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Direct Mail Direct Mail is the flagship medium of direct response advertising. Today, it has expanded to include e-mail as well as "snail mail," although there are distinct differences in how these two methods of communicating can be used. Direct mail is also not to be confused with "mail order", which is a way to sell and deliver products through the mail. A number of factors influence your success in the mail. In a nutshell: The more tightly you can define your market, the better list selections you can make, the better your chances of having an offer that is right for the audience, and the more meaningful you can make your message. Which leads us to the major reason direct mail fails. People who don’t understand the process insist on putting the cart before the horse. They design a direct mail effort and then mail it out pretty much indiscriminately. They ignore the most critical element – the list/s – and focus on creating a message that may be off target or totally without any good reason (offer) to respond. And when they get little or no meaningful response, they conclude that direct mail doesn’t work. The failure is multiplied when the wrong offer is sent out to the wrong list via e-mail. Being labeled a spammer can actually shut your company down! A better process for classic direct mail: 1. Analyze your market, identifying the segments that are most likely to produce profitable customers and what they’re really worth to you over the life of the relationship. 2. Select the appropriate lists that include a high percentage of people meeting these criteria, and perhaps run them through a filter to pull out only the most qualified names. 3. Then – and only then – devise an offer that these people are likely to respond to. 4. Finally -- lastly! -- create the mailing pieces. Of course, if you have a large enough audience and the appropriate resources, you can use direct mail strategically to test markets, offers and even the creative way you present your message. If you think direct mail is a viable way to communicate with any of your various audiences, it would be a good idea to study the successful strategies used by companies with offerings similar to yours. Thousands of companies have spent tens of billions of dollars testing and refining the use of direct mail. Before setting out to prove your creativity, it’s a good idea to know the "proven rules” and why you want to break any of them. |
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