The 7 Essential Tips for Direct Mail Marketing
Every business owner spends every night thinking about new ways to get in front of their target customers. Have you tried postal marketing?
Why not? Direct Mail Marketing is a marketing technique as old as time. Well, sort of. The first direct mail campaign started in 1892.
That’s a lot older than digital marketing and telemarketing. Whilst the invention of telephones predates direct marketing, we’re fairly sure nobody was generating insurance hotkeys over these sort of phones.
So why should I try a Direct Mail Campaign?
Emails and telephone calls are overdone. Consumers often ignore unknown numbers and prospective emails will almost certainly be diverted to a spam folder. Return to the old tried and tested methods of marketing to boost sales and engage customers.
Here’s the 7 Essential Tips for Postal Marketing
1.Effective Design
A potential customer can tell an awful lot about a business from their choice of postal marketing material.
For instance:
- What material is the letter? Is it weighty and expensive, or light and textured card? Which delivers the right message?
- What’s your business’s colour palette? Is it eye catching, or maybe you can choose a colour scheme that matches your messaging but not your branding.
- How is the message delivered? Is it Royal Mail first class or is a Yodel driver leaving it on your next door neighbour’s driveway?
2.Personalization
Every marketer knows how important personalized messages are. 71% of consumers prefer personalized messages.
That’s why it’s essential that direct mailing data is accurate. At Direct Data Squad, we vet and verify every postal marketing record so that it’s up to date. We repeat this process every 6 months.
3.Be Authentic
Generally, most people don’t like being sold to. So, the trick is to be authentic and put the customer’s interests first. Putting the customer’s interests above your own is the best way to generate consumer confidence.
Postal marketing has the capacity to be very authentic. Unlike billboard or display advertising, which can’t be personalised, postal marketing can be very personal and super authentic.
4.Make certain that you’re targeting your Target Market
Before you begin a campaign, it’s essential that you know who your ideal customer is and what they look like.
Without that, we’re all shooting in the dark. In our experience, the clearer your understanding of your desired customer, the more effective the campaigns will be.
Regardless of who your target customer is, we can find them. We segment data by geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioural variables.
5.Write Effective Copy
Copywriters are very expensive. But, you don’t need to be paying £50 an hour to be able to effectively communicate with your new prospects.
For most businesses sales staff spend the most time speaking with clients. Since your current customers will likely be your target market, they are the best people to advise your marketing team on how your target market like to be spoken to.
6.Engage Repeat Customers
New customers are great. But existing customers are where it’s really at. Retaining existing customers is estimated to be 6x cheaper than attracting new customers.
That’s why using postal marketing to engage existing customers is so important. It’s more personal than an email and far more likely to get in front of your customers.
This is when the first few rules become very important. It’s key to remind your customers of the value of using your business.
7.Buy High Quality Data
This is without question the most important step. Without accurate marketing data, all of the aforementioned tips are redundant. It won’t matter how well you personalize your messages, if it’s based on flawed data, it will be personalized for the wrong contact.
Think about this…
In addition to this, think about that texturized design from Vistaprint. You spent ages making the colours pop for your ideal customer at Pretty Little Thing. But the data you bought is old. Rebecca no longer lives in Flat 9, Dave does. Dave picks up your wonderfully crafted and thought out marketing letter, but it means nothing to him, because he’s not your target marketing.
