Direct marketing top tips
Thinking of sending direct mail to your prospects? Here are some pointers to consider before you print hundreds of shiny mailers and run to the post box!
Why are you doing this? A fairly fundamental question, but often overlooked. Are you trying to introduce your brand to prospects or are you trying to specifically sell one product or service. Be clear from the start and don’t deviate.
Who are you targeting? Do you have a clear profile of your prospective customers? Where does your data come from? Is it up to date? The more you can narrow down the target audience, the easier it is to determine…
…the proposition of your campaign. This is a refinement of your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) but shaped to fit your audience specifically and what your product/service can do for them.
Putting pen to paper - On an average day we are exposed to 3,000 marketing messages so you need to stand out! Remember the purpose of your mailing and who you’re aiming at when you write the copy.
And the creative? Think in the same way as when writing copy. It needs to resonate with your target audience, so images, illustrations even specific colours should be chosen with your audience in mind.
What material do you plan to send? Is it a one-off printed mailer or a combination of print and email? Is this a high value potential sale or a commodity product. As a rule of thumb, the higher the value, the greater the effort, complexity and frequency of your communications to build a relationship that may lead to a sale.
What response do you want? Your DM piece is designed to generate a response and this is inextricably linked to the reason for running the campaign. Whether it’s ‘call us now’ or visit www.blahblahblah.com, you need to make it easy for your prospects to recognise this and to respond accordingly.
Is your website up to date? If your prospects are interested, they may well visit your website. Make sure the branding and messaging are consistent and if necessary have a landing page referencing the campaign.
Following up your mailing is vital. Given the amount of information we’re all subjected to, you have to be very lucky to contact the right person at just the point when they’re thinking of buying a product you offer. Telemarketing to follow a mailing gives an opportunity to remind prospects of your message and to check your data was right when you carried out the mailing.
Measuring your success is vital and it goes right back to the start of the planning process. What was the point of this activity? 10% increase in sales? Making 45% of your contacts aware of a new product? Driving 50 new visitors a day to your website? Define your view of success using previous campaigns as a benchmark and measure that.
Test, test, test. Don’t assume your first attempts will be correct. If you can test ideas against a small sample, learn lessons and change your campaign to suit. The more you learn, the better your campaign will be, and isn’t that the point?
