Creating a Great Direct Mail Piece

Great Mail Ad Creation is Imperative.

Creating a great direct mail piece.

It is possible to create good direct mail pieces. It's even better to create a direct mail piece and a complimentary email piece at the same time. The saying in Marketing 101 class is you have to hit someone seven times before they remember you. At the extreme, that's an ad in a magazine, a direct mail piece, a classified ad, an email coupon, a drive-by your store, a drop-in your store and a billboard combined. At the easiest, it's seeing a classified ad repeatedly, or driving by your storefront every day on the way to work.


One of the advertising things we have discovered over the years is most people in retail love to send direct mail pieces. It's usually creative, artistic and contains lots of images to grab people's attention. Since direct mail is a very precise medium, it is possible to create highly customized and targeted pieces. This is what makes them work, and why retailers love using this form of marketing.

Ensuring you're creating an effective piece:


Personalize it.
Today's technology allows you to simply add their names using a Word merge technique. Dear Sir has been replaced with a Dear Sam.
Target their birthday or big event if possible. Send a coupon to be used during this time.

Use quality mailing materials.
A striking, attractive envelope; thick paper stock, nice photos ...people tend to throw away what they perceive as junk.
Include a response mechanism. A reply card or envelope, contact information, sale dates, etc.

Write persuasive copy,
and remember to keep the "cheese factor" out of it.
Create a well-designed layout. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity....

Remember this tip: never treat current customers as "prospects" - watch your copy and market accordingly. Also, the
best direct mail pieces are they ones you yourself remember. Keep these as references and draw upon them when creating yours.
Author: Suze Bragg
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Environmentally Friendly Direct Mail

Environmental Direct Mail



How to Reduce the Environmental Impact of Direct Mail



If you use direct mail as a promotional tool, you can easily ensure that your business is reducing wastage by using the following mechanisms.

1) Using the Mailing Preference Service The Mailing Preference Service (MPS) allows consumers and businesses to register their wish to limit the amount of direct mail they receive. Simply checking your data lists will ensure that you do not mail those who have opted into the MPS, and so avoid unnecessary wastage.

2) Cleansing your lists Cleansing your list will ensure that you are targeting a more specific audience. Improved targeting reduces the risk of “Junk Mail”. No business wants their mailings to be perceived as “junk”, and a targeted approach can reduce unnecessary costs to your business and an unnecessary waste of resources.

3) Review the format and design of your mailings Could you mailings be simplified? It is important to review your mailings and consider whether your message is being sent in a powerful yet environmentally friendly way. Pages and pages of information are often preventable, and can actually deter the end receiver from reading the mailing. Could you reduce the amount of information in your mailings? Similarly, are you sending information that includes avoidable inserts? Regularly reviewing the content of mailings can both minimise the environmental impact and also ensure that your business is producing effective content.

4) Recycled or Recyclable? Can your mailings be sent on recycled paper, it is important to remember that “recycled paper” can mean anything from 100% recycled to 1% recycled! If this is not something that you could consider, can your mailings be recycled? A small proportion of mailings are not recyclable. Staples are acceptable for recycling, but some glues used in binding for example, mean that the whole mailing will be rejected for recycling.

The Direct Marketing Association has long been spearheading a campaign to reduce the environmental impact of direct marketing. Implementing these simple steps can enable your business to minimise its environmental impact. Evaluating your environmental impact can also prove to be cost effective and can assist in reducing direct marketing costs. Also, potential customers may be more responsive to your business if they can see it making efforts to reduce environmental impact.

Direct marketing techniques provide a range of benefits to your business, but you need to keep a careful eye on its environmental impact now more than ever. Don’t forget that if you are using direct marketing to either existing or potential customers, the quality and accuracy of your data needs to be up to standard, to avoid wastage and get the best possible results. Make sure you invest in data cleansing and quality lists from only the most reputable of sources. Never be
tempted to cut corners by using out of date lists or buying in low cost poorly targeted databases.

Author: Steve Sellwood
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Postal Systems is here for all of your evironmentally friendly Direct Mail needs, while being the highest in quality. accuracy and customer service!

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Selecting the Best Mailing List for your Direct Mail Campaign

Best Mail List for Direct Mail


#1 Direct Marketing Mistake: Poor Mailing List Selection
The Wrong List can Jeopardize a Great Offer When most people are planning a direct mail campaign, they spend a lot of time and effort on getting the perfect layout. They usually end up wasting a lot of money because they don’t get the response rates they had expected and hoped for, originally.

Most amateur direct mail marketers think “if I have a good looking mail piece, people will respond.” But unfortunately, that is not true. If they would spend their time and effort on the most important thing; which is targeting their audience by choosing the right direct mailing list, it doesn’t matter what their layout looks like. That is because if they target the right people at the right time with the right offer, they will have great response rates. So what ends up happening when you focus on just the layout and look of direct mail? You waste your money. Then you may also think that direct mail is not the right media for you. But really, it is the most powerful marketing media. This is because you get to choose your targeted selections. That is the key to direct marketing.

You are not just mass marketing; you are targeting your perfect prospect. These are the consumers that will spend thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars. Depending on your product or service, it could even be hundreds of thousands. So, how do you do it right? Start with a Checklist:

Mail List Check list


· Know what area you want to target

· Know who you are targeting

· Strategically plan when you want to send out your message

· Use the selections to pinpoint your prospective customer

· Find the right list broker for you

· Join your list provider’s newsletter/ezine/blog (if available)

· Look for discounts offered by the list provider

· Look for quality, not quantity

· Use a list provider that has up-to-date information

Now you have a targeted plan. Test different layouts, formats, and offers at different times. You will end up finding what works. You may even have to change your criteria selections of your lists.

So how do you do this the best way?

The Right List Broker You should develop a relationship with a list broker. They will know what response and compiled lists are available. Don’t treat them as a supplier or vendor, treat them as a partner. If they provide you with a successful marketing list, you will end up forming a trusting relationship with them. It is always nice to work with someone you trust. Sometimes, all you have to do is tell the list broker what type of business you have and who you would like to market. They can suggest different criteria selections and maybe different target audiences that have been successful for other businesses like yours. They also know which lists do not yield high response rates. List brokers are only successful if you are successful.

Final Steps How often should you mail out a list? It usually takes three to seven times for a potential prospect to be marketed before you are recognized or remembered. So you may want to choose the option of multiple use when purchasing a mailing list. Make sure to ask your list broker for discounts, as well as how often their databases are updated. Discuss your budget. You want to make sure that you and your broker are on the same page. Finally, track the results, analyze them, and make adjustments. Don’t waste your money or time by using the wrong mailing list for your marketing campaign. Make the most of your offer by sending it to the right people.

Author: David Sklorenko III
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