How to Be Successful in Direct Mail Marketing

Even very successful direct mail marketing campaigns will only get a small percentage of responses. However, if you can create a large enough campaign, you can still receive a high number of responses.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Run a Successful Direct Mail Marketing Campaign

1. Decide on your goals for your direct mail campaign. You may need to do some research about response rates for your industry, as well as the type of response you are looking for.

2. Compare the various formats of direct mail and decide which meets your needs. Usual formats include catalogs, self-mailers, postcards, dimensional mailers (boxes or other mailers that are not flat) and envelope mailers.

3. Design your mail piece. You may choose to hire a graphic designer who specializes in direct mail marketing. In addition to the piece's visual appeal, you will need to consider the copy--the text that informs consumers about your product.

4. Address and mail your direct marketing materials. You may mail them using addresses your company has collected, or addresses bought from marketing databases. You also need to choose whether to use a computerized system to print labels or hire someone to address your mailers. Computer systems are typically cheaper, especially if you intend to do multiple campaigns.

5. Track responses to your mailers. You will be able to determine how successful your campaign was by the rate and quality of responses, and will be able to tweak later campaigns on the basis of that data. You can also add information to your database, improving your ability to target later mailings.

Tips & Warnings

• Direct mail marketing is useful because it is easy to target to specific demographics of consumers.
• It is possible to personalize direct mailers extensively, and even automatically, depending on how much demographic information you have available.
• It is possible to send unaddressed mail, such as that addressed to "Occupant," but your materials will receive an even lower response rate if they are not addressed to a specific name.
• Many consumers consider direct marketing materials to be spam and throw them away immediately. Some consumers may also respond negatively to direct mail campaigns because they are seen as wasteful and harmful to the environment.
• To make direct mail marketing a truly successful venture for your company, you will need to carry out numerous campaigns, optimized for each situation.
• Direct mail marketing can be very expensive: you must consider printing costs, postage, the rising price of paper, design and copy writing expenses and the expense of obtaining addresses.