From Junk Mail to a Potential Sale

One of any business’s biggest challenges when it comes to direct mail advertising is making sure your marketing material isn’t perceived as junk!

When a recipient receives what they consider to be junk mail, it invariably ends up in the bin. However, when designed effectively, direct mail is proven to be one of most successful advertising mediums you can employ. In fact, research reveals it is still more than holding its own against digital marketing methods.

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Surveys collated and analysed by the Direct Marketing Association conclude the response rate for direct mail is 4.4%, compared with 0.12% for email. Consumers are getting overwhelmed by inboxes full of unsolicited marketing mail. They are more receptive to direct mail, which arrives in a less cluttered way through their letterbox.

Big brands such as Google, Ikea and Apple still use direct mail regularly and recognise its value. If the industry giants believe in its effectiveness, SMEs should surely follow their lead!

In order to turn junk mail into a potential sale, we’re providing some tips on how to revolutionise your direct mail marketing: turn it into a valuable advertising channel for your products and services.

Targeted mailing list

Use a targeted mailing list to put your direct mail in potential customers’ hands. When your mailing list is customised for your clients, it gives them more reason to open your mailing shots.

Create targeted mailing lists to the criteria of your choice, using data relating to age, demographics, income and more. You can time your direct mail perfectly with a targeted mailing list, sending the relevant message at the best time. Understand when your audience needs your services the most to get the best results.

As an example, if you deal with B2B marketing, newly-formed and start-up companies are a useful source of new business for your company.

Addressing your recipient by name gives them a more personalised experience and captures their attention, giving them more reason to open your mail.

Handwritten appeal

Another tip is to use a font that resembles handwriting on your address labels, as it’s more likely to capture the recipient’s attention because it has the personal touch.

Research has shown handwritten direct mailing can increase the opening rate by a massive 99% and boost the response rate by more than 30%.

Adding anything quirky to your direct mail is another way to make it stand out from the rest, such as making the address label look like a hand-written Post-It Note.

Call to action

A clear call to action, enabling potential customers to see how they can get in touch, is an added incentive for people to contact you to find out more. It’s important to make clear to the potential customer which step to take next.

It helps to remove the hassle of moving the user down the sales funnel if there’s a seamless way in which they can get in touch right away. Once a potential new client decides to take the first step, make the whole process as smooth as possible.

Inputting their personal information, subscribing, or purchasing products or services should be friction-free, risk-free and fast. Improving the customer experience from the outset gives businesses a higher chance of getting customers to subscribe to their services.

There are many reasons why potential customers might abandon their journey with you. If you direct them to register online, 9% have abandoned their registration before completion because of a “long and confusing” process, according to research by Statista.

A massive 37% have abandoned the process because they were required to create an account right away. Many consumers wish to take a look first before maybe committing later. One-fifth of customers have said they found the website too slow, and this has resulted in them giving up. When you have attracted people through your direct mail marketing, you don’t want to lose them on the first step of their journey with your company.

If you’re considering improving the performance of your direct mail marketing campaigns, take a look at Selectabase’s Create and Post service – we can surely help with all your marketing endeavours!