Direct Mail Strategy and Planning

Direct Mail Strategy and Planning

Everything you need to know to get direct mail direct mail strategy and planning done: How to do it, what it costs, ways to improve response rates and save money, and top suppliers.

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How to create a successful direct mail strategy and plan

1. Start with your end in mind: What do you want your direct mail to accomplish?

Some ideas to get you started thinking about what you want direct mail to achieve.

Direct mail is most often used to:

Convince existing customers to buy more
Convince new customers to purchase for the first time

What are you using direct mail for?

Increase volume of sales among current customers?

Cross-sell additional products/services?
Build or improve relationships with customers and prospects?
Acquire new customers?
Establish a referral program?
Sell your products directly?
Persuade dealers to stock more of your product?
Attract people to your website?
Generate leads for your sales force to follow up with?
Survey your prospects and find out what their opinions are?
Another purpose?

How many responses do you need for "success"? To break even?

Examples of what you can measure include the number of:

Leads generated
Qualified prospects obtained
Appointments that were scheduled
Presentations given
Product demonstrations given
Sales made (units and dollars)
Add-on sales made (units and dollars)

2. Develop a winning direct mail strategy

TIP: You may want to write an overall marketing strategy and then create specific strategies for each of your customer segments so that you can most precisely target your message and offer to be most relevant to the different groups (segments) of customers. For instance, you might have a strategy for reaching your best customers who refer you to others, and another strategy for reaching people who haven't purchased from you in more than a year, and yet another strategy for people who are new to the neighborhood.

Who do you want to target or pinpoint?
- How to Define Your Target Audience
- How to Identify Your Most Profitable Customers. This is helpful so you can figure out how to attract more customers like them.

What do you know about their current awareness, beliefs and knowledge about your company? Your brand? The products or services you offer?
What is your unique selling proposition? What does your product or service offer that people need, and addresses their existing beliefs? What are customer-meaningful differentiations that make you unique from your competitors?
- Positioning
Are there any "words that work" to convey the selling message?
- Here's a list of general marketing Words that Work
What proof or facts can you use to substantiate your selling proposition?
What offer will be most relevant and credible? What will motivate someone to act quickly?
- Direct Mail Offers
How do you want them to respond to your offer?
What tone and manner should be used?
Are there consistent visual elements (logo, colors, visual effects) that should be used to coordinate with the overall marketing program?

From our experience: You can dramatically increase your direct mail response rates if you personalize the information, photos and offers to different groups of customers so the mailing is more relevant. Sort of the same idea as how to get a job interview. Do you send 200 of your resumes to 200 companies with the exact same information and just addressed differently? Or do you target specific companies and tailor your cover letter and resume to different companies or types of companies? It takes more time and effort to do the latter, but the chances of getting an interview are higher. Same thing applies to direct mail. You can "work the numbers" and send out the same mailer to more people and get a 1% to 2% response rate or you can tailor your mailing to be more relevant and send it to fewer people. Learn more about Personalized Direct Mail.

3. Determine what you want to send

Based on the amount of information you have to say and how you want to position your company/service, choose the format for the direct mail that will be most effective and cost efficient to use. Remember, the best practice is to contact people a minimum of 3-4 times. You may want to use different formats (a postcard, a letter, an email). Types of Direct Mail explains the different options for what you can send and the pros/cons of each, along with how-to instructions once you've chosen what you want to create and send.

TIP: Meet with a printer sales rep at this stage to get their advice on what will be the most cost effective way to produce and print your direct mail. They can save you money and time if you talk to them now versus when the direct mail is finished. Or consider using a template in which you can add your message and logo.

4. Determine the timing for when you want your direct mail to be received (and acted on) and develop a customer contact plan

TIP: It may be most helpful to develop an annual customer contact plan. You’ll want to plan how often you want to reach different types of people (existing customers, your best customers, new customers, prospective customers who have responded to a direct mail but not purchased yet, prospective customers you are targeting). Customer Contact Plans

Should the different groups of customers receive the mailing at the same time? Or at different times? Sending direct mail in "waves" instead of all once is important if you are in a service business or are expecting your sales teams to follow-up with leads.
Is there a specific "trigger event" when a customer should receive the direct mail? For instance, when it's been six months since they've been in for an office visit? Or, when they've just moved?
Is the offer or message seasonal?

What do you have to say? Share your comments below or give advice about direct mail strategy and planning.

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