1. Target, Target, Target!
Targeting your audience is the #1 means of keeping direct mail costs down. Don’t waste postage and printing costs on people who have absolutely no need for what you offer. Save those expenses for the people who are most likely to buy from you. That said, it is important to note that the more people you send to, the more you will be able to consolidate on production costs. But grow your mailing list strategically; only expand your list within your target market(s). Every direct mail piece sent outside of that group will most likely translate to wasted marketing dollars.

2. Clean Your Mailing List Regularly
If you haven’t updated your mailing list in the past year, chances are that a huge portion of the people you are trying to target have moved. Even a month can make a big difference in the accuracy of your mailing list. Don’t put off list hygiene; you should be cleaning your mailing list before beginning each direct mail campaign. By doing this, you will avoid sending your mail pieces into the black hole of undeliverable mail.

3. Use a Permit Imprint
If your business has a presort permit, print it directly onto your direct mail piece. You will save on the time and labor costs of stamping or metering your mail individually. If your business does not have a permit, most direct mail houses have a permit that you can use if you hire them.

4. Know Postal Size Regulations
Make sure you know the dimensions for different types of mailing pieces before you print. You don’t want to be surprised with flat rates if you originally only budgeted for letter rates. This research cannot wait until after you print; if you get the dimensions wrong and your piece is already printed, you will be wasting money whether you send the piece or re-print it.

5. Give Your Audience Appropriate Channels for Follow-Up
It can be very cost-effective to use your direct mail piece to send your audience online for any follow-up information. It is cheaper to store lots of content online than to send that extra content out in several printed pieces. However, be aware of your audience; if your target market is not particularly tech-savvy, attempts to send them online might yield very poor results. In that case, remember that you have already paid for a certain weight’s worth of postage, whether or not you are using all of it. If you can stay within your weight limits, adding an extra leaflet or two will most likely be only a marginal expense.

I hope that these tips have helped to dispel the myth that direct mail must always be expensive. In fact, direct mail is actually very cost-effective if done correctly, but it definitely requires some strategizing. Keep these tidbits of information in mind to ensure that your next direct marketing campaign remains low-cost and effective.

Please contact US Data Corporation at (800) 610-3282 for any and all of your direct mail marketing needs.

Sources:

Image: ddpavumba http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/Finance_g198-Money_In_Mailbox_p59616.html 

What’s more important to your business – Expense or Profit?

Take a closer look at EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail)… Can you say “junk mail” at its worst?

The post office would have us believe that you should not send marketing messages to the “right target at the right time”… You should send your message to “Everyone – Every door – Every time”.  Let’s look at both sides of the question above.

Expense:

The post office is advertising on TV, (what a waste of taxpayer $), that you can send your mail without a name or address to every door for “as low as $.145 per piece”… (It’s perfect wording – I use it in my cable efforts: You can get digital phone & cable for “as low as $49.95”… but of course there are limitations).  And with the EDDM there are many limitations.

First – You must mail to every household in a carrier’s route… even if the property is vacant, (they are in the count you’ll get), or if the household has a “vacation hold” for their mail. Remember, this is the same USPS that told us marketers to “clean up our lists” so they don’t have to throw away undeliverable mail!

Second – You must mail to every household in a carrier’s route… so you must print enough pieces to send out to all households!  What if my best customer is a family with 2 kids and has a household income of $100,000 and they like to travel?  Forget targeting to the 250 best targets in your marketing area…The USPS would have us just print 2,500 pieces and send them to everyone!  At $.145 postage for EDDM, that would come to $362.50; or I could send to the 250 best targets for an average postage of, say, $.28 per piece & a targeted list of $.15 (standard bulk mail) for a cost of $107.50!

Extend the numbers out to a true “effective marketing plan” – Say you mail 2,500 every other month: 15,000 pieces per year – WOW I only paid $.145 for postage – $2,175. BUT, my “best prospect” is only 250 homes – so I really only should have spent $645 (.43 x 1500 pieces).

Remember – I’m ONLY talking about the postage & list expense here… you’ll still have to print your larger “flat sized” pieces to qualify for this special program. And, yes, you’ll have to print 5-10 times as many pieces as well to cover “every door”.

And forget about being “environmentally friendly”!  Just print more pieces!  The Post Office loves this!

Now let’s look at the Profit side of the equation…

Profit:

First – Is EVERYONE in my marketing area a good prospect?  If the answer is yes, why are they not knocking on your door? Maybe you make pizza, maybe you’re a dry cleaner… If not, consider this: Most of the time we marketers understand that there are certain demographics, certain lifestyles, and many characteristics of our “best customers”.  Did you know that only 5-8% of a bank’s customer base is profitable?  Ask any bank president – he’ll tell you that “not every customer is a good customer”. That also means that “not every prospect is a good prospect!”

So, targeted marketing is the only way to truly be effective as a marketer. Taking the small numbers in the example above, (2,500 in my market area when only 250 are my best target), Return on Investment (ROI) calculations mean I can expect to gain 5 customers in my market area each time I send a mail piece…

What would you like to spend for a new customer? How much TO GET TO THE SAME 5 CUSTOMERS?  $297.50 or $64?  You could end up spending 4-5 times more to get a new customer if you take marketing advice from the post office!

Again, there are many other factors that will make a difference in your overall ROI on a targeted marketing project. Why print 15,000 pieces when you only need 1,500?  In that case, why print 25,000 pieces for a marketing effort when you only need to print 5,000?  I haven’t even touched on the cost of printing a larger piece, i.e. to print a “flat sized” piece vs. a “letter sized” piece. Don’t forget, you’ll also have to print a lot more pieces!

Forget it if your “geography” is a few counties, or a portion of a state. I did a list count today in an area that had over 500,000 households and, with just a bit of targeting, I’m recommending a mailing of 10,000 pieces…

Oh yes, and “personalization” makes more responsive direct mail pieces! Just ask the DMA or even the post office… They used to preach “targeting” back in the day when they were in the black. Now in the red, they have rolled out this “as low as $.145 per piece” cost for postage…. And it’s sooooo easy! Of course, they don’t tell you that you have to put a “facing slip” on every bundle OF 50 PIECES… and submit their forms with the number per carrier route & the 3602 for your mailing. We mailers have been doing that for the post office “saturation mail” for years!

Targeted marketing is responsible marketing, and, it GENERATES MORE PROFITS!

Yes, there is a place for “saturation mail”, but it’s certainly not as easy, or cost effective, or as profitable as the postal commercials make it seem.

Any seasoned sales professional will tell you that the best sales people are also the best storytellers. The same goes for marketers. If you can tell stories rather than pushing features alone, you have a better chance of appealing to prospects’ emotions, and all buying decisions are, at their core, emotional. In your marketing, you should be capitalizing on this by telling stories whenever possible. Direct mail is a great venue for telling stories in creative ways, perhaps even more so than other venues of direct marketing.

Why is direct mail particularly good at communicating stories to prospects? For one, direct mail differs from email in that it provides more space. People have much more patience for direct mail than for email, largely because spam is sending everyone into email overload. To attract someone’s attention in an email, you need to be to-the-point, flashy, and exciting; if you don’t grab their attention right away, chances are they won’t even open your email, let alone read your story.

Good storytelling doesn’t happen in a flash; it requires time and development. Direct mail fulfills this need perfectly. People can experience your direct mail piece in their own time, perhaps when they are feeling more open-minded, and they are likely to grant your direct mail more time and attention than an email. If your story is best told in letter format, even better; direct mail will win out over email almost every time, because people are accustomed to receiving and reading letters from their mailboxes.

Direct mail also has other benefits when it comes to storytelling. One of direct mail’s strengths is that you can make it a truly interactive experience for the reader, either by using folding techniques, including special coupons or inserts, or, if you’re feeling really creative, sending a branded keepsake. Even with a simple folded brochure, you can control when and how information is conveyed to the reader. This is a particularly great mechanism for storytelling, because a folded mail piece has built-in chronology. When a prospect unfolds your direct mail piece, this will simultaneously let your story unfold, and since your reader played a part in this unfolding, they are now a part of your story as well. If you can accomplish this, your prospects will have engaged with you emotionally on multiple levels; you are golden.

Never underestimate the power of a well-told story. If you can appeal to your prospects’ emotions with your story and simultaneously engage them interactively, you have the recipe for a winning marketing campaign that they won’t forget. Direct mail is the perfect medium for this kind of storytelling; it is engaging, palpable, and emotional. Direct mail adds that personal touch to storytelling that captivates and enthralls readers.

If you are ready to tell your story with direct mail marketing, please don’t hesitate to contact our direct mail experts by calling US Data Corporation at 888-610-3282.

Sources: http://www.gianfagnamarketing.com/blog/2011/12/29/how-to-create-great-advertising-with-storytelling/
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What is the difference between our Hotline Files and our other lists? All of our lists are updated regularly to guarantee our clients the freshest data possible; however, our Hotline Files are updated with new leads even more frequently, because these groups are constantly changing and growing. Did you know that over 6 million new businesses are established in the U.S. every year? Or that 1.2 million people move every month? Almost everyone in the U.S. will fall under one of these categories at some point in their life. These lists are very exciting, because they are constantly expanding and there is never a shortage of people who meet these criteria. If you purchase a subscription to one of these lists, you will have a constant influx of fresh, new sales leads. What business wouldn’t want that?

Because our New Businesses Lists, New Movers Lists, and New Homeowners Lists change so frequently, we recommend a slightly different approach to our Hotline Files than with our other marketing lists. While buying a marketing list should never be a one-time occurrence, as any list can quickly become outdated, our hotline files are particularly important to update regularly and often. Buying an extended subscription to these Hotline lists, rather than buying a one-time list, gives you an opportunity to continually tap into a fresh market that is ever-expanding and always new. Spreading out your marketing campaign over the course of a year will improve your chances of connecting with your prime target using these hotline buyers.

Please call one of our friendly account representatives at (888) 578-3282 to find out more about purchasing a subscription to our New Businesses List, New Movers List, or New Homeowners List.

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If you need any assistance with your marketing list or marketing services needs, please contact one of our friendly US Data Corporation marketing experts at 888-610-3282, email us directly at info@usdatacorporation.com or visit us online at www.usdatacorporation.com