7 Key Elements for Direct Mail Campaigns

There are many factors that go into creating an effective direct mail campaign and not a single one should be overlooked!  Here are 7 tips to help you start the process.              

1. Define Your Audience

This is vital to any marketing campaign you run.  Knowing who the target audience is helps you get into the right mailboxes when sending out a campaign.  To do this, you may have to review customer data, and conduct surveys, interviews or questionnaires to collect the data on the group.  Once you’ve been able to define the target audience and understand who they are and what they want, you can begin with the content that will be needed to speak to them. When you plan your direct mail campaign, whether it’s addressed, neighbourhood, or shared mail, you can target exact or similar audiences through demographic data.

2. Choosing The Right Size

The next step is to decide on the size of the mailer you need.  For shared mail, consider ad size and placement in the publication. For solo mail, there are many options such as a 2-sided solo card and 3 or 4 panel flyers which are great as a brochure or even as a menu for a restaurant.  When selecting a size, consider cost and also what will best display your brand’s imagery and call to action - what will make the most impact!

3. Follow Your Brand Colours And Fonts

While it might be obvious that you should only use your brand colours and fonts, it’s surprising how many companies stray from this. Please don’t!  If your logo has colour, stick with those and be mindful of design best practices in putting it over any images as it can be difficult to read text over certain colours.  For fonts, stick to your company fonts and try to avoid using overly fancy scripts as they are often difficult to read once printed.  

4. Personalize The Message To Target Your Audience

Whether you choose to do shared or solo mail, you need to make sure that you are speaking to your demographic. If you are doing addressed mail, you want to make sure that the mailer is addressed to the consumer by name.  If your choice is to use addressed, (as it does come with a larger cost), it naturally catches the eye, and is a great way to draw attention which can increase your response rate by up to 135% just from adding their name.  

5. A/B Test Ads Using Call Tracking And QR Codes With Insights

Even though direct mail isn’t an online medium, you should still include a trackable phone number or a QR code that would be used to monitor the effectiveness of your campaign.  Once you’re able to review and monitor your calls and the number of scans, it can help you tweak your ad for the next campaign. By making small changes to your campaign, you can see what yields best results and then keep tweaking and optimizing!

6. Include A Promotion that is Limited Time Only

If you include a limited time offer such as a discount off of a new or old product, a service, grand opening or clearout sale, it creates urgency in the consumer's mind prompting them to take action as soon as possible to avoid the feeling of missing out.  

7. Make Your Call To Action Clear

The last component to an effective direct mail campaign is choosing a strong call to action. It’s the main reason you’ve invested in this, and your company will want to see results. Your call to action will allow you to measure how many times consumers converted as a result of receiving your direct mail campaign.  You can use a URL that has been specifically set up for the campaign or track with a campaign specific phone number and/or QR code.

The key to remember is that less is always more!  When following these direct mail tips, you can create the base for a successful campaign which will improve your response rates, and ROI.  If you’re looking to get started and for a one stop shop, Direct Response Media Group has you covered from start to finish.  Contact us today to get started!