*7 Sure-Fire Tips to Direct Mail Success

7 Sure-Fire Tips To Direct Mail Success

By Phillip M. Perry

Designed properly, direct mail promotions make your business sing a joyful song of greater sales. Designed poorly, they fail with a deafening thud as potential customers drop unwanted mail into wastebaskets everywhere.

Advertising consultants sum up the secrets to powerful direct mail in seven easy-to-follow tips. Next time you conduct a direct marketing campaign, enlist these ideas to give your project the sweet sound of success.

Send a personal message
Too often business owners insert their usual brochures into envelopes, stuff the mailboxes and hope for the best. Bad move. Of all advertising vehicles, only direct mail creates an intimate communication with your customer. Successful advertisers take advantage of the fact that direct mail serves as the most effective medium for cementing ongoing relationships with customers.

“Make your mailing piece as personal as you can,” advises Brad Lehrer, president of Brad Lehrer Designs in Bronxville, N.Y. “Make it look like a one-on-one communication. You should print addresses right on the envelope. Better yet, use handwritten calligraphy if your mailing announces some special event. Remember that if people see their addresses have been generated by a mail merge program, they drop your mailing right into the garbage.”

Avoid the common white envelope so often used for business mailings. Pick an attractive paper with a slightly off-white color to stimulate interest. “Stay away from the usual white envelope, unless you have a graphic that explodes from the paper and attracts the eye,” says Joe Shansky, president of Shansky Works, a direct mail design firm in Barrington, R.I.

To make your mailing stand out from the crowd, Shansky suggests trying unique envelope sizes, as long as they conform to postal regulations. Or employ something completely out of the ordinary. “Try mailing tubes,” Shansky says. “They’re so different that they create curiosity. They make people want to open them to see what’s inside.”

Imprint “A special offer for our regular customers” on the envelope to emphasize the personalized, exclusive nature of the mailing piece. The art of personalizing continues when you slap on the postage. Imprint the envelope with a bulk mail indicia and save a bundle? No way.

“Use postage stamps,” advises Jeff Berner, director of Jeff Berner Creations, an advertising agency in Dillon Beach, Calif. “Tests show they increase response. Because so much direct mail is automatically considered junk, postage stamps make a favorable impression.”

All this personalization pays rich dividends. “People remember your personalized mailing,” says Robert Imbriale, president of Classique, an advertising firm in Commack, N.Y. “Next time they decide to shop, they think of your business.”

Communicate a benefit
Recipients want a reward for opening your mail. That reward should be a clearly defined message that expresses a tangible customer benefit. Here are some ways to focus your message:
• Offer a free 30-minute first-time consultation
• Introduce a new product or service
• Announce a special event, such as a reception for your best customers or a special sale on certain items
• Enclose a coupon good for a discount if used within 30 days
• Offer free estimates on services

“You need a clearly defined offer if your mailing is to draw customers,” explains Imbriale. “Such announcements are timely and will stimulate a lot of attention.”

Create urgency
“You can increase your direct mail success tremendously by adding a sense of urgency to every mailing,” says Ivan Levison, an advertising consultant in Greenbrae, Calif. “Print the deadline on the face of the envelope. This is one way to get recipients to open the mailing and read what’s inside.”

Without a sense of urgency, recipients most likely park your mailing on a shelf where it stays until forgotten. With a deadline in mind, they know they must take action or lose their advantage. Try these techniques:
• “You receive a 10-percent discount on services provided between (date) and (date)”
• “Hurry! This sale ends on (give a date)”
• “Respond by (date) and receive a free gift worth $–”
• “We will honor the first 50 customers with a (name of gift)”
• “Call by (date) to receive your free consultation”

Provide sufficient information
Direct mail gives you enough space to fully describe your offer. Contrast that to radio, newspaper and television advertising, which limit your time and space to a headline and a few descriptive words.

“With direct mail, you can go into detail, really selling and building rapport and getting your message told completely,” says Rebecca Dominguez, director of strategic services at Sparks Direct Marketing in Seattle, Wash.

Consider answers to these questions when providing detailed information:
• What are the biggest benefits to be had from the products or services you’re promoting?
• Why is this offer being made now instead of six months ago?
• What have other customers said about your offerings? Include testimonials.

Direct mail also gives you the opportunity to remind existing customers about your additional products and services. “Even your regular customers don’t realize you sell other things and have other services,” says Dominguez.

Enclose a sales letter
Recipients usually read the sales letter first, so it’s vitally important that the letter state the benefit right up front. Place the benefit in a headline and run the headline at the top of every sales letter.

“Some businesses don’t like headlines, but the fact is that 80 percent of the power of the sales letter is in the headline,” says Steve Veltkamp, president of Biz$hop in Port Angeles, Wash. “It should state a benefit or a solution to a problem that recipients have.”

No room for a sales letter in your self-mailer? State the benefit in a brief “note from the owner” in an upper corner of the flyer.

Address a targeted audience
Direct mail possesses the unique ability to zero in on a specific group of people. So who do you target first? Your best prospects by far are people who already buy from you.

“Start a list of your current customers,” advises Dominguez. “In-house lists are gold mines. We are constantly amazed at the number of companies that overlook this. Businesses are often so busy prospecting for new customers that they forget most of their sales come from current ones.”

If you expand beyond your current in-house customers, pick a list carefully. It’s all too easy to end up with names outside your target market.

“One of direct mail’s major advantages is the way it can target with laser-like precision,” says Dominguez. “Suppose your business gets customers from a five to 10 mile radius. It’s a waste of money to advertise beyond those parameters. You can also zero in on specific incomes, married people, single people, even people with children. Mailing list brokers will help you select the best list.”

Mail frequently
A single direct mail piece is soon forgotten. Wait too long between mailings, and customers move on to other suppliers. The secret is to maintain a regular schedule of mailings. Some consultants advise mailing to current customers every six weeks.

“We see companies attempting one-shot advertising all the time,” says James Yates, president of Sparks Direct Marketing. “They mail once to their target market, sit back and wait for the money to pour in. Any salesman will tell you that few sales are made on the first call. The same goes for direct mail. Years ago, statistics revealed that 80 percent of sales were made on the sixth sales call. Today the competition’s even harder: 80 percent of sales are made between the 10th and 12th call.”

The good news is that direct mail offers an economy of scale unmatched by personal sales calls. “Few companies can afford to send sales people out to the same prospect 10 or 12 times,” explains Yates. “But most companies can afford to use direct mail to efficiently uncover serious prospects.”

Economies grow even more favorable when direct mail is used to keep current customers coming back. “Regular mailings to current customers need not be expensive,” says Veltkamp. “Simple postcards and self-mailers will do. These are great media for keeping current clientele happy.”

Phillip M. Perry is author of numerous small-business articles and a frequent contributor to Self-Employed America.