Despite being surrounded by a great deal of new technology, direct mail continues to prove its worth in 2015. One glaring fact that can’t be denied is that direct mail still has some of the highest ROI over any other marketing channel. In-fact, direct mail has outperformed combined digital channels by over 600% in some recent studies.
So here is the question: Are your direct mail response rates falling flat? If so, here are some foolproof ways to revitalize your direct mail marketing efforts and reach those highly sought-after prospects!
Get Personalized
If you are currently sending out non-personalized, generic sample style mailers in the 21st century, you are very possibly doing it all wrong. Many mail houses offer generic templates, sometimes at lower prices, but without offering any personalization whatsoever. At Resource Solutions, we feel personalization as well as customization add a real benefit and can help you boost your response rates. Therefore, unlike many mail houses today, we offer BOTH personalized and customized mailers at no additional costs!
Personalization: Why It Can Be So Important:
Sources: TMR Direct1 Infosys2 Compu-Mail3
- Studies show personalized documents can increase response to a marketing campaign by 30-50%. 1
- 86 percent of consumers say personalization plays a role in their purchasing decisions. 2
- A survey of over 1,000 large businesses, across 10 different vertical industries, found that more than 60% of respondents’ campaigns were personalized or segmented. 3
- Personalization increases customer loyalty by 26%. 4
- 59% of shoppers who have experienced personalization believe it has a noticeable influence on purchasing. 2
Don’t Be Generic, Stand Out!
Many unexperienced direct mail marketing campaigns are implemented relying on templated pre-printed and non-customized mail pieces, expecting to see fantastic results. It doesn’t matter what kind of marketing you are utilizing, if you go along with what templates are piled up in warehouse and you are told it is the best avenue for you to take, your efforts will more often than not fall flat. Think about it. What sets you apart from your competitor if your mailers are identical to any financial professional using that same mail house’s templated design in your area?
Takeaway: Make Sure You Get a Unique Design.
Have a Compelling Headline, Great Content, and a Relevant Context – HCC
Another mistake often made by inexperienced marketing consultants in putting together direct mail marketing campaigns is not focusing enough on the headline, content, and context. In multiple studies, unlike in many of those digital marketing counterparts, it has been shown that direct mail is much more likely to be read as whole and interpreted in its context; which is extremely relevant.
We created the “HHC Guideline” to Help You Create More Compelling Direct Mail Pieces!
(Feel free to download this image and share it.)
Headline: Your 1-2 Liner That Gets People’s Attention
- Needs to be compelling.
- Needs to be relevant.
- The shorter it is, typically the better it is.
- Should communicate main concerns or points for the Prospect.
- Should compel them to read on.
Content: Supportive Written Material
- Should be well written, and well thought out.
- Should be current topics of interest and concerns.
- Should be very easy to read.
- Should be supportive and relevant to initial headline.
- Should have compelling and relevant sub-headlines.
- Should include facts and interesting data to support any claims or relevant topics.
Context: The Subject Matter, Photos, and The Way It’s Laid Out
- Feature photos that are captivating and relevant to the subject matter.
- Feature graphics that will enhance your message and highlight compelling points.
- Should NOT be distracting away from the content and message.
Incentivize Your Prospects to take Action
Having the HHC elements is crucial, but another aspect of good direct mail pieces, that many marketers and marketing campaigns also neglect, is including some type of call to action. A call to action can be something as a simple as a freebie, discount, or some other exclusive offer to incentivize action.
Takeaway: One of the best ways to incentivize your prospects is by giving something away, or discounting something and making an exclusive offer.
If you are not going to include something “exclusive”, you will have to create some form of negative urgency instead. Negative urgency is simply creating a desire for action by utilizing the, “what if’s” ideology. For instance, what if you don’t take action, what could happen? Will you get another chance? How will you be affected? If not now, then when? What could be the consequences of not acting now? The reason why negative urgency is so powerful is because it’s been found to have one of the greatest psychological impacts for creating action in your marketing.
Takeaway: The second best way to incentivize prospects to take action is by creating some sense of negative urgency.
Segment Your Audience
One of the final things you need to consider in making sure you are truly optimizing your marketing efforts to obtain maximum results is to figure out exactly who your target market is. You need to realize that not everyone is the same; nor does everyone fall into the same categories. For instance, is your current target market the right demographic to be interested in hearing about your services? What does your current target market look like? What are their income levels? Are they male, female or married couples?
Segmentation, when done properly is a powerful way to focus your marketing efforts into a customer segment that actually finds your services relevant. By doing this, your message will not only resonate better, but it should also result in much better response rates!
Takeaway: Segmenting your customers enables you to focus on more relevant prospects where your marketing will have greater impacts.
We hope you found this article to be insightful and useful. We realize it can be overwhelming and quite stressful trying to figure the most effective way to utilize your marketing dollars in the manner that will result in the highest ROI possible.
Our expertise in direct mail marketing for the financial industry is unsurpassed. If you are a financial advisor or insurance retirement planning specialist looking to improve your marketing response rates, please feel free to call us at (866)855-3710 or contact us today!
