One of the nice things about direct mail advertising is the fact that it provides a simple means of testing various approaches. Almost any element of a mail program can be tested.

I am often asked a variety of questions about creating a mailing. Do postcards work better than envelope mailings? Does short copy produce better results than long copy? Will one price produce more results than another?

I always answer the question the same way. “You can test and find out”. People are interested in what results others have achieved with the same questions. What works best in one situation may not work the same in another. So it is best to test and find out for yourself.

How do you do that?

To conduct a test, you divide your mailing into two or more segments of equal size and mail one package to one segment and another to the other. Let’s say that you wanted to test price. Your mailing pieces would be exactly the same with the only difference being the price.

You would code your mailing piece so you could measure the response. Let’s say that you asked your recipient to bring in a card and redeem it to get a special price. Price “A” would have a unique code on the coupon, perhaps simply the letter “A”. Likewise, price “B” would also have a unique code. When the promotion was over you would simply count how many responses you received for each code and you’d have the answer as to which price worked best for you.

It is imperative that both mailings are exactly the same except for the price. Why? Well, let’s say that in addition to having a unique price; one card had different copy from the other. Now let’s say that card “A” got the most response. Was it due to the price or due to the copy? You’d have no way of knowing. So be sure you test one thing at a time.

How big a test do you need? Most direct mail experts say that a good sample is 5,000 pieces of each version. For many smaller mailers, a 10,000 piece mailing could be prohibitive both in terms of cost and also possibly because of not having enough names.

If you can’t manage a test of 5,000 of each version, try to mail as many as you can under that number. Perhaps 3,000 of each. But don’t mail too few. A test of several hundred of each version, for example, is not statistically valid. In other words, the results you achieve may not hold up if you tried the test again. Likewise, more than 5,000 is not necessary. You won’t get any greater degree of accuracy.

What can you test? Here are some ideas:

Copy and headlines
Price
Format
Offer
Lists
Mailing frequency
Free gifts
Type of postage (stamps, meter imprint, printed permit)

So, whenever you have a question about what will work best for you and your product or service consider a simple test. No need to guess when it is so easy to find out for sure.

When you’re ready to mail, don’t hesitate to contact Avery Print and Mail Center. Our staff is ready to assist you. You can reach them at 877-Avery PMC (877-283-7976).

What do I say on my mailing piece? This question is one that frequently causes concern among medical professionals as they begin to prepare a mailing.

There has probably been more written on copywriting than on any other part of the advertising process.

When it comes to writing a postcard nothing is more important than the headline. You need a simple very clear statement that immediately gets the attention of your recipient. Your headline should contain a benefit if at all possible or should at least get the interest of your reader in learning more. Examples include such statements as “Now, Emergency Medical Care is available to you 24 hours a day” or, “Now there’s a dental office just a few miles from your home”. Assuming you’ve directed your mailer at the appropriate audience, people who live within the vicinity of your practice, you are very likely to get their attention and cause them to want to learn more.

Once you’ve gained their attention, you then need to move on to telling them more.
Back up the statement you made in your headline with additional benefits to drive home your point. Expanding upon our medical example, we might make a couple of statements accentuated by bullet points.

*Our Emergency Medical Center is staffed with a physician 24/7.

*Just walk in. No appointment is necessary.

*We accept Medicare and most major insurance.

Keep your body copy short. People won’t take the time to read long detailed copy so make your points quickly.

Make good use of graphics. If you have a photo or illustration on your card, be sure that it reinforces your message. Again, using our emergency medical example we might include a picture of our center or of a physician caring for a patient.

Be sure your mailer has an offer. By an “offer” we mean......”if you do what I want you to do for me, here is what I am going to do for you”. The medical mailer mentioned above wants to gain patients. In order to entice people to respond, they therefore need to offer something of value. Among offers they might consider the following:

*Bring in this card and receive a free thermometer or first aid kit.

*Redeem this card for a $10 discount on your first visit.

Unless there is something “in it” for your recipient, they are not likely to take the time to respond to your offer.

Make good use of white space. Don’t feel that you need to fill every inch of your postcard with copy. White space makes your headline, copy and illustration stand out.

Be sure that you write like you talk. Use simple straightforward language to get your story across. You probably don’t use complicated words when you talk so don’t put them into your copy. When people don’t easily understand what you are saying you fail to communicate and failing to communicate will definitely lower your response.

Tell your readers what you want them to do. Ask them to take action now. Consider statements like:

*Save this card for your next visit.

*Call us now to schedule a no obligation appointment.

Be sure that your office is well identified with complete information on how you can be contacted. Include your name , your complete address, your phone number, hours of business operations, etc. Don’t assume that everyone knows you and where you are located. Make it very easy to contact you and more people will do so.

By observing these simple steps you’ll find that writing copy is easier than you might have thought. Try them and see how they affect the results you achieve.

We recently received a postcard in our mailbox from a well known restaurant in our community.

The postcard suggested we come in for dinner and gave us a phone number to call to make a reservation. They also made the offer that if we mentioned the postcard when we made our reservation, we’d be entitled to complimentary deserts for everyone in our party.

We took them up on their offer and our party of six had a wonderful dinner plus desert.

This mailing accomplished several things for the restaurant:

We made a reservation and brought four other people with us, two of whom had never had been to the restaurant before.

The dessert offer gave us a reason to want to respond, a “benefit”, while providing the restaurant with a simple way to measure the effectiveness of the mailing.

By incorporating the offer for the free desert into the reservation process, it eliminated our need to bring in the card.

We suspect that many others took advantage of this offer resulting in a very successful promotion at a nominal cost.

Why not test this approach for your own restaurant? Of course you can vary the offer in a number of ways.

You may want to offer a bottle of wine or perhaps a complimentary appetizer or even a free meal when another meal is purchased. If you’re not sure which offer will work best it is easy to test the idea by mailing half of your postcards with one offer and the other half with a different offer. If you do this, be sure and provide a key number so you can distinguish which postcard they are replying too.

When you’re ready to try this idea contact the folks at Avery Print and Mail Center. They’re available to assist you in all aspects of completing your mailing. You can reach them at 877-AVERY PMC (877-283-7976 or visit www.printandmailcenter.com.

A couple of quick web facts,

1) Though visitors to your site are taking less time to decide if you have what they need or can provide the solution they’re looking for (2 years ago we had 14 seconds, now we only have 8 seconds).
2) Visitors to your site are taking longer to make a purchasing decision. They are spending more time researching, comparing and making a decision. So how do you make sure you’re top of mind when they’re ready? Use direct mail marketing as well as online marketing to support your business message.

Step one for creating a direct mail campaign to promote your website involves answering this very important question: What do you want people to do once they get to your website? Whether it's capturing a qualified lead, a white paper download or a direct sale, define this before starting your creative.

Step two, remember to create a relationship for tracking offline advertising to an online purchase or action. Promote your website on a large postcard and create a URL that’s specific to an offer so you can track your return on investment, for example “Visit www.website.com/mailspecial today and when you buy one small red shoe we’ll throw in the second shoe for free!” Okay, maybe you’d sell the shoes as a pair, but you get the point. Get your potential customers to go online and take an action, you measure that action and calculate your ROI. One of the nice things about direct mail advertising is that it is easily tested. You can try a mailing or two and learn for yourself how effective it is for your offer.

Step three, another exciting aspect of direct mail marketing is that you can reach out to your current customers and prospect list, but you can also use a mailing list service to reach out to potential new customers. This is accomplished by proper list selection, Avery PMC can help you identify new leads geographically and demographically. For example, if you sell siding and you’d like to target customers in a 50-mile radius who own homes, you can do that (contact our list people at 877 AVERY-PMC or 877-283-7976.) Then you can send a direct mail piece to these customers and ask them to take an action on your website that requires them to leave contact information (download a white paper about the benefits of siding and require a name and email address). Now you have a highly qualified prospect that your sales force can contact and begin the sales cycle.

So you’re ready to target and acquire new customers with direct mail, now what? Create your direct mail postcard online at Avery Print and Mail Center If you’d rather get professional help to layout your postcard, contact our Layout Services department at 877 AVERY-PMC or 877.283.7976.

A mailing we received last week reminded us of the importance of having an offer.

We received a mailing from a major national bank announcing the fact that they were opening a new branch in our town. That was it....just an announcement. No invitation to come in, no special offer if we opened an account, no invitation to a grand opening celebration. Nothing. This mailing was simply an announcement that they had opened a bank branch and our reaction was typical....who cares?

When we finished looking at the mailing we did just what they asked us to do. Nothing. And we suspect that few others who received the mailing did anything either.

One of the most important elements of a successful direct mail package is the offer. By offer, we mean something of value to the recipient. Most people look at a direct mail package with a question on their mind....what’s in this for me? Why should I do what the mailer is asking me to do?

If you don’t offer something of value to the recipient he or she is very likely to not be interested in it.

The bank mailing we’re referring to was probably mailed to everyone in our market, 30,000 to 40,000 households. It represented a significant cost to the bank. How unfortunate they didn’t include something of value.

What might they have done?

How about an offer of a free checking account? Perhaps your first order of checks at no charge. How about a discount on a safety deposit box for the first year? Perhaps an invitation to stop in and get acquainted.

When you prepare mailings for your business be sure that you have an offer of something of benefit and value to your reader. Something that will likely cause them to do what you’d like them to do. The better your offer, the more results you are likely to achieve.