The Secret to Marketing with Direct Mail

The increase of coupons and other promotions over the Internet, coupled with spiking paper, production, and postage costs and environmental concerns, have led some small businesses to perform premature funeral rites for direct mail (or “snail mail”) marketing. But don’t be so quick to give the postman his walking papers when it comes to getting the word out about your business.

While a flimsy, black-and-white postcard addressed to “Current Resident” is probably not going to have much impact, a creative, unusual direct marketing piece could bring in business. Slick, eye-catching mailers increasingly are a small business owner’s solution for standing out from a sea of unwanted spam.

If you put to use your best creative tools, you can make direct mail work for you. Following are some ideas for making sure your mail pieces don’t end up in a landfill but instead encourage customers to make their way to your business:

• Be original: One cable network mailed out a marketing piece made to look like a wrapped piece of meat from the supermarket. Another sent out a container in which was enclosed what appeared to be a severed ear (to promote a horror show). Other direct mail pieces include product samples or are made to look like old-fashioned telegrams. So-called “dimensional” marketing pieces are among those that result in the best response rates, according to the Direct Marketing Association. The most award-winning and attention-grabbing marketing pieces are those that truly stand out from the crowd. You only get one shot at shocking, entertaining, or charming potential customers; make it count.
• Go big and bulky: It may seem counterintuitive in our wired and eco-friendly age, but some marketers have found that when it comes to direct mail appeals, bigger can actually be better. The architecture and design magazine Metropolis recently mailed out a giant poly-wrapped package that measured 9 inches by 1 entire foot and included multiple elements, among them a product sample, a four-color brochure, a letter, and reply cards. The magazine's direct marketing partner Ballatine Corp. explained its strategy this way: “Architecture and design are such visual disciplines that [the Metropolis team] felt their direct mail piece had to be visually impactful in order to grab their prospective subscribers' attention.” Ballatine reported that despite the costs related to production and postage, the response rate from this campaign turned out to be greater than the industry average.
• Get more colorful: Another Ballatine client, the University of Cincinnati, had in the past used simple two-color mailers as part of its annual fundraising campaign. But a more visual, four-color package led to a 74 percent rise in response rates and a 34 percent increase in funds raised, according to Ballatine.

 If you want to stand out, you need to consider how your direct mail piece will be found among the bills, magazines, and credit-card come-ons that people receive every day. A colorful, appealing palette with a well-designed typeface could be enough to get people to read your message.