To beat the recession small business owners are banding together “Buy local” campaigns to encourage consumers and businesses to buy local at independents —the neighborhood café, independent bookseller, or boutique grocery store.   Direct Mail Marketing is an effective marketing tactic that can be used by most small businesses to urge local consumers, large businesses, governments, universities, and hospitals to spend more of their dollars closer to home.

Direct mail is the delivery of advertising material to recipients via postal mail. Direct mail companies can design marketing pieces in many different formats including advertising circulars, catalogs, CDs, “pre-approved” credit card applications, and other commercial merchandising materials that can be delivered to both homes and businesses. It may be addressed to pre-selected individuals, or unaddressed and delivered on a neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood basis.

Advantages Of Direct Mail Marketing:

1. Targeting – The critical aspect of direct mail is its ability to precisely target customers. For many industries, direct mail is the primary means of acquiring new customers. The small business rents mailing lists which most closely match the psychographic and demographic profiles of its current customers. These can be further filtered by several criteria such as previous purchases of similar products, financial information (e.g. household income) and how frequently the person purchases — factors referred to as RFM for “recency, frequency, monetary”.
2. Personalization – Direct mail can address the customers directly and be tailored to their needs based on previous behavior and history. Variable information based commercial printing enables personalization of imagery as well as marketing message and personal information (such as name, address or zipcode). For example, all female recipients of an offer can receive a personalized package with a man’s picture on the cover, while all mail recipients receive a picture of a woman.
3. Optimization – Direct mail can be tested to find the best mailing list and the best creative writing or design. Then the best results achieved from the initial test can be rolled out to a wider audience.
4. Measurability - With source codes, the performance of lists can be measured by measuring the Return on Investment (ROI) on the direct mail campaigns. Without a positive ROI, a marketer should make changes to the direct mail campaign in order to improve results with the next direct mailing.

Direct Mail Advocates claim the following results:

1. Efficient use of advertising and marketing budgets
2. Highly targeted and personalized
3. Response can be easily measured
4. Easy to predict Return on investment (ROI) based on past performance
5. Can be creative with information creating entertainment value to attract new customers
6. 87% of customers are either “very” or “quite” satisfied with the products they buy through direct mail

Here are some key tricks on how to direct mail to achieve desired results:

Address the needs of your target customers

Direct mail should identify and address the needs of your target customers. This is only possible if you understand your target customers’ needs well. The customers should be abel to immediately connect and relate with the direct mail message.

Stay on Message

The primary message of the direct mail should be highlighted right from the start to grab the reader’s attention. Customers will not read the complete direct mail piece if the main point of the message is not clear right from the beginning.

Highlight Your  Advantage and Benefits

The direct mail should focus on the advantages and benefits your product or service will bring to the customer, rather than the features. The customer wants to know “What’s in it for me?”

Personalize the direct mail campaign

Personalization makes customers feel warm and fuzzy. Use first names to address the customer in your direct mail campaign, refer to a previous purchase. These personal touches make the customer feel special.

Include a call to action

The objective of direct mail is to initiate an action that will ultimately lead to a sale. The direct mail should include a clear call to action such as visiting the store, calling a number, filling a form or taking an ation to qualify for a promotion etc.

Have a deadline

The call to action can be made more urgent by including a deadline for a promotion such as a special discount, “2 for 1″ purchase or buy 1 get 1 free. If the customers are interested in your product or service, the deadline can spur them to take an action immediately.

Simplicity is important

Direct mails should be simple and easy to understand. Avoid jargon and fancy words at all costs. Stick to the point and keep it simple for all your customers to understand what you have to offer and its benefits.

Less is better

Do not make the promotional direct mail message long and verbose.  Most people do not enjoy reading lengthy direct mail letters. Your direct mail message should not exceed 3 sentences. This ensures that your customers will read it and it will also save direct mail costs.

Provide pre-paid postage

If the direct mail needs a response through postage mail, it is advisable to include per-paid postage so it is convenient for customers to respond to your direct mail campaign. Customers can get put off and may forget to send their response if they need to pay for stamps or visit the post office before mailing it.

Include customer testimonials

Use customer testimonials in your direct mail campaign to add credibility to your direct mail message. References from customers are an acknowledgement of your products or services advantage and benefits.

Repeat the call to action

Repeat the call to action at the end of the direct mail message to emphasize and trigger an immediate call to action.

Small businesses can follow these guidelines to create a succesful direct mail to generate new revenue streams. Direct mail is also an effective marketing strategy for introductory promtional offers when launching a new product or service in the market.

Tags: direct mail

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