The Art of Creating Effective Direct Mail
Mailing has been leveraged as a means to communicate since the primitive era, and despite the advancement of technology in recent times, it remains one of the most effective ways to deliver a message.
With the creation of the Internet, e-mailing and social media are common ways for companies and businesses to communicate with its target audience, but there’s one thing that this method lacks; the physical touch.
The effectiveness of direct mail (DM) comes from its uniqueness of giving the target audience a physical and personal message. Studies have shown that sending a physical piece of mail helps create a deeper connection, generating a 20% higher response than digital messaging (Nekechuk, 2020).
However, a means is only as effective as its purpose, and DM requires planning and strategizing. There are a few things that comes to mind when creating effective direct mail:
Identifying your target audience
Personalizing your message
Creating a Call to Action (CTA)
Sending appropriate contents
Identifying Your Target Audience
The effectiveness of DM is entirely relative to where it is being sent, not what the contents are. You could spend hours on end designing a message, but if it falls on deaf ears, it is nothing but a waste of your time and resources. DM allows for companies to specify their target audience, and this can be entirely relative to their own target markets for their respective companies/businesses. Making sure that you are able to reach out to the people that are known to generate the most results will help create the ROI that you and your team are looking for.
Just like digital marketing, DM provides a paramount of opportunities to market towards specific segments. Whether you want to allocate your efforts towards a specific demographic or towards individuals with a particular interest in a subject, the possibilities are endless.
Personalizing Your Message
Creating a personalized message creates greater loyalty and drives better results and engagement (Canada Post, 2020). As a matter of fact, it is undeniable that an individual is more likely to open, read, and follow a CTA if the mail contains their own name and the contents are personally addressing him/her. While this comes at a greater cost as opposed to sending mass amounts of mail to a large demographic, this method yields promising results for those who are looking to increase their longevity.
Creating a Call to Action
So you’ve created a well-thought out message for your target audience. Now what? If there is no CTA to your message, your reader will simply throw away the mail and forget about it in the next few moments. Having a CTA is crucial as it creates a path for your reader to take, applying the contents and materials that they have just absorbed through the mail you have created. A CTA is what drives results, and it allows your readers to better understand what your goals are and how they can become a part of achieving it.
Another key aspect to creating an effective CTA is to make it simple and easy to act on. If it is complicated, your reader will be reluctant to follow through which renders your efforts useless. Lay out the steps for your reader, specify what it is you’re looking for, and shorten the time it takes to fulfill the CTA.
Sending Appropriate Contents
While this goes hand in hand with what was mentioned earlier about personalizing your message, it is equally important to design content that matches your target audience and the purpose behind your message. If you’re looking to generate awareness, it probably isn’t the best idea to add seven or eight pieces of letters and materials for an individual to read. But it might be best to create a few quality pieces that have a higher likelihood of captivating a reader’s attention, which ultimately leads to them following through with any CTAs you may have in store for them. While there are lots of different materials you can send in direct mail, it is best to strategize accordingly to ensure the utmost effectiveness of your campaign.
Creating content that sticks to your target audience promotes longevity and creates more possibilities for your company/business. Contents like ornaments or calendars are great as it provides a window for your audience to be constantly exposed to your brand. With this exposure, it increases the chances of an individual to fulfil a CTA, market your brand through word of mouth to friends and family, and/or other individuals may come across the material, sparking more conversations.
Marketing through DM holds limitless potential for you and your organization, but it can sometimes be difficult to carry out. That is precisely why companies like Mail-o-Matic and Frontier exist; to give you the benefits of direct mail marketing without any further complications or headaches.
This resource was produced by Mail-O-Matic, based out of Burnaby, BC, Canada.
References
Nekechuk, J. (November 9, 2020). Canada Post. Direct mail: A powerful medium to include in your marketing mix to grow your business. Retrieved from https://canadapost.seismic.com/app#/doccenter/7f85f856-d2a7-4b43-a3c4-01ce0d200b13/doc/%252Fddf7a9ac31-8dbe-4dd5-ba5a-a40895c1de3b%252FdfYzYyN2Y1YjAtNjc1Yi00NzdkLWIyYWUtM2IyY2ZmN2IyNThh%252CPT0%253D%252CU2VsbCBTaGVldA%253D%253D%252Flfccc6fc0c-24f3-49de-9a37-17ec064b426a//?mode=view
Nekechuk, J. (November 9, 2020). Canada Post. Canada Post Smartmail MarketingTM Solutions. Retrieved from https://canadapost.seismic.com/app#/doccenter/7f85f856-d2a7-4b43-a3c4-01ce0d200b13/doc/%252Fddf7a9ac31-8dbe-4dd5-ba5a-a40895c1de3b%252FdfYzYyN2Y1YjAtNjc1Yi00NzdkLWIyYWUtM2IyY2ZmN2IyNThh%252CPT0%253D%252CSW5mb2dyYXBoaWM%253D%252Flf0b1daa42-481a-4d16-95dc-76b958d80974//?mode=view