As digital technology brought us social media and email, companies today have a wider range of new channels to reach their customers. A lot of people have expected these digital channels to be the favorite choice among marketers. But still, direct mail remains as one of the most effective tools for marketing offline. In fact, marketing with direct mail is reported to have an average response rate that is 30 times higher than emails.
Here are 5 steps you need to take when starting your mailing campaign:
1. Determine your target
Are your target audience businesses or consumers? Are they male or female? Young or old? These are some of the questions that you have to ask yourself because you need to determine who your target audience are before you can start the campaign process.
2. Determine your goals
You should be able to summarize the outcome that you really want in one short sentence. The best way to drive the result that you want is to look for a clear call-to-action. If you want to further boost that result, you can include discounts and incentives.
3. Be creative with your direct mail pieces
Remember that the use of clever folds and color on your direct mail pieces can make an impact while embedded audio and video, augmented reality, or QR codes can raise curiosity from your target audience. However, various formats and dimensions all have an influence on the cost of the postage, and they vary in different countries.
4. Determine the ways you send your direct mail pieces
To put it simply, marketing offline is all about your data. When you want to reach the right person at the right address, you have to make sure that your mailing list is of good quality. However, this isnt as easy as it may seem, because businesses shut down, people change jobs and move to another town, not to mention the 200 formats of addresses around the world you must get right.
Using the right data, you can set your messages so that only the intended individuals can receive it.
5. Constantly check if your message got through
While it may be hard to manage what we cannot measure, its very important that youre able to handle responses, whether those are call center inquiries, brochure requests, or data capture. Always remember that direct mail marketing doesnt have to be a complicated work. A well-planned marketing campaign combined with other communication channels will surely get your marketing message to your target audience.
Conclusion
Many business owners may have turned their attention to newer channels to reach their customers, but direct mail is still the widely used tool in most marketing campaigns. Because of its affordability and flexibility, direct mail is still an excellent option for any company that is planning on creating an effective marketing program.