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LOGOWORKS NEWSLETTER |
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What Every Business Person Needs to Know About Direct Mail—Part 1
By ROB MARSH
There are hundreds of ways to reach your customers—from television and radio, to billboards and newspaper. You’ve probably seen ads on the fuel pumps at your local service station, ads in restrooms, and even ads nailed to telephone poles. So which of these is the right medium for you?
Probably none of them.
These advertising options aren’t aimed at your customers. They’re aimed at huge general audiences and don’t take into account age, gender, occupation, education, interests, and perhaps most importantly the desire to buy your product.
Fortunately, there is a way to reach your customers without wasting money advertising to thousands of people who have no interest in you—direct mail. Used correctly it may be the best way to reach the people who are looking for your product.
But before you slap your name and address on a postcard and drop it to all your friends and neighbors, there are a few things you should know and do to make sure you get your money’s worth.
First, identify your audience. To promote a series of chartered golf vacations, a travel agency developed a beautiful direct mail piece that included a color brochure, a letter from a respected PGA player, quotes from satisfied customers, and an offer of free golf balls for anyone who spoke to an agent for more information. Despite high expectations, it performed terribly. Why? As agents placed follow-up calls to the recipients, they heard the same thing, over and over—“I don’t golf.”
Amazingly, thousands of businesses make a similar mistake everyday. They mail their carefully prepared direct mail to the wrong people. You can have the best package, the most compelling writing, beautiful photography, and a can’t-miss offer and not make a single sale if you mail it to people who just aren’t interested.
A butcher probably shouldn’t waste his time mailing to vegetarians. A mortgage refinance company might decide to ignore renters. And a dog walker can probably ignore cat owners. Start with your own customers. Find out everything you can about your customers and offer your products to people just like them.
Second, make your prospects an offer they can’t refuse. When deciding whether or not to buy your products, potential customers will ask, “Can I afford this?”, “Am I getting a good value?” and “Why should I buy this now?” Your offer gives your customers the answers they need. There are three types of offers you should consider:
Exclusive Offers. Your offer should be something your customers can’t get elsewhere. Apple computer recently created a special U2 edition of their popular iPod. To stimulate demand for the product (which costs $50 more than their standard version), Apple offered a free, exclusive U2 poster plus a coupon for $50 off the band’s collected works.
Price-based Offers. Try offering a special price for your product or something free with a purchase. My local newspaper offers new subscribers a special trial price. This allows new readers to try the paper before they commit to a full subscription. Many magazines offer the first four issues free. Other price offers you may want to consider include a money-back guarantee, discounts, or other price premiums.
Incentive Offers. These offers motivate customers to buy because they get something extra when they purchase your product. A security company may offer a free, basic alarm system with a signed monitoring agreement. A siding installer might offer a free upgrade to higher-quality materials. A bakery might offer a free cup of soup with every sandwich.
It’s important to choose an offer that is as compelling as possible to your customers and prospects. But be careful—don’t make is sound too good to be true. Your customers are smart—if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And they won’t take you seriously. Ask yourself, would you respond to this offer? Would your spouse or mother respond?
Choose the right format. Once you know who you will mail to and have an offer your customers will respond to, you’ll need to decide what kind of mailer you’ll send out. There are plenty of options, depending on what you need to communicate.
Postcards. Because they are so inexpensive to print and mail, postcards are an excellent option for businesses new to direct mail or those who want to test offers and other elements. And because there is no envelope to open, recipients will often read these first. Postcards are great as invitations to special events or for driving traffic to your website or retail store. But space is limited, so if your message needs more than two paragraphs to communicate, you may want to consider another mail option.
Self Mailers. Self mailers are folded mail pieces without an envelope. They have significantly more space than postcards so are useful for a more creative or complex sales message. And while response rates are often lower than envelope mailers, they cost less because there is no envelope or insertion charge, so they may be more profitable, depending on what you are selling.
#10 Mailer. This mail package generally includes a letter, tri-fold brochure and a business reply card. Occasionally they’ll also include an additional letter (known as a lift note) as well as other things like buck-slips, stickers, and reply envelopes. This package is best when you have a great story to tell or lots of information to communicate.
Of course there are other mail formats to choose from, including double postcards, oversize postcards, invoice mailers, catalogs, and different sizes of envelope mailers. All of them can effectively tell your story and attract customers to your products.
Once you know your audience, have a good offer, and have an idea of what kind of mail piece you want to create, you’re ready to create your mail piece. But before you spend your time writing a letter and designing a brochure, consider getting professional help.
Many bootstrapping entrepreneurs will try to write, design, and produce their own direct mail piece—after all, how hard can it be? Writing persuasive copy and creating a compelling design are more difficult than you think.
A professional writer (with a proven track record) can help you turn your product features into benefits that will appeal to your customers. She will write in a way that creates urgency, and she’ll help you word your offer in a way that appeals directly to your customers. A professional designer will create a piece that moves prospective customers through the piece to the reply. She’ll also help you through the printing process.
In a future newsletter, we’ll outline what you can do to make sure your copy and design are as effective as possible. Until then, check out these resources for creating direct mail packages that will appeal to your customers and help you grow your business:
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About the author:
Rob Marsh is the Vice President of Creative Services at LogoWorks.com, the world’s leading logo design company. He has more than 15 years of experience creating corporate identities, advertising, websites, copy, and direct marketing for a diverse range of clients including American Express, the Olympics, United HealthCare, Hoovers.com, and PETsMART.
Sources:
Response: The Complete Guide to Profitable Direct Marketing by Lois Geller
Power Direct Marketing by Ray Jutkins
Catalog Copy that Sizzles by Herschell Gordon Lewis
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