People are barraged with emails – both personally and professionally – each day. Due to the constant stream to your inbox, it has diluted the effectiveness of using email to market and sell your product/service.
Because of this, there’s been a resurgence in the popularity of direct mail to amp marketing and sales efforts. Adding direct mail to your arsenal will be a welcomed and fruitful addition to your marketing strategy.
The Direct Marketing Association found that direct mail’s response rate is 4.4% versus 0.12% for email. To further strengthen the power of direct mail, the ROI for email averages $28.50, while direct mail is $7.
Although direct mail is more costly – campaigns cost around $0.30 to $20 per recipient, depending on what you send – it offers a higher rate of customer engagement and more interest.
4 Ways to Use Direct Mail
Promotion
A great way to entice someone is by offering a way they can save money, or get something for free. This can be accomplished through a discount code, offering a product or solution free of charge to one lucky winner, giving everyone X% off if they spend more than $X, etc.
Reminder
If they’re a customer, this is a nice way to remind them that they have something coming up; anything from telling them it’s time to reorder supplies or have us come out and perform maintenance on our latest install.
For a prospect, sending a reminder can be as simple as letting them know you exist and telling them what you can do for them.
Announce a New Product/Service
Sending a postcard or gift is a great way to celebrate your new product and share the excitement with your prospects and customers.
New Business
Do want to get a demo booked or meeting set with a prospective account.? Sending a unique gift is a great way to stand out from the competition and increase your chances of getting a one on one meeting with your prospect.
How to Create a Direct Mail Initiative
Goal. To start, what would you like to accomplish? Reminder, announcement, discount offering? Knowing the endgame of your initiative needs to be step one.
Contact list. Make sure you have accurate addresses and contact information. You want to be sure you’re sending to the correct individual, to their correct address.
Personalization. Know your target. Sending a gift is great, but if it’s irrelevant to them or not something they’re interested in, it won’t leave as much of an impression.
Example) if a sales rep learned a prospect or customer is a Yankees fan, send them tickets, a signed baseball, etc. Matching the direct mail piece to the interest of your recipient is necessary.
Tips for Success
Professional. If you’re sending a catalog, coupon, postcard, etc. make sure it’s well designed. Investing in a quality designer will make your direct mail piece memorable. Sending quality items demonstrated to the prospect that you value their business and the opportunity to work with them. Think of it as an investment for a successful relationship.
Make sure it’s relevant. Right gift to the right individual. Make sure it’s something that’s relevant to them and what you’re trying to achieve.
Follow-up. Direct mail is not a send it and forget it approach. Once the piece has been delivered, give them a call. This is a great way to engage in a conversation. Ask if they received the gift. This is a conversation starter and a conversation engager.
Direct mail is effective and personal and will resonate with your prospects. The average prospect receives 120 emails a day, most of which are ignored. Why not breakup the monotony with something tangible?
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