When all of the elements of a direct mail campaign work together, your business can successfully reach out to a wealth of potential new clients and exciting new sources of revenue. When those elements aren’t in sync, you’re just throwing good money after bad.
If your most recent direct mail efforts failed to yield much of a response, here’s a checklist of elements to review and improve for next time:
Your list is your market. If the mailing list you bought wasn’t thoroughly researched and analyzed, it’s little more than a random compilation of names and addresses (which might be outdated or just plain incorrect). Be sure to obtain accurate direct mailing lists from businesses known to provide dependable information.
How good is your offer? Review past direct mail campaigns—that is, the successful ones—and determine what was different this time around. Did you change the wording of your special offer? If so, have you given potential customers a new, compelling reason to respond? Your offer should help them save money, solve a problem or in some way improve their life. Otherwise, it’s a non-starter.
Write a grabbing headline! All of the copy in your direct mail piece should be carefully considered and written, but nothing’s more important than the headline. Try a couple of versions and share them with others in the office, or among your friends. Does reading the headline make them want to read more?
Don’t lead with price. Obviously, if your product or service is priced too high, your response rate will be low. On the other hand, a low price offer isn’t the best way to grab the reader’s interest. Emphasize the product’s benefits and the many ways in which it will fulfill the reader’s needs. Then let them in on the price.
The piece has to look good. People these days have become fairly sophisticated when it comes to design and imagery. You can’t just throw something together and expect readers to get excited about it. Pay attention to how the direct mail piece looks. Is it easy to read? Can you get the idea quickly or are there too many words and images in the way?
Make it easy to respond. The whole point of your direct mail efforts is to get people to take action, right? You’d be surprised how many pieces bury the call-to-action, or forget it entirely. Make it very clear who people should call and what they should ask for. Give them the link to a website that’s specifically about your product, not your company home-page. The easier it is for people to find out what they want to know, the more widgets you’ll sell.
Test and test again. When the newly revised direct mail piece is set to go, try testing its effectiveness with a smaller mailing list. Or tweak the first version slightly and test with a second audience. Analyze the results, adjust as necessary, and then you’re ready to mail to the larger market.
Wells & Drew knows all about cost-effective direct mailings. Call us at 800-342-8636 to learn more about how we can help you reach your target marke
