How to Build Your Business With Direct Mail Marketing

In the rush to jump on the digital marketing bandwagon, many businesses are turning their backs on some of the most profitable “old school”marketing techniques ever, and direct mail marketing is one of them. This guide will help you understand how direct mail works, and howdirect mail solutions may be the answer to the problem of generating more leads and increasing revenue for your business.

The Benefits of Direct Mail

1. Depending on how well you define your target audience, there is usually much less waste with direct mail than with traditional advertising media.

2. Direct mail can be faster and cheaper to implement. You can get a basic sales letter out to a targeted audience much quicker, and more cost-effectively, than is possible with many other advertising channels.

3. Results from direct mail marketing are easier to measure. You simply deduct your mailing and product fulfilment costs from revenue received or number of leads generated, and you’ll quickly know how profitable your efforts have been.

4. You can easily and affordably test different products or advertising appeals by sending different mailings to different members of your list. Track the results of each, and continue with the most response-generating products or appeals until you can replace them with even better ones.

If your business primarily markets to the general public, you can pitch one of your products for an immediate sale, offer a product sample, or present a discount coupon good on a future visit to your store.

If you market to other businesses, you will most likely be using direct mail solutions to generate leads for later follow-up by offering a free report or a no-obligation consultation and quote. Depending on your industry, you might even consider going for an immediate sale with a value-priced, entry-level version of one of your products or services as a means of getting your foot in the door.

The Basics of Direct Mail Marketing

1. Your audience. The better you can define your best prospects for purchasing your product or service, the more effective your mailings are going to be. Your best targets may be defined by standard demographics such as sex, age, income, geographic location. Or you may defineyour prime prospects as those who have purchased your type of product in the past.

2. Your message. The most effective direct mail message starts with the objective; are you asking the recipient to make a purchase, sign-up for a newsletter, or request a quote? Whatever you decide on, stick with one objective per mailing. Your copy should be clear and do a complete job of “selling” the recipient on responding to whatever your objective calls for him or her to do. Be sure to include testimonials, if you have them, to help build trust.

3. Your list. The best place to start your mailing list is with your own company database of present and past customers. Studies have shown that it costs from 5 to7 times more marketing dollars to attract new customers than it does to retain existing ones, so why not make it easy on yourself. If you don’t already have a customer mailing list, start one now. An analysis of your existing customers may help you better defineyour target audience when it comes time to buy a mailing list.

A mailing list broker sells both consumer and business mailing lists that may, depending on the broker, be available as:

• A specialty list that contains the specifics of your target audience
• A custom mailing list based on audience criteria that you select
• A cloned list that matches the list audience with your present customers