Direct Mail Facts
Because of the popularity of e-mail and computer-generated telephone messaging, marketing has become very impersonal. If you want to show your customers that you’re thinking about them as individuals, direct mail is the way to go.
To receive a good return on your direct mail marketing investment, it’s important to send out something useful to your customers. If you’re a service-based business or manufacturer your customers might appreciate news about your industry. They might also appreciate a few useful tips. Just be sure to not provide too much information, which could prevent your customers from needing your expertise. If you are a retailer, send out personal invitations to an event or pre-sale announcements that only your “special customers” receive. The whole point is to include material that will make your customers feel important.
Another way to ensure that your direct mail campaign is effective is to link it with other forms of media. For example, if you put an ad in the newspaper, be sure to mention it, or include a copy of the ad in the mailing so your customers can visually make the connection between this personalized mail and the ad they’ve seen in the paper. The idea is to make your customers remember you. First they see the material that was addressed specifically to them. Then they see you again in the ad in the paper, making you very memorable.
What is the cost of doing all this? The cost-per-thousand (CPM) for a direct mail campaign is initially more expensive than using other media; however, the increased response rate is worth the initial expense. By treating your customers as individuals, they’ll respond more positively than if they know the exact same information has gone out to all the companies in your state. And because you have taken the time to make sure they fit into your target market, you haven’t wasted any of your advertising dollars on people who’ll never need your company’s services or products.
