You have a plan for your direct mail campaign but it is going to take 5-10 days to get it produced, a full day out of the office for you along with your graphic designer, and it will cost a lot of money. The worst part? You're not even sure if it will work. This is the quandary of nearly every direct marketer today. Everyone wants to test other channels such as postcard mailings, but production timelines and costs make that nearly impossible.
All of these issues limit the ability of any great direct marketer to test offers, never mind test other channels that could impact your bottom line. Today's world demands that direct marketers move at warp speed and do so by spending less money.
Pitfalls of Postcard Marketing Production
Sure you have to make certain that the color is right, the print quality is up to snuff and there are no typos or marks on the pieces. You also want to ensure that there is consistency throughout the print run so the first postcard looks as fantastic as the last one. And of course, every direct mail campaign needs to meet postal regulations. But these are mechanical issues that don't get to the root of the problem.
The biggest production pitfalls of any direct mail campaign surround the time, money and sheer effort it takes to produce just one postcard marketing campaign, never mind testing. For every campaign, you have to determine the strategy, hire a creative team to produce it, work with your local printer, ensure the set up and proofing process goes off without a hitch and be on-press to ensure each and every piece comes out as originally planned. Not to mention that you also have to print thousands of pieces to get a reasonable price.
It can take weeks for the design to be finalized, another 5-10 days before the postcards are actually printed and more time for the mail house to get everything into the mail. In total, it could be up to seven weeks—hardly warp speed—making testing the success of any direct mail piece extremely difficult. In addition to hurting the direct marketer's ability to test, this long production process limits learning. Last minute opportunities or the ability to take advantage of timely events are nearly impossible.
Test for Success
So why is testing so important? Testing is every direct marketer's best weapon. It lets us determine what works and what doesn't so we can learn for the next campaign. In fact, every direct marketer should learn from every single mailing so each consecutive one becomes more successful.
How does testing work? Start with an audience by testing to see if they are the right target for your product or service. Once you have a good list to work with, test the offer to see if a discount works better than say a free product. Then, test the format of the piece to determine, for example, if envelopes work better than self mailers.
Good testing methodology makes a difference and because of this, it is critical to look for production options that enable the quick printing of direct mail pieces in cost-effective, small print runs. Once this is achieved, sophisticated testing programs can be run quickly and efficiently for more effective direct mail campaigns.
Open Up the Creativity
In addition to practicing good testing, many direct mail pieces lack creativity. It is no one person's fault unfortunately the current lengthy process of any direct mail piece stifles campaigns. Many just stick with what works instead of finding something that works better. And who can blame them?
The fact is, it's critical to find out what enables your organization to stand out from the crowd. Consumers and businesses everywhere are inundated with direct mail pieces that get thrown into the garbage. Creativity can mean the difference between the trash bin and success. Why not use it and test a more creative campaign against a standard one? You might be surprised by the results.
Finally—Direct Marketing at Warp Speed
Once a faster, more efficient design and printing process is in place, direct postcard mailings can become the norm because they are cheap to produce and easy to test and learn. The power of the internet takes the traditional design and printing process and turns it into a cost-effective tool for direct marketers of all types and this is available today. The result is a direct marketing machine that can turn on a dime and quickly and easily produce, test and deploy cost-effective direct marketing campaigns that make a difference to the bottom line.
Direct Marketing Association Mail
In a multi level marketing, these direct mail leads are very helpful to make your business grow and to generate more income than the usual. To make this possible you must make a good offer to target sales and most importantly the leads that you are going to mail must be new.
So how are you going to get the freshest direct mail leads? There are a lot of ways actually. One of them is to see a list of brokers, alumni associations and many more on the internet. There is lot of internet service provider who offers this kind of services.
You can get direct mail leads from various types of lists, may it be a business list, consumer list, mailing list, telemarketing list or the E-mail opt in lists. These lists offer their profile such as company name, address, phone numbers, type of company, opt-in emails, business mailing lists and many others. These prospects might buy now or in the future.
When you have this direct mail leads you can now mail them so you will make a difference for you business. So what are the ways to mail leads? Simple, just use the direct mail marketing techniques. Read on to know different methods to make this possible.
1. Monthly mailing system
This mailing system is very reliable since it is consistent. Make sure that that you have a lot of ideas in the contents of your mailings. You should include there tips and advice about your product or service. Think about the things a customer would usually need or use before and after they buy your product. Anticipate their needs and wants and expectations in your products.
Make sure that your tips are relevant to what products and services you offer. You will see that you will have positive benefits if you do so. You will be known to have enough expertise in your field. Secondly, you have already gotten through prospects mind as qualified vendor.
2. Recognition campaigns
This campaign is a way to recognize and reward your customers. You can do so by just simply thanking them. When you use this method, you should keep your marketing strategy in moderation.
You should watch over your sales pitch when you are going to send a thank you message. When you use this kind of approach, customers might keep you on top of their minds and if you are lucky enough you will be referred to their friends and acquaintances.
4. Your website
When you use postcards, you can drive prospective customers your page. Postcards will tell your prospects that there are offers for discounts, free gift or any offers you put in your website that they can get. Always make sure that your site contents are rich of information that you think is important for your prospect.
When you are going to use this as your direct marketing plan, make sure that you update your webpage. Keep updates useful for the prospects so they can visit your site again. These postcards works very easily and they are very cost effective
These are the few ways to use a direct mail for your products and services. Choose the freshest direct mail leads to capture every prospective customers and choose the best direct mail strategy that you are going to use.
Both Janet Holian & Daegan Smith are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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