Direct mail can be a lethal weapon in the hunt for new customers or increased revenue – if it’s done right. Because it reaches into a customer’s home or place of business, direct mail almost always gets noticed.
Here are a few tricks you can use to keep your direct mailer from hitting the trash can along with other “junk mail.”
• Be creative. Direct mail needs to be more than a solicitation letter, but it shouldn’t be distasteful or hard on the eyes. Use typefaces that are easy to read. Don’t use murky or hard to look at graphics.
• Use postage stamps instead of metered stamps. The piece looks more personal.
• If you’re using a database make every effort to personalize the address line. No one wants impersonal mail that says “Occupant” or the like. Any salutations or titles should be correct; a piece addressed to “Miss Jonathon Jones” will hit the trash quick.
• Use a unique size envelope or card. Your piece is competing with dozens of other items in a customer’s mailbox. Make it stand out, and make something your customers want to read.
• Try sending direct mail out on an odd day. Most direct mail arrives on Mondays or Tuesdays. Send your mail out so it might arrive on Thursday or Friday. This will help your piece to get noticed and give the recipient time to act the following weekend.
• The two most read parts of a direct mailer are the headline and any “P.S.” line. Make them attention-getting, interesting and cause the recipient to read more. Use a “P.S.” line to make some kind of additional offer – a special “members only” discount, a discount or freebee to the “first 100 people,” or a “free” added service.
• When creating your direct mailer, think like the recipient. What’s important? Why should I read this? What will I gain? The right perspective can result in powerful and successful direct mail.
• Try sending direct mailers to a smaller, more select audience, then follow up with a phone call. This alone can double your response rate.
• Constantly test your direct mail by adjusting a variable with each mailing – price, special offer, headline wording or size, etc. Compare success rates between mailings.
Article courtesy of TIRE REVIEW.
