Five Steps To Help Improve Your Direct Mail Campaigns

Even with the recent increases in postage rates, direct mail still remains one of the most affordable and effective options for a company in their marketing and advertising campaigns. In comparison to other forms of traditional marketing like TV, radio and publication advertising that can cost thousands of dollars, that only reaches a select group of people, and often requires multiple repetitions before a message is even noticed, direct mail marketing has a much lower cost per impression, and can be targeted to your exact demographic.

While direct mail marketing has many benefits over other forms of marketing and advertising, it has come under fire in recent years as being less effective and having a lower ROI than it has in the past. Some of this can be attributed to the over saturation of direct mail, thus people have become desensitized to it, but for the most part, the loss of effectiveness lies within the fundamentals of the direct mail campaign itself.

If your company is using direct mail and seeing a decrease in response and lower ROI, or if you are a company that has never used direct mail or has discontinued direct mail because of it’s perceived ineffectiveness, now is a perfect time to add direct mail back into your marketing and advertising strategies.

In a recent report from Dean Rieck at Direct Creative Blog (directcreativeblog.com), Dean states that, “…the reports of direct mail’s demise are greatly exaggerated,” and “Despite all the new media opportunities, people are beginning to realize that Twitter, Facebook, email, blogs, and other innovations are not delivering the stunning results promised. In fact, many are now waking up from their dream of a paperless marketing world and asking, “Where are the sales?” Ultimately Dean goes on to say, “What people are discovering is that traditional media, including direct mail, still work. That includes the big direct mail piece.

Now, the big direct mail piece might not be what your company requires, but Dean’s point is that direct mail is not dead, and that right now, with everyone so focused on digital and social media, right now is the perfect time to reenter the direct mail game.

It is important to note that with direct mail, just like any other marketing and advertising campaigns your company uses, a little planning is important in order to truly get the best results and most success out of it. In other words, you can just throw something out there and hope that the results are to your satisfaction or surpass your expectations. In planning your direct mail it is important to fully understand how to apply the 5 R’s of direct mail to your campaign and design.

Below is a guide that uses the 5 R’s that you can apply to all your direct mail campaigns. By walking through this each time as you plan your direct mail campaign you can have confidence in knowing that you are executing the fundamentals that will help you maximize the ROI of your direct mail.

1. Revisit your entire marketing strategy: You undoubtedly have a marketing strategy in place for this specific direct mail campaign or at minimum have one in place for your global marketing agenda. Take a few minutes to go back over that plan and determine if the piece you want to send out fits within the parameters of the strategy or goals. If it does, move on, if it doesn’t then determine what adjustments need to be made so that is does.

2. Review past direct mail list metrics: It is important to know what works and what doesn’t. For instance, if you have used full color envelope printing in your past campaigns and found that it increases response, then it is probably good idea to continue using them. By keeping close watch of the various metrics, you can quickly determine key and secondary components of the direct mail piece that should be used each and every time.

3. Refresh your in-house mailing list: While this is often an ongoing process, it never hurts to review your mailing list for errors. Believe it or not, many companies simply export a master mail list that they use for long periods of time. They fail to consider that new customers might have been added, or old customers might have gone out of business or moved. Even worse, many companies just add names to the list as they come in; often this can lead to duplicate entries on a mail list. Ignoring the need to refresh your mail list is the number one reason costs go up and response goes down on direct mail.

4. Reach out to new recipients: Once you have refreshed your in-house list, determine if there is potential to reach out to individuals that aren’t yet customers. Maybe you’ve determined there is a demographic of customers that your product or service is perfectly suited for, or maybe there is a geographic area that would benefit from knowing about your company. If you find that there is a group that won’t be reached with the direct mail piece you are sending out, consider purchasing a list from a mail list company. Most mail list companies can supply a list to you that is based on your exact needs and parameters at a very affordable price.

5. Revamp your message: If starting a new direct mail campaign, don’t settle for the first draft of the design and content. If you are continuing with an existing piece, look at it again and see if there is anything that you would change in the design or message. Often a few small tweaks can make all the difference in your direct mail piece’s effectiveness. This is also the perfect time to consider adding additional elements to your direct mail. Including items like a coupon or personalized note can make a huge impact on the response you see from direct mail. Also, if your direct mail piece is sized to fit in an envelope, then consider inserting it into one. It may seem like a small thing, but adding and envelope is a great way to provide additional information and has been shown to improve response rates. Best of all, envelope printing is very affordable, so the additional cost for print envelopes has a minor impact on the cost per direct mail piece.

Overall, it is important that you are continuously looking and testing different ways that you can improve the effectiveness of your direct mail pieces. While each of the above steps might seem redundant overtime, if you follow them each and every time you do a direct mail campaign you will ensure that you are maximizing the effectiveness of the campaign.

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