Direct Mail Marketing

We humans are purely chemical beings. We react to certain things in certain ways and are programmed to behave in a particular manner when something happens. That reaction can vary from person to person, but there are a number of general rules. That’s a good thing, as you can use it to your advantage when creating your next direct mail marketing campaign.

In terms of targeting, the key is in targeting those who are most likely to respond. Your existing customers are the most likely responders, and retargeting can be a fantastic business move. In terms of targeting new customers, you need to be looking at those who match the profile of your existing customer base. Look at habits, profiles and patterns of your existing clients and build your new list around that.

Personalised mailings can be a fantastic way of improving response rates. If people think they’ve been targeted directly, they’re likely to feel more valued than they would through a ‘To the occupier’ mailing. The personal touch can go a long way to improving the success of your direct mailing campaign.

Ensuring your mailing has a clear, direct message and a strong call to action is vital. Give people a number of ways to respond and consider pre-paid envelopes to minimise what the recipient needs to do to respond. Limit the number of reasons they’ll have to say no.

The science of direct mail marketing doesn’t just stop at psychology, either. Consistently measuring and evaluating your results is absolutely vital to your success. Split testing and measuring your return on investment is a highly scientific approach and will enable to you gauge — and improve upon — your success.

Try sending subtly different mailings to two very similar groups and compare which gets the best results. Then tweak something on the ‘losing’ mailing and try again. Constantly and consistently setting two or more campaigns off against each other can create the competition that’s needed in order to discover which will be most successful. It’ll also ensure that growth and success continue to expand within the campaign and boost profits for your business.

In summary, then, it seems pretty clear that keeping a level head and looking at your direct mail marketing campaign objectively and scientifically are key to your direct mailing success.