Direct Mail Isn’t Dead

You may find this surprising, but I’m here to tell you direct mail marketing isn’t dead, and to top it off it may be the strongest tool you utilize in your marketing plan this year! Like any marketing resource it’s important to use it effectively to get the best return on investment. So, what’s a successful mail marketing plan look like?

1. yearly Marketing Calendar

   Direct mail marketing is most effective when you’re connecting with customers four times throughout the year. Not every mailing should be selling to your client, find ways to give value to your customers – your favorite breeding protocols, herd management tips or a solution you found to a big challenge you’ve had this year. Your customer contact can be through formats such as a simple quarterly newsletter, holiday card or follow up note after the sale.

2. Call to action

   Always have an objective, whether it’s print or digital marketing there should be a simple call to action. Provide value and an incentive for people to follow through with your request, while also benefiting your marketing efforts. A few CTA’s include: follow us on our social media, stay on our mailing list, sign-up for a free digital download (provide information on a common challenge of your target audience), bring this card with you to the sale and be entered to win a $250 sale credit, etc.

3. Design with intention

   Subconsciously the design of your mailer and overall marketing materials matter. If your mailer is poorly designed or printed on low quality paper it can send a feeling of poor quality about your brand. Use quality graphic design and printing that fits within your brand to communicate a cohesive, positive and familiar message to your audience. You may find it boring at times to use the same fonts and graphic styles when working on your materials throughout the year, but it will help you stand out and feel familiar in a crowded market. Consider the marketing from large brands like Apple, Nike or McDonald’s, their marketing materials use familiar feeling fonts, colors and quality products to communicate to their audience and you can too.

4. Key Timing

   Utilizing an annual marketing plan for all of your marketing materials will help you determine key time frames to utilize direct mailers to their fullest. For example, your audience could be attending a national show. Invite them to stop by your stalls and enter a giveaway drawing or even bring the mailer with them to enter. This gives you an opportunity to meet with your audience to build relationships without a sales pressured atmosphere. Find ways to tailor your direct mailer timing to your business events while providing ways to connect with your clients.

5. Measure your roi

Building client relationships can be long-term investments and make it challenging to determine your return on investment on specific marketing tactics. Determine ways to measure your client engagement and marketing success beyond your sale average. Using tools such as Google Analytics or the analytics on your Squarespace website are great resources to gauge client engagement with your marketing efforts, especially if your call to action is to visit your website. Knowing when print ads or direct mail pieces are hitting mailboxes can help you gauge the effectiveness of reaching your audience. You can also utilize contact capture forms tailored to your efforts by asking visitors to select from a listing of marketing mediums of how they heard about you, such as the publications you advertised with, digital marketing efforts or your direct mail piece.