MAILWAYS
A free newsletter offering direct mail marketing tips from
Bi-County Mailing & American Mail Communications
February 2010
Copyright © 2010
888-MAIL-888
IN THIS ISSUE
- Cards Work Hard
- Mailing List Checklist
- Leadership Qualities
- Multi-Channel Marketing Tips
- Press Box
- Our Favorite Charities
- How Are We Doing?
- Hold That Thought
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HOLD THAT THOUGHT...
“There’s no such thing as luck. We make our own — good or bad — by our attitudes and actions. Life is too important to trust to luck.”
Lily Dache
Selected by Long Island Business News readers as..
Cards are the Workhorses
of Direct Mail Marketing
Used by direct marketers for decades, cards are versatile, cost-effective and can be used for almost any marketing program. But they have their own set of best practices. Take a look at these suggestions:
- Rewrite and polish your headline until it catches the reader’s interest at once and promises value.
- Be specific. Promote one idea/product/service per card. You don’t have the space to go global, and your readers don’t have the time to read a lot.
- Use one strong, relevant image on the non-address side that supports your message. Clutter gets canned quickly.
What to Check before
Renting a Mailing List
Your mailing list accounts for about 80 percent of the success or failure of your marketing campaign. Before renting a list, due diligence is crucial.
Here are some things you should be aware of:
- Don’t rent lists unless you understand the data well. Each list has strengths and weaknesses. Consult a mailing expert to help you sort out the risks and benefits of different lists.
- Take a good look at your existing customer base, and look for lists that match the best prospect from your own data base.
- Make sure the list you choose is up to date. About 20 percent of consumers change their address each year, and the percentages are even higher for businesses.
- Determine how many times the list you’ve selected can be used.
Clearly, there’s more than meets the eye when it comes to renting a mailing list. Learning about how information is obtained and updated takes years of experience.
Does Your Company Have a Future Leader?
To develop and grow, business enterprises must have a vision of the future, with creative minds working in the wings.
Here are some ways to spot potential leaders:
- Look for independent thinking — not rebellion or defiance — but confidence and original ideas that can benefit your company.
- Watch for employees who don’t constantly turn to supervisors for advice and guidance.
- Observe those who work well under pressure and can be trusted to work in the boss’s absence.
- Be aware of staff members who put ideas on the line, standing up for beliefs and being willing to be judged by the results.
- Keep an eye on those who cooperate and collaborate in order to get the job done — even when they need to back away from pet ideas.
Multi-Channel Marketing Helps Keep Businesses In Buyers’ Minds
Using a variety of media to reach consumers at different times in different ways, multi-channel marketing keeps sellers in buyers’ minds until they’re ready to make a purchasing decision.
The essentials of multi-channel marketing include:
- Building dynamic customer profiles. Take a hard look at where your customers shop, their spending habits, preferred means of contact, e.g., phone, e-mail, direct mail, etc.
- Maintaining consistency. If you send an e-mail and follow-up with a direct mail piece — or vice versa — keep the pitch and call-to-action the same. Design, layout, color and fonts should also be consistent.
- Repetition. Build top-of-mind awareness with repeated contacts in varying formats so your message won’t get lost, but don’t become annoying.
- Measuring. By tracking each channel’s response rate, you can adjust future strategies. It’s also critical to follow top-performing and low-performing customers to determine what media you can use to maintain and improve sales.
Our mission is to make your use of direct mail correct, efficient, effective and as hassle-free as possible. In every way possible, we will operate as an extension of your company or organization
with your needs and goals as our paramount responsibility.