Direct mail marketing requires a delicate balance of testing and understanding your target audience, the mailing list, the graphic design, the development and the timing of your campaign. Direct Mail Center will help you through this complex process.

Take a few minutes and read the following information. It will be a tremendous assistant in your future mailing campaigns.

Identify your prospective buyer

Consider income, educational level, interests, profession, age, gender, geographical area and ethnic background. This is your base target audience.

In some case, you may need to know more. Thorough list analysis is provided by Direct Mail Center where your house file is compared with a national demographic detailed data base. The sampling needs to be at least about 100,000 records. At the end, you will know exactly who your actual client is. From this exact definition, the list selecting process for a new direct mail campaign becomes quite easier. This process may be costly but helps dramatically.

Do not select a list by price alone

The quality of a list should be evident in the response traffic it generates and the conversion of responses into actual sales. By sending your mailing to higher prospects in the first place, your closing ratios will generally increase as well. Most marketers find that the closing ratio is more significant than the overall response received. An outrageously expensive list or a list that is given away may not be right for your campaign.

Make the mailing list your priority number one. There are thousands of cataloged list sources at the tip of our fingers. But first, we need to gather any information you can provide in regards to product, offer, client definition, etc. After analysis of your needs and comparing it with list availability, we will present you with suggestions.

Timing is important

Establish frequency of mailings and seasonal trends. If you mail too infrequently, response suffers. Lack of recognition can be deadly and your house list looses its value. Different markets, products or regions operate on different slumps and swings. When history is incomplete, these are important testing criteria.

Three essentials of response creativity…making it work!

1. The offer invites the prospect or customer to respond. It selects and involves the prospects who read or view your offer. The greater the number of prospects involved, the greater the number of your respondents.
2. The market determines the medium (i.e. list, magazine, direct mail, television) with which you communicate. Knowing your target market and the size of the audience helps you select the medium.
3. The creative treatment of the offer, product or service determines the quality of customers responding. Tones of voice and visual dramatization are different for each market. The idea is to avoid telling a full story. You want to arouse the prospect's interest, indicate why he/she should act and then ask for immediate action. The tactic is "see how" and "find out how". You don't want to give too much detail. The strategy is to tell as much as possible within the economic constraints of the medium you are using.

Structure a strong offer

The offer connects your mailing list to your objectives. Determine if you want to develop sales leads, raise funds, or close a sale. Then, structure your mail-piece so that it focuses on the features, advantages and benefits of your product or service. Incentives such as free gifts, information, estimates, training or technical assistance rewards the reader for responding. You can reduce the risk of responding by building in a discount, a free trial period or a money back guarantee; and encourage an immediate response by setting a response time limit.