Why Direct Mail?
Pinpoint Accuracy. Direct marketing has the ability to pinpoint the exact people who are likely interested in your product or service, and it can place a compelling offer in front of your prospects in a matter of days.
Here’s an example:
You may not notice that a mattress company puts an insert into your newspaper three times a week but if you happen to suddenly need a mattress, you’ll notice them with no problem at all.
No limitations. Direct mail isn’t limited to people already looking. Targeted mail seeks out the people who are already most likely interested, then gets that message in their hands without fail.
The only other way to generate business rapidly would be to implement a PPC campaign, but that is still only limited to the people locally searching for their services.
The mailbox is immune to spam-blockers, pop-up blockers, caller ID, the fast-forward button and the mute button. As long as people open their mailboxes, there is an opportunity for you to communicate with them. Cater your message directly to the reader, and you have a very unique opportunity indeed.
Creative/personal—Direct mail has a personal feel, because it has a name on it. And if you use variable text, the postcard can be customized in many areas. E-mails have to be short, which can limit your creativity and message. More thought and effort go into sending a postcard. And when you make the prospect feel important, your response rates will be higher.
Shelf life—Direct mail has “shelf life.” It can be filed, reviewed later or even shared with friends. An e-mail, like other electronic advertising, is not tangible.
If you are going to grow in today’s competitive marketplace, direct mail is a good marketing plan. In addition to less competition, advertising can be personalized, which can make prospects feel important. This feeling of importance will be reflected in your response rate.
What about repetition?
Roughly 80% of repeat sales are lost simply because customers do not receive any kind of follow-up communication. Regularly contact your customers to inform them about new products, or upgrades to existing products and/or services.
Sending direct mail to prospects is a bit like raising children. The first time you tell them to do something, they will most likely need to be told again. So in order to get your customers and prospects to do what you want them to do, you must incorporate repetition into your campaigns.
In Seth Godin’s book, Permission Marketing, he uses an analogy of seeds and water to demonstrate the importance of frequency in your promotional campaigns. If you were given 100 seeds with enough water to water each seed once would you plant all 100 seeds and water each one once or would you be more successful if you planted 25 seeds and used all of the water on those 25 seeds?
You should send a mailing a minimum of 3 times with 2-3 weeks in-between each mailing. You will see a lift in the response rate from every subsequent mailing that goes out to the same prospects.
Since our minimum mailing requirements are low, you can do just that, send fewer postcards out, but with increased frequency.
You must have a follow up sequence in place for your mailings.
