Get more responses to your direct mail

Success depends on your mailing list, offer, approach and follow-up.

By Bonnie Kreitler

Among the dozens of marketing strategies you can choose to reach potential customers, few are more target-specific than direct mail. Direct mail puts your business pitch straight into the hands of potential customers. It can be a powerful business driver if your recipients open it and respond — or a dud if they drop it in the trash without giving it a second glance. There are four fundamentals for successful direct-mail campaigns.

1. Mail to the right audience. "The more tightly and narrowly defined the market, the better direct marketing works," says Ken Owen, of The Edward Owen Co. marketing firm in Canton.

You need to find a mailing list with valid names and addresses of potential customers. A list is no good, notes Steve Katcher, creative director at Sutton & Partners in Old Greenwich, if half the addresses are wrong or belong to people who have moved or died.

The world’s largest direct mailer, ADVO Inc. in Windsor, mails to tightly defined demographic groups it qualifies using over 800 variables. Like other direct-mail experts, ADVO advises clients to define their best customers as closely as possible, then target mailings to people most like those customers.

If you don’t have a good mailing list, you might consider using the services of a list broker. List brokers rent mailing lists of subscribers to certain publications, people who have purchased from certain kinds of catalogs, e-mail respondents and other people who may match your "best customer" profile.

Many businesses now use computer databases to build their own lists of customers and potential customers who are prime targets for their direct mail. These can be the most productive lists of all.

2. Make them an offer they can’t refuse. When potential customers open your mailing, they should instantly perceive something of value to them. They should not have to make any connection between what you are selling and how they might benefit from it, says Owen. Both the design and the words — "copy," in advertising lingo — should make the benefits jump out at the reader. The classic direct-mail copy formula is: "(your product or service) provides (benefit), (benefit), (benefit)."

"Companies always want to tell you what they’ve got," says Owen. It’s hard for manufacturers and service companies to sell benefits instead of products or services, he says, but you must prove value to your audience. A veterinary pharmaceutical company, for example, is not selling drugs — it’s selling healthy animals. A telephone-systems consultant is not selling phones and wires — she’s selling profitable communications. "If the customer doesn’t see any benefit, they don’t care what you’ve got."

A letter that looks and sounds as personal as possible is one of the most powerful direct-mail tools you can use. Make your copy specific and factual, emphasizing the benefits of your product or service. Among the magic words direct mailers use to increase responses are "free," "guaranteed," "no obligation," "limited-time offer" and "call now." It’s also critical, they say, to tell the recipient how to respond and to give them several opportunities to do so.

For example, your letter or brochure should include your phone number, not once, but several times. A response card, preferably postpaid, should also be included. If it carries first-class postage, that touch is guaranteed to boost the response rate. A brochure might contain both an 800-number and a tear-off card to return for more information.

3. Send something that piques their curiosity. Your offer will never reach your potential customers unless they open your mailing and read it. Your dilemma as a direct mailer is to figure out how to pique your recipient’s curiosity sufficiently so that your message gets read, not tossed unopened.

The mailer, the message and the type of response desired all figure into developing the right direct-mail package. There is no "one size fits all" approach; what succeeds for one business might be all wrong for you. However, notes Owen, a No. 10 business envelope with a machine-glued Cheshire label screams "bulk mail" and "junk." You need to improve that image to get better response. The closer a plain envelope looks to First Class mail, with a personally typed address, the more likely it is to be opened. A one-line "tickler" phrase on the envelope related to the benefits described inside often piques curiosity. Odd-sized or colored envelopes are other attention-getting devices.

Sending free product samples or promotional items such as mugs or caps are proven ways to get attention and pass through gatekeepers, though the cost per customer contact rises steeply. Your goal is to make the recipient feel a bit obliged to you so they are more receptive to the fourth step in your direct-mail campaign, says Owen.

4. Hit ’em again. You’re not finished once your mailing is delivered to the post office. You must follow up on your initial contact. For a small services firm, this means following letters to potential clients with a phone call. For a retailer, this might mean regularly scheduled sales flyers or catalogs. Katcher points to one of his company’s clients, a hospital that mailed a six-panel, tri-fold brochure to potential patients every four to six weeks. Using the theme "I Didn’t Know That" to point out the availability of outpatient surgery, affiliations with other hospitals and other consumer benefits one by one in staged mailings, the hospital dramatically boosted inquiries and physician referrals.

"You want a direct-mail campaign, not a direct-mail piece," says Katcher. A single mailing with no follow-up, either by phone, in person or with another mailing, will be ineffective. "Frequency has to be part of any marketing campaign. You must keep reminding people you are there."

Katcher advises coordinating all of your mailings both graphically and thematically to achieve maximum impact.

What’s best for you?

Direct mail is not always the most cost-effective way to reach customers, experts caution. Your trade or product, your goals and business cycles may make other marketing channels better choices. But when you can tightly define your target market, have a response-oriented offer, and can develop or locate good lists of potential clients, direct mail can be a highly effective sales tool in an integrated marketing strategy.

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