We've helped thousands of businesses improve the return on their direct mail marketing investment and we'd like to help you, too
Anyone who's looked into the research — by reputable organizations such as the USPS and IPSOS — will know that direct mail marketing of printed materials is still one of the most powerful strategies despite the rise of the Internet and online promotion. But not all direct marketing is as effective as it could or should be. We work with businesses every day to improve their printed marketing materials and deliver the best possible return on their investment. In this post, we share our 10 top tips for improving your direct mail marketing campaigns. Let's dive in.
1. Set clearly defined goals
Until you can make a clear, focused statement of the goal of your campaign all your efforts will be fuzzy at best and possibly in vain. Ask yourself at the outset, “What specifically do I want this campaign to achieve?” Your answer should be simple, unequivocal, and measurable. For example, do you want to increase walk-in traffic to your high street store? Or do you want to drive online traffic to your website or blog? Is your aim to increase sales of a particular product line? Define these goals as clearly as you can. Once you know what you aim to achieve you can work out how to measure your success.
2. Target your audience
No successful direct mail marketing campaign was aimed at everyone. It's vital to target a specific demographic who will be interested in the products or services that will help you to realize the goals that you defined in step one. Your target audience could be defined by age, gender, economic status, geographical area, work, hobbies and interests, or any number of other factors or combinations of factors. The important point is to work out in advance who will most likely respond to your campaign and make sure you target that group to get the best return on your investment.
3. Keep your content short and sweet
One of the most common mistakes we see is direct mail marketing content which is too long winded, too complex, and frankly, boring. When creating content of your campaign, keep your text focused on a single core objective based on your campaign goals. Make sure any photographs or images are highly relevant to your target audience and the action you want them to take. Decide what you need to say, say it is clearly and succinctly as possible, and then stop. That's the golden rule of successful content marketing.
4. Make a clear call to action (CTA)
The second most common mistake we come across all the time is that there is no clear, unequivocal CTA in the marketing copy. Never assume that your targets will automatically think to take the action that to you seems obvious: visit the website, use the discount code, scan the QR, go to the store, whatever else you want them to do. Tell them. A call to action should be exactly that; a direct and straightforward request for some specific action you would like your targets to take. The CTA should always be the last thing they read as it is more likely to be remembered and acted upon that way.
5. Make your marketing content about your customers not about your brand
Branding is important. Necessary, even. But the best way to build your brand is to focus on your customers' needs. Of course, all your direct mail marketing materials should be branded with your name, company colors, logo, slogan. But the rest of your content should be clearly focused on addressing the needs and concerns of your target customers and offering your products and services as the answer to those needs. They're not interested in your company biography, the founder's childhood experiences, or your plans for expanding your stores. Those are subjects for your company magazine, not your direct mail marketing campaigns. Focus on the value you can offer your customers and nothing else.
6. Make your coupons count
Coupons and other discount offers are well-established and effective tools in any direct mail marketing campaign. But just sending a coupon isn't enough. Until your targets have a sense of an established relationship with your brand, products, and services, there are unlikely to see a coupon as having special value. So, whether sending out a single page flyer, folded brochure, product catalog, or newsletter, use well-crafted and targeted content around your offer to help build trust, interest, and a sense of relationship with your brand. Don't just send a coupon!
7. Use consistent branding
Branding only works when it's consistent across the board. So, if you have a branded color scheme, logo, and a slogan to represent your brand identity (and you should!) then make sure that they are always the same across all your platforms and marketing materials, online and off-line. Take special care when setting up your designs for printed materials that your color spaces are appropriate along with your choices of paper and coatings to make sure that your colors when printed are faithful to your original brand identity.
8. Make your mail tactile
One important factor that is often overlooked in direct mail marketing is that you're sending a physical product. That means that when your targets pick those materials up from the doormat or the mailbox, they'll be interacting with them not only with the sense of vision, but the sense of touch as well. Many studies in the psychology of marketing have shown how important the tactile experience is when gaining and maintaining attention. Consider soft touch lamination to give your printed marketing materials a luxurious, velvety feeling to the surface; or perhaps choose textured paper; how about embossing your logo or using spot UV coating to highlight a specific area?
9. Personalize your direct mail marketing campaign
As you build your email list, use the information you have about your subscribers to personalize each printed marketing campaign. Simply addressing your targets by name makes all the difference to the sense of relationship and trust they have with your brand. Even if you don't have the personal details of your target audience you can still personalize by mentioning the name of their town, for example, the recent success of their local sports teams or other notable events.
10. Follow-up
Just mailing out your material and forgetting about it is lazy at best and foolish at worst. Never forget to follow up on your direct mail marketing campaign. How you follow-up will depend on your business, your relationship with your targets, and other factors. You might follow-up by email, with a short letter, or by telephone, or even by social media. But if you don't follow up, you're missing a trick. You'd be surprised how many people will respond to a call to action once they've been reminded to do so.
Are you ready to take your printed marketing materials to the next level? Talk to us!
At QinPrinting, we have over 25 years' experience in the printing industry and during that time we've helped thousands of businesses, non-profits, and other organisations to boost the quality and impact of their direct mail marketing campaigns with first class flyers, brochures, catalogs, magazines, newsletters, postcards, and more. Our professionalism, enthusiasm, expert knowledge, state-of-the-art technology, and commitment to high quality customer service sustain our global reputation as one of the best offset printers in the world.
If you'd like to take your printed marketing materials to the next level, we should talk. You can contact us easily by telephone, email, Skype, the online chat, or a simple contact form to discuss your needs or ask for a no-obligation quote. Get in touch today. We can't wait to hear from you!
