I run into a lot of companies that tell me they have tried direct mail and that “it didn’t work.” This makes me curious and I have to wonder why their results did not live up to their expectation.

I have personally managed direct mail campaigns that generated as high as a 15% response rate. On the other hand, in 10 years in marketing I have also seen campaigns fell flat and pulled a measly .04%! So what makes one mailing fail, while others generate an amazing response?

Believe it or not, the answer can be boiled down to a few simple elements – format, offer, list and follow-up. Putting these elements together successfully does take a certain amount of experience and sometimes even a little luck. But with proper planning, understanding your list, and knowing your goals you can put luck on your side.

Goals
Before you even start thinking about a direct mail piece, you must be upfront and clear about your goals. What are you trying to accomplish? If your goal is to generate leads you must approach the the situation much differently than someone wishing to increase consumption or generate direct sales.

List
This may seem obvious, but you would be surprised how many people do not get this point. You must understand your list and the relationship that you have with it. Stated another way, you must know your list.

Of course I do not mean you must personally know the people on your list, that is almost never the case. But you do need to understand and respect the relationship the people on your list have with you. A list of past clients must be used vastly different than a list of people that have never heard of your company before. Your entire strategy should be based around this relationship. I see companies send direct mail to a cold list that should never be sent to anyone that does not already know the company. If you make this mistake, your efforts will almost certainly fall short of expectation.

Format

Direct mail comes in a wide variety and you would be very mistaken if you think only of postcards and letters. I have worked with clients to send direct mail as large as shoe boxes filled with marketing collateral and product samples at a cost as high as $20 per unit. I have also worked with clients to prepare small, one-sided postcards for pennies each. As you can imagine, sending a $20 kit to the wrong list is a mistake that would break most companies. On the flip side of that equation, sending a ten cent post card with the goal of landing a quarter-million dollar account will likely also fail.

The magic of direct mail marketing is in choosing your format perfectly. Nothing will set you in the right direction more than understanding your goals and knowing your list.

Offer

I cannot stress this enough, the offer is critical! If you think that an offer consists of a coupon or a chance to win a prize, you need take off the blinders and rethink this whole idea. An offer can certainly be one of those options, but it can also be something much more impressive.

You can offer almost anything as long as it is seen as value to the person receiving your direct mail. Again, here is when knowing your list is going to help. Try to put yourself in the mind of the people on your list. If you are sending your mail to teachers think about their daily challenges and devise an offer that aims to solve them. If your list consists of secretaries, think about what they need most – less time in the office with their boss! You might offer a visit to the day spa or golf course and disguise it as a “work related” retreat!

I have found that if you add humor to the offer, you can drastically increase the response rate.

List

By now I think I have beaten the importance of the list into your head – but there is still more to discuss. In addition to knowing your list, you must qualify it. If your list is out of date you could be throwing valuable marketing dollars down the drain. Take a some time to qualify your list, call down the list and verify its accuracy if you need to. If you are working with a very large list, take a random sample and call down for accuracy. Use statistics to see how accurate your list is before you mail. Spending time to clean and verify your list will save you tons of money in the long run and can only increase your direct mail’s effectiveness and response rate.

Follow-up

If you think your job is done when the mail is dropped off a the post office, you are sadly mistaken! One of the most overlooked steps in direct mail marketing is the follow-up. You MUST follow-up your mailings. There are many ways to do this, most simply is the phone call. Depending on your list, your offer, and the format of your mailing, you may have a variety of follow-ups planned.

If you are sending out a $20 product kit, you may want to follow up with a phone call, a personal letter, a face-to-face visit, and a postcard survey. Always consider ways to expand on the original offer with each successive contact. Think outside of the box here – your success depends on it!

Did I forget something? Have an idea to share? My readers and I would love to hear from you! Please post your ideas, thought, and stories in the comments section below.