clear call to action your customer won’t know what to do next. What a waste. Before creating your direct mail campaign, think about what you want the customer to do and define that in clear, concise messaging.

Don’t – forget to proofread
When your mailer drops on the doorstep of your target audience it will be the first impression they have of your business, so it needs to be memorable, and free of typos and grammatical errors. Make sure a colleague your work to double-check the copy and make sure it’s correct.

Don’t – forget to follow up
By tracking people who respond to your campaign you can follow up with them later and grab their attention for a second time. By doing this it gives you an audience of engaged customers who are more likely to re-engage at a later date if not already.

Don’t – forget to drive traffic to your website or landing page
Direct mail shouldn’t make up the bulk of your marketing strategy, most business now takes place online. You can leverage your responses to your direct mail campaign by driving people to your online platforms, by signing up or purchasing via your website. This means potential customers have more touch points with your business and can stay up to date.

Direct mail is one of the oldest forms of marketing. However, contrary to belief it is still very profitable and is worth introducing into your marketing mix. It can also a good way to stand out from the crowd and offer your customers something different. If you’re looking to shake up your marketing efforts, give it a try. Click here to contact a member of our team.