“Tried and tested” direct mail has been vital to marketing since before the digital age, as well as during it. Despite the many online marketing platforms available, businesses find that including direct mail in their marketing mix still has a huge effect. If you are thinking of sending out direct mail to your customers, here are some essential tips for those who are marketing B2C. Its essential to remember that your marketing material, whether online or offline is a representation of you and your business.

Personalisation Techniques:

By demonstrating to your customers and potential new clients that you have “personalised” the mail will intrinsically generate positive feelings towards your brand and business. There are several techniques you can use to personalise the mailing. Using past purchase knowledge and remarketing these or even the awareness of customers interests and hobbies. By personalising the mailouts you are far more likely to increase response rates and ROI.

Creative & Innovative:

Engaging in creative designs that make your mailing standout is key to winning the customers attention. The “WOW factor” can be achieved by using innovative designs and graphics. We all receive your typical white envelope in the mail, franked and immediately assume it’s a bill therefore by thinking out of the box and catching people’s eyes you will increase engagement around your mail.

Quality:

Any piece of direct mail, whether it’s a letter or a flyer printing must be printed on a high-quality paper stock and to a high standard. To maintain the professional image around your business you must ensure all marketing materials passed to your customers are of the highest quality. Images and text must be easily legible and of high resolution, if not, this can make your campaign flop at the drop of hat. Think carefully about the finishes, whether you want to use a matt or gloss finish, here think about the durability of the paper stock you choose. If you are unsure its always worth asking a printing professional, this will save you time and money.

Your Audience:

Direct mail marketing will only see results if you are careful with your list/database. Sending out mail to those who are not in your ideal demographic will see your post shoved in the bin without a second glance. Either send specifically to your database or use direct targeting to ensure that those who receive your mail-out are the ideal target audience for your business. Here is where testing response rates is vital. By monitoring every campaign you can begin to measure results and adapt where necessary.

Offer value:

Posting a generic marketing piece is rarely enough to see results. Whatever you send needs to offer value to the customer, be it advice and information or promotion of a useful product. Offering something of value builds trust in your brand and sends out a positive message. It will make customers more likely to read your mail piece, and respond to it.

Include a call to action:

Your call to action must be simple, clear and easy to do. The harder you make it for your customers to get in touch, the less likely it is that they’ll bother. Encouraging the call to action can be done in form of claiming an offer or discount, or an incentive for the customer to request further information. Either way, you must give a compelling enough reason for the customer to react. Check out our flyer design templates online today

By differentiating your mailing, you are far more likely to increase the response from your campaign. Used in conjunction with your online marketing efforts, direct mail can be incredibly influential for your business.

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