Improving Direct Mail Results
Are you getting the results from direct mail? Is the other advertising you are doing working like you want it to? No?
Then you will be interested in the following information. If this information is used it will improve the results of your direct mail advertising which will cause an increase in your sales. The principles below apply to all forms of advertising not just direct mail advertising.
Direct mail such as postcards, brochures, lead letters and others are direct response medias. Direct response means they go directly to a prospect and they respond directly to it. Would you like to increase the response of your direct mail? Then please read on the tips I am about to give you will improve the response of your direct mail. You can also use this information to improve the effectiveness of your flyers, door hangers, as well as other forms of advertising like television and radio.
The first thing you can do to improve the response of your direct mail is to lead with a headline that states the main benefit (to the buyer) of your product or service. If we were to look at life in terms of what radio station people list to. The fact is everyone listens to one radio station … WII-FM (What’s – In – It – For – Me). When you lead with the main benefit you have tuned into your customers favorite radio station What’s In It For Me.
Our graphic designers can take your benefit and create an attention getting headline that will capture your prospect’s attention. To identify benefits of your product or service first make a list of all the features of your product or service. Then look at each feature and ask yourself the following questions – “How does this feature make my customers life easier?” “Why would they buy it?”
I’ve used this example in previous articles but it bears merit here as well. Last year Home Depot sold 1 million ¼ inch drill bits. Why did so many people buy ¼ inch drill bits? Did they want a ¼ inch drill bit? The answer is no. They wanted ¼ inch holes. The ¼ inch hole is a benefit of the ¼ inch drill bit. Another benefit is the speed and cleanness of the hole, or how long it lasts and so on. Remember why people buy, they buy for their own reasons.
If your direct mail or other advertising is designed based on the benefits of your product or service to the customer you will see a tenfold increase in your response.
Secondly, resist the urge to list multiple products or service. The idea people have for doing this is that they believe they can interest more people for the same ad dollar. The end effect is that they don’t interest anyone and get very little or no response at all. Running multiple items or services in an ad is called shotgun marketing. About the only business category this works for is newspaper ads for grocery stores or car dealers. When using direct mail, such as post cards or brochures you especially need to make it simple and easy to read. The reader needs to be able to tell instantly “What’s in it for ME”.
Which leads me to the third thing, the purpose of advertising. What is it? The purpose of advertising is to create interest and generate a response. Direct mail generates a lead by first attracting attention, then generating interest. The way the message is constructed should leave them wanting more. Not give them everything they would want to know about a product or service that is the job of you or your sales staff after they call you. Give them just enough information in the form of benefits so they will want to know more and call you or at least go to your web site. (A note on Web Sites, your web site should be constructed in a way so that in give information so the prospect will wan to call you.) Selling is best done and will always be done best person-to-person. Very few products can be sold without a human element. The more expensive the product or service the more necessary it is to have trained sales people who can help your customer.
The above all assumes that you have done your homework and know exactly who the best prospect is for your product or service. You can do everything right as outlined above and send out a postcard or other direct mail piece to the wrong public or to a poor mailing list and get no response at all. We can help you through the process from selecting a good mailing list, to designing a message, to printing and mailing all in one place.
