FAQs

What’s the key to direct mail?
It’s actually pretty simple.  Send the right message to the right person at the right time.  HOWEVER, you cannot forget to address the WIIFM factor, or “what’s in it for me“.
Although you may have extensive training and numerous certifications, these alone are not going to make someone pick up the phone. You need to show how the customer will benefit (satisfy a want or need) from your services and/or how your services will eliminate their pain (since pain will remain without purchase / action). That means finding out exactly why your customers do business with you. How do you find that out? Just ask—it sounds so simple, but many business owners never ask why customers work with them.

How important is the mailing list?
VERY important.  Here’s an example based on receiving the average 2-3% response rate of direct mail (if you use variable text and a great offer your response rate could be higher).

If you send out 100 postcards to random people with a big bold graphic of the brand MERCEDES, will you get at least 2 or 3 of them interested in buying a Mercedes?  Probably not…

But, let us say you sent 100 postcards with a coupon for a free car wash, timed it to land on a sunny spring weekend, and you sent it only to new vehicle owners that lived within a quarter mile radius of the car wash location.  Would you get just 2 to 3 people interested?  You would most likely double your response rate.

What’s the best offer strategy?
Aside from the mailing list, nothing will have more impact on response than your offer. If you are mailing to generate sales leads from consumers, your offer will focus on the price, discounts, deals, value added items and special delivery options.  If you are targeting businesses, this means creating a white paper, special report or other educational document.
You need your prospect or client to perceive that they are getting a great deal.

How do I track and test effectiveness?
By tracking your leads and costs per lead you can improve on your response rate and increase your effectiveness. Some of the easiest ways to do this include using different contact names on letters, different telephone numbers, different offers, or asking the customer how you heard about your business. Split tests are another great way to track your marketing to see what is working the best. Send out two or more different mailings to prospective customers with different messages and designs to see which ones achieve a better response rate. You should be split testing regularly so you can determine where’s the best “bang for your buck”.

Response is variable, yet fairly predictable.
Response is affected by so many things that there’s no way to really predict it until you consider all the variables and run mailings often enough to test it.  It doesn’t have to be risky because once you understand how it works; you’ll end up with a profitable campaign every time.

What’s the best program for you?
Our “trigger”, campaigns put you in front of the prospect when they are most likely to buy; it’s all about timing. These simple, cost effective programs allow you to mail a personalized message and offering to a targeted audience surrounding any single address.  There are 4 key radius direct mail programs: Jobsite radius direct mail , Birthday radius direct mail, New Mover radius direct mail and even Business-to-Business radius direct mai.

If you need to “saturate” an area, then Every Door Direct Mail would be a great solution.
Every Door Direct Mail® from the U.S. Postal Service®, is a program that allows you to send anything under 3.3 oz. at a postage price of only 14.5 cents per piece.  You could send a 9 x 12 flyer on postcard stock or glossy stock, a regular postcard, catalog or magazine!
Plus, you don’t even have to buy a mailing list.

If you know exactly whom you want to target, the best thing would be to purchase a mailing list.  By using a mailing list, you can define specific geography and a whole host of demographics.
You want to target those that “look like” your best customers.  If you don’t know the exact profile of “your best customers”, it would be well worth it to profile them.

Of course you can forget to market to your customers.  Just give us your list and we will take care of everything for you.

What about frequency?
We can’t say it enough, repetition, repetition, repetition.
Roughly 80% of repeat sales are lost simply because customers do not receive any kind of follow-up communication. Regularly contact your customers to inform them about new products, or upgrades to existing products and/or services.

Why? Well, sending direct mail to prospects is a bit like raising children. The first time you tell them to do something; they most likely need to be told again. So in order to get your customers and prospects to do what you want them to do, you must incorporate repetition into your campaigns.

In Seth Godin’s book, Permission Marketing, he uses an analogy of seeds and water to demonstrate the importance of frequency in your promotional campaigns. If you were given 100 seeds with enough water to water each seed once would you plant all 100 seeds and water each one once or would you be more successful if you planted 25 seeds and used all of the water on those 25 seeds?
Since our minimum mailings are low, you can do just that, send few postcards out, but with increased frequency.

Here’s an example of an effective 3-step mailing for an air conditioning contractor. The first card would feature a green light stating, “Courtesy Notification: According to our records, your A/C unit is due for preventative-maintenance service,” with large green letters saying, “It’s time!”  The second mailer, with a yellow light, would offer a slight variance of the original message, “Second Courtesy Notification:…,” with big yellow letters stating “Your A/C is due!”.  The third and final mailer would feature a red light that reads, “Third Courtesy Notification:…” with “Final Notice” in bold red letters. Best results are achieved waiting 2–3 weeks between each mailing.

For the best results, you must have a follow up sequence in place for your mailings.

What about trust?
One of the challenges of targeting prospects is credibility. If your audience trusts you, you are half way there. Credibility builders include testimonials, endorsements, credentials and other documentation such as licenses, or belonging to an industry organization.

What kind of things can you send via direct mail?
Most direct mail campaigns do very well with simple formats – postcards, letters, packages, self-mailers, etc…   However, some campaigns may require more creativity.  We can send a postcard with a magnet attached, a beach ball, a flip-flop, or we can even work with the post office to get your product approved to mail without using an envelope.  That really gets peoples attention!

How does our process work?
Our team is ready to help you with all of your marketing initiatives.
If we both decide we are a good fit for each other, we will discuss and implement the following:

If you’re ready to get started, click here

How much does direct mail cost?
As you may guess, there’s a huge variation depending on what your end goal is, and what you are selling.  Pricing can start as low as $.28 per piece including postage (see Every Door Direct Mail link).  Please call us to discuss the best option for you.

What other programs / products do we offer?