Getting Started with Direct Mail
| Category: Direct Mail | Date: 2001-09-14 |
If direct mail isn't part of your marketing mix, it may be time to re-evaluate your strategy. Direct mail allows you to target a specified group of prospects with personalized greetings and offerings. On a per-sale basis, direct mail is the least expensive method of marketing. Because it allows you to control the quantities and costs of the mailing, direct mail can be an economic medium for entrepreneurs working with a tight budget.
While some products and services may lend themselves to the direct mail approach, almost any business can profit from the direct approach. Include samples, coupons, and discount offers wherever applicable
Start Small
If you don't consider your product a natural for direct sales, why not take a small gamble and see if you can prove yourself wrong. A small, carefully crafted and targeted mailing can be an effective way to test the waters. The return on a small to medium-sized mailing can predict the results of a larger, more extensive mailing. If you get a disappointing return, use the failure to aid you in reworking your offering before sending it out to the masses.
Mailing Lists
After you've made the decision to take the direct mail route, your first step should be to contact a list broker. Supply the broker with a description of your product or service, sales goals and objectives, strategies, and target audience. The broker should assist you in selecting names based on factors such as location, age, gender, educational background, income level, interests, past purchasing patterns, credit history and more.
By having a clear concept of whom you are targeting, you can tailor the look and feel of the offering to the match the prospect's age, gender, professional status, hobbies or any other desired criteria.
List Testing
List and offer testing can teach you a lot about your customer base. A variety of offers can be sent to names from a single list. Conversely, a solitary proposition can be offered to names gathered from multiple lists. These tests will give you a clear and accurate accounting of who your best prospects are.
Quantifying Results
When introducing a new product or service, you may want to be able to measure the effectiveness of your direct mail campaign. It's much easier to analyze the success of a direct mail effort versus a print or broadcast ad. You can measure the cost of your investment against the return.
In "Guerrilla Marketing for the '90s," Jay Levinson describes the complete honesty that results from direct mail marketing as being invaluable. He writes, "because it so accountable, it let's you know if you have done a good job making your offer, pricing your merchandise, constructing your mailing package, writing your copy, timing your mailing, selecting your mailing list." You'll be able to measure the success of your effort shortly afterwards.
Remember, direct mail pieces are really targeted advertisement delivered directly to recipient's mailboxes. The success of your mailing is indicated by the initial flurry of first-time customers as well as the number of customers who return again and again.
"I don't need this," she may really mean "I don't need this right now." Your competition may have beaten you to the punch. If the customer isn't locked into a long-term purchasing contract, you may still be able to set up a future sale. Unless you can come up with a way for the customer to move her current inventory, though, this is a tough sell.
If your prospect reveals displeasure with her current supplier or product, your presentation should emphasize how your product can meet and exceed their expectations. When prospects are shopping for an item with specific features or a stated price, remember that they are "shopping." They may be flexible if you can capture their interest and extol the benefits of your offering.
Listen to your prospect's wish list and then present the merits of your product. Your presentation should include the key features, benefits and prices. Don't laud all the bells and whistles if the customer might perceive them as frivolous and get sidetracked. And unless a specific feature jumps out at you, determine the sequence of your presentation with the visible, tangible benefits up front.
Remember, you won't lose a sale by asking too many questions or learning too much about a customer. Many customers are not conscious of their needs. Your questions will stimulate their awareness, qualifying them and hopefully, getting you the sale.
Comment on this article here.
You can learn more about Guerrilla tactics from the Guerrilla Marketing books and software and our Daily Guerrilla Communiques on marketing, selling and online marketing. You can even buy them online right now!
About the Author
Debra Kahn Schofield is a regular contributor to Guerrilla Marketing Online. She has 15 years of experience as a writer and editor for consumer and trade publications, small business, consulting and research firms. She currently works part-time for the University of California San Francisco Library, researching, writing and editing instructional guides, helping produce HTML pages for the Library's web site and managing an electronic bulletin board.
:To contact see details below.
dkahn@gmarketing.com
http://www.gmarketing.com
While some products and services may lend themselves to the direct mail approach, almost any business can profit from the direct approach. Include samples, coupons, and discount offers wherever applicable
Start Small
If you don't consider your product a natural for direct sales, why not take a small gamble and see if you can prove yourself wrong. A small, carefully crafted and targeted mailing can be an effective way to test the waters. The return on a small to medium-sized mailing can predict the results of a larger, more extensive mailing. If you get a disappointing return, use the failure to aid you in reworking your offering before sending it out to the masses.
Mailing Lists
After you've made the decision to take the direct mail route, your first step should be to contact a list broker. Supply the broker with a description of your product or service, sales goals and objectives, strategies, and target audience. The broker should assist you in selecting names based on factors such as location, age, gender, educational background, income level, interests, past purchasing patterns, credit history and more.
By having a clear concept of whom you are targeting, you can tailor the look and feel of the offering to the match the prospect's age, gender, professional status, hobbies or any other desired criteria.
List Testing
List and offer testing can teach you a lot about your customer base. A variety of offers can be sent to names from a single list. Conversely, a solitary proposition can be offered to names gathered from multiple lists. These tests will give you a clear and accurate accounting of who your best prospects are.
Quantifying Results
When introducing a new product or service, you may want to be able to measure the effectiveness of your direct mail campaign. It's much easier to analyze the success of a direct mail effort versus a print or broadcast ad. You can measure the cost of your investment against the return.
In "Guerrilla Marketing for the '90s," Jay Levinson describes the complete honesty that results from direct mail marketing as being invaluable. He writes, "because it so accountable, it let's you know if you have done a good job making your offer, pricing your merchandise, constructing your mailing package, writing your copy, timing your mailing, selecting your mailing list." You'll be able to measure the success of your effort shortly afterwards.
Remember, direct mail pieces are really targeted advertisement delivered directly to recipient's mailboxes. The success of your mailing is indicated by the initial flurry of first-time customers as well as the number of customers who return again and again.
"I don't need this," she may really mean "I don't need this right now." Your competition may have beaten you to the punch. If the customer isn't locked into a long-term purchasing contract, you may still be able to set up a future sale. Unless you can come up with a way for the customer to move her current inventory, though, this is a tough sell.
If your prospect reveals displeasure with her current supplier or product, your presentation should emphasize how your product can meet and exceed their expectations. When prospects are shopping for an item with specific features or a stated price, remember that they are "shopping." They may be flexible if you can capture their interest and extol the benefits of your offering.
Listen to your prospect's wish list and then present the merits of your product. Your presentation should include the key features, benefits and prices. Don't laud all the bells and whistles if the customer might perceive them as frivolous and get sidetracked. And unless a specific feature jumps out at you, determine the sequence of your presentation with the visible, tangible benefits up front.
Remember, you won't lose a sale by asking too many questions or learning too much about a customer. Many customers are not conscious of their needs. Your questions will stimulate their awareness, qualifying them and hopefully, getting you the sale.
Comment on this article here.
You can learn more about Guerrilla tactics from the Guerrilla Marketing books and software and our Daily Guerrilla Communiques on marketing, selling and online marketing. You can even buy them online right now!
About the Author
Debra Kahn Schofield is a regular contributor to Guerrilla Marketing Online. She has 15 years of experience as a writer and editor for consumer and trade publications, small business, consulting and research firms. She currently works part-time for the University of California San Francisco Library, researching, writing and editing instructional guides, helping produce HTML pages for the Library's web site and managing an electronic bulletin board.
:To contact see details below.
dkahn@gmarketing.com
http://www.gmarketing.com
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