Direct Mail Best Practices

Customer relationship management (CRM), or the practice of managing and analyzing a company’s interactions with their customers, is a strategic blend of marketing efforts, sales, customer service and support. Because CRM relies on data, it is often solely associated with digital communications strategies. But using the data gathered from CRM systems is also highly effective for direct mail campaigns as an integrated, one-to-one approach to customer-centric marketing.

96 percent of marketers said that they believe personalization helps advance relationships with customers. What is personalization, and how can small businesses and organizations take the concept a step further?

You may already use direct mail postcards to promote your small business’s events, offer discounts or coupons, or simply keep in touch with your customers in a unique way. If you're looking to up your game, or want to get started, there are a few design basics you should know that will ensure your mail is compelling and elicits the response you desire.

Years ago, postcards, flyers, magnets and brochures were the go-to when it came to marketing yourself as an agent. With the introduction of digital marketing, those strategies have been disrupted by social media, websites and email newsletters. All good things, but mailing postcards and other direct mail pieces, combined with introducing yourself to the neighborhood door-to-door, is still the most personal and most memorable way to build positive relationships with potential clients.

For small businesses and organizations, the holiday season is an annual opportunity to reach and deepen relationships with target audiences through thoughtful, personalized campaigns. Eager to optimize holiday promotional opportunities, marketers for brands and organizations are making their lists and checking them twice to determine the best channels, aiming to reach people at the right time, with the right message, via the right channel.

To be effective, marketing has to get inside the mindset of whomever your product or service is trying to reach, a best practice that's no different for direct mail campaigns. Before sending any kind of mailer, it's important to take a step back and think about the people that drive your business.

It’s that time of year again! And no, we’re not talking about Halloween, or even Thanksgiving (however fun those are). It’s time to plan how you’re going to end your organization’s year.

The holidays provide a much-needed excuse for offering a sale, creating an event, reminding someone of an appointment, or requesting a donation. In other words, it's the perfect time to re-energize that relationship between your organization and the people who keep it running. Direct mail postcards are a great way to reach out and stand out from competitors during this busy time.

Audience is at least 40 percent of the equation in developing a successful direct mail campaign. Your messaging, offer, and design are also important, but using a targeted mailing list is critical. Mailings sent to the wrong people are likely to result in a waste of time and poor use of budget on your end. However, when targeted the right way, direct mail postcards offer response rates significantly higher than response rates from digital media, according to the DMA Response Rate Report 2016.

Last year, 11.6% of the entire U.S. population moved. While some moved within the same community, it is far more common for people to move to new areas in a city, new cities, new states, or even overseas. For many businesses, this means losing customers as people leave the area. However, in most geographies, new prospects are arriving to replace the recently departed. For high job-growth areas such as Texas (home to 4 of the 5 fastest-growing cities in the U.S. right now), new people are moving in literally every minute. When a person moves to a new area, they typically shed products/services from their last home -- either to physically make room or because a service, such as banking, isn’t available in the new location.

Savvy businesses seize the opportunity to target new movers, both to create awareness for their brands among a new pool of prospects, and to acquire new customers.

Many businesses begin direct mail marketing to drive brand awareness, to increase demand for their products and services, or to nurture customer relationships. When beginning any new campaign, it’s important to be specific regarding the outcomes you intend to achieve and to have a measurement plan in place before you get started. Pre-planning your measurement approach will help to ensure you are ultimately able to judge the effectiveness of your campaign and are not missing out on valuable insights that could be used to make your marketing strategy even more effective in the future.