Direct Mail (DM) is still an underdeveloped sector in Australia, when compared to the US or UK. This means the direct mail, when done well, has a good chance of standing out in the mailbox and getting you results.
There are three main components to direct mail:
1. Data
2. Offer
3. Creative
Of these three, the data and the offer are the most important elements. After all, if your letter never reaches its intended recipient, then the rest is just a waste. And similarly, if the offer is not something that appeals to the target, all the fancy creative in the world is not going to make them respond. The creative element plays its part too. Clever use of headlines, call to action and envelope design can lift your response rates considerably.
DM is a numbers game
Direct marketers are all well aware that 95-99% of their hard work ends up in the bin. It’s important to do your sums, and work out how much your campaign will cost. Then work out a realistic response rate together with the revenue this will bring. Subtract one number from the other and if it’s coming out positive, then you’ve got a business case to proceed.
Never start a direct mail campaign on a hunch. Always, always crunch the numbers before proceeding.
Buying a list
There are a few important things to know when purchasing data. Ask your supplier how it was sourced and how they keep it up to date. You must use a list of people have agreed to receive offers from third parties. Privacy laws are strict and fines for breaking these laws are steep.
Most list suppliers will categorise their data for you and you can refine your selections to ensure you are targeting the prospects most likely to respond. For the consumer market, lists can be categorised by lifestyle and can give you quite an accurate picture of your prospects. Business lists are often categorised by market sector and job title.
Remember to wash your data list against your existing customer database if you’re trying to attract new customers.
If you’ve purchased lists before, remember to take out prospects that have already requested no further contact from you.
Developing your creative
The more your creative agency understands about your campaign, the more in-tune their creative designs will be. Ensure you share your objectives, data selection and total budget with them. If you can only afford to print and post a DL envelope and A4 sheet, you must let them know as this will dictate the limitations of the design.
There are a number of areas you can test with your creative including:
· Headlines
· Envelope designs
· Imagery
· Call to action
Even if you’re just doing a one-off campaign, it’s always worth testing at least one element. For example, send half your list a creative envelope and the other half a plain envelope and see which performs better. Remember to split your data evenly and make sure you are comparing like with like.
The Offer
Consider your direct mail offer carefully. It needs to be attractive to the prospect and not too complicated to understand. Think about testing different offers to see what works best. Provide the prospect with all the details to make a decision and options on ways to respond. Mail, telephone and web cover most preferences.
Managing the mail house
You will need to give your mail house a very detailed brief, particularly if there are several test cells and if there is more than one item in the mail pack. Provide all the details on a briefing document, and include mailing date(s), contents of each pack and the number of recipients. You should also provide details of when and where the printed items will be delivered from.
Ensure your mail house receives your data around 2 weeks before your first lodgement date. This will enable them to run set up files, produce test runs and live proofs for you to approve. You will need to allow for about 10% extra in your print runs to allow for testing and spoilage if a machine jams.
Undelivered mail
Undelivered mail will come back to you, so consider what return address goes on the envelope. You can expect anything up to 5% of the addresses on your mailing list to be undeliverable. Consider having return mail sent to your mail house to handle for you. Details of undelivered mail, and deceased records need to be fed back to your list supplier. There is a handling cost involved, but better than trying to sort through thousands of mail packs at your desk and having to placate a disgruntled mail room manager.
Weather issues
If you’ve ever collected your mail from the mailbox after a day of rain you’ll know that only the essential pieces are hung out to dry and the rest of the soggy pile goes in the bin. There’s nothing you can do to manage this except for staggering your mailings during rainy periods to lessen the likelihood of being ruined in the rain. Be aware of natural disasters too, and cancel DM to areas ravaged by fire, flood, cyclone or earthquake. There’s little chance of mail deliveries in such times.
Handling responses
Ensure your call centre is aware of the direct mail campaign and is set up with scripts to handle incoming calls. Similarly, make sure your internet site or landing page is ready and has been tested. If customers are likely to reply via mail, then make sure your order processing and fulfilment teams are briefed and ready for action.
Handling complaints
The majority of complaints arising from direct mail are in relation to privacy. Inform your call centre of how the data was procured and how your company will handle “do not contact” records. When targeting consumers, inevitably there may be a few deceased people on your list, triggering distressed calls from relatives. Equally, prospects will demand to know how you got their details. Equip your call centre to handle these calls respectfully. Capture the “no further contact” records in a list and ensure this is washed against future campaign data.
An overwhelming response
It’s a nice problem to have, but a situation that needs to be handled correctly or else it will leave you with dissatisfied customers. There are a few ways you can manage customer expectations when a direct mail campaign has a larger than expected response:
· Advise customers via a recorded message when they dial the campaign number
· Put a note on your internet site, or landing page
· Divert calls to an overflow call centre
Measuring success
Once the campaign has run its course and all the orders are fulfilled it’s back to number crunching again. There are many measurements you can gather, including:
· Number of calls
· Number of sales converted from calls
· Number of web visits
· Number of emails
· Comparison of test cells
It’s essential that you record what you learnt, what worked, what went wrong and how you could do better.
As any direct marketer knows; it’s all about test and learn, then test and learn some more!
CraftWrite applies years of campaign management experience to direct mail copywriting. Contact Jill Bynon today about improving your response rates with better DM copy: jill@craftwrite.com.au
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