Direct Mail Marketing Firm
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A direct mail marketing firm has been a traditional choice for most businesses up until the advent of the Internet, but though other methods of promotion may seem more befitting a high tech world, an eye catching piece of snail mail can have a strong impact on consumers. Direct mail has been defined as any piece of mail that asks a consumer to take a suggested action. Call this number or visit this website or come in and get the last three widgets on the shelf are all calls to action, and should these strong suggestions come in the form of snail mail they are defined as a direct mail marketing firm campaign. Measuring a "straight to the customer" postal campaign is probably pretty simple. How many calls did one get, how many website hits or how many people through the door to buy those dusty widgets are pretty good indications of how strong a mail campaign can be.
When a person hunts for deer, he isn't likely to see very many unless there are other hunters tramping through the underbrush or in the woods ahead or behind. Their movements will get deer up and out of their warm resting places and then there is the opportunity for that trophy buck. The same holds true for a direct mail marketing firm and its effort undertaken for a business or non-profit. Experts in the field of postal promotion remind us that unless we have made study of the targeted demographic and supply a reason for the consumer to get up and get out of the house or visit a website, there will be no worthwhile response. This is all very important because the Direct Marketing Association says that the average response to DMing is between .5 and 1% making this method very risky unless the cost of the materials and postage can be recouped through an extraordinary campaign.
Yet everyday our snail mailboxes can be filled with "straight to the consumer" promotions and advertisements. Businesses have either not done their homework, or ignored the known risks or believed strongly in their marketing skills and hold out hope that they can beat the odds by an extra percentage point. This extra point may be the difference between profit and loss on the effort. It is obvious that the business world still believes in the direct mail marketing firm and its approach and while many businesses have gone high tech completely, the method still holds promise for many small businesses. So what makes an effective direct mail marketing firm campaign hum like a beehive?
Let's do a hypothetical for a moment. Two different companies selling skateboards are having a sale. Separated by a few miles, these two companies both decide to hire a direct mail marketing firm to farm three thousand homes. Both companies are going to use the same mailing list provider, both will have the same potential customer addresses and both will mail from the same post office on the same day. The first company, Skate Boards Crack Me Up, must cut the expenses of printing and goes with a simple black and white printing. The second company, Skate Boards Hurt Me Bad, goes all out with a four color glossy flyer. Crack Me Up's presentation is pretty dull to the eyes, but it is offering a one day going out of business sale of all skateboards at up to 75% off retail while the Hurt Me Bad offers 5% off purchases for the next two weeks of more than seventy five dollars. An attractive offer will trump an attractive layout every time, but the two together present a very tempting "git'er done" challenge to the consumer.
Crack Me Up presented a twelve hour window of opportunity and with a handsome reward for purchasing that day. Hurt Me Bad offered a measly 5% and gave the customer two weeks. The success of the efforts of direct mail marketing firm is based greatly on the presented "crisis" that must accompany such a mailing, and by the way, "One Day Only!" better mean that, or credibility is shot. But there is a way that Hurt Me Bad could play some catch-up with the competition and that would be making the right move back up at the point of buying a mailing list. First of all, buying a list of any kind is the worst of the decisions. If the Hurt Me Bad Company has been in business very many years, then it should have been collecting every scrap of information it could on hundreds or thousands of customers. Without a doubt, the most valuable and fruitful mailing list a company will have for a direct mail marketing firm and its campaign is the customer's own customer base.
From every piece of evidence available, had the Hurt Me Bad Skateboard Company used their own mailing list, they might have been able to anticipate up to a three or four percent response rate. So if a company that wants to do a "straight to the customer mailing" and does not have a large customer base, then purchasing a highly targeted mailing list is the preferable option. A number of different qualifiers can be put on purchased databases such as age, household income, hobbies, occupation, geographical residence and education. These qualifiers, when combined together for the client's needs, can raise the success rate of a snail mail campaign. "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted." Jesus' point here was that happiness is based on a person who is sorrowful over the sin." Happy are the sad; a true oxymoron!
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