My weapon of choice for attracting new customers and growing my business is the direct mail postcard. I explain why in my post A Super-Simple, Inexpensive Marketing Tool To Grow Your Dental Practice.
But as simple and effective as they are, there’s a handful of key ingredients that will maximize the potential of your mail campaign.
1. A High Quality List
The key to the success of any direct mail marketing campaign is the quality of the mailing list. By quality, I’m just not talking about whether or not someone actually resides at the address.
Your mailing list must include only those who are in your target audience. This can’t be stressed enough. It doesn’t matter how beautifully designed the postcard or how amazing your offer is, if you send it to the wrong people, it ends up in the trash.
It’s hard to sell surfboards in Kansas.
So really try to dig deep to find your target audience. Identify the main characteristics of your target audience and build the list from that. There are plenty of companies that can help you with this.
2. An Offer They Can’t Refuse
You MUST have something irresistible to offer the prospect. Buy one get one free, a free consultation, a free competitor’s report, whatever it is, it must be something that causes them to take action.
I’m sure you’ve received and taken action on these types of offers yourself. You took action because it was the right offer, for the right person, at the right time.
3. Great Copy Writing
To make the offer mentioned above even more intriguing, you’ll want to write great copy.
The copy should engage the prospect at an emotional level. Address their biggest problems and pains. Show them how your product or service will make their lives better.
You’ve done the research on your target audience. Use what you know about them to speak to their deepest desires and wishes.
4. A Clear and Simple Call to Action
The purpose of the irresistible offer and enticing copy is to get the prospect to take action. So communicate clearly and directly what action you want the prospect to take.
Don’t assume the prospect will know what action to take. Tell them: Call this number, Go to this web page and enter your email, Send us a text message, Watch this video…
Avoid giving too many, or vague, action steps.
5. Consistent and Frequent Delivery
Depending on what research you go by, it’s said that a prospect has to see your message at least nine times before he decides to buy. The thought of having to deliver your message nine or more times might be a bit discouraging for some.
But for direct mail to be effective, you simply must deliver it consistently and frequently. This ensures that your name is top of mind when the prospect is ready to buy.
Now you don’t want to flood your target market with your offer every other day. Once a month should be enough. Yes, that means at least a nine month period where you might not see much return. But you are in this business for the long haul, right?
Don’t be discouraged. Persevere and you will see results.
So that’s it. It ain’t rocket surgery. Of course, typically you can’t rely on a single marketing tool. But this is a good place to start.
If you decide to run a postcard marketing campaign, include these five ingredients and you should see a good return.
Happy mailing!
