Many people still feel a thrill when they check the mail, hoping something special stands out among the junk. Instead of falling into that “junk” pile, more businesses are improving their direct marketing to stand out from the stack.
Direct marketing strategies aren’t extinct, either. In fact, direct mail marketing provides a 1,300% return. Pairing a direct marketing campaign with your digital strategies can still help you attract new customers to your business.
Trying to reach your customers? Let’s do it!
Here are five tips that will help you connect with customers using direct marketing.
With these tips, you can appeal to your customers, draw them in, and start building your business. Get started with these five easy-to-implement tips.
1. Let’s Get Personal
Your customers are all distinct individuals with their own desires, problems, and lives. Communicating the same message to 5,000 people won’t work if their problems all differ.
Instead of grouping your audience into one giant pool, segment them out.
Break your target audience into smaller buyer personas. You can separate your customers based on demographics, such as age, gender, or location. However, you can also choose to break people into groups based on their purchase behavior.
If you have data to draw from, put it to good use!
The better you know your customers, the easier it is to form a connection.
Show potential and current customers you care about their interests. Start by personalizing your direct marketing campaign. Personalization demonstrates your willingness to solve a customer’s problem.
When they know you’re there with a solution, your customers are more likely to choose you.
2. Make it Memorable
When we grab a stack of mail, plain, white envelopes usually fall to the bottom. Instead, we look for what stands out from the pack. For a successful direct marketing campaign, make sure your content stands out the moment prospects check their mail.
Then, give your prospects a reason to open the envelope. Catch their eyes with exciting imagery or an impactful message. Make the benefit clear to them before they even rip the envelope open.
Get creative! Instead of a plain white envelope, hire a professional printing and mailing company. They can work with you to design stunning, eye-catching print materials for your next campaign.
If you can get people excited or spark their interest, they won’t wait to open your letter.
Once they dig inside, make sure your messages match. If you made a specific offer on the envelope, the content inside should market the same message. Otherwise, your readers might end up feeling disappointed.
When you create a memorable direct marketing campaign, you’re also building brand awareness. Using your company’s distinct color palette or imagery will help customers recognize your other marketing materials as well.
3. Sell a Solution
“Sell, sell, sell!” “Buy, buy, buy!” We’re so accustomed to this language now that our eyes skim right by it.
Instead of boring your readers with cliché sales language, focus on the solution you’re offering.
Why do people need your product or service over someone else’s? How are you making the customer’s life easier? Focus on the problem you’re solving for them.
Then, highlight how your product or service creates a solution.
People don’t always want to spend money. They do, however, want to solve the problems they experience daily.
Use your customer research to determine what problems your customers are facing. This will also help you further personalize your direct marketing campaign.
Then, tell a story.
Show, rather than tell, them how your product or service solves their problems. You can use an example, case study data, or high-quality photography to show the value of your product. This tactic will make it easier for prospects to connect with your direct marketing campaign.
Balance the right brain’s emotional side with the left brain’s logical side. To accomplish this, appeal to your customer’s needs by using emotion. Then, justify their decision to make a purchase with information, data, and logic.
Together, you can use emotion and information to drive more sales.
4. Give the Basics a Boost
A strong direct marketing campaign focuses on three basic elements:
- The offer
- Information
- A way for readers to respond to the offer (your call-to-action, or CTA)
Don’t forget to add these elements to your direct marketing campaign.
Your offer isn’t just your product or service. Rather, it’s the solution your product or service can offer your prospects. Remember, you’re here to make their lives easier.
Then, use additional information to help your readers make an informed decision. Providing your readers with specific details can help build brand trust. As trust grows, they’ll learn to trust your product or service.
These first two elements can help push prospects toward the final item: to take action.
How do you want people to respond? Your call-to-action needs specificity. For example, maybe you want people to call your company directly.
You can also prompt them to fill out a survey, visit your website, or shop online.
Using a specific CTA will give your readers direction. Otherwise, they won’t know how to respond to your direct marketing campaign. Instead of leaving readers to jump through hoops, you can use a strong, impactful CTA to push them toward a conversion.
5. Dig Into the Data
77% of millennials pay attention to direct mail advertising. However, how do you know they’re responding to your campaigns?
Once you start sending your direct marketing materials, follow-up. Check the data. Determine which messages are driving results and which campaigns are falling flat.
To do this, consider using A/B testing. Split tests allow you to determine what images, messages, or CTAs appeal to your audience. Send half of your campaign to one group, then half to another.
Make sure to only change only one element within a campaign at a time.
That way, you can determine what change worked to attract new customers.
5 Direct Marketing Campaign Tips for Simple Success
Start experiencing direct marketing success! With these five direct marketing campaign tips, you can improve your campaigns and attract new customers.
Ready to make a change? Contact us for help with your next campaign today!
