No matter what business you’re in, the metrics of success are ever changing. For example, Twitter didn’t exist twenty years ago. Now it’s an important aspect of business networking and communication. Online commerce has changed the way people do business in so many ways, and new technologies are constantly emerging.
But there are some things that haven’t changed much over the last few decades, and direct mail marketing is one of them. Sure, a lot of people thought that direct mail was a thing of the past when email was invented. But now we know this isn’t the case. Spam is a constant annoyance, and can in some cases deliver harmful malware to the recipient’s computer. Email lists are bought and sold constantly, and the conversion rates for email campaigns have become miniscule.
Direct mail has emerged as a survivor of the cyber revolution. It still represents an effective way for businesses to reach customers. But there are also plenty of ways to fail when it comes to direct mail, and that’s not what your business wants. So how do you design a successful direct mail campaign?
It starts with a detailed and comprehensive look at who you’re trying to reach. What age groups and demographics are best suited to your message? Where are you likely to find the strongest conversion rates? The answers to these questions are not as easy to find as you might think – but they are vital. From here, it will be possible to design direct mail message that people will actually read and respond to – provided, of course, that you have an impeccable mailing list.
Indeed, the mailing list is probably the single most important detail in a successful direct mail marketing campaign. There are endless mailing lists floating around out there, and some of them are very large. Some companies will make big promises about their mailing lists, but the reality is, they aren’t high quality. They aren’t targeted to your demographic, and they don’t give you the best chances for success. It’s tempting to think that sheer numbers will do the trick (i.e. sending your flyer to thousands upon thousands of addresses will guarantee results) – but time and time again, this has proven to be false. A targeted mailing list prepared by an expert direct mail agency can take your campaign to another level altogether.
The most important variable in direct mail campaigns
When you look at all the direct mail campaigns out there that effectively fail every year, and compare them to the many successful campaigns, you’ll find that expertise is the deciding factor. When the direct mail specialist in question is a true expert in the business, results tend to be a lot more reliable and a lot more tangible. That’s because they have a truly comprehensive definition of “expertise,” including everything from design and print quality to demographics and the quality of the mailing lists being used. Hiring a company with this high level of functional and practical expertise will make all the difference in terms of whether or not your direct mail campaign performs to its highest potential and delivers optimal results for your business.