How To Hike Business With Direct Mail Services

Starting a business is a herculean task. There are so many risk factors, including the product you choose to sell, how competitive the market is, and the current economic climate. Fortunately, you can do a lot of things to improve your chances for success and it starts with your approach to direct mail advertising.

Decide Who You Want To Reach

In the world of digital marketing, the mailing list is king. You can scrape one together on your own, access lists used by other businesses, or try to find one online. In every case, the quality will be less than stellar. You’re far better off shelling out the money for a reputable marketing company. You’ll get two kinds of lists from these folks: the first is a database of people who have bought your product before, and the second is a list of prospective customers. In the world of direct mail advertising, it’s all about new blood.

Think Long And Hard About Your Message...And Then Think Some More

If you don’t have a strong message to impart, your efforts won’t add up to much. You want to find out if your message is resonating. You can do this economically by printing a few laminated postcards and doing a flash test for a few friends and trusted customers. Ask them questions: what was their first impression? What stands out for them? Is the message clear- or did they need to stare at it a little too long to glean any meaning.

Ask them to be as honest as possible assure them that they won’t hurt your feelings! You want to know as much about your message as possible the good, the bad, and the ugly while you can still make changes. It’s prudent to ask the same questions to everybody you do the flash test on to ensure that you get a consistent take on your message. Oh- and when it comes to a flash test, your employee’s opinion doesn’t count, nor does the interpretation of your beloved live-in partner or your dog.

Design Carefully

When it comes to choosing a visual approach that grabs eyeballs, you’ll want to consider your intended audience. The possibilities are endless. Plastic postcard mailers are incredibly durable and eye-catching, for example, but might not be the best choice for your target demographic. If you’re hoping to catch the interest of a business owner, you may decide that a letter works best. The power of a sales letter lies in its combination of letter, envelope, and reply form. The letter and envelope combo makes people nostalgic. It calls to mind the stationery collections of their youth. Plus, there’s nothing like the pull of a personal touch: it’s hard to see your name embossed in gold and not think the product is just a little more deserving of your time!

Hire An Actual Writer

If you can’t string a sentence together, then find someone who can. Design and copywriting go hand in hand. Most people have an extremely short attention span. You do not have time to waste. You want your message to be clean and to the point. You also want it to be tight so tight you can bounce a quarter off it. A good writer will also help you avoid cliche phrasing like "We aim to please" and "Providing top-notch plumbing services for 25 years." Find the extra cash.

Give Them A Reason To Care

A pretty card on its own won’t do much and might even find its way into the recycling bin by nightfall. On the other hand, everybody’s a sucker for a good offer—why do you think grocery store coupons are still a thing? You have to think about your product and then offer the most thrilling parts of it at a significantly reduced cost. Your goal is to make people feel like they literally can’t afford not to take you up on your fantastic offer.

Remember A Call To Action

If your laminated postcards get their attention, your call to action drives home the message. The CTA tells your future customer that the card they’re holding is more than just a pretty face. A powerful sign- off conveys a sense of urgency. It says, "You need to call or email or drop into this store TODAY." And if you want them to head straight to their computer or grab their car keys and race to your store post-haste, you’ll make the offer worth leaving home for.

It’s All About The Follow Up

The psychology behind why people buy things is extensive and fascinating. But the truth is, digital marketing is not an exact science. There will always be unknown variables. But you can significantly boost your odds of closing the deal by zeroing in the folks who checked out your product but failed to buy. The people who received a plastic postcard mailer and acted on it immediately aren’t even the ones you’re trying to target in the first place, as counter-intuitive as that sounds. Naturally, you’re happy thrilled! to have their business, but it’s their procrastinating cousins who you really want. The truth is, people are busy and distracted. They have jobs, and kids, and dogs to walk. Maybe they fully intended to follow up, but their messy basement won out.

Part of your job is to have a meticulously crafted follow-up plan for these on-the-fence types. If you don’t have an airtight strategy to get back in touch and give them still more incentive to follow through, you can say goodbye to a slew of potential new customers. Maybe you need to send out a reminder card, sweeten the offer, or write their name in indigo-blue ink using a fountain pen and then drop it off via carrier pigeon. The point is, it’s up to you to get their attention. So put on your thinking hat.

Ricky is a graduate of computer science engineering, a writer and marketing consultant. he continues to study on Nano technology and its resulting benefits to achieving almost there.