September 9, 2009

The 5 Mistakes You are Making in Your Direct Mail Campaigns

Photo Source: Casey Serin, Flickr

Photo Source: Casey Serin, Flickr

Ever wonder why your direct mail campaigns just don’t meet up to your expectations?  If you are like many marketers, you are probably ready to throw in the towel when it comes to direct mail.  You have a hard time justifying direct mail campaigns with so many cheaper options like e-mail marketing that produce a similar ROI for less.

Don’t discredit your direct mail campaigns yet!  Direct mail is still a valuable resource in your marketing arsenal – it’s relatively cheap, easy to test and customizable.  So what’s the problem?  Well, most marketers are just plain doing it wrong.  I see marketers make the same 5 mistakes over and over again:

1. Inefficient Market Research

All marketers should start off with a good understanding of their customers – who they are and their demographics.  The biggest mistake I see in direct marketing is the tendency to mass market without any thought to market segmentation.  You need to have an accurate picture of who your consumer is and how they prefer to be reached.

Don’t waste your time and money marketing to people that couldn’t care less about your product or service.  Direct mail campaigns are only efficient if you target your customers.

2. Low Quality Lists

Even if you designate your target market correctly, without a quality list representative of your target market you can’t deliver effective results in your direct mail campaign.  If you are spending your money buying a list or using valuable resources to create your list, you should verify the list represents an accurate sample of your target market.

The last thing you want is to be sending your direct mail to the wrong people.  Otherwise, you’re just wasting time and money while decreasing the effectiveness of the campaign.

3. Problematic Copy

You’re using the correct list that’s a good representation of your target market – yet, you still have a low response rate.  Check your copy.  Are you using effective calls-to-action?  Think of your copy as the conversation you have with your customers.  You might be talking to the right people, but if your conversation is boring or unclear, you aren’t going to connect with your customers or convince them to do what you want.

Thankfully, direct marketing lends itself to testing.  You can tweak and test different aspects of your copy to see what gives you the best results.  For tips, check out Copyblogger’s Copywriting 101 for a great copywriting tutorial.

4. Distracting Design

Maybe it’s not the text, but the actual design of the piece.  While you might have the right copy, if you don’t display it correctly you won’t influence your customers.  An effective design strengthens the message of the copy.  Don’t put more emphasis on your design than on your copy – it should never eclipse the copy.

Test different layouts, fonts and colors to find the ones that work best for your message.  Don’t forget to take in consideration color theory, personalization and other design elements.

5. Lack of Innovation

Most marketers assume that all the different uses of direct mail have been discovered.  Wrong!  Direct mail continues to evolve and be affective in reaching customers even in a digital age if used correctly.  Use your direct mail campaigns to differentiate yourself from your competitors.  Instead of just focusing on an online campaign or just an offline campaign integrate the two for maximum reach and awareness.  With the data you collect about your customers online, craft personalized direct mail pieces that your customers would be interested in.  Be creative!  Direct mail isn’t dead yet.

Don’t be one of those marketers – avoid the mistakes above.  Don’t turn your direct mail campaign into junk mail.

posted by Beatriz Alemar @ 8:23 AM  

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