Last time we decided that this campaign had enough ROI potential to pursue and we clearly defined our target market. Now we are ready to move into the execution stage. Here is what we need to do:
1) Design the mail piece
2) Have it printed and mailed
3) Track and follow-up
This is the easy part .... well maybe. There are still many decisions to be made that can impact the results of the campaign.
Designing The Mail Piece
Oh man, a decision point already! Am I sending a postcard or a letter in an envelope? Is the piece flat or folded and tabbed (tabs are the neat little round stickers they use to seal folded material for mailing)? Is it color or black and white? One sided or two?
A variety of factors will determine your answer such as audience, cost, or amount of information required to convey your message.
Luckily, we are selling plastic three ring binders which do not need much explanation, so we are choosing a postcard. In this case, size matters! While we can save pennies with 4"x6" postcards, these tend to get lost in the rest of a persons mail. We always recommend the jumbo (5.5" x 8.5") postcards. They provide more room for content and can be mailed at the same standard mail rate as the 4"x6" cards. And please, never send out a single sided postcard. You paid for the paper already, spend a teeny bit more on some ink to increase your marketing message area by 50%!
Next, color. ALWAYS FULL COLOR WITH HIGH RESOLUTION PICTURES! Look, we are simple minded creatures. The human eye is drawn to colorful pictures before black and white and before text. Even more interesting, our eye will locate pictures in the following order of preference:
1) Children and animals
2) Women
3) Men
4) Landscapes and Decorating
5) Machinery
Two more aspects of the card are critical. First, the text content. You must, repeat must give them a reason to contact you. WIIFM (What's In It For Me) has to be crystal clear so they feel they have no other option than to call (How foolish would they be to miss the opportunity?).
Second, have a clear call to action and contact information. A call to action is simply "CALL NOW" or "VISIT OUR WEBSITE". Unfortunately, a large segment of the population must be told what to do after they read direct mail. Once you have told them what to do, give them the information they need to contact you. Don't hide your phone number and website somewhere in small letters to save space.
Printing and Mailing
Now we are getting into the easier aspects. First, in case you haven't heard me say it already, QUALITY COUNTS! You have spent significant effort creating a powerful piece of marketing material, don't compromise the effort with cheap card stock and mediocre printing. Not all printing presses are created equal. Take a look at the mail that comes to your house over a one week period. Compare the pieces and you will see which YOU consider high quality and which are cheap. How do you want your customers to perceive your business?
Mailing is the easiest. Most printers will do it for you. Send it standard mail, not first class. Here, it IS worth saving a few pennies. Actually, you can save up to $0.13 per piece which adds up quickly when you are sending out 10,000 pieces!
Track and Follow-Up
Yea! It's in the mail! DONE!
WRONG! After spending that time and money to get the piece out the door, you had better spend some time tracking the results.
There are two simple ways to do this. Most common is to have a promotion code on the card that will provide the respondent some benefit by using the promotion code when they call or come to the website. All you have to do is count the number of times the promotion code is used to see how many people responded to the mailing.
The other common method is to simply ask when they call. Hard to do with a website unless you set up a special landing page and can track the hits.
However you decide to do it, you must track your results so that you can determine if you met your ROI targets.
Well that's it in a nutshell. Direct mail is effective, is affordable, and is growing!
