Over the years...
I have heard dozens of clients and direct marketing friends share with me some of their most painful learning experiences in Direct Mail Marketing. Some were obvious...some were not. They've made these mistakes so you don't have to! Learn from the following missteps and increase your chances for success using direct mailing lists. Or, you could pick and choose as many as you like and try then out to prove to yourself that they deserve to be on this list. The first two Don'ts are cardinal rules, and the remaining five are more subtle ways to sabotage your direct mailing efforts. Ignore these at your own risk.
1. Not knowing your target audience.
If you don't KNOW who your target audience is, you better find out before you start marketing. All marketing whether it be direct mail, email, broadcast TV or radio is aimed at a target audience. The delivery vehicles may be broad, but who you are trying to connect with is not! All content should be focused to speak to a specificly targeted group. Know your audience's hot spots and cater to them.
2. Mailing to the wrong mailing list.
I've heard industry Guru's bandy about the number 60% with regard to how important selecting the right mailing list is to the overall success of a campaign. 60%! Apply the knowledge you have acquired from your research to identify prospects that most nearly resemble the key attributes of your customers as possible. If buying response mailing lists (lists of actual buyers of a product or service or subscribers, etc...) does not fit your marketing budget, then work with a Compiled list professional to mirror the demographics and/or psychographics of your customer profile if you are purchasing a consumer mailing list or the SIC's and sales volume and/or company size if purchasing a business mailing list.
3. Not writing to a clear objective.
Before you begin to write your mailing piece, know what the objective is you want your prospect to take. Are you looking to get the prospect to contact you by phone, email, reply card etc...? What do you want them to call for? Are you looking to get them to take a purchasing action? Are you trying to motivate or compel them to visit your location? Make sure your writing speaks to a specific goal. Make sure you know where you're going with each piece you write, then stay focused. Don't meander. Keep it simple.
4. Price before offer.
I don't know anyone who buys an unknown entity because it is cheap, do you? Price may be your chief selling point, but until your prospect knows what they are buying, price is irrelevant. Make sure you tell them about your product first. Then you can talk price.
5. Price before benefits.
Benefits sell. Price sinks the hook. Not the other way around. People buy benefits. You need to tell your readers what makes your price so great - in terms of benefits to the reader.
5. Wrong objective.
Asking for the sale instead of selling the call can be a fatal mistake. Unless you're sending a long, hard-sell direct mail piece your objective should be to engage the reader and compel them to contact you for additional information. Rule of thumb--do not ask for the sale in a postcard or short letter, you ask for a call. Offer the product, show the benefits, and sell the call hard. Cultivate your prospects and then close them. Don't bang them over the head with an anvil and expect them to buy.
6. Wrong headline.
The headline is the single most important element of your direct mailing piece. Solely on the basis of this one line, your reader makes the decision to continue, or not continue to read.
7. Not telling your readers exactly what you want them to do.
You should tell your readers several times (3 seems to be the magic number. In the beginning middle and at the close) exactly what you want them to do. Be specific. Let readers know exactly what action you want them to take; tell them, and tell them again.
Here are the final six ways to maximize your direct mail campaign for those who have not already downloaded their free copy of the white paper. If you mention that you have read this article when you purchase your mailing list from
greatmailinglists.com, you can receive a 10% off discount the already industry best pricing.
5. Offer a Guarantee.
People like guarantees, it makes then feel confident that you stand behind your product or service. But make sure it is a strong guarantee, if it seems flimsy, then the opposite affect will happen. People won't have confidence. You need to demonstrate that you have complete faith in your product. I've heard that 90 days and one year guarantees have strong impact, for example.
6. Call to Action.
Without a strong call to action, there is no reason to mail in the first place. If you don't tell your readers clearly and succinctly what you want them to do-they won't. Tell them more than once what you want to do "buy now", "subscribe now". Give your prospects an incentive to take action NOW. "Save 30% on orders placed today" Offer discounts, free merchandise, upgrades, whatever you think it might take to overcome hesitance to commit.
7. The Litmus Test.
Ask your self this critical question. Based only on your direct mail package or postcard, would you buy your product or service? If the answer is "no", then keep tweaking your copy until you can answer "yes."
8. Always Include a Reply Vehicle.
Postage paid business reply cards or envelopes boost response. Period. If you have an online presence, make sure to list your website URL on every page of your marketing piece. Don't put in a long fancy URL to take the prospect to an order page, 99 times out of 100 the prospect is going to type your simple URL into the search engine, so don't confuse them. Make sure it is easy to find the order now page on your Home page though. The use of email marketing can keep your costs down and offers possible easy contact with your audience.
If you don't give your customer a specific way to respond, many of them won't, and then you've lost a sales and a customer.
9. Teaser Copy.
If you are doing a postcard mailing, then skip this point. But if you are mailing a letter or some other type of "package", how do you differentiate yourself in the mailbox to get opened? Teaser copy! Use a teaser on your envelope. It must be a strong incentive to open the envelope.
10. Make sure to Key every Mailing.
Remember how I started off this white paper by saying that direct mail is all about measurement. Well if you don't include a unique identifier for each package type tested, for each list used, you won't be able to measure anything other than your expenditure to create and mail your campaign. There are many simple ways to create a unique code with out spending lots of time or money. The simplest way is to add a "key code" on to each mailing label. You can do this a number of ways. You can add a "middle initial" to each record IE John B. Smith, 123 Main Street, Anywhere, USA 12345. The "B" in the name is a code for XYZ List. And a "C" is for LMN List. Etc...Or you can print a key code on the top of a label.
IE ABC
John B. Smith
123 Main Street
Anywhere, USA 12345
CAUTION: Whatever you DO NOT print the actual name of the list you rented from unless you receive written permission ahead of time to do so. This can open up a can of worms best left closed. Most List Owners don't like to flaunt to their buyers that they rent their mailing list and some will require a surcharge for a third party endorsement.
Many fine books have been written on the subject of writing and designing an effective direct marketing campaign. To learn more, I would suggest visiting the National Mail Order Association Book Store (http://www.nmoa.org/catalog/index.htm) for excellent books by leading industry experts.
Maybe it's because I have been making a living for myself and my family for over 28 years in mailing list direct marketing, or maybe it's just because I'm a thin-skinned big baby... but I can't help getting rankled (nice way to say P.O.ed) each time I hear these uninformed news people and self-righteous soap-box preaching online pundits trash direct mail by calling it "Junk Mail".
Are all email marketers SPAMMERS?
Of course not!
So why is it that all direct mail marketers are junk mailers?
Exactly! They are not.
In fact, every legitimate direct mail marketer wants to mail to as few people who are not interested in their offer as possible. The wrong list fails to target people who would want to buy from you - and it is costly.
A properly segmented and selected mailing list is one of the most accurate means for any business to target an audience of people who want their product or service.
The beauty of direct marketing is its measurability. It is far more measurable advertising media than Broadcast TV/Cable, Space Advertising and Radio.
"Buy Mailing Lists"
The direct mail mailing list is the most significant factor in a successful direct mail marketing campaign and a major point to consider in small business marketing strategies where marketing ROI (Return On Investment) is a key concern.
What really makes your direct mail marketing and advertising campaign successful?
The biggest single factor in the success of your direct mail marketing strategy is who you send your mailings to.
You need a mailing list. You need a good mailing list. You need a Targeted mailing list.
Who and where you buy mailing lists from is up to you. You can go with a large nationwide giant, you can go with a local outfit, or you can go with a company that listens to what you are trying to accomplish and helps you develop the best possible list available.
However you choose to proceed, the mailing list must contain the names of people who are likely to be interested in the product or service that you offer.
What kinds of lists are available?
There are basically two types of lists (other than your own house file of existing customers and current prospects) that you can use:
1. A Response list is a list of people that have purchased a product, subscribed to a publication, donated to an organization or joined some type of membership. They have some level of interest in the topic or purpose of the list.
While these people have not previously responded to you, they have responded to someone in a related area (if you have purchased a correctly targeted list) so you know they are at least warm. Many large scale direct marketers operate under the RFM (Recency, Frequency and Monitary Value) rule when selecting a list. It is a direct marketing axiom that the closer to a direct mail purchasing/subscribing/donating action you can offer a similar product or service, the more apt the object person is to engage. Response lists identify a behavioral action. Response lists are also typically more expensive and require higher minimums than the second type of list-Compiled Lists.
2. A Compiled list is a list of people who were selected to be on the list because they possess the characteristics that you are trying to target.
Examples of characteristics used to target might include adult age, gender, household income level, marital status, etc. These are more fixed characteristics than response list characteristics, which are behavioral characteristics. Compiled lists
Mailing lists, correctly targeted, will make the difference between a mediocre promotional campaign to a wildly successful promotional campaign
Junque Mail
Junque mail typically is mail that is not directed to a specifically targeted audience. In my youth, we used to refer to it as "shotgun marketing" shoot it up in the air and hope that it hits something...
From the many Billions of dollars in direct mail sales each year, it is clear that Consumers do not mind receiving mail promoting products and services they have an interest in. That is direct mail.
When unsolicited mail overpowers the mail box, that is when it becomes junk.
Studies show that 70% of the US population still prefers direct mail to email or telemarketing calls.
No matter how you spell it, slice it or dice it, no one wants to receive mail they have no interest in and has no relevance to them.
When you buy mailing lists, make sure that you have done your homework to best understand who your customer is, or who you are trying to reach. This way you can work with a consultative list professional to purchase the best mailing list(s) available and stop the waste.
I read somewhere that around 1000 B. C. or so, an Egyptian landowner wrote what is considered by some worldwide direct marketing experts to be the earliest identifiable example of direct advertising. It was an advertisement on a piece of papyrus for the return of a runaway slave. The original was actually exhumed from the ruins of Thebes and can now be seen in the British Museum.
Whether or not the Egyptian landowner found his slave is unknown. Since we do not have the result to measure the effectiveness of the "return-my-slave" effort, I am forced to conclude that the campaign was a direct marketing failure. Direct marketing is a finitely measurable media. Measurability sets direct marketing apart from general advertising and other forms of marketing. Direct marketers can measure the response to any offer.
Later, the Babylonians would use bricks as a means of distributing direct advertising to individuals. Guess their BPS (Babylonian Postal Service) didn't have any weight regulations for third class or bulk mail. I think this is the genesis of the phrases "hits you like a brick wall" and "in your face" advertising. Interestingly, it was about this time that the first rotator cuff surgeries were performed. Apparently brick marketing also spawned the need for Babylonian HMO's.
Writing was not a common skill among the elite of the day (cave art was still big) and thus the development of direct marketing techniques was slow. In fact nothing much happened until Steve Gutenberg's (the fine Actor of Police Academy fame) Great, Great, Great, Great Grandfather-Gutenberg "the printer" invented the movable type printing press around the early 1430's. This nimble gadget-about the size of a current day USPS delivery truck-enabled Gutenberg to churn out mass-produced literature in record speed. He did Bibles in about...oh...say a year-at-a-time. Big stuff! The development of printing techniques would drive direct marketing advertising pretty much up until today.
Later in the century, in England, a printer by the name of William Caxton set-up the first English printing press in Westminster Abbey in 1471 and printed his first hand-bill around 1480. With this hand-bill, the Age of direct marketing was born...
Over the years I've spoken with thousands of small business and home business entrepreneurs. Each of them looking for the most effective means to deliver their message into the hands of their target audience. With the proliferation of the Internet and email into the fabric of our society, many folks in my opinion, mistakenly fall in love with the concept of using email lists to drive cold traffic. I'm not anti-email. Far from it.
Email is an incredible vehicle, but as a prefered solution for building a business on a shoe-string budget...it is not. Email to communicate with customers/clients is a magnificently efficient tool. But unless you have a significant budget to devote to the testing of Subject Lines, copy, images, etc...the odds of hitting a winner with a one-shot email blast is slim.
Targeted Direct Mail on the other hand is a much better bet. Once you have chosen the right list(s) for your marketing effort (Reference my post on "How Do I Buy a Great Mailing List") you need to decide what message you want to communicate to your prospect. Once you have determined this, you next must design a mailing piece around your call to action (Reference my post on "Do I Need a Good Call to Action in My Direct Marketing Pieces?".
And that is where we come to WHY I like Postcards as a door opener.
Next time you go to your mailbox, observe yourself. Once you have thumbed through your mail, stop and replay what you did. Was there anything that caught your eye? Any plain or unexpected #10 envelopes that just made you want to open them? Probably not, unless they used 4-color artwork or were from a company that you were familiar with. How long did it take you to go through your mail and determine what was trash and what you would/needed to keep? Not long, huh?
So, in that fraction of a second when you were determining the fate of a piece of unsolicited mail what tempted you? Maybe nothing. Maybe it was an attractive or interesting postcard? It certainly wasn't a plain envelope.
The beauty of a postcard is that it NEVER has to be opened. In that fraction of a second that you will have to convince your prospect to keep you from the recycling bin (we're all thinking Green these days, right?) having a postcard with your call to action staring them in the face gives you a much higher probability of gaining relevance in the prospects eyes than an envelope that needs to be opened.
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In the age of "E" this and "E" that, good ole
Direct Mailing Lists still work best for promoting geographically targeted (local) businesses. Here are some tips on when
direct mail should be your first marketing choice. Keep in mind that the more of these tips that apply, the more likely it is that direct mail will be your best bet.
- If you can clearly define your target audience, direct mail will work. Direct Mail is about targeting. The more precisely you can identify you best prospects, the greater the likelihood of success.
- Whether your sales message is short or long... direct mail works.
- Direct Mail works when you need to control the entire selling process. You don't want layers of contact between you and the decision maker.
- When other distribution channels don't work as well as going direct to your audience.
"What are the most common Direct Mail Mistakes and how can I try to Avoid them?"Successful direct mail doesn't depend on fancy, four-color design or "creative" copy.
Mistake No. 1: Not renting the right mail/email list for you.Do you know what the most important part of your direct mail campaign is? It is the
mailing list. No matter how beautiful your graphic design is, no matter how slick your ad copy is, if you mail to the wrong mailing list, your mailing is doomed to failure. Remember, a mailing list is not just a means to reach your prospects, it IS your prospects!
The best list available to you is your "house" list-your list of customers and prospects who previously bought from you or responded to your marketing efforts.
Typically, your house list can pull double the response of an outside list. When renting outside lists, make sure to consult with the list provider to make sure you are getting the most up-to-date names available and are renting the best possible list segment or segments of the targeted list.
Mistake No. 2: Not having an offer.An offer is what the reader gets when he responds to your mailing.
To be successful, a direct-mail package should sell the offer, not the product itself. For example, if you have a Kick boxing Gym, don't sell that you are a kick boxing Gym, sell your offer-Free Introductory class. The offer is the free class the benefit to the Gym is the opportunity to convert satisfied class participants into members.
Make sure you have a well-thought-out offer in every mailing. If you think the offer and the way you describe it are unimportant, you are wrong.
Here are some effective teasers: free brochure, free analysis, free consultation, free demonstration, free trial, free sample, free catalog...it doesn't always have to be free.
Your copy should state the offer in such a way as to increase the object reader's interest to respond to whatever it is you offer.
- The list is who you are talking to.
- The offer is a great deal you have for them,
- A call action is the close.
Thus, the call to action is what it is you are trying to get the prospect to do.
Don't ASSUME! Just because it is logical to you that they should look-up your website address or call your phone number, NEVER leave it to your prospect to make that connection!!!
Often times I will see someone put together a beautiful mailing piece, but because their call to action is not clear, their mailing falls on its face. It is not so much that people don't realize they can call your phone or visit your website, it's just that unless you actually ask people to do so, they don't.
The Art of the Call to ActionWe've all received pieces of mail that want us to do something. And they're typically covered with act now, supplies are limited, this is a limited time offer, this offer expires soon, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and so long. You probably ask yourself why do these people still do this? Everybody knows the limited time offer is probably a million years. Why do people still use this language in direct mail pieces? Because the simple truth is that these words increase the response of mail pieces.
Tell them what to do.One trick to a good call to action is to use action words. Hurry, for a limited time, act now, etc... And so on. These words are good motivators, they get people moving. Traditionally in one step mailings - where you are trying to get someone to order something after reading your piece - the call to action revolves around the order form.
If you push everything, people end up doing nothing. Instead focus on something very specific you want people to do and dedicate all the energy of the mailing be getting them to do it.
- Before you go about finding that great mailing list for your marketing campaign, you need to define your audience. Precisely who is your market? The more precisely you can define your perfect target audience, the better you'll be able to segment your mailing, and the better your response will be.
- It is an accepted acxiom in direct marketing that the closer to a consumers' last purchase you can reach them, the more apt they are to be responsive to your offer. Therefore, try to find a list that is updated and cleaned on a regular basis. An old list is more likely to have invalid records on it than a fresh one.
- Select a reputable vendor to purchase (remember that lists are "bought" for one-time use only, unless multi-use arrangements have been negotiated beforehand) your list from. The most important criteria is to make sure that they are a member in good standing with the DMA (Direct Marketing Association). If you don't see the DMA logo displayed on their site, don't assume it is safe to use them. You can contact the DMA online at: www.the-dma.org.
- Select a list that most closely mirrors your target audience. For example, if you are trying to sell gym memberships in your local area, make sure you target people who have demonstrated an interest in physical fitness and fall within any specific age, gender or income parameters you may have. Don't expect to appeal to just anyone.
- Buy only what you can afford. It is important to test with direct mail. Your first try might not work, don't put all of your eggs in one basket.
- Don't be afraid to raise your hand. Contact the vendor and ask for their suggestions as to what you should test. They are the professionals and can most likely save you a lot of time and frustration. The biggest decision you will have is whether or not to buy a Compiled List or a Response List.
The most important element of any direct mail program is the mailing list.
This is one rule to which there are no exceptions. If you use the wrong list, everything else is futile. Market-savvy timing; distinctive mailing piece; catchy headline; creative copy, perfect offer--none of it matters one iota if the mailing piece goes to people who aren't good prospects. Your mailing is gonna tank!
Depending upon which dm guru you fancy, the list is anywhere from 40% to 60% responsible for the success of a mailing. The upside of this rule, of course, is that once you select the right list, you're more than halfway to running a successful direct mail program.
The terms "list" and "database" are often used interchangeably. Once you add any information beyond the name and address to a list, it starts to become a database." Then, using a computer, databases can be searched, manipulated, and analyzed, making it possible to target your direct mail efforts ever more accurately.
But the resulting proliferation of lists--the computerized refinements--makes the job of selecting the best lists daunting. That's why so many successful marketers use list brokers or consultants to aid them in the list development and procurement process
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