Adding Direct Mail to Your Marketing Strategy

Direct Mail Marketing - An Overview

Direct mail is a marketing strategy used to engage prospects and customers with printed mailers, dimensional packages, swag, or other items. It’s used by all types of marketers, including inbound and outbound sales teams, marketing departments, and recruiters.

Why It Works

It’s memorable. Digital marketing just can’t replace the human touch of a handwritten note or physical gift.
Better response rates. The tactile engagement of direct mail marketing can have a response rate that’s 30x higher than digital methods like email.
Less Competition. Fewer and fewer businesses are committing any of their marketing budget to tactile marketing.
More Creativity. The possibilities are limitless in the ways you can delight the recipients of this type of marketing campaign, from personalized gifts and swag items to sweet treats and gift cards.

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Direct Mail Marketing and the Customer Lifecycle

So, how does direct mail marketing fit into your existing marketing funnel? Even if you’re already running targeted PPC ads, attending industry events, and creating the marketing materials to guide your prospect through the decision-making process, you can use direct mail to complement those processes.

Keys to a Successful Direct Mail Marketing Campaign

Make your offer worthwhile. Personalize your offer whenever possible and make a very clear call to action so that the recipient knows what to expect when they respond.
Create a quality mailing list. Your efforts will fall short if your list isn’t good. This is also true with digital marketing strategies. If the people on your list aren’t ideal matches for your products or services, they won’t be receptive to your offer.
Design irresistible packaging. The thing that gets most people to open a direct mailer is the packaging. If your design is clean and easy to read with a clear and easy to find call to action, you’ll get far better results.
Track the results of your campaigns. It will be impossible to know if your campaign is successful if you’re not tracking your results. Incorporate trackable phone numbers, coupon codes, QR codes, and URLs so you can see what’s working and what’s not.

Creating a Direct Mail Campaign

Direct mail might feel like a bit of an outdated marketing strategy but it can be surprisingly effective.
Sure, it lacks the glitz and dazzle of a digital marketing campaign, but as the email inboxes of the world have exploded with offers, marketers have found that targeted direct mail can deliver many advantages that companies once enjoyed from online marketing.

Define Your Goals

Some business goals that direct mail can help to achieve are:
- Generating leads
- Increasing sales
- Improving customer retention

Some challenges you could address with a direct mail marketing campaign could be:
- Brand recognition
- Repairing business perception
- Introducing new products or services
- Filling gaps in revenue generation

Create a Mailing List

In order to have a successful direct mail campaign, you’ll need a mailing list to send your offer to. You have two list options: you can rent a list or you can build your own.
Renting mailing lists can be rather expensive, especially since you have to re-rent the list each time you want to use it

The list that you create or your house list, will outperform a rented list every time but that doesn’t mean rented lists don’t also have their place.

Personalize Your Offer

Anytime a prospect holds your direct mail offer in their hands is an opportunity to make a connection with them. You have their full attention for a few fleeting seconds to communicate your brand and offer. The best way to get them interested right away is by personalizing your offer.

Add the prospects name. By including their name, it makes your piece feel more welcoming to the recipient, like it was custom made just for them.
Personalized QR code. When a prospect sees a personalized QR code, it feels like a special invitation exclusively for them.
Personalized URLs. Getting an offer with your website URL is not nearly as enticing as a URL that says “yourwebsite.com/JohnDoe”.
Personalized offer. Make a great offer even more enticing by including the prospect’s name or location.
Location imagery. Tie your offer to a landmark or image familiar to the recipient to create an instant connection.

Order and Stock Your Items

You have to make a decision about the swag or marketing items you are going to send to your recipients. There are a lot of options and even more options when it comes to ordering your items. Do some research, check online reviews, and then place your order.

Creating an Ongoing Direct Mail Strategy

The key to success of a direct mail marketing strategy is to keep it going through your sales funnel. Just executing a one-off will bog down your teams, waste marketing budgets, and bust your ROI.

Send your direct mail and gifting touch points throughout the customer journey. As your customer moves through your funnel, your gifting and direct mail efforts can work together with your digital marketing efforts.
Build your target personas. Knowing your target market is the basis for any successful marketing campaign.
Segment audiences. An important facet of your strategy, whether you’re creating a digital or direct mail campaign, is segmenting your audience according to the buying stage they are in and the goals you’re trying to achieve.
Know the outcomes that will define a successful campaign. When planning your campaign, it’s important to understand the definitions that make it successful.
Regularly audit your database. Frequently auditing your database will help avoid wasting time and money sending direct mail packages to outdated or incorrect contacts.

Copywriting

One of the most important aspects of a successful direct mail marketing campaign is the copy, or the words, on your piece.

Get to Know Your Target Audience

Learning the needs and wants of your target audience is key to creating compelling copy that engages them and motivates them to act.

Analyze your existing house list. Look for common patterns and habits among your existing customers.
Consult with your staff. The employees who deal directly with customers or prospects may have insight they can provide into what your customers wants and needs are.
Surveys. Contact current customers for their feedback about whether you’re meeting their needs.

When you know what your audience is looking for in terms of benefits from your product or service, you can emphasize that in your copy. Your copy should always be benefit focused.

Consider the Format You’re Using for Direct Mail

Before you start writing anything, you first need to know which direct mail format you’ll be using. Formats include things like postcards, envelope mailers, brochures, circulars, catalogs, etc. The format will dictate the amount of copy you can fit and the types of elements you can use.

Attention Grabbing Headlines

One of the most essential, must-have elements of any direct mail piece are the headlines and subheads. Some people who receive your item are only going to scan for these elements so they need to grab them and compel them to read more.

Be concise. If you want to get your prospect interested in your piece, try to keep headlines and subheads short and sweet.
Boast benefits. The greatest headline highlights your best benefit. If you’ve done your research about your audience, you should know what will likely grab their attention.
Ask a question. A great way to engage your audience is by asking a question with your headlines or subheads.

Clearly and Concisely Explain Your Benefits

Another key feature of writing direct mail copy is effectively explaining the benefits of your product or service to the prospect. In order to accomplish this, you first need to know the difference between a benefit and a feature.

Put the benefit at the beginning of the sentence. For example, instead of saying “Our makeup gives you a flawless finish” you could say “Flawless skin is what our makeup will give you.”
Invoke their emotions. Many times, purchases are made based on emotions rather than logic.
Avoid jargon or lingo. Try to keep your copy at an understandable 6th grade level. That being said, if your audience is more informed about the industry, for example in B2B marketing, you can get a little more technical with your language.

Keep Paragraph Copy Short

Always remember that the audience wants to know what’s in it for them.

Each idea should have its own paragraph. Having multiple ideas within the same paragraph can be confusing and quickly lose the reader’s attention.
Keep the paragraphs short. Generally, paragraphs shouldn’t be any longer than 3-4 lines. Nothing will lose the reader’s interest faster than large blocks of text. A good rule of thumb is for white space to make up a little less than half of your piece.
Tell your story. If your product or service has a great backstory, tell the reader about it in your copy to grab their attention and keep them interested.

Create an Irresistible Offer

Be engaging. Make things interesting by using words like “free.” This will help to get prospects excited about the great deal you’re offering.
Time sensitive. It’s important to create a sense of urgency with your offer. Motivating prospects properly will have them rushing to take advantage.
Zero risk. Creating a risk-free offer will make your prospect feel comfortable about purchasing. Be transparent about the process and make sure they know what to expect.

Make the Call-To-Action Obvious

Make it effortless. Compelling a prospect to take action may seem easy but there is a science to it. You want the reader to feel like they will have to exert little-to-no effort to take advantage.
Only one CTA per piece. You can repeat your CTA multiple times on your piece but don’t use several different CTAs. Your piece should include one specific CTA so that it’s very clear to the prospect what they need to do next.
Be concise and specific. Your CTA should be specific and easy to understand while using as few words as possible.

Tracking Your Campaigns

One of the most important parts of your campaign is assessing your results.
- Was the campaign worth the money and time you spent executing it?
- If you did an A/B test, which one had better results?
- Which mailing list had more responses?
A dedicated URL/landing page and/or phone line will let you know exactly how many leads or orders came from your direct mail campaign.
Add a tracking code or coupon code on the mail piece for customers to use when they respond.

Using QR Codes

A QR code is a 2-D barcode that, when scanned by the recipient’s smartphone camera, can open a webpage or perform other actions like making a phone call or signing up for an event. As you’ve learned previously, the less effort your prospect has to put into your offer, the more likely they are to respond.

Here are 7 things you can achieve by placing a QR code on your direct mail piece:

Create smarter direct-mail campaigns. Using a QR code instantly elevates your direct mail piece to allow access to your prospects using the latest technology.

Create digital coupons. Adding a QR code coupon to your direct response piece allows you to add discounts or offers for a limited time period or one-time redemption.

Provides customers a way to reach you. Your customers want to be heard – especially if there’s a problem or they need help. This can turn into a PR nightmare when they air their grievances on social media.

Use QR code marketing to engage customers. The touchpoint nature of direct mail marketing leaves an imprint on the brain. Using QR codes, you can make the experience even more engaging for the prospect.

Increase ROI with a retargeting campaign. Retargeting campaigns have a much higher click-through rate than display ads and retargeting also helps to reinforce brand image. Buyers are more likely to make a purchase from a familiar brand.

Make your campaign more dynamic. QR codes are highly customizable, not just physically but also by means of reusing or re-purposing them for alternate uses.
Use QR codes to share digital media. Instead of spending a lot of time and possibly money to write a lot of copy for a new product launch or upcoming event, try using a QR code linked to a video message.

Add Direct Mail to Your Marketing Strategy

Adding direct mail to your marketing strategy can help you to rise above the noise of the digital marketing that consumers are currently barraged with. This can help you to be more engaging to your prospects and increase your ROI.