Direct mail, especially direct mail used with personal URLs (PURLs), can be one of the most effective and traceable parts of your marketing campaign. Direct mail is effective and traceable only if certain precautions are taken. Here are the top five marketing errors made in direct mail campaigns. Marketing executives, take note, because making one of these marketing mistakes on your direct mail can turn a potentially strong campaign into a guaranteed flop.
Haste Makes Waste if you Overlook the Database
Unlike online advertising, email marketing, television and magazine ads, you have complete control over who sees your direct mail piece. Yet many marketing executives consistently use the wrong mailing list and send their direct mail piece to a cold audience. Whether it is an email or postal mailing list; in-house or rented; the mailing list is your campaign’s lifeline.
If you take the time to create a precise and targeted mailing list at the start of your direct mail campaign, the results can be record-breaking for your company. In his new book, The Inside Advantage, by advertising legend Robert H. Bloom, he says each product/service has a specific type of customer that will make purchases in an optimal quantity providing for the best possible growth for the company. As a marketing executive you need to identify this market and get your direct mail piece in front of them with the right mailing list.
Variable Thinking, a full-service marketing firm, specializes in identifying the exact type of customer for your product or service. This can be done using your existing database, or identifying new sources. By using an existing customer database, you’re advertising to people who have purchased your products or services in the past.
To Make the Grade You Must Pass the Test
Tied in with your mailing list is possible mistake number two. If you skip out on testing your direct mail with your market/mailing list you threaten the cost effectiveness of the entire direct mail campaign.
To effectively test your direct mail piece, send out a small percentage of your advertising to your market segment to see response. If it’s strong, you can estimate a ROI, rate of investment, for your campaign. If response is weak, you may want to rethink your mailing list.
Calling all Customers! Read all About it.
Mistake number three and four focus on the actual content and layout of your direct mail piece. The two key elements of any advertising document are the headline and the call to action. The headline is your hook that catches the reader’s eye, keeps them focused. The call-to-action is how you get them to DO something. Personalized direct mail is a proven marketing method for getting the consumers attention and getting them to act.
For example, if your direct mail piece focuses on a really great graphic and puts the headline/offer in an obscure place, the reader may look at the graphic, think its great, but NOT see the point of it, due to a lack of an attention-grabbing headline, and toss the direct mail piece. You need balance. Keep the headline as the “center piece” of the ad using graphics or copy to punctuate its purpose.
In the same vein, if the direct mail piece doesn’t call your reader to ACT, call in, email, buy your product, you not only miss out on the strong traceability of direct mail, i.e. you can tell who “got the message” by who acts on it, you’ve also had no purpose for sending it in the first place. Personal URLs (PURLs) added to direct mail pieces allow customers to response online, request more information or make a purchase, while sending real-time leads and reports to the advertiser.
Follow-Up and Follow Thru
Finally, to guarantee that your direct mail campaign will succeed, follow up with your potential clients. Follow up can include:
A. Filling order requests quickly.
B. Sending additional mail to bounced emails or non-response clients.
C. Researching the reasons for bounced emails or returned postal mail.
D. Gauging ROI for this direct mail campaign and deciding how to increase it with the next campaign.
Direct mail marketing can be your company’s easiest advertising decision, don’t kill its potential by making these mistakes.
Don't make the mistake of missing this free marketing webinar!
Attend one of our free weekly marketing webinars held every Wednesday from 2:00 pm to 2:45 pm CDT, and enter to win a free three day/four night trip to the Grand Bahamas! Sign up now!
Friday, October 26, 2007
Friday, August 10, 2007
Free Personalized Direct Mail Webinar
Event: Free One-to-One Marketing Webinar
Date(s): (every Wed.)
Time: 2:00 PM - 2:45 PM CDT
Event Details: Are you ready to implement a personalized marketing strategy that generates long-term results? Confused how to start? Variable Thinking will show you how! Attend our weekly 45-minute webinar and walk away with a clear vision on how to increase response rates and revenue while lowering your marketing costs. Learn the ins and outs of one-to-one marketing with Variable Thinking, the definitive worldwide leader in marketing technology and services.
Our complimentary webinars are held every Wednesday from 2 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. CDT. All attendees receive valuable one-to-one marketing resources.
Reserve your space now! http://www.variablethinking.com/webinar.aspx
Date(s): (every Wed.)
Time: 2:00 PM - 2:45 PM CDT
Event Details: Are you ready to implement a personalized marketing strategy that generates long-term results? Confused how to start? Variable Thinking will show you how! Attend our weekly 45-minute webinar and walk away with a clear vision on how to increase response rates and revenue while lowering your marketing costs. Learn the ins and outs of one-to-one marketing with Variable Thinking, the definitive worldwide leader in marketing technology and services.
Our complimentary webinars are held every Wednesday from 2 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. CDT. All attendees receive valuable one-to-one marketing resources.
Reserve your space now! http://www.variablethinking.com/webinar.aspx
Thursday, August 9, 2007
How to Chooose a Solution Provider
If you search the phrase "marketing solution" on Google you'll be smacked with 167M sites that includes everything from email, SEO, direct mail, and ministry marketing solutions. You'll be attracted to the pages because "marketing solution" will be all over the content and in page titles, but you'll never actually find an explanation of what a "marketing solution" is. That is why it's important to ask yourself if you're looking at a true solution--or a service.
PODI defines a solution as, "A repeatable combination of core products, services and unique knowledge that improves the economic performance and delivers ongoing value." In other words, solution providers are long-term partners who understand the needs of your business.
A true marketing solution must achieve at least one of three things: 1) fulfill unmet marketing needs; 2) provide a unique technology you can't find elsewhere; 3) offer services that would be unaffordable elsewhere. When looking for a solution provider, it's important to make sure the company understands the needs of your company and helps you acquire, retain, and grow customers.
Another important question to ask when researching companies is whether or not the solution can be replicated, or if individual services can be purchased when needed. One example of a complete marketing solution is Variable Thinking’s Integrated Marketing Solution. All of the services are offered individually, but are most effective when used as a "solution" that includes: database marketing, personalized direct mail and email, personalized landing pages (PURLs), digital printing, direct mail fulfillment, real-time sales leads, and response tracking.
Another question to ask is if the "solution" is outsourced or provided under one roof. Variable Thinking is the only company that can provide the entire marketing solution under one roof, meaning you’re only communicating with one business partner.
PODI defines a solution as, "A repeatable combination of core products, services and unique knowledge that improves the economic performance and delivers ongoing value." In other words, solution providers are long-term partners who understand the needs of your business.
A true marketing solution must achieve at least one of three things: 1) fulfill unmet marketing needs; 2) provide a unique technology you can't find elsewhere; 3) offer services that would be unaffordable elsewhere. When looking for a solution provider, it's important to make sure the company understands the needs of your company and helps you acquire, retain, and grow customers.
Another important question to ask when researching companies is whether or not the solution can be replicated, or if individual services can be purchased when needed. One example of a complete marketing solution is Variable Thinking’s Integrated Marketing Solution. All of the services are offered individually, but are most effective when used as a "solution" that includes: database marketing, personalized direct mail and email, personalized landing pages (PURLs), digital printing, direct mail fulfillment, real-time sales leads, and response tracking.
Another question to ask is if the "solution" is outsourced or provided under one roof. Variable Thinking is the only company that can provide the entire marketing solution under one roof, meaning you’re only communicating with one business partner.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)