by Summer Gould fromTarget Marketing 8/24/2020
Today more than ever, consumers enjoy getting good mail pieces. What is good? There are three basic elements that determine the success of a direct mail marketing campaign: the list, the offer, and the creative.
In order to generate more response from your mail pieces, you need to look at all three of these elements. People only want direct mail that is relevant to them, and it’s up to marketers to deliver.
Here are 7 tips to get more response:
1. List
There is no factor more important to the success of your mailing than the list. The quality of the mailing list represents at least 40% of your campaign’s success.
How good is your list? Take a look at your data. What have people purchased from you before? What can you offer them now based on that purchase history? If you don’t have a lot of information in your data you can apply predictive list models to target a smaller, more specific audience.
Keep your list up-to-date. This is more than just keeping addresses current; it also includes making sure that all the purchase history is current, as well as any other information you are capturing.
2. Offer
It’s the basic driver of response, so make sure it is relevant. You can test a few different wording options to see what works best for your audience. Offer a discount, free gift, or rebate. If your offer is powerful, consider including it in your headline. Put a time limit on the offer to motivate the reader to respond quickly. Use the word “free.”
Also remember that people want to know, “What’s in it for me?” So, emphasize benefits, not features. Features are what your product has or service offers, whereas benefits are how it improves your customer’s life. SPF 50 is a feature of sunscreen. Helps prevent skin cancer is the benefit. As an old ad man once said, “Sell the sizzle, not the steak.
3. Make It Personal
Speak directly to your customer with a relevant message. A florist sends birthday and anniversary reminders to its customers. A shoe retailer notifies a customer about a new model of running shoe, an upgrade to what she has purchased before. These efforts turn your mail into a customer service tool. And your customers want service. Variable data printing provides a tool for customizing every mail piece with personalized messages and images.
Don’t forget to tell people what you want them to do. Make it clear how you want the reader to respond. Prompt them to call, come in, visit your website, send in a reply card, or whatever your objective is.
4. Add a P.S. to a Letter
Readers often read the P.S. before the body of a letter. This makes the P.S. a good place to reiterate the offer or main benefit. Make your P.S. compelling. Some people choose to also add a P.P.S for an additional highlight. Make sure they are concise and relevant.
5. Give the Reader Multiple Ways to Respond
Include a phone number, email, text number, website, and anything else you have available. Make this information easy to find. Consider including a business reply card. Even in this day when people may respond by telephone and internet, business reply cards improve response rates. Their very presence communicates that a response is requested.
6. Change the Size
If you’ve always had reasonable success with a 5.5 x 8.5 postcard, test a 6 x 11 card and see if it catches more attention. What it cost you in dollars, you may get back in response. We would recommend staying in the letter postage rate size category to keep your postage costs down.
7. Mail More Frequently
If you are mailing four times a year, test a series of six mailings. It keeps you in front of customers more often and gives you more opportunities to get a response. Tests have shown that a second mailing of the same piece to the same list usually generates 50% of the response of the first mailing. Of course, do not saturate them with mail; it will only have a negative effect.
Now you are ready to increase your responses. Only change one thing at a time in your mailing to make sure you know the results of the change. You can split your list in half and send one change to the first half and a different change to the other half. Are you ready to increase your results?