Direct mail is perhaps, one of the most powerful marketing mediums in use today. Few other marketing tools can deliver your message with exact precision at such a low cost. The amount of mail in your mailbox everyday attests to the effectiveness of this medium (If it didn’t work, your mailbox would be empty!).

Here are eight reasons why I believe direct mail is still king of the marketing mediums:

Reason # 1: It works when you’re not
Like the old saying goes, “In rain, sleet, or snow” the mail arrives. Whether you’re sleeping, vacationing, working, or walking, your direct mail is working for you. It gives your best sales presentation over and over again without you having to be present.

Reason # 2: It leverages your efforts
Do you want to know how to waste your time? Give your best sales presentation to one person at a time. If you do this, you’ll only sell one widget at a time. Send out thousands of letters and your best sales pitch is being presented to thousands of people simultaneously. That’s called “leverage!”

Reason # 3: Allows you to target with precision
Instead of “spraying and praying” your message to people who may or may not be interested or even qualified to take advantage of your offer, direct mail allows you to pinpoint the people who fit your psychographic, demographic, and geographic profile.

Reason # 4: You get an immediate response
Once you send out your direct mail piece it doesn’t take long to get a response. Within one to two weeks you’ll receive about 80 percent to 90 percent of all those who are going to respond. If your campaign works, you’ll know about it quickly. If it’s a bomb, you’ll that quickly as well.

Reason # 5: It’s easy to track your return on investment
If you’re a small business owner you can’t afford to waste a single penny on wasteful marketing. With direct mail marketing you can code your mail pieces to determine the exact number of responses you received from each campaign.

And as I said before, the results of your direct mail campaign come back fast, so once you know what worked and what didn’t, you can immediately start to “tweak” your mail piece to increase your response and hold your marketing dollars accountable.

Reason # 6: It’s relatively inexpensive
With just $.34 (at the time of this writing) you can send out a direct mail piece that includes your full marketing message. It is amazing what you can get into a small business size envelope and keep under the $.34 limit. Photos, newspaper articles, letters, special reports, and more can be put in these envelopes for under $.34. This means you can reach 100 target prospects for only $34. Comparatively speaking, that’s a bargain!

Reason # 7: It gets one-on-one attention
One of the best things about direct mail is that it gets one-on-one attention from your target prospect. Unlike billboards or radio and television commercials that get your attention while two to three other things also have your attention. Direct mail is opened one piece at a time and read one piece at a time. It gives you the best chance of catching your prospect’s attention and keeping it for a period of time.

Reason # 8: It’s something you can touch and feel—it hangs around
Direct mail is something that you can hold in your hand. It’s not made of electrons that can be deleted with the twitch of a finger. It’s not a radio frequency signal that is here and then gone a moment later. It is physical. It is something that can hang around for a period of time. It has “lingering” marketing effects.

All these reasons I’ve mentioned make direct mail a very powerful marketing medium that, if done right, can have a very high return on your marketing dollar.

David Frey, President of Marketing Best Practices Inc., a Houston-based small business marketing consulting firm. and is the senior editor of the Marketing Best Practices Newsletter featuring small business marketing best practices.
www.MarketingBestPractices.com

Source: SCORE “Counselors to America’s Small Business” is a nonprofit association dedicated to entrepreneur education and the formation, growth and success of small business nationwide.

The study found that -

“the majority of consumers (73 percent) prefer mail for receiving new product announcements or offers from companies they do business with, as compared to 18 percent for e-mail. Mail was also preferred by 70 percent of respondents for receiving unsolicited information on products and services from companies with which they are not currently doing business.”

The survey also found that

“consumers are less likely to discard unopened mail (31 percent) including new product brochures, catalogs or other advertising materials than they are to discard unsolicited e-mails about new products (53.2 percent)”

The survey also asked consumers about specific advantages in direct mail versus unsolicited e-mail and telephone calls.

“Compared with other communications channels, including e-mail and telephone, survey respondents found mail to be: Less intrusive — doesn’t interrupt other activities (45.3 percent); More convenient — can be saved and considered at leisure (40.2 percent); Less high-pressured — lets you consider your decision (30.2 percent); More descriptive — lets you picture the offer (22.7 percent); and More persuasive — encourages you to respond (12 percent).”

In a related article Stacy DeWalt, vice president of vertical market development and strategic marketing at Pitney Bowes added …

“Effective direct mail is relevant. It has a personalized, compelling message. Personalization means your message is targeted to your customers needs and values. In business to business, you need to know their pain points, as well as core contacts by title and industry. You can then use digital variable print to set up templates with sections tailored to your target.

The full article from Pitney Bowes

Using direct mail to reach prospects and customers is one of the tried and true methods to generate leads and sales for small businesses. New technologies available today can increase the impact that direct mail can have on the bottom line. Here are three simple ideas to consider adding to your direct mail project.

Segment your list. Okay, this is not a new concept but there are new resources available that make it easier. Develop a profile of the most likely candidates for your offer. What criteria did you use? If they include things like geography, profession, family size, age, income, gender, or mortgage interest rate, a list vendor may be able to help. In fact, vendors dedicated to a certain industry can provide even more options. Lists companies have grown more specialized in recent years and have made their services available online. I have used InfoUSA to get segmented consumer list with success. They allow you to build and purchase custom lists online, without even speaking to a sales representative and segmenting tools are included in their price.

Now that you’ve built a great list it’s time to tailor your message to their particular wants and needs. Again, this has always been a good idea for direct mail users, but technology now allows you to go further. Today’s print vendors use digital presses that allow use of variable data, without compromising print quality. (i.e. “hello bob, try acme lawn service and have the best lawn in golden ponds” Variably printed direct mail, or one to one marketing, can boost response rates and conversations and hardly costs any more money than traditional methods. (In fact, it doesn’t cost the printers any more at all in terms of printing costs.) Modern Postcard offers variable printing on postcards as do many other vendors. Type ‘variable postcards’ into Google and see what you find.

To maximize your variably printed mail, try to tap into your target list’s unique interests. In addition to using their name on your project, why not add information on their favorite team (based on their location) or make different offers to different parts of your list, based on age or gender? As a cross selling tool, variable printing works great – simply determine which products would complement what your customers have purchased already and send them a post card.

The third way to improve your direct mail results is personalized URLs or PURLs. Companies like Cierant and BlueTreeDirect will help you set up a mini site to complement your direct mail campaign including a URL containing your recipient’s name. For example, if you mail to a prospect named Jane Smith, her PURL could be located at janesmith.acmelawncareoffers.com. Once she arrives, the message will again be personalized for her (Hi Jane, Welcome to Acme!)

In addition to being attention grabbing, personalized URLs add the ability to track direct mail projects more closely. By being able to view each individual’s response to your project, you can tweak and test your offers until you find the one that gets the best response. PURLs usually cost a few cents a piece plus a one time set up fee.

If you are a small business owner, direct mail continues to be a great option for generating leads for your sales funnel. Try adding these emerging technologies as a catalyst to supercharge the process and enjoy the results that you get.

Matt Hamilton has worked in the field of niche marketing for the past 5 years. He operates MerryStockings.com, offering personalized Christmas stockings and a place to discuss Holiday traditions.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Matt_Hamilton
http://EzineArticles.com/?Direct-Mail-on-HGH—3-New-Technologies-That-Boost-Results-Without-Breaking-the-Bank&id=598527

PROJECT: MIKASA BRIDAL REGISTRY FOLLOW-UP
Segment: Direct Marketing – Traffic Generation

• First test run – response
rate of 8.2% with
average order size in
excess of $200.
(Note: these responses
are purchases, not just
leads.)
• Second test run: 15%
response rate.
• Average revenue
generated per mailer:
$20-30.

We will be posting more of these in the near future.

Technorati Profile

Variable data printing campaigns allow for one small print run to contain multiple designs. This eliminates the need for inventories of different versions, resulting in a low buy in and no outdated reprint. Some industries are deeply involved in this process already. Real estate brokers, faced with ever changing
inventories, utilize VDP to feature different properties without having to invest in large runs. Variable data printing allows for mall print runs to be combined into one job so that economies of scale can be reached by low volume users.

To lower costs, several disparate designs from multiple firms can e printed together, presorted as a group, and mailed in bulk as long as the dimensions of the piece are the same. This is a win-win situation. Efficiency is improved for the printer because down time and set up are minimized. For the marketer, larger print runs mean reduced production costs while maintaining a custom-tailored message for each recipient.

The term was first coined by Frank Romano, Professor Emeritus, School of Print Media, Rochester Institute of Technology, and if you are interested in knowing more, there are a number of good articles on the subject by Romano and others at Amazon.com.

Another excellent source, which also has some further links, is Wikipedia which defines Variable Data Printing as

Variable Data Printing or VDP (also known as Variable Information Printing, or VIP) is a form of on-demand printing in which elements such as text, graphics and images may be changed from one printed piece to the next without stopping or slowing down the press, using information from a database or external file. For example, a set of personalized letters, each with the same basic layout, can be printed with a different name and address on each letter. Variable data printing is mainly used for direct marketing, customer relationship management and advertising.

The most common and prolific use of VDP is in direct mail advertising and interestingly the Wikipedia article goes on to point out

The returns for variable printing vary from double the normal return at the basic level to 10-15 times the return for fully variable jobs. This naturally depends on content and the relevancy of that content, but the technique presents an effective tool for increasing ROI on marketing campaigns.

In some future articles we will also be explaining PURL’s, or Personalized Web Pages, AKA landing pages, including some case studies and response rates using both VDP and PURLs.

*In regard to printers who simply ink jet or laser print some variable text, a 2007 white paper entitled “What’s in the Mailbox? The Impact of One-to-One Marketing on consumer Response” prepared by Winterberry Group LLC in conjunction with research and perspective provided by Mintel International Group Ltd/Comperemedia, Responsys and Vertis Communications, they point out …

“Simple” personalization—commonly exercised as the addition of a recipient’s name, address or basic personal information to a message— is no longer a competitive advantage given its proliferation and the advent of highly sophisticated targeting methodologies

P.S. Next week will be reviewing this important White Paper, with some selected quotes

Over the years, CEP has tested a number different direct mail approaches to market their loan programs. Current response rates were flat, 1.2% to 2.1%, with conversion to actual loans substantially lower.

KEY BENEFITS

• 9 X increase in response rate
• Sales cycle dramatically shortened
• Process for qualification of customers dramatically improved resulting in higher quality of inquiries

SOLUTION
The program allowed CEP to develop a targeted message to every individual. Data driven content was used to create personally relevant images, photos, quotes and offers for each member of CEP’s campaign contact list. Messages were customized based on the recipient’s name, geography, their church’s name, level of qualification and first-language (English/Spanish).

In response to CEP’s concern that their client base wasn’t ready for the internet, …three methods of call-to-action were tested: a business reply card, a toll-free number and a personalized micro-web site. Closed-loop analytics would show which response method was most effective without risking lost opportunities.

NET RESULTS
CEP experienced a significant 9 fold increase in responses. CEP started receiving results the first business day after the Campaign was dropped.

They had previously waited about 13 days for this activity. There was a clear preference for responding through the web in place of the more typical call-center, saving CEP significant time, money and resources while considerably expediting the loan approval process.

The conversion from inquiry to loan pre-qualification, which used to take a month and consisted of numerous mail exchanges and phone calls, has all but been eliminated.

The quality of inquiries is much higher than previous campaign strategy—more than doubling
the conversion ratio to actual sales.

“Increasing ROI has always been the charge of our marketing team and I know
they are always experimenting with better ways to meet this objective. But this
program really caught my eye. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen such a
marked improvement in our campaigns.”
Pat Clements, President
Church Extension Plan

Reported by K/P Corporation
A Personal touch Increases Reponse

Once the customer has visited the website, the next logical step – short of a sale – is to open an ongoing relationship. Consider offering recurring materials such as a newsletter or email bulletin to keep your information and brand in front of the customer. The same database that is used to produce the unique URL’s and display the offer can also be used to automatically populate the opt-in form for the prospect. This ensures success for two key points: first, it makes the process painless for the customer; and second, the data entered is not mistyped, increasing accuracy.

To keep the program effective, materials must be timely, informative, and relevant. Variable data printing is ideal for providing these highly tailored marketing messages. Research has shown that this type of sales effort returns dramatically better results.

1 Ernan, Roman, and Hornstein, Scott. Opt-In Marketing. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004.

###

With Variable Data Printing, commonly referred to as VDP, any or all of the text and even images can be personalized for each recipient. VDP can also add a “Personalized” Web Address, such as www.Joe Sample.Weblinkvdp.com.

When the recipient type this PURL in their web browser, it takes them to a personal web landing page. The web page is pre-populated with the name and address, and even their phone (if available).

They can then update their information, add their email address, Opt-in for email follow up, request more information, or even answer survey questions.

In a another post we will detail how this new technology, will then track all this, send instant emails, keep responses statistics, and even create a database that can be exported to almost any software like Excel or you favorite CRM.