Here are several key reasons why you need to do direct mail in your business.
- It allows you to connect with your target audience with dead on accuracy.
- It markets your business 24 hours, 7 days a week.
- It gives you immediate response of your offer.
- You can track your effectiveness of your marketing message.
- You get the complete attention of the person reading your direct mail piece.
- It doesn’t cost much to test your offer to the market.
If anything, use direct mail to make sure you are offering products and services that people or businesses will buy. What good is being in business if you have a product that does not have demand?
Also, remember that direct mail allows you to build your client base. If you get any response from your mailing, put them on your next direct mail campaign. Anyone who has responded previously is a willing candidate to buy your product!
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, direct mail campaign by on Feb 26th, 2010. Comment. 
Did you know that:
- 17% of Americans change addresses annually?
- 42 million people move each year
- One out of every six families move
Not enough of our direct mail customers pay attention to keeping a very updated list of customers to mail to. Can you imagine how much waste in money and time it causes from undeliverable addresses? It can easily cost into the thousands. That can definitely make a big cut in the profitibility of your business!
Here are some ways you can reduce your costs when doing your next mailing while keeping your list current and updated.
To make sure that you are getting a list with accurate addresses, ask about the National Deliverability Index (NDI) of the list. The NDI rates the percentage of addresses in a list that are deliverable. Use the NDI to target the address elements you need to get the delivery —- and postage price —- you want. For example, if you are targeting a specific 5-digit ZIP Code, look for an NDI of 100% for address element.
The United States Post Office provides many ways where you can validate the accuracy of postal addresses.
You can also use www.USPS.com to check zip codes in your list.
You can submit your list directly to the USPS on a printout so they can mark any changes of addresses. There will be a small fee for this service.
You can also run your list through a NCOA approved vendor that can check over your list with special software and make on the spot corrections.
The most important thing is that you should make a conscious effort to ensure all addresses are good. As stated earlier there is so many people and businesses either moving or changing contact information on a daily basis that it is sometime to pay attention to early on in order to save waste and wasted money in the process!
Filed under Arizona mail services, US Postal Service, direct mail, direct mail costs by on Feb 17th, 2010. Comment.
We found a video that explains in easy to understand format, how, writing a word document and using a mail merge function to personalize each sales letter for a direct mail campaign. Watch and enjoy.
Filed under direct mail, printed mail, printing services by on Jan 25th, 2010. Comment.
Direct mail letters are the most effective way to personalize your advertising. This method is very attractive to the person receiving the mail piece. Postcards get glances before they get tossed in the wastebasket, and catalogs usually just get set aside for a time to thumb through that may never come along. Advertising letters are the happy medium that may mean increased sales.
Hand-written touches are the most important thing that attracts attention. First, hand write the addressee’s name. That way the consumer knows you thought of her personally and thought she would enjoy hearing about the product/service or special deal you are offering.
The body of your letter will obviously need to be typed in order to mass produce and insure ease of reading. Take the time to chose a letterhead style that is appealing to the eyes. Use white for the color of the paper and plain text for content, either arial or times roman at 12 point. And of course, a great logo and your business’ contact information.
To close your letter with that personal touch, sign every letter individually. Now, of course if you have extremely large number of letters to go out, there is technology out there that can “recreate” real looking hand written signatures in mass production. You may want to price that out with your printer if they have that option available.
It would also enhance your response if you add a “PS” at the bottom of your letter. Here is where you could add a special offer or thank them for their business…a great business retention technique. It lets the customer know you value them.
In conclusion, always think how to personalize the letter enough to let the customer know you are giving them personal attention and appreciation. After all, isn’t that what we all want?
For your direct mail processing needs call Business Helpers at 480-483-7677. Serving all of Arizona, USA.
Filed under direct mail, direct mail tips by on Jan 15th, 2010. Comment.
We found a great article that Entreprenuer Magazine did on direct mail marketing…..”99 Tips for Direct Mail Marketing”
http://www.entrepreneur.com/marketing/guerillamarketing/article193436.html
This article was brought to you by Business Helpers in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Here is a quick list of services we are able to assist you with.
- Mail List Preparation: Merge/Purge, clean, remove duplicates, CASS certification (ensure accuracy and deliverability), NCOA (updates change of address)
- Mail Processing: Address (directly onto mail piece), collate, stuff, fold, seal, affix wafer seal closures, sort, stamp/meter, bundle for postage discounts, and deliver to the post office. We can accommodate a wide variety of insert and envelope sizes
- Letter Shop Services: Print personalized, high quality laser letters, folding, tabbing, and inserting while accommodating a wide variety of insert and envelope sizes
- Custom Printing: We find the best price and quickest service available through our printing partners
- Hand Assembly: Quality hand assembly (collating, folding, inserting, labeling and addressing) for custom or unusual jobs
Let us make a no obligation quote for your next mailing job. You will notice the difference on the service and attention we provide! We love what we do and looking forward to helping you.
Call us now at 480-483-7677
At this time, we want to wish all of our customers, vendors and visitors a most successful and prosperous new year!
Filed under Arizona mail services, direct mail tips by on Jan 4th, 2010. Comment.
Of course, with the holiday rush, the volume of mailings is going to tax the distribution system even more so this year. As we are still recovering from the recession, private mail distribution companies as well as the good old US Post Office have downsized their staff and equipment.
Warnings always go out to the consumer mail segment to mail early to get delivery in time for the Christmas holidays. This also goes for the businesses at this time of year to mail to their clients and vendors.
Also, be aware of the recipients “attention” span during the holidays. Are you business clients going to notice the business mail that they receive during the month of December? A lot of companies many be shut down for holiday breaks or the recipients are just not in the “mood” to open your mailing during this time. It is important that you know your customer’s mindset at this time of year.
The exception is the customers that depend on your service or product all year long. They are going to open your mail. If it is a product or service that they feel can wait, they will.
From all of us at Business Helpers, we wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!
For your direct mail processing needs call Business Helpers at 480-483-7677. Serving all of Arizona, USA.
Filed under direct mail, mail services by on Dec 23rd, 2009. Comment.
We found the best of the best of a video that truly describes what direct mail marketing is all about. Although this video covers direct mail marketing for printers, the same principles will apply for any type of business.
For those of you who thought you knew, watch this entertaining video and give us your thoughts. Comment back to us by pressing the comment button below.
Direct Mail Marketing in Plain English
Filed under direct mail, direct mail campaign, mail services, targeting your market by on Dec 15th, 2009. Comment.
Here is the 5 most common direct mail mistakes most businesses make.
- Not spending enough time and money on the list. Quite often we throw a direct mail campagin together without a thought to what kind of list we are going to market too. We find out later that the direct mail piece, the message and the call to action was perfect but the list, which we “rushed” to purchase without checking the validity and the integrity of the list broker has let us down. Think more of the list broker and explore the quality of the list and also the types of buyers the list has. Sometimes it could change the direction of what kind of marketing message you are going to plan for if you find another target market ready to buy your product or service.
- TESTING! This is a biggie. More than half of direct mail customers will give us a direct mail campaign to mail out, give us the list and fail to give us some parameters of changing out how the mailing piece looks to test the headline, the direct mail piece design, etc. There are so many things to test, the color of the envelope, size of the piece, the message, making it “lumpy,” and so on. Be a test “junkie” and you will find you will be consistently doubling and tripling the money brought in on a campaign.
- Stress the benefits to the customer in your marketing message as opposed to the features your product or service has. The buying customer does not care about the fancy, schmancy features your product has, as a matter of fact, they do not have the time to listen to how great you are, they want results! What kind of result can you customer achieve by using your product?
- Have an offer. What is a direct mail campaign good for if you do not have an offer. Even just asking for the order in your message is good enough to get you results. Research what kind of offer you are going to make. It has to be compelling and benefit driven.
- Lastly, and most importantly FOLLOW UP with your customer list. I highly suggest you get the phone numbers of all your direct mail prospects too. That way, you can follow up and get a good probablity that you will make sales right on the phone from the mailing. Do not underestimate the power of follow ups!
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, direct mail tips by on Dec 7th, 2009. Comment.
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.