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Direct marketing how-to guide

Introduction

• Mailings: postcards, letters, or packages
• E-mail and electronic newsletters
• Telemarketing and telesales
• Direct response advertising (ads that call the reader to action)

• Generate awareness about your products and services.
• Establish a relationship with prospects.
• Create demand by moving your prospects along the sales cycle.
• Help your sales efforts by generating and managing leads.
• Create excitement and promote the value of your product or service through means other than price reductions.
• Build a qualified database of customers.
• Build customer loyalty through effective follow up.
• Gather tangible data to measure marketing effectiveness.

Customized marketing
Using direct marketing, you have more space to tell your story than you would in an expensive ad. Also, unlike mass marketing techniques, your results are measurable. You know exactly who received your mailing and who responded. The key to successful direct marketing is to get the right offer to the right person. Select your target audience, clearly identify what you are trying to accomplish, and use the steps in this "how to" guide to formulate a direct marketing campaign that will impress your prospects and motivate them to respond.

Getting started

• Names and addresses
• Job titles
• E-mail addresses
• Phone and fax numbers
• Contact history
• Purchase history

• Sales Force Automation (SFA)
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• Online services such as Salesforce.com

Direct mail
Sending mail directly to people, either printed mail or e-mail, is often more effective than running an ad campaign in a magazine that is already cluttered with ads. Instead of competing with very large companies that have sizeable advertising budgets, direct mail enables you to compete with the items that are present in a person's mailbox. With direct mail, your sales potential is equal to or better than anyone else's.

Developing a direct mail piece

Step 1: target
The key to an effective direct mail campaign is understanding your target audience and the unique benefits that your company offers them. Consider the elements that have contributed to your successful marketing efforts in the past. Have you been more successful when you targeted your prospects by industry or by geography or by company size? Do you think that you will get better results by contacting more people in fewer companies or more companies with fewer people?

If you are targeting larger companies with multiple decision makers, select a few key companies and then mail to a number of people within each company.

• List compilers and brokers
• Trade and business publications
• Professional associations
• Government sources
• Web-based resources, including ZapData.com and DunandBradstreet.com

Professional associations are also a good source of prospect information. Search Engines and portals provide ways to find associations. Yahoo.com, Lycos.com

• Goals for the direct marketing campaign.
• Mailing size and budget requirements.
• Analysis of the target market, including its "pain" points.
• Analysis of the strengths and weakness of your competitors.
• Benefits of the product, solution, or services that you company offers in terms that will appeal to the target audience.
• Messages that appeal to your target and differentiate your company from its competitors.
• Success factors upon which the campaign will be measured.

Step 3: content
Usually the goal of the mailing is to move the prospect to the next stage of the sales cycle as defined in your creative brief. As you think about your direct mail piece, envision your prospect opening it. What do you want the prospect to do when they get your mail?

• Address pain points for your target audience.
• Clearly and concisely describe how your solution will benefit them.
• Have a strong call to action to motivate the reader to respond.
• Be clear and make it easy for the respondent to reach you.

• Determine if a printed piece or an e-mail will best meet your objectives.
• Create a compelling offer to motivate readers to respond. This is very important. If the reader doesn't act right away, the odds are that he or she won't act at all. The offer gives the reader a reason to act now.
• Make it clear and easy for the reader to contact your company. Include an address, phone number, fax number, e-mail address, and a web address if you company has a web site.

• Produce a lower-cost piece such as a letter, postcard, or e-mail and send it (or a series of similar pieces) to the target audience frequently.
• Create a bigger impression by producing a larger, high quality printed piece.
• Based on the amount of content you want to convey and the budget you have for postage, you can select a format that meets your marketing and budget requirements. Additional information about size and rates is included under step 7 below.

• Artwork: A library of on this web site is available for your use. Photographs can also be very compelling. Stock photography provides an economic way to integrate high-quality photographs into your direct mail piece. Visit eyewire.com or gettyone.com if you are interested in purchasing stock photography.
• Headline: There are several approaches to take when creating a headline. One effective approach is to ask a hard-hitting question. Another is to write something clever about your offer. The more emotional and attention-grabbing the headline is the better-as long as it will appeal to the audience and it has a pay off that ties into your product or service.
• Once your rough layout is completed, print it and compare to other direct mail pieces that you have found compelling.
• When you are satisfied with the piece, consider showing to someone in your target audience. Get his or her feedback and make any revisions that you feel would enhance the effectiveness of the piece.

Step 6: production
Depending on the format of the piece and the quantity that you are mailing, you can either send the file to a professional printer or you can print them yourself on your in-house laser or ink jet printer.

Step 7: mailing
Your office staff can label and mail your direct mail piece or you can hire a mail house. Based on the quantity and your budget, determine which option makes the most sense for your business-consider your decision from both a time and cost perspective. Mail labels can most likely be generated from the database that stores your contacts.

Before you finalize the design of your mail piece, it is a good idea to check with the local Canada Postal Office for mailing regulations. For example, Canada Post puts a bar code on direct mail postcards. Your design must allow space for the barcode. Visit www.canadapost.com/ to learn more about postal regulations. Take a sample of your mail piece to the post office, before it is finalized or printed, and show it to a postal worker who knows the regulations. Keep in mind that enforcement of these regulations can vary from location to location so if you are using a mail house, check with the Canada Post location nearest to the mail house. You can also mail the piece to yourself to make sure that it is successfully processed.

Postcards over the maximum height or length for card rates are charged letter rates. Additionally, odd sized pieces can bring the cost of your mailing up in price as well.

Depending on the number direct mail pieces that you plan to send, you may elect to print the pieces yourself. If you have several hundred or more, you might consider having them printed by a professional printer. Once the pieces are printed you can print and attach the mail labels yourself or you can use a mail house to handle the mailing for you.

Step 8: follow up
Once your direct mail campaign has begun, it is important to quickly follow through with those prospects or customers who have received your mailer and responded. All calls or e-mails should be answered promptly. Depending on your sales strategy and price points, you can have a telemarketing team in place to answer questions and move people along in the sales cycle. You can also conduct a telesales effort and sell your product or service to people over the phone.

If your direct mail piece includes an offer for a piece of literature or a gift, you need to distribute the item as quickly as possible. If you anticipate a large number of responses, you may want to use a fulfillment house. If you chose to use a mailing house to send out your direct mail, they may also be able to handle your fulfillment for a nominal fee.

Following up with non-respondents over the phone can also provide greater returns than either direct mail or telesales alone. Recipients tend to think that your business is large and successful if they receive your piece in the mail and also hear from you over the phone. Following up with a phone call provides your telephone representatives with a purpose for calling. They can open the conversation by asking, "Did your receive our mailer?" and then capitalize on this opportunity to answer questions or provide additional information about your products and services.

• Leads generated.
• Qualified prospects obtained.
• Appointments that were scheduled.
• Presentations given.
• Product demonstrations given.
• Sales made (units and dollars).
• Add-on sales made (units and dollars).

After you've summarized this information, compare the results to the goals that you outlined in your creative brief. Once you have analyzed your results you can calculate the return on your investment and come up with ways to improve the results for your next campaign.

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