Create a successful direct marketing strategy from scratch
A business that realizes the benefits of direct mail campaigns may have a grasp on how a campaign generally works and how much it may cost, but it may not realize how - or when - to begin.
Deliver Magazine recently posted "Direct Mail A to Z," a guide for small businesses that want to utilize direct mail marketing - perhaps for the first time. The plan, which walks businesses through seven necessary steps, takes them through the initial idea to campaign testing and future mailings.
1. Create goals depicting what a direct mail campaign will promote or achieve
2. Set a realistic budget that encompasses printing options, postal cost and additional vendor fees
3. Develop a target list of prospective mail recipients
4. Write, edit or outsource copywriting responsibilities to create an enticing message
5. Use a unique design to differentiate the campaign from competitors
6. Select the best-suited printer based on outgoing volume, time restraints and budget
7. Send test mailings to various groups of recipients and chart all responses for future direct mail campaigns (response rates should be around 3 percent when using house recipient lists)
"Often, depending on what the call to action for the mailing was, it does take some time to know if your mailing works," Mike Sprouse, CEO of Sprouse Marketing Group, said in the article.
Businesses new to direct mail marketing strategies can cut their budgets and increase the quality of their design by using web-to-print software for campaigns.