How to succeed with direct
mail marketing.
It might come as a surprise, but direct mail marketing success is actually pretty simple and straightforward. It’s simply the art of getting your mail delivered to the right person, read, and then acted upon. In that order.
And while, if you’re new to this kind of marketing, it can seem a little daunting, it’s actually easier than it looks.
First, always hand-address your envelopes (or use a realistic handwriting-font if you have them printed) and use the person's full name. Don't use labels, and don't address it to “the manager” unless you really have no other option! A handwritten address label is personal… someone has troubled themselves to write to you as an individual. Nothing marks a letter as “junk” mail faster than a printed label.
Secondly, in the upper left-hand corner of the front of your envelope, (where your name and address goes), don't put your company’s name. Just a return address is usually fine. We are programmed so as soon as we see the name of a company, then the letter’s either trying to sell us something, or collect money from us. We are all inherently resistant to salesmen AND debt collectors!
Don't use a company envelope with your company logo on it. More to the point, don’t use those horrible shiny envelopes with the pre-printed postage frank on. Don't use anything but a real-live honest-to-goodness postage stamp for your direct mail marketing. A postage stamp on a hand-addressed envelope without a company name on it is almost certain to get delivered.
Inside the envelope, structure your sales pieces according to the AIDA formula. Follow this classic rule of copywriting and you can’t go too wrong.
AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. All of your copy, whether it’s a letter, brochure or email, should follow this simple formula.
You get their attention with a strong, compelling headline offering them a clear benefit to reading further.
Then you get their interest with strong opening paragraphs which spell out the problems they face and the benefits your product or service offers.
You then fan the flames of their desire by “twisting the knife” of their pain and really showing them how you can ease it and make their lives better. Finally, you get them to take action on your offer with a strong call to action.
Follow these simple rules in your direct mail marketing, and you won’t go too far wrong.
Have a look around the rest of this site and see some of the specific direct mail marketing strategies you can use to increase your profits starting TODAY!
Happy Direct Mail Marketing!
Chris Cardell
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