The Strategic e-Blog

Unlike other advertising spaces and spots, you control every aspect of how your direct mail comes across to your customer. Whether you include a little or a lot of information depends on what kind of response you want from the recipients, but there are a few guidelines that ring true for direct mail content.

1. Make sure there is a clear call to action. Do you want qualified recipients to go to your website, come to your store during a sale or call to order? Whatever response you want, it needs to be clearly stated so they know how to proceed, which is the purpose of the call to action. For longer mailers, include the call to action three times within the text.
2. Write your content to appeal to your target audience. Direct mail campaigns are the most successful when you have clearly laid out who you’re marketing to and what they need. If you don’t speak to their needs, prospects won’t respond.
3. Don’t make your mailer just a block full of text. Use headlines, bullet points and numbered lists to make it easy to read and digest. Don’t make all the paragraphs the same length or they will be skipped. Be concise and clear and your audience will respond.
4. Add a deadline to any special offers. If you know you can get 50% off a particular service any time of the year, when will you call to actually buy? Probably never.

The biggest tip of all: Give all the necessary information! This may sound redundant, but it is amazing how much crucial information gets left out of mailers or is incorrect. Want recipients to go to your website? Provide the web address. Want them to call? Include the phone number and triple check that it’s correct. If you want customers to send in a mail order, include all the product information they’ll need to make a decision and include the order form.

The final look and feel of your direct mail content will depend on what your business does and who it serves, but putting in due diligence is what will make it a success.

Direct mail, a.k.a. “snail mail” has lost much of its luster over the past ten years. We are all quite familiar with the issues the U.S. Postal Service is facing due to a precipitous drop in the volume of mail, much of which has been replaced by email and online banking. Every sizable company now offers online bill pay, as do most banks. In 1980, the advertising mail delivered to a residence or business comprised 29% of the total. In 2010, it exceeded 50% for the first time.

It seems counter intuitive that direct mail advertising could possibly still be relevant. On the contrary, when you think about it, one of the upsides of less mail in the box is less competition for the reader’s attention. Consider the volume of spam email that shows up in most people’s inbox each day, unimpeded by browser filters. And, think about how often you just send those to the trash file, without even considering opening them. For whatever reason, we are much more inclined to open physical mail for a cursory glance than its digital counterpart.

The swing of the pendulum may now be heading back towards direct mail. Just some of the benefits of direct mail that the Internet cannot accomplish include:

• The physical connection. We are much more likely to retain a mailed coupon, for example, than to print one off and cut it out.
• The ability to target customers based upon income, age, profession, location, and buying habits.
• Direct mail offers different packaging options – letter, postcard, or brochure.
• Results are easily tracked with coupon codes or dedicated direct mail phone response lines.
• The ability to personalize addresses.
• Advertising mail provides an inexpensive way to test market prices, offers, and specific audiences.

Certainly no responsible marketing professional will ever advocate dropping Internet marketing entirely in favor of direct mail. But, knowledgeable professionals widely assert that direct mail can provide a number of unique benefits as part of a well-rounded campaign.

Here are some recommendations if you are considering the addition of an ad mail campaign:

1. Convey a clear message. Readers have to “get it” within just a few seconds.
2. Mailing lists that enable direct access to your specific target market are essential and worth the cost.
3. Use only quality graphics and design. Great software is readily available.
4. Track all mailings with promotional codes.
5. Provide some sort of offer in the way of a product discount or other incentive.
6. Establish a deadline to motivate response.
7. Provide easy and free response tools, with a prepaid return envelope or online registration.

Many companies that have shied away from direct mail campaigns are beginning to revisit the process. Even at the minimum bulk rate price of about 15 cents per ounce, the costs are higher than email. But, the response rate is significantly better and the environment is more conducive to getting your message across.