If you’re not sure if your direct mail marketing campaigns are successful, try following these simple steps to ensure that your next direct mail campaign is making the impression you want and converting your audience.
Are your direct mail marketing campaigns successful?
While conducting successful direct mail marketing campaigns may seem simple, a proper direct mail campaign is strategic and consistently conducted over a long period of time. Like with any marketing campaign, the first step to a successful direct mail marketing campaign is to determine your target audience. When you identify your target audience before you begin your campaign you’ll not only streamline your efforts, but you’ll also have a foundation to begin designing your campaign materials and tailor your message.
Try segmenting your lists between clients and prospects. This will help you create the best design for people you’ve already converted and people you wish to convert. This will also help you use the best wording to keep existing customers and gain potential customers. Now that you have your target audience in mind, let’s look at the other steps of a successful direct mail marketing campaign.
Create Your Message
After you have properly defined your target audience and segmented them into existing customers and prospective customers, the next step is to create the messages you wish to send to these groups.
Every marketing campaign requires you to fully understand your audience and a direct mail campaign is no different. Having a clear understanding of your audience is the best way to shape your campaign messaging and it will also allow you to tie in specific marketing and sales objectives. The better you know and understand your audience, the better your direct mail campaign will work.
Design Marketing Materials
No matter what sort of marketing materials you wish to send out for your direct mail campaign, the design of these materials is extremely important. It’s essential to remember that you only get one chance to make a first impression so make sure your design fits the personality of your brand and will make your audience want to read and engage with your message. Try making your direct mail marketing materials stand out from the crowd and make them interesting. It is essential to grab the attention of your audience but make sure your direct mail marketing materials are professional and that they don’t offend or negatively shock your audience.
Measure Response
It is impossible to know if any advertising you conduct is effective without measuring the response of your audience, and direct mail advertising is no different.
According to the Direct Mail Association, the average direct mail response rate is 1-2% which means that you could send out 100 direct mail marketing materials and not receive a single response. This is because direct mail response rates represent averages calculated over hundreds of mailings, making consistency the single most important principle when planning your direct mail marketing campaign.
It is important to remember, before beginning your direct mail marketing campaign, that to achieve a better response rate, you must either mail marketing materials repeatedly to the same list and/or significantly increase the number of pieces you send out.
Consistency is Key
It has been proven that it takes multiple impressions to generate a response to marketing messages. When it comes to your direct mail marketing campaigns, remember that sending just one mailer will not generate the results you want. It is essential that you mail multiple marketing materials to the same person repeatedly and consistently or you will not gain and retain their attention. Remember, to reinforce your message and ultimately drive a conversion, you need to make multiple impressions on your audience members.
If you feel like you are struggling with your direct mail marketing campaigns, try enlisting one of the many direct mail services available to help you increase your impressions and conversions. Don’t get discouraged if your response rate isn’t what you were hoping it’d be after just one round of direct mailing. If you keep in mind that it takes repeated consistency, you’ll be sure to conduct successful direct mail marketing campaigns.
