While email marketing should be an essential piece of your marketing mix, the reality is emails are easy to send and just as easy to ignore. Especially during the holiday season when we feel bombarded by Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday, and Last Chance Sales offers.
Email is a great way to kickstart your marketing, but did you know open rates for direct mail campaigns can be as high as 90%? It makes sense since most folks check their mail every day.
How do you create a successful direct mail campaign?
According to the State of Direct Mail Study —64.2% of marketing leaders believe direct mail delivers the best response rates of any channel, and 60.2% say it has the best ROI.
Understand Your Audience
You’re probably tired of hearing it from me… but first, you need to understand your audience’s problems or pain points. If you haven’t already, develop a buyer persona for your audience.
Build Your Mailing List
You can skip this step if you already have a list of contacts built that you want to send your campaign to. But if you’re starting from scratch, here are some ways to build your direct mail list.
First, I'd like you to start with an in-house list. This should be made up of—
- Your current customers
- Former customers
- Web form submissions
- Free trials or sample requests
Also, don’t forget to ask your sales or customer service team for contacts. You can also pull addresses from industry association directories or use a tool like Rocket Reach or LinkedIn to find contacts and then Google the company name to find their snail mail address.
You can also buy third-party lists or broker lists. There are two different types of broker lists.
- Response ists
- Compiled lists
You can learn more about broker lists and which is best for you in this USPS video.
Find a Rhythm
Decide how often you want to send your campaigns and how long they should take from concept to completion. Ask yourself these questions—
- How often can you realistically commit to? Monthly? Quarterly?
- Where is your customer at in their journey?
- Are they considering making a purchase?
- Do they know you exist?
- Can you send locally targeted content or seasonal content?
- Are there current events or industry changes (building code changes or are there any upcoming holidays)?
Similar to email marketing, you can use services like Lob or MailChimp Postcards to trigger a nurturing direct mail campaign.
For example, when a customer places an order, you can send a thank you note or a postcard suggesting products to a customer who hasn’t recently placed an order.
If you’re a log contractor, you could trigger a campaign that reminds folks to schedule their Spring or Fall maintenance.
Stand Out!
Hire a professional designer to design a direct mail piece or campaign that helps you stand out. Try some of the following to help you get noticed—
- Use premium paper choices—make it shimmery or soft to the touch.
- Upscale printing techniques like foil or spot varnish.
- Use bold graphic elements to catch attention
- Hire a photographer to take photos instead of stock photography, and this effort was part of a rebrand and new product launch; you
- Try a larger size postcard, like Moo.com's half-page size
Above are some examples of different postcard campaigns to get you inspired.
Pro Tip: Don’t forget to verify the postage cost and build this into your budget. Some irregular-sized pieces may cost more to mail. Square cards, for example, will require extra postage.
Use the Data
Use the data you’ve collected with social media advertising or email marketing to gain insight into your content’s highest engagers. Then, target those individuals with a direct mail piece.
Build Anticipation with Email
Before you drop your direct mail piece in the mail, send an email informing your recipient that a surprise will be arriving soon in their mailbox. This helps build anticipation and spark interest. Plus, it has the added benefit of ensuring your contact information is current.
Consider sending an email informing the recipient the package will be arriving soon. Drop hints at what’s in the package to make it fun and build anticipation.
Alternate Between Email and Direct Mail
Stagger your messaging so you don’t burn your customers. For example, send an email and then two weeks later send out a postcard reminding them of your offer.
The Package
Make it fun and thoughtful. If you’re sending a box, include an insert, whether it’s how to return the product, a thank you note, or your product catalog. If you’re sending a postcard, spring for premium paper, a gloss coating on the front, or make it larger.
The mailer above was developed in partnership with All Packaging in Denver Colorado. It held a sample of a new face mask. Our target market was women over 40 who were looking to fight off wrinkles in a natural way with trusted ingredients. Alpha Hydrox boomed in the 1980s and this effort was part of a rebrand and new product launch, you can dive deeper into that here.
Always Include a Call to Action
It may seem like a no-brainer, but always include a call to action or the next step you want your recipient to take. Here are a few CTAs you can steal—
- Call 1-800-123-4567 to Place Your Order Today!
- Save 20% when you visit MYSITE by December 31st, 2023
- Contact Now for a FREE Quote!
Pro Tip: Make your CTA stand out. Use different colors, make the font larger, or flag it by putting a shape or graphic behind it, or use an arrow and point right to it.
Test, Learn, & Improve
You should be continuously testing and improving. You can experiment with your messaging, images, and such to see what works best for you and gives you the best response.
Do you need help designing marketing that grabs your customers' attention and engages them?
Give us a holler and schedule a complimentary 30-minute Discovery call, we’d love to help you reach your customers and sell more products.