A Complete Guide to Direct Mail Marketing In the Digital Age

Many business owners might believe that direct mail has gone the way of the dinosaurs, but they’d be far from the truth.

When you think about how many spam emails you receive that go straight into your junk folder, you could argue that some digital marketing techniques just aren’t worth the effort. But that’s not the case either.

The truth is, whether you are doing digital marketing or direct mail marketing, you need to focus your attention on several other factors besides your ad’s medium if you want to ensure the success of your marketing campaign.

Whether you believe it or not, direct mail marketing is still a highly valuable strategy that should remain a part of your marketing repertoire. Today, we’ll guide you through what makes direct mail marketing such a valuable marketing asset and how you can harness it to grow your business.

Your Audience and Mailing List

Just like an email list, your mailing list is a collection of addresses to which you will mail your direct mail advertisement. To make sure you aren’t just sending off mail blindly, you need to be able to target the audience you want to reach with your marketing message.

Identifying your correct audience is one of the keys to success in a marketing campaign. The purpose of your direct mailing list should be to reach a number of prospects who share one or more traits that make them a good candidate for your marketing offer. The success of this approach comes from the skill in targeting very specific groups of people.

For example, you can target demographics based on:

• Age
• Gender
• Income level
• Postal code
• Neighbourhood

Just to name a few!

You can even target an audience by their interests. Like readers of a specific magazine or those who have shopped at a certain store.

If you are in the B2B industry, you can target businesses by their industry, annual revenue, number of employees, and more.

Types of Mailing Lists

You should be aware of the different types of mailing lists that you can use for your direct mail advertising efforts.

Consumer Direct Mail Lists

These lists will contain the home addresses of consumers. These people buy products from retailers both online and in-store. These lists are created and used to sell products or services to individuals or families. These lists break down potential customers by age, income, postal code, home value or any other variables.

Subscriber Direct Mail Lists

These lists will focus on individuals who have subscribed to a specific product or service. Magazines usually rent out their subscriber lists.

Business-to-Business (B2B) Direct Mail Lists

These lists are usually compiled using SIC code (Standard Industrial Classification). SIC is what the government uses in order to classify which industries a business belongs to. You can narrow down the database within specific parameters to build a mailing list for your business.

Your Direct Marketing Goal is Important

There are two general types of goals you can have for your direct mail marketing campaign, these are “quantity” (saturation) or “quality” (targeted).

If you want to reach as many people as possible within a specific area, then your goal can broadly include those individuals and households found within general delivery areas. You can use details like whether or not they have children or whether these individuals are single or are married to further narrow down your target audience, as well.

On the other hand, targeted campaigns are more focused. They focus on customers also known as “warm leads” who already use or have expressed interest in your products/services. These leads are then compiled into a list that is made from existing customer order lists, sales leads or other CRM data. If you are going with a targeted list, it’s a great idea to add a touch of personalization using Variable Data Print (VDP) for the recipient.

Keeping your goal in mind can help you run a more successful direct mail marketing campaign that attracts many responses.

Design Matters

People use their eyes to sort through mail, so you need to make sure that your direct mail piece stands out from the rest. Sure, you can slap any old design onto your direct mail postcard and see what happens but it will be much more successful if you put some thought into it.

We all know the importance of first impressions, and that’s no exception when it comes to a direct mail piece. Be sure to include all relevant information and a bold headline to catch the attention of your audience and make sure that they know exactly what message is being sent to them.

At the same time, try to avoid a designer’s worst nightmare: the dreaded wall of text. Break up text using relevant images and the logos of your business. If your business has a specific colour scheme attached to it, make sure to use those same colours so that your audience knows that it’s from you.

Here, you can also include a special offer that gets your prospects excited and ready to move onto the next step of your campaign with a clear Call-to-Action. Lastly, make sure your contact details are visible and make it easy for your customer to find you.

Interested in Direct Mail Marketing? Contact Troi Mailing Services

A great marketing strategy always includes a mix of both traditional and digital marketing methods. Direct mail has a lot of advantages that are missing with digital marketing. You can always choose to work with an experienced direct mail company — like Troi Mailing Services — to help you make your direct mail marketing campaigns a success.

For more information about direct mail marketing and mail fulfillment services in Toronto, call Troi Mailing Services at 1-866-486-9350 or contact us here.