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Creating a successful direct mail campaign can be a beneficial marketing tactic allowing businesses to more accurately identify and develop their target audience. The key to success is not just about creating visually engaging mail content; it needs to be founded upon market analysis and measurable objectives. If you’re planning for a direct mail campaign, here’s what you need to consider:
Even if your direct mail campaign looks impressive, it won’t drive the results you desire if it is not addressed to the right audience at the right time. To give you the best chance of engaging your target market, you’ll need to understand who your target market is and how you will be serving their needs. Create specific, measurable and achievable objectives for your mail campaign and then thoroughly check that your mailing list – the people you’ll be sending it to - corresponds with what you want to achieve. Your existing customers will be the most promising resource to target as they already have an interest in your business; there’ll be no need to spend more money and efforts identifying and acquiring new ones. Ensure that your mailing list is as up to date as possible however as this is an easy way to lose valuable custom.
Once you have a clearer idea of who you want to target, segmenting your mailing data will enable you to better direct messages to people according to their specific profiles or behaviours. Splitting up your data into categories based on factors such as location, gender, response levels or buying patterns, you can acquire new mailing lists for prospects that fit those categories for higher response rates. This is a much more targeted approach that will help you personalise your marketing efforts and better evaluate response rates for more tailored campaigns in future.
There are many mailing formats with different advantages: an addressed mailshot posted normally allows for a wider coverage and is personalised for the recipient. For a more targeted area or to give you additional use for the mailshot, you could choose to exclude names and addresses and opt for a door-to-door delivery. Your approach may be based upon trial and error, so it’s best to be strategic and stagger your campaign to allow you room to try out different approaches and better handle your responses.
Your mailshot will need to be clear and concise, delivering a consistent, specific brand message and a compelling call to action. Making sure your direct mail campaign is personalised and printed to a high quality will strongly influence your audience’s interaction. Be sure to include all channels where recipients can reply to you, whether through your website, social media accounts, email, telephone or mail.
What added value can you provide for customers through your direct mail campaign? Offering incentives such as discounts, offers and giving them opportunities to enter competitions, giveaways or newsletter signups, will also help to increase further interaction beyond direct sales. You could also supply a pre-paid reply envelope to encourage direct response.
Tracking the costs of the campaign in relation to response rates is key to direct mail marketing success. This way you can calculate the cost per response, from an enquiry through to a sale, and streamline further mailshots for better results. A great idea is to test out different campaigns with different mail groups and then focus on the campaign that got the highest response rate. Analysing who responded to the mailer will also help you build stronger relationships with them and identify new areas for engagement. Analysing and evaluating your mail campaigns against your objectives should be a continual process which will improve your marketing strategy across all customer touchpoints.
