What Is Direct Mail?
Direct mail is a term used for marketing materials sent to a company’s current and potential customers. Catalogs, postcards, and brochures are just several examples of direct mail. Businesses use direct mail to communicate about new products or services, upcoming sales, company-related news, and more.
You know direct mail campaigns offer an incredible ROI, but that’s the tip of the iceberg. Direct mail offers many more benefits.
- The ability to narrow down or target recipients
- Frequent communication
- Pairs well with other marketing channels
- Extremely high response rates
- Far less competitive than most digital avenues
6 Proven Ways to Boost Direct Mail ROI
With the basics out of the way, it’s time to learn how to increase the ROI of your direct mail efforts. Check out the following strategies to get people to open and respond to your brand’s mail.
1. Always Split Test Your Direct Mail Campaigns
Also called A/B testing, this strategy can be vital to a mailing campaign’s success. If you’re new to split testing, that’s okay. This type of testing is a term to describe showing a target audience variations of marketing-related messages.
Split testing gives you the freedom to showcase multiple images, copy versions, and layouts within single or multiple campaigns. You can use analytic software to see which messages are resonating with your audience in the form of increased open rates, more clicks, direct mail ROI, or any other metrics you choose.
Setting up an A/B testing campaign takes minimal effort. Sending direct mail without split-testing your messages is like trying to find your way in a dark room. Both situations can be confusing and frustrating. Thankfully, split testing is a guiding light for your direct mail campaigns.
2. How to Do Direct Mail Marketing With Expert Timing
Timing isn’t only important when sending emails. It can also affect how many people open and act on your company’s mailers. Making mistakes here can be costly. For example, you might recall a company sending you mail about a sale the day after it ends.
Unfortunately, your business can’t control what time messages in a direct mail campaign reach its audience. But you can choose when to start and begin tracking the results of direct mail campaigns. Staying on top of important deadlines can help ensure your campaigns provide the highest possible direct mail ROI.
3. Add a Call-To-Action
A call-to-action (CTA) isn’t only for websites, social media posts, and emails. It’s also helpful to know about when learning how to do successful direct mail marketing. In some ways, crafting a CTA for direct mail campaigns is more challenging than doing the same thing for a website or social media post because there’s no link or button for the reader to visit.
Remember the following tips as you work on direct mail CTAs:
- Keep it as short as possible
- Use eye-catching colors
- Make it urgent
- Ensure the next step is clear
- Include action-oriented words
4. Track How Things Are Going
Direct mail is traditional. But that doesn’t mean you have to feel like you’re in the dark after launching your direct mail campaigns.
There are many helpful ways to track direct mail ROI and other vital factors. Try one or all of the following direct mail tracking methods:
- Tracking URLs: Create a custom URL and landing page only given out to direct mail recipients.
- QR Codes: QR codes are everywhere. They’re also convenient ways for people to further engage with your brand. All they need to do is use their smartphone’s camera or QR code reader.
- Phone Numbers: Long before the internet age, the best way to track the success of direct mail marketing was by having a phone number people could call.
5. Coordinate Direct Mail With Other Marketing Efforts
There’s a world of ways to market products and services. Your business is likely using or considering marketing methods to combine with its direct mail campaigns. Fortunately, direct mail can easily integrate with your brand’s other marketing efforts.
Coordinating the images and text used for direct mail purposes can prevent your digital marketing team from reusing assets and repeating the same messages.
6. Include Follow-Up Messages in Your Campaigns
Chances are, your company doesn’t only email recipients a single time. Unfortunately, some companies stop interacting with their target audiences after only sending a single direct mail message.
The type of follow-up message to send in direct mail campaigns depends on who your company is messaging. A business primarily uses follow-up messaging to win over a potential customer or to thank a recent shopper for their purchase.
We’re not talking about bombarding someone’s mailbox with postcards, catalogs, and letters. Instead, it’s better to send personalized and thoughtful follow-up messages in the mail.
