Direct mail marketing remains one of the most popular, effective ways of reaching out to your customers. However, it’s widely accepted that the majority of your direct mail marketing efforts will fall on deaf ears. It’s expensive to send out leaflets, coupons or flyers only for them to end up in the bin, so it’s crucial that your response rates are as high as possible. Here are five quick wins to boost response rates in future.
Personalisation
The first stage in boosting direct mail marketing response rates is ensuring that your recipients open their mail in the first place. Little personalised touches make all the difference – addressing the recipient by name, writing from the perspective of an individual or handwriting the address or signature, for example. It may be expensive to personalise your direct mail marketing materials, but it’s a case of cost versus value. You’ll more than make up for it in the long run.
Striking design
Good print design can be the difference between your marketing materials ending up in the bin or pinned to your recipient’s fridge. Create something striking, eye-catching and different – if it doesn’t look like a marketing mailer then it’s more likely to catch the recipient’s attention. Our design studio can help you to create truly eye-catching prints to boost your direct mail open rates.
Have a clear message
Don’t be tempted to bombard your recipients with offers or expect them to do too much. Be as clear and straightforward as possible – offer them 20% off in store, entitle them to an online freebie or give them a refer-a-friend incentive. That headline figure will prove far more attractive than a list of options or an impenetrable disclaimer explaining all the whys and wherefores.
Check and update mailing lists
Even the best mailing list will degrade and deteriorate over time. People move and addresses change, so you can expect that around 20% of your mailing list will be essentially useless at the end of each year. Make sure that you check and update your mailing lists to ensure that you aren’t throwing your marketing materials into a black hole. You can buy up-to-date data sets from companies such as Experian and others. They’re worth the investment.
Give them options
Give your recipients as many options as possible to get back to you or act on the materials they’ve received. Let them redeem their vouchers online or in store. Let them get in touch via email, text, phone or social media. Even the slightest inconvenience at this stage is enough to put potential respondents off, so offer enough options that there’s no excuse not to respond.
Here at PMG we’re experts in print, whether you want to save money on an expensive print run or create striking designs to catch the attention of your direct mail recipients. Contact us today to find out more about how we can help.
