Repeat after me:
Direct mail is not a dinosaur.
Direct mail is not a dinosaur.
Direct mail is not a dinosaur.
Duffy Marketing is a firm believer that in this age of digital marketing, there is still a vital role for direct mail campaigns to help your business survive and prosper. We live in a world of junked-up email inboxes, so how do we respond? The first instinct is to hit the delete button (there are ways to keep this from happening but that’s a subject for another day). People respond differently to direct mail arriving on their doorstep. If it is addressed to them and has the right message it can break thru the clutter. Tracking is such an important piece of successful marketing. This product is one of the few remaining that can provide a true return on investment or ROI and ensure you are getting into the hands of the best target. This can be accomplished with the right upfront analysis that Duffy Marketing can provide.
Choose your weapons
A direct mail campaign can be as basic as a postcard or as complex as a gift box for your potential customers. No matter what type of campaign you choose, there are some common factors to determine success or failure.
- Uniqueness
There must be something to make your piece of direct mail standout from the others. If it doesn’t it’s going to end up with all the other junk mail, in the circular file.
- One. Single. Purpose
Remember the KISS acronym, Keep. It. Simple. Stupid. It has to be easy and simple for the customer to take advantage of the offer. For example, do NOT ask them to go to a website and download an equipment review and then have them call an 800 number to learn more.
- Multiple ways to respond
You have no idea if the person receiving the mail from the postal service is a phone person, likes email, or thinks social media is the best way to communicate. It’s your responsibility to give them every possible contact method. Phone, email, fax, or smoke signals. Do whatever it takes.
- One mailing is not marketing
The experience of Duffy Marketing is that it will take seven to nine repetitions on average to get the attention of a prospect. Do NOT mail one campaign and then give up. Whatever the response on your first piece, it usually increases exponentially on each additional direct mail campaign.
- Call to action
This is vital. You must tell people clearly and simply what you want them to do. “Call today for a free consultation.” “Schedule an appointment in the next 10 days and get $50 off.” Without a call to action, most people won’t do anything. TOMA is important, but encourage them to take the next step.
- Recurring theme to support the brand
Every piece of direct mail from your company should have the same logo, photo, or slogan so the recipient knows the same person or company is trying to reach them. A recurring theme makes it much more likely the prospect will be curious about what the offer is.
- Make it personal
Mailings addressed to “Dear Valued Prospect/Customer/Client” are not effective. That is the lazy and cheap way to do a direct mail campaign. The mailings must be personalized as much as possible. Duffy Marketing has the resources to make this possible.
Synergy is important
As strongly as Duffy Marketing feels about direct mail campaigns, they should always go hand-in-hand with other forms of promotion which is why we now offer Duffy Mail Integration or DMI. This allows you to have a digital and direct mail campaign that auto coordinates your matching digital ads, does mail and call tracking, social account matching and ad placement as well as will provide retargeting and identify your website visitors for future remarketing. Ultimately both world combined compliment and give lift to the response of each other. If this automated product is not right for you, then you can manually perform some of the same function utilizing your digital tools such as email. One example, a week after the direct mail offer you follow up with an email reinforcing that strong call to action we mentioned above. The email creates a heightened sense of urgency for the reader. There are many other examples utilizing your website and social media.
Not extinct yet
Call Duffy Marketing now to learn more about why direct mail marketing and DMI are an important part of a marketing strategy. Together we will design a plan to help your business thrive in these trying times. Be sure to like and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
