Do’s

Follow the 40/40/20 Rule

The success of your direct mailing campaign is dependent upon three important factors- 40% of your success depends on the accuracy and effectiveness of your mailing list, another 40% depends on how compelling your offer is, and the remaining 20% will come from everything else (design, the copy/text of the mailing, the images you’ve chosen, delivery date and method, etc).

 

Focus on defining your audience

If you are offering a limited-time discount on lawn fertilizer, all your potential customers are either home owners or renting a home. People who live in apartments don’t have much use for your product. Make sure your mailing list is for home addresses one. This will save tie and money and will focus your direct mail campaign to the right audience.

 

Personalize your direct mail marketing and get best results

Personalized direct mail gets the best results and builds trust between you and your audience. It makes the recipients feel important, and increase their engagement with your direct mail piece. It is more likely they will read and response rate of your direct mail advertising. The cost of personalization depends on the size and type of your mailing pieces. We can help you to see if the benefits of personalization of your mailer justify the additional cost.

 

Test the Market

Depending on how large your mailing list is, you may want to consider a smaller test mailing to evaluate the response and make revisions to your direct mail campaign as needed. You can break down your mailing list and do one or two sections at a time. You can test two different design or message and see which is more successful. Postage is normally a substantial portion of any direct mail advertising, and you can test the market and make changes for best results.

 

Make a Great call to Action

Direct mailing is too expensive to mail a postcard or a letter just to announce your presence. The call to action doesn’t have to be a sale or discount – it could be advertising a contest or promotion, or incentivizing people to conduct an online survey. Regardless of the nature of the call to action, there must at one clear call to action. Your direct mail campaign should efficiently track metrics to evaluate results and your investment. A good call to action can help you evaluate the effectiveness of your direct mail campaign. This ties into the second 40 to the 40/40/20 rule – now you can see why this has so much weight and is important part of the golden rules of direct mail marketing.

 

 

DON’T’S

Fail to Proofread/ Quality Control

Typos are always discovered when the first mailer is delivered, which is too late. Take your time to proof read the content for formatting, grammar, and typos, as well as asking for help from your colleagues and friends. It is very important to make sure all information is correct before you place the order for mailing. Nothing will get your piece of direct mail marketing throw into the trash bin more quickly than a glaring typo, a noticeable formatting issue, or an overall poor print quality. We can help you with design of your direct mail piece and provide you with several proofs or mock ups to review. Regardless of who the designer is, it is important to review mock ups and proof read all content of your direct mail piece for punctuations, formatting, typos and overall readability and graphic design.

 

Forget to Follow Up

Best results can be expected if you can follow up with all people who receive your direct mail piece. If this is not possible, due to the size of your mailing list, then make sure you follow up with those who show interest or respond to your direct mail advertising. You can also mark these people on your mailing list, and personalize or make special offer in subsequent mailing campaigns

 

Forget to Drive Traffic Online

Direct mail marketing is more effective when combined with online marketing efforts. As online advertising does not do a great job just by itself, the direct mail marketing can also be enhanced when combined with online advertising or specials. Your mailer can direct traffic to your website by using a QR code, entering into a contest, or taking advantage of a special offer.

 

Don’t’ waste time on les important items

40% of the success of your direct mail advertising is based on your mailing list, make sure you allow enough of your efforts to insure a good mailing list. Another 40% of overall success is based on your special offer or your call to action. This is very important and should be the center of your attention. The final 20% is everything else, and you should not spend too much time on less important stuff.