How to Use Direct Mail in the 21st Century
Most “old school” marketers are familiar with the use of
direct mail as a key marketing strategy.
Throughout the 20th
century, learning how to use direct mail was absolutely essential for any
company that wanted to thrive, whether they were a national retail chain or a
small town service provider. The problem is that with the rise of the Internet
direct mail strategies have steadily declined and a focus on digital marketing
has taken over instead.
Yet analytics prove that the noise of online chatter can
become distracting and that learning how to use direct mail properly can still
have a powerful, personal effect on your customers. Here are four short steps
that will help you develop a strategy for how to use direct mail in the 21st
century:
Step 1: Develop a
target market
Like any marketing strategy, learning how to use direct mail
requires first isolating your target market and then designing a campaign that
is tailor-made to suit their needs and wants. This is the single most important
step in learning how to use direct mail. Without properly targeting your
audience, your direct mail campaign has only a random chance at success.
Step 2: Consider your
timing
Next, you must plan when direct mailings will occur. Try to
make direct mail coincide with the time of the year, your buyer’s needs, and/or
their position within the sales cycle. Make sure that you plan to send your direct
mail items with enough time to compensate for delivery delays.
Step 2: Get personal
Once you isolate your target market, literally take the time
to personalize your direct mail message to them. If you are only sending out a
limited number of mailings, consider handwriting the addresses and signing them.
For larger campaigns, use the computer to plug in names and choose a font that
looks like script to give off a more personalized feel.
Step 4: Don’t limit
your scope
Direct mail is about more than sales letters. Before green
lighting a direct mail campaign, you need to make sure that you have considered
alternatives to traditional techniques. Even though direct mail is not nearly
as prevalent as it was even 10 years ago, many people are still immune to the
‘junk mail’ concept. Therefore, branching out of traditional patterns of sale
and thinking outside of the box through offering coupons, brochures, and post
cards is a great way to set your direct mail apart from the rest.
Despite the rise of online marketing and the importance of
engaging in new age strategies, learning how to use direct mail in the 21st
is still important. Using these four simple steps will help any business to
design a direct mail strategy that works.
