Direct mail marketing is perhaps the most potent and efficient methods for any kind of business to get new customers and to sell more products and services to existing customers and clients, too.
The reason so many business owners claim it doesn?t work, or have had problems with it themselves is they?re breaking some fundamental but very straightforward rules. You can?t expect to send any old thing out to the world and have hordes of eager buyers come knocking at your door struggling to push cash into your hands. If that?s how it worked, every business owner would be rolling in it!
So to be successful with your small business marketing, you have to adhere to the rules. These rules have been proven to be sound over a century and a half of trial and error.
They are not rules as in regulations you have to observe ?or else?, but rather are guidelines which have been found empirically to give better results (i.e. higher Return on Investment, or ROI).
Sorry to say, almost all direct mail campaigns are assembled by people who are simply not up to the job. Generally it?s graphic designers, and while they may be great at designing pretty artwork, they are not usually experienced in direct advertising. Your piece might just look marvelous, but so what if it?s not making you any sales?
I warn you: your graphic designer and printer will loathe this guidance I?m offering you, and will likely tell you it?s not going to work. If they do then, simply tell them you?ll split-test their version against yours, and the loser pays for the entire mailing. Get them to put their money where their mouth is. Here are a couple of simple tips I recommend you try out in your direct mail advertising, and simply see the difference they make.
Rule # 1: Be casual
The majority of direct mail advertising LOOKS like advertising. You get it in a stock envelope with a label or printed address on it, and as frequently as not it has the company name and logo on it, to. This is a really awful idea..
Why? Because it?s obvious even to my dog this is an advertising piece ? and it follows you?re going to seek and sell me something, which automatically puts me on the back foot.
Rather, I recommend you use a plain, white envelope, the sort you?d use for a personal letter. Then use an actual stamp (as in, one from the Post Office), and hand-write the address, or at least use a realistic looking handwriting typeface printed straight onto the envelope? NO LABELS.
In case you have got to have a return address on it, simply use the address in the top left corner ? no company name, no logo.
This is inevitably going to mean even more people will in fact open your direct mail marketing pieces. Of course, once they?ve opened it, they?ve got to read it then take action.
Rule # 2: Be friendly
But ? if you read most direct mail marketing pieces, they?re plain, monotonous and full of wind. They don?t seem to be there for any specific reason other than ?brand awareness?. Drop that immediately. Your ?brand awareness? will be a by-product of your success, not the other way around.
So write your direct mail piece from one human being to another, in informal, friendly terms. And then, ensure you?re discussing one thing, and one thing only.
Point out, highlight and promise to eliminate just ONE problem in the headline; tell them you can fix it and how they are able to get the solution in the copy; and then in the call to action inform them clearly and unambiguously what they must do to get it, why they must do this (and why they need to do it NOW rather than later), and what ?ll happen if they don?t. Dead easy.
These suggestions alone will make a considerable difference to your results, I promise.
Source: http://digitalnewscafe.net/direct-mail-marketing-powerful-ideas-for-small-business/
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