It’s the most basic type of marketing collateral in many ways:
– It speaks directly to a prospect because it is personal.
– It demands some WOW factor because, unlike billboards, television, radio, even the Internet to an extent, the reader is never in a passive mode and is always on the verge of disregarding the message if you do not keep their interest.
– These pieces are most effective when simple – with a clear benefit, call to action, and deadline.
So how do you do it the right way?
1. Determine your target so you are getting the most out of every dollar you spend on your mailers. Exactly the strategy for deciding where to place online ads, or which radio spot is most beneficial—in the case of mail you can be even more targeted. It’s the perfect way to hone your skills until your business is like a Special Forces sniper of advertising.
2. All advertising and marketing is personal. Direct mail especially should be done in a way that makes every person believe you are talking only to them. You do this by discovering who your average customer is—one fictional individual that you make up, who represents a compilation of the most common traits of all of your customers. The more detailed that person becomes the more effective your marketing will become.
3. You have to be original. We observe businesses getting lazy with their various ads and marketing all the time. If you have a television spot or radio spot, enough of your potential customers might be just lazy enough not to turn away from that lackluster ad. Not so for mail though. No one is going to sit through a boring piece of junk mail no matter how awesome your service, product, or offer happens to be.
4. It has to be simple for the same reason it has to be original. People just aren’t going to read it if it confuses them, doesn’t get to the point immediately, or is in any way unclear.
5. The point needs to be the benefit to that person, why they need your service or product right now. Branding is all well and good for McDonalds, Bud Light, Google, and other behemoths, but 99.999% of businesses don’t have the time or the capital to brand for the sake of branding. The rest of us need to have a point with the branding portion woven into the message.
6. Create urgency. This is best done in direct mail with a deadline on an offer, for example $10 off for a limited time.