Direct Mail

The internet is flashy, sexy, and gets the lion’s share of ink in the media, but it still pales in comparison to direct mail returns. The direct mail industry is still the 800 pound gorilla in the room when it comes to reaching your audience. A recent study reports that even the Gen-X’rs prefer to read direct mail than go online to get their information. A direct mail component should be one of the foundational elements in any marketing campaign.

Not Your Father’s Direct Mail Program Anymore

Initially the only way to track direct mail results was to have the recipient “redeem”, or bring the mailer/coupon into a retail shop with them. In that way they could be counted. Campaign ID numbers were then associated with the printed mailer and so multiple campaigns could be tracked through collection of the pieces or in conjunction with orders placed by telephone. And that was about it for tracking. Those days are history!

The Jumping Point For Integrated Campaigns

Integrated marketing is the art of using multiple media to create a single campaign. Using direct mail, email, personalized url’s or vanity url’s, a website or landing pages, virtual phone numbers, podcasts, and other available resources to create one marketing campaign with a singular purpose. Since direct mail is still the major player on the field, leaving that player on the bench without giving that a lot of thought first is probably not a good marketing strategy.

Direct mail typically initiates the campaign, it’s the first soldier on the beach. It carries your message directly to the recipient, never ends up in your spam folder, and is reviewed by a larger share of your target audience than email! It may contain a purl for the recipient, driving them to your landing pages where they’ll be urged to take the next step. You can keep a direct mail postcard handy or hang it on the refrigerator. Try that with an email or a podcast!

How To Begin A Direct Mail Program

1. You’ll need an objective; a marketing goal. What are you trying to acomplish?

2. You need a list of your targeted audience.

3. You’ll need a campaign strategy to detemine what other components to incorporate.

4. You’ll need a carefully crafted message written by a professional copywriter.

5. The perfect design will complement the message, not over-power it.

6. You’ll need to test it in a series of smaller mailers before committing larger resources.

Your Direct Mail Options

The world changes daily in how it receives it’s information and how it acts on it. You absolutely must change with it in order to grow your business. As a small business owner you absolutely have the right to run your business any direction you want, including out of business.

The market determines everything about what the market wants including how it wants to receive its information. Ignore this hard-core fact of life and you run the risk of realizing minimal positive results at best, or closing your doors at worst.

Call Us Now!

We can help you with every aspect of your marketing campaigns including the direct mail component. Every step of the direct mail element is begun, implemented, and finished in-house including the mailing services themselves, so contact us today and let’s have a free, spirited discussion about your marketing and direct mail objectives. Then you decide. You’re 10 push-buttons away from that new client/account simply by dialing 972-820-9963.