You have likely heard before that”print is dead”. On the other hand, the data demonstrates otherwise. Not only are individuals almost 4x more inclined to open direct mail versus email (Epsilon), the direct mail response rate has actually increased because 2010 (DMA). This means that when done , direct email is a superb way to increase revenue for your business.
One popular way to do direct mail advertising is by conducting a postcard campaign. Cardigent designs, prints, and delivers your business postcards directly to mailboxes in targeted places for as low as 19 cents per card. Click here to visit Cardigent so that you may create new customers and decrease your purchase expenses.
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Is Direct Mail Marketing Right For Your Small Business?
It’s likely that direct email will work for your business if you employ it the appropriate way. Many entrepreneurs these days are focused on online advertising, however it has been demonstrated that individuals feel that a deeper connection to advertising that is bodily, such as direct email.
Plus, unlike email marketing, which most find annoying, folks actually enjoy getting direct mail. Among U.S. respondents, 59% stated they enjoy receiving postal mail from manufacturers, and 70% believe that mail is more private than the net (Epsilon).
Which Kind of Direct Mail Piece is Best?
The very first step to making your direct mail piece is deciding which kind of mailer you want to ship. Will it be a standard letter? Postcard? Physical item (also referred to as dimensional)? 
Based on research from the Information and Marketing Association, the response rate is typically higher for oversized envelopes versus letter-sized mailers. While you may be tempted to decide on the kind with the highest response speed, you constantly wish to weigh the cost over the returns.
Which is right for you is going to depend on a few Distinct factors:
- Just how much you’re willing to spend — For instance, oversized mailers and catalogs will not just be more expensive to print and design, they are also more expensive to ship because they are heavier. We discuss more about costs below.
- The character of your product or service — If you sell a more severe product (like insurance), a correspondence may be more appropriate. If it’s more fun, you can make a colorful and eye-catching compilation.
- Who you are selling to — You won’t have to give as much info about your company to past clients. If it is a typical renewal, you are able to get away with an easy letter. New customers may require a bigger brochure so that they can learn more about you.
If you wish to test out more expensive direct mail pieces, check it out first on a bigger and more concentrated group so that you can quantify how well it converts before sending it out into a wider audience. You could also look at adding something physical in the mailer.
“If your direct mail has something that feels strong or is bulging from the envelope, the conversion rate goes far up, as we people are very curious animals. We will need to understand what’s in the package.” — Amandeep Singh, Comparism
How to Write Direct Mail Copy That Converts
You would like to have a single purpose for the direct mail piece. Often times the objective of a direct mail campaign is to get the receiver to buy a product or use an agency. Other goals can be to send visitors to your site, get people to enter a competition, or let people know about an upcoming event. Understanding your goal can help you formulate exactly what you would like the direct mail piece to say. In addition, you will need to think about what the recipient stands to gain in the correspondence.
Once you have a handle on what people want, it’s time to write straight to that need. We predict that persuasive content”copy” If you are writing your copy, it is a fantastic idea to follow a time-tested principle: AIDA.
AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. We’ll break down it with all the example under a delivery food service
Instance of great direct mail piece from Autopilot
Attention
The very first thing you have to do in your backup is catch a individual’s attention. A great way to catch attention is with an image. People are extremely visual, and also an image of a cute animal, attractive person or delicious looking food (such as in this example) is a good means to get this done.
Interest
Interest comes next and it is where you discuss your client’s issue and then present your company as the solution. Do not get too wordy, but have a general strategy on how your company can help that individual.
Sprig does a great job with this. By saying”Delivered faster than you cook,” they are pointing out the problem (how much time it takes to grocery shop for supper ) and the solution (delivering all ingredients for your door).
Desire
If you’ve captured the reader’s attention this far, now is time for some serious selling. Take care not to simply list attributes. You want to share the advantages of your product or service. For example, Sprig says that they’re easy, fresh and quick.
Action
Once you’ve given your customers a reason (or several motives ) to consider you, it’s time to drive them to actions. What would you like for them to do? Maybe you’d want to allow them to stop by shortly or about a particular date, or set an appointment? Lead them to the very next step that must happen as soon as they cease reading your mail.
Sprig completes this step by placing the call to action”maintain your $15 off,” in the base of the postcard. This provides recipients a reason to go order today with their recently obtained coupon code.
3 Added Tips When Making Your Direct Mail Piece
Who To Deal With Your Direct Mail Campaign
Now that you have your design ready to go, you need to make your mailing list. You’ve got a two Distinct options :
1. Goal Your Present Clients
For many companies it’s far more cost effective to increase the business that you’re doing with existing customers, than it would be to obtain a wholly new customer. The fact that your existing customers have already bought from you means they understand who you are, and have already trusted you enough to do business with you.
Sending them direct mail can be a terrific way to keep your company top of mind, and receive them back for repeat sales.
Construction Your In House Direct Mail List
To be able to send direct mail to your existing clients, you may need their speech and a way to store that information so it’s easily accessible. If your customers are purchasing online, then you will have their speech as part of the transaction.
Firms that deal with people in person must find a bit more creative. Here are some ideas on how to capture the address:
- Request when they checkout when they’d like to leave their address for special deals and coupons.
- Create a loyalty program
- Run a competition
- Request speech for things like appointment booking, bookings, and guarantees.
- Have an event and request speech to attend
As soon as you’ve their information you’ll need a means to store it. We recommend Insightly CRM for this objective. For more information on Insightly read our post comparing the very best CRM software.
2. Target New Customers
Should you decide you want to test targeting new clients who have never purchased from you earlier, you want to make certain you’re strategic about it.
The best way to work out who to send to would be to think about the qualities of your present customers. If you are a brand new company what you believe your ideal client will appear to be:
- Where do they reside
- What are their pursuits
- What Kinds of things do they buy
- Income degree
- Gender
- Age
- Political leanings
- Spiritual beliefs
Once you’ve an understanding of who your customer is then you can explore acquiring a mailing list that includes that kind of client.
How to Acquire a Third Party Mailing List
The simplest way to send direct mail is utilizing the USPS Each Door Direct Mail Service. This allows you to send to each address in a target area without having to know the names or addresses of the recipients.
The downside of Each Door Direct Mail Service is that, aside from the positioning of the recipient, you do not know anything else about them. If you’d like to be able to additional target the recipients based on other aspects, then you are going to have to rent a third party mailing list. There are a number of places where you can go to buy third party list that is tailored to your specific need. Experian, DirectMail, and InfoUSA being some of the more popular choices.
How To Use Direct Mail Marketing Strategically
In order to find the best return on investment with direct email marketing, it’s important to have a strategy in place. Here are a few things you want to consider:
Consistency
“To be effective direct mail demands consistency. One and done campaigns have a higher failure rate.” —Â Randy Mitchelson, iPartnerMedia, Inc..
Just like with any other form of advertising, you will need to hit people with your message more than once so as to maximize effectiveness. Your initial send may pique their interest, but folks are getting email at the same time they are becoming home, and are confronting many distractions. By consistently sending marketing messages, you increase the chance that they’ll convert.
Targeting
Who you target is a significant facet of direct mail marketing. You will want to target unique classes to see which viewer is most receptive to direct mail pieces. Although some might think that elderly people are more likely to purchase from direct email, studies reveal that millennials are equally as, or even more excited to obtain this kind of advertising.
Multi-Channel Marketing
This usually means hitting people with your marketing message through multiple marketing channels in a quick time period.
“I am
a big believer at the intersection of online and offline marketing and this may be a big win with direct mail advertising. If it is possible to supply users with a powerful enough incentive to see your website then after that you can integrate follow up approaches like remarketing and email nurturing. As marketers we must attempt to break the wall down between conventional advertising and electronic as often that intersection is where the best results are.”
— Marcus Miller, Bowler Hat
Just how Much Does Direct Mail Marketing Cost?
Direct mail costs anywhere from 30 cents to over $10 per individual based on how much you really spend on design, marketing copy, mailing lists, printing, and distribution. You may not have to cover all of them, however you’ll have to cover at least printing and mailing.
By way of instance, if you use Vistaprint’s direct mail support, the cost to print and mail 2,000 full colour postcards for your own mailing list would be about $950.
Belowwe discuss every cost element.
Design Costs ($0 — $100)
You have a few different options when it comes to designing your direct mail piece:
- Can it yourself — If you just need something simple, like a renewal letter, you should be able to write up something in Microsoft Word, or design something at no cost on Canva.
- Use a template — A good place to find templates is really on Graphic River. These templates cost approximately $10 on average.
- Hire an expert — If you want some help creating a creative design, selecting an expert is another option. The cheapest place to locate someone is to a freelance site such as Fiverr or even Upwork.
Marketing Copy Prices ($0 — $100)
Marketing copy is the persuasive content that is on your direct mail piece. You are able to write this yourself, or hire a copywriter to set a salesy twist on matters. Copywriters are trained to write content that grabs the reader’s attention and entices them to buy products and services.
Should you decide to hire a professional to write your content, we recommend again utilizing Upwork. You ought to be able to find somebody there for about $100.
Mailing Lists Costs ($0 — $0.30 / record)
You can get free mailing lists by using information which you have on your present customers, or by performing a trade of your data with another business.
Otherwise, you will have to cover between .02-.30 pennies per record. The price will vary based on the quality of the data, how many documents you purchase, and the number of times you can send to the record.
Printing Costs ($0.03 — $2.00 / person)
Printing prices will vary based on the following variables:
- Black and white vs. color
- Paper caliber
- Paper size
- 1 sided vs. 2 sided
- Number of pages
- Quantity
The price of 1,000 double sided full color postcards will probably cost you approximately 22 cents per watt at PSPrint. It is possible to pay a visit to an internet printing company to learn the exact price for the type of printing you need to do.
Distribution Prices ($0.25 — $2.00 / bit )
The last price consideration you need to remember is mailing prices. The price varies, based on the present rate of postage, the quantity of mail you send, and also to what degree your email weighs.
Adhering to the same amount of 5000, your mailing costs will be:
- For postcards: The speed is between.25cents to .34cents.
- For brochures and letters under 3.5 oz: The speed is between .38cents to .44cents.
If you’re sending a physical thing, price depends on weight. The cost to ship a mug, as an example, will be approximately $2.
How To Quantify Results
The final step in completing an effective direct mail campaign is measuring success. While noticing that sales increased throughout the time you were running the campaign, or that lots of people used the voucher code that has been in your postcard provides a fantastic thumb in the atmosphere estimate, it’s important to get a better grasp on just how much earnings came directly from sending direct mail.
“It’s essenti
al that your direct-mail campaign plan includes a reasonable approach to track responses. Otherwise if your ultimate aims are satisfied, the point to which your direct-mail campaign was that the reason can only be theorized.
— Simon A. Thalmann
Assessing if offline marketing efforts are successful is considerably more difficult than measuring online efforts. However, there are a couple of tactics you can use.
Contain a Discount Code or Coupon
Include a discount code in your direct mail that’s unique to the effort. This way you’ll be able to monitor any online sales that came from your promotion. If the deal is to get an in-store service or product, include a coupon which people are able to earn. This is a simple way to monitor company that comes out of your own ad.
Use a Vanity URL
You can send people to your landing page on your website that has a URL that is particular to your direct email campaign. Then you’ll want your own vanity URL to redirect to a tracking URL. Sadly, this will just be a handy measure of succeeding if you’re trying to drive traffic to your site. To understand how to do this, view this white paper by Brian Clifton describing ways to monitor offline marketing. You may purchase your vanity URL here.
Example of a postcard using vanity URL
Use a Phone Tracking Number
It’s possible to create a number that is different from your daily number. If someone calls your company using the tracking number which you use on your ad, you will know that they learned about you in the direct mail piece. Learn how to set this up here.
Request Your Clients
If you can consult with customers one-on-one, ask any new customers how they heard about you. This may be trickier if you have a restaurant or clothes shop since you won’t be able to monitor each client to ask how they heard about you. In these instances, consider asking customers to take a survey on each receipt. Offer an incentive (coupon, reduction, etc.) to increase the chances that people will actually fill it out.
By having a general idea of how much revenue is coming from your direct email campaigns, you are going to learn if you should continue with this type of advertising, or in the event that you should shift your efforts to other forms of advertising.
Bottom Line
Direct email marketing is a superb way for small companies to market their products or services. Have you recently done a successful direct mail campaign? Let us know in the comments section below!
Ready to begin with direct mail, but don’t have the time to handle the active work? You can use a direct email service which will print, stamp and email all your letters. Click here to go to Cardigent and spare yourself some precious time with your next mass mailing.
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