What result to expect and how to improve them.
Mailing is a strange thing. It works. Years ago I thought that companies sending out thousands of mail packs were barmy. Once I learnt of one company who were selling £100,000 computers using direct mail I started to believe. Just recently one client of MCM Direct mailed 4,000 letters and brochures. The response they received was fantastic. They won orders worth £25,000 in one mailing and have been mailing ever since.
Direct Mailing Statistics
Direct Mail volumes are shrinking as mailing lists are now better targeted and as a result response rates are getting higher. On-line retailers are using direct mail to drive customers to their web sites.
Expected response rates
If you only cover the cost of the mailing with new business you have the added benefit of getting your name in front of all of your mailing list. In general terms you will receive a response rate of 0.5-5% depending on the quality of your data (the most important part of the mailing) and the offer. When you mail special offers to customers you will receive a higher response rate than to a prospect list. If you offer free fuel with every new car you sell you may well get 100% response!
Direct mail response rate have returned to those of 1992. The biggest growth sector in response is in under 35 year olds.
How to Improve Your Direct Mail Response Rate
There's no doubt that direct mail is one of the most effective marketing tools available to businesses. What are the advantages?
It's cost-effective, costing between 30p and 50p per item mailed, including paper, ink, envelopes and postage. It's effective, averaging between 1 and 3% response rate. It allows controlled growth. You choose how many you send, and since you know the average response rate, you know how many will probably reply, and it gives you one-on-one attention.
Many business owners and marketing professionals have committed cardinal sins in their direct mail copywriting and their response rates could have been far higher had they known a few things about writing direct mail.
It all starts with the envelope. If it looks like "junk mail", it will probably be binned instead of opened. There is little chance of getting your message heard if it hits the bin first, and that means you have wasted your time, money and resources.
So, make sure your direct mail letter is opened by making them want to see what's inside. You could:
- Ideally each mail piece should begin with your client or prospects name not a generic greeting
- Use real stamps instead of a postage PPI
- Take your logo off the return address so they think it's from a real person rather than from a business
- Use a handwritten font
- Do NOT use labels — Labels tell recipients that you sent the same card to hundreds of other people. You have to keep it personal, even if you are sending it to thousands of other people!
- Use a different font than what's normally used
- Make the envelope a different colour than white
- Print a teaser on the envelope
Once the envelope is opened
What gets you to open an envelope?
Once you get them to open it, attention shifts to the letter itself. You have literally seconds to convince them to read on, or once again it hits the bin. What makes the biggest difference? Your opening headline.
Get their attention with a compelling heading, and try to aim for some kind of emotional response. The stronger that emotional response, the better. Your headline could ask a question. Or it could provide an answer. And it should highlight your biggest benefit in some way. "How to..." is a good bet. "Why" also works. Asking a question stimulates our curiosity, and that usually means we'll read on. Give your client or prospect a reason to call you – "I just thought of an idea that might really cut your tax bill, give me a call so we can get together before you do your taxes this year! Talk to you soon, Martin Collier"
Attract more interest with your first few paragraphs. If it bores them, they'll stop reading.
Know your target market and write the body of your copy directly to them. If they're women, use words that appeal to women. And if they're men, use words men relate to. Copy written for younger consumers differs from copy for older ones.
Now, how does your product or service benefit your target? Will it make them richer? Will they look younger? Feel sexier? Attract more of the opposite sex? How will it make them feel? Benefits stimulate desire, and it's their wants that you want to provide an answer for.
For the most part, they're not interested in you, what your company does, or how long you've been in existence. What they do care about is WIIFM. "What's in it for me?" It's your benefits that will tell them what's in it for them.
Don't make the mistake of using technical jargon if your target market is consumer-based. And keep your writing simple, friendly and conversational no matter who your target market is.
Have a specific call to action. Tell them exactly what you want them to do. Do you want them to call you for more information? Sign up for your online newsletter? Order your product? And make sure you tell them when to contact you (today of course) and why (because of a discount or special offer), and create some sense of urgency (time- or quantity-limited).
Include a P.S. repeating your main benefits and your time- or quantity-limited special offer. It's the second most-read line in your letter.
A few tips on style. Readers usually scan. They won't often read the whole letter, so break up long copy with subheadings and include a photo or graph because their eye will stop there. They usually zigzag while they're reading, starting in the top left corner and moving down the page, often moving their eye back up to the top right.
A tip on letter length. There are various opinions on this, my opinion is that you write until you've said everything you need to say.
And a final tip on editing. Write the letter and put it aside until tomorrow. Then read it aloud, noting where it's awkward or where the flow isn't right. Fix that and read it out loud again.
Now that you know how to write direct mail that will help increase your response rate, I hope if you've already tried it and think it's not effective that you'll try it again. Or if you're new to direct mail, that you'll give it a try. It truly is one of the most effective ways overall to generate leads and increase sales. But don't forget it's the data that is the most important component for response. There are many books available on writing direct mail letters.
