Direct Mail Still Matters. How to Create Pieces That Sell

If you think online advertising, email marketing and social media have made direct mail obsolete, think again. Last year, 65 percent of consumers made a purchase as a result of direct mail, as reported by the Direct Mail Association (DMA).

The cost of direct mail is no higher than that of print and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, according the same DMA report. Most importantly, direct mail’s average response rate of4.4 percent for both Business to business and business tp cpmsi,er mailingsis far higher than email marketing’s average response rate of 0.12 percent, according to Direct Mail News.

Now, are you ready to add direct mail to your marketing arsenal? Follow these tips to get results.

Get carded. Postcards are an affordable way to test direct mail. Especially oversized postcards to grab moreattention. Make sure your design elements and colors are in line with your brand. Keep the postcard from getting too “busy” by putting an image and eye-catching headline on one side, then the details of your offer on the other.

• Try flyers. An alternative to postcards are flyers folded in threes and sealed. They arean inexpensive mailing option (and can also be left on doorsteps in a door-to-door campaign). Choose attention-grabbing colors for your paper to stand out even more.

• Envelope, please. If you’re in an industry, such as financial planning or tax preparation, that doesn’t lend itself to a postcard or flyer, mail a sales letter or brochure. You’ll have to work harder to get the envelope opened, so try testing different marketing copy on the outside of the envelope to see what works best. Surprisingly, envelopes without copy on the outside sometimes work better since the recipient is curious to see what’s inside.

• Get personal. Direct mail pieces can be personalized with the recipient’s name or even information about specific products he or she has expressed an interest in. For instance, suppose someone visits your furniture store and talks to a salesperson about bedroom furniture, but doesn’t buy. You could send that person personalized mail about an upcoming sale on bedroom sets.

• Integrate online and offline marketing. Of course you can use direct mail to drive customers to your location. But these tactics also drive traffic to your website. Try putting a landing page URL on your direct mail to appeal to customers who want to buy or get more information online.

• Make the deal worthwhile. Test a specific dollars-off offer as opposed to a percentage-off offer. Also consider sending one direct mail piece with multiple offers good for different time frames. For example, an auto service center could send a postcard with discounts on oil changes in May, air conditioning service in June, and brake work in July.

• Test your options. It’s less expensive to test two small mailing’s marketing copy, images and offers than to spend a lot of money on a campaign you haven’t tested.

• Track results. Customized landing page URLs will show you which direct mail pieces work best to drive traffic. You can also use offer codes on direct mail to track which pieces drive in-store visits or purchases.

Testing direct mail campaigns doesn’t have to be difficult. Keeping in mind these principals allows you to not only test what works and does not work for your business, but also ensures you are keeping a constant pulse on changes with your customer base for future campaigns.

Rieva Lesonsky