words Alexa Wang
We live in a time where everything is done online, from shopping to working. While that has had a significant and positive effect on our lives, it also had a few downsides. Between privacy problems and getting too much exposure to the world around you, the internet can often cause more problems than we’d like to admit. For businesses, in particular, the complete reliance on digital means sometimes proves futile.
Yes, search engine optimization and social media strategies are important, but that is not the only way to market your business. Sometimes, it is a good old fashioned newsletter sent via mail to your customers that will do the trick. Most companies don’t really care about direct mailing, despite it proving very effective in generating leads and sales.
But before you rely on direct mailing, you must first optimize your business’ mailing system. Here’s how you can do that.
Know Your Target Audience
The thing about direct mail is that it needs to go to the right people, or else you’d just be wasting your time, effort, and money. To optimize your business’ mailing system, you need to start by identifying those people. You can do that by creating a customer profile of the people who would be interested in what you have to offer. There are plenty of factors that need to play into this including gender, age, line of work, location, and others. Once you create that customer profile, you can create a mailing list that would receive your newsletters and packages regularly, and some of them will definitely become leads.
Use Franked Mail
Manually preparing your mail is one of the most time-consuming and tedious tasks there is. You have to manually apply stamps to each letter and package, which is quite inefficient and costly. This is why you need to start using franking machines to save you time, effort, and money. You will be able to send out professional-looking mail that is automatically franked in very little time. Another great thing about franking machines is that you can integrate a folder inserting machine with them, and that one can act as an automatic letter folder and envelope stuffer. This also saves you significant time and helps you process a much bigger volume of mail. Plus, the outcome looks much better than that done using manual stamps.
What Are You Going To Be Sending Out?
Optimizing your business’ mailing system doesn’t just mean saving time and/or money. It, more importantly, means getting solid results from your mail or, in other words, generating leads. To do that, though, you have to carefully consider just what kind of mail you’ll be sending out. You can answer that question after doing market research that would help you create a customer profile. What would resonate with those customers? Should you send newsletters or postcards? Perhaps a catalog or a brochure would be a better option? Some companies even send sample products for their customers to try out –– which are usually quite favorable and generate a lot of leads. There is much to consider here, for your budget and product types to your target audience. But the kind of mail you send out will definitely be the difference between generating leads and having your mail discarded.
Comparing various options and narrowing down your best choice is also a good idea. You can start small with one type of mail, then gradually introduce new ones according to the feedback you get from your mailing list. For instance, this EDDM vs Direct Mail guide will tell you the difference between two popular mailing options and help you choose the one that’s best for your business. Further, you can also use the data you gather from your mailing campaigns to improve your marketing strategies and target your audience even better.
Quality Control
Whatever kind of mail you choose to send out, you have to heavily invest in quality. This starts with the packaging and type of letters you use because people really pay attention to those details. If the packaging looks cheap, chances are people wouldn’t really be interested to see what’s inside. Yes, people do judge books by their covers, and yours has to be flawless if you want your mail to be a success.
Good Content
The last thing people want is to open a brochure or a catalog to be bombarded by technical jargon or a ridiculous copy. You have to invest in writing the best copy possible, and that often means hiring a copywriter who can write catchy promotional materials. The copy also needs to be edited rigorously –– a typo is the worst thing possible in a brochure. Even the formatting and font size matter with mails because those are things that people notice and the quality you provide says a lot about your business. So, make sure the content of your mail is a good representation of your brand and what you have to offer.
If you do all the right things, your business’ mailing system can get you more leads than you possibly imagine. Sure, digital marketing is important and efficient, but people really react differently to the tangible promotional material, and you need to take advantage of that. So, keep our tips in mind and you can effectively increase your sales and build a strong customer base.
