Have you ever wondered what your recipient does with incoming mail, mail that you may have sent to them via a direct mail marketing campaign? They have a “ritual” in which they sort out the bills, personal mail, interesting looking mail, and the all famous – “junk mail.”
We are all guilty of this sorting process of our mail whether it is at home or at the office. Mail is quite often the first thing we give our attention to, so that is a good thing to direct mail marketers. But the most important thing here is to make sure your mail piece is personalized or somehow geared towards getting the attention of the recipient to open your mail piece. It should not be gaudy or obnoxious, slightly business-like, and non “salesy.”
We have a video below from a direct mail marketer that should drive out point, when thinking about your next direct mail campaign.
The Secret of Direct Mail Success
For your direct mail processing needs call Business Helpers at 480-483-7677. Serving all of Arizona, USA.
Filed under direct mail campaign, direct mail tips, targeting your market by on Dec 2nd, 2009. Comment. 
Quite often the simplest way of mailing is the best. I am talking about a simple letter on your custom printed letter head and stuffed inside of a #10 business envelope with your logo on the return address and sent to your targeted prospect list.
This could be a simple introduction of your services to a full trial coupon of your product or service attached. Sending something on your stationary is far better than sending it in a postcard or fancy custom cut piece. Personalized stationary builds strong branding to the eyes of your prospects.
Sending personalized letters just to thank the customer or to continue to expose the prospect with the kinds of products and services you offer is a great goodwill builder with prospects. Remember the old sales adage, a minimum of “7 touches” is required before anyone will buy from you. What better way to send at least as series of 7 letters to your prospects to get their trust and attention.
Whatever you do, keep consistent with mailing out your letters or mail pieces. Believe it or not it will eventually convert at a modest rate and make your mailings pay for itself.
Filed under Arizona mail services, direct mail campaign by on Nov 29th, 2009. Comment.
Direct mail is the most important part of your marketing plan. Developing and executing the campaign can be very confusing. Today’s mailing regulations are getting more complicated–postage rates are changing all the time and the flood of mail makes it harder to get noticed. The right message and presentation is very important and must get to your target market in the correct way. Capturing your reader must happen quickly and your reader must be motivated to take action.
Here are some valuable tips when planning out your direct marketing campaign:
- consult with a direct mailing house before planning your next campaign
- keep your mailing piece simple and readable
- consult with a copywriter regarding your sales content
- use a reputable list broker
- use colored envelopes to get attention
- personalize the message in your mail piece
- have a clear message on what you offer
- insert a strong call to action – call in, fax in or mail back
- develop a free gift to further intice action
- offer a free trial period of your product or service
- have a professional graphic artist design art work
- mention guarantees (risk avoidance)
This is only a partial list of direct mail marketing techniques, but you get the idea. There are so many things to develop for your next mailing. Always remember to test and change things slightly to measure the effectiveness of your mailings. For example, the wording of the headline on the mail piece can be changed to make two or three versions. You measure the response rate of each headline….the headline that brings in the best return or response will prevail on all mailings from now on.
Stay tuned for more valuable tips and tricks from Mail Marketing Masters!
Make a comment here if you have some tips you can share with our readers. Just click on the comment button below.
For your direct mail processing needs call Business Helpers at 480-483-7677. Serving all of Arizona, USA.
Filed under Arizona mail services, direct mail campaign, mail services by on Nov 20th, 2009. 1 Comment.
Probably, the most important part of your direct mail campaign will be choosing your mailing list. That is also the most challenging part of your success or failure when doing a mailing. The most common way to get a good list is from a list broker. Here are some tips when going out to secure your mailing list.
- The first thing you have to do is find a qualified and targeted list for your product or service.
- Your list should be current with all duplicates removed
- The list should be sold from an experienced and reputable list house that has a proven record in high quality lists
- Know the profile of who you are mailing too. This goes along with knowing your product and service enough to know who is likely to buy
- Lastly, check on the past record of the list broker and even ask for references of current or past customers…..and check up on them.
You don’t have time to fool with less than quality list brokers since normal response rates in the direct marketing field is about 1.5%. That means you have to make sure your quality of the list is high enough to practially “guarantee” that percentage norm.
For your direct mail processing needs call Business Helpers at 480-483-7677. Serving all of Arizona, USA.
Filed under direct mail campaign, direct mail tips, targeting your market by on Oct 21st, 2009. Comment.
We have complied a short list of 4 of the most helpful resources when planning and implementing a direct mail campaign.
3) USPS direct mail resource page
shows how to create your mail piece
direct mail defined
create mail list
sending procedures
mailing and shipping tools
direct mail research
We hope you find these resources helpful to your next direct mail campaign. Remember to always do your due diligence when hiring a direct mail house to process your mailing. Check on their references, their past history of clients and programs they worked on, check with the Better Business Bureau, and make sure they are proactive in following up with you.
Filed under US Postal Service, direct mail, direct mail campaign, direct mail tips by on Oct 12th, 2009. Comment.
We are going to scour the internet for very clever direct mail promotions from time to time to give you some valuable ideas to promote your business.
Here is an ingenius direct mail campaign that was implemented by an ad agency. Check out how they used a simple approach but got a lot of attention.
For your direct mail processing needs call Business Helpers at 480-483-7677. Serving all of Arizona, USA.
Filed under direct mail campaign, direct mail promotions by on Oct 7th, 2009. Comment.
We found a very informative video revealing what it takes for a successful direct mail campaign. First, you have to have a great list from a source you can trust, and a very compelling offer that is clearly stated in the direct mail piece. Enjoy!
Filed under Arizona mail services, direct mail campaign, direct mail tips by on Sep 22nd, 2009. Comment.
1) Using the wrong list. Perhaps the biggest mistake that you can make is to use a mailing list that does not represent your target audience. Too many people send out mailings, receive no response, and wonder why. Make sure that your list is current and targeted to meet your needs.
2) Poor copy. It may only be 100 or even 25 words, but they need to be the right words. Take the time to do several rewrites until the copy will grab the reader’s attention.
3) No call to action. If you don’t tell the reader what you want them to do, it defeats the point of sending the direct mail piece. Do you want them to call you? Email you? Send in the enclosed postcard? Buy something? Make it clear what they should do or they will not respond.
4) No testing. Too many people learn the hard way that their direct mail piece is not effective. It should be common practice to test out anything you plan to use to market or advertise your business in order to see if it makes an impact.
5) Using hype over meat. It is all too common to hype your product or service with superlatives instead of highlighting and explaining the actual benefits of your product or service.
6) Not proofing the copy. There are too many stories of great direct marketing pieces that were missing phone numbers, addresses, or other key information. Errors in the copy are also too prevalent. Proofreading is an important aspect of all of your marketing campaigns. If you feel that you are lacking in those skills, hire someone to proof your copy. Or ask a colleague who has a way with words to take a look at your text.
7) Not focusing on your headline. One of the reasons we all toss direct mail quickly is because it does not grab us. Somewhere between boring headlines and gimmicks is a smart use of a headline that catches someone’s eye without insulting their intelligence. You only have a few seconds to grab the reader, therefore you need to put great stock into your headline.
8) Highlighting form over function. One common mistake is placing too much focus on the design elements of the direct mailing piece, which results in marvelous four-color graphics, interesting shapes, and eye-catching color, but a discrediting loss of content.
9) No follow up. Many businesses send out brochures, fliers, and other materials with no follow-up plan. Follow-up refers to calling, mailing additional information, or at least being prepared to fulfill requests for the product or for additional information.
10) Not tapping into expert advice. Direct mailing has been around for many years because when it works it works very well. Many people have spent their careers mastering the art of direct mailing. They know the right words to use and the best ways to get results. However, far too few people tap into this bank of knowledge. Do your research and learn from experts in the field.
This information is taken from All Business (dot) com
http://www.allbusiness.com/marketing/direct-marketing-direct-mail/3986-1.html
Filed under Arizona mail services, direct mail, direct mail campaign, direct mail tips by on Sep 1st, 2009. Comment.
We presented a video on a previous post from Ford Saeks about direct mailing fundementals. Here is part two of that video series. We found it to be very informative. Enjoy.
Filed under direct mail, direct mail campaign, direct mail tips by on Aug 24th, 2009. Comment.
For sending standard mail – what used to be called bulk mail – the post office has only 2 sizes. Mail is either letter size or non-letter size. The dividing line is larger or smaller than 6-1/8” x 11-1/2” x ¼” thick. The aspect ratio (length divided by height) must also be in the range of 1.3 to 2.5. This latter criterion makes all square mail non-letter size.
One of the biggest changes the post office has made is in the acceptance and design of non-letter size mail – the larger pieces. And the consequences can be staggering.
It used to be that non-letter size mail could be designed in practically any fashion and receive some form of discounted postage rates. Not anymore. Now, mail must be laid out so the mailing address is in the top half of the mail piece. And, regardless of whether the mail piece runs horizontal or vertical, the top half is always defined by the vertical direction. That is to say, if the mail piece is a 9”x12” envelope and the envelope is designed so that the address runs across the 12” side, the top half of the envelope for post office purposes is still regarded by folding the 12” side in half.
The consequence for not following this design: pay full first class postage prices. There is no give on this issue. There is no in between postage rates available. And local post offices may not issue letters of exception. If someone wishes to get a letter of exception, they must send a request to a central processing facility in New York and this could take some time, time which most direct mailers do not have.
Moral: If you want to send non-letter size mail at discounted rates, be sure to follow the post office’s design specs.
Filed under US Postal Service, direct mail campaign, direct mail costs, direct mail tips by on Aug 12th, 2009. Comment.