Direct mail was once one of the most powerful advertising mediums, beating out even television in terms of return on investment, but dimensional mail has taken the lead as one of the most effective forms of advertising today. This is because it is still reaching them in the same manner as direct mail, and while it maintains a higher cost per piece to send, it also generates a significantly higher response rate due to its memorable nature. Unlike postcards or sales letters which are often filtered out (to the trash) by good-intentioned secretaries or assistants, dimensional mail is almost never filtered out because it is contained in a package. Think about it for a minute – if a package arrived addressed to your employer, would you throw it away or even open it to see what it was? No, you would ensure that they personally received it. That generates half of the effectiveness of this powerful medium. The other half is generated by the creativity of the campaign. It’s not enough to simply stuff a bunch of flyers and business cards into a box and ship it off to your prospects. Your dimensional mail campaign needs to be creative and ideally should tie in to what your company does instead of just a cute stunt.

Be sure to check back regularly; we’ll be posting some dimensional mail campaigns that we’ve done for some of our clients here on our blog.

What does your communication say about you?

Marketing is a collective activity in that when multiple channels are used together, the results are almost always far greater than the sum of the channels. Direct mail, radio and television can support internet marketing to bring you results that you could never achieve with the same budget used in any one of those mediums. This is because after the creative aspect of any marketing campaign, the effectiveness is due largely to repetition and consistency. When your prospect is on their way to work and they hear your ad, they may be only slightly convinced that your product or service is right for them. When they arrive at work they’ll probably do a little more research online, and if they come across your marketing message again, they will likely become a little more convinced. Later that night when they’re watching an episode of The Big Idea on their local cable channel and they see your television ad, chances are high that they’ll be very convinced that your product or service is the right choice for their needs. Now this doesn’t mean that the will buy from you just yet, but you will be standing on significantly higher ground than your competitors at this point.

To develop a marketing campaign where all of the channels work together you’ll need to determine what your desired outcome is to be. If you’re trying to educate your prospects about a complex product or service, all of your marketing channels should be used either to drive them to your web site where they can access the applicable information or to encourage them to schedule a meeting with one of your representatives. If your goal is to push sales in a particular retail location, all of your marketing channels should be focused on driving them directly to that location. In a nutshell, choose one goal and utilize all of the marketing channels available to you to foster achieving that goal.

We recently posted about the impact that email has made on direct mail and mentioned that direct mail was still a powerful tool in your marketing tool box, however that may be changing. As direct mail continues to increase in cost, many businesses will mail to smaller and more selective lists to maintain a cost-effective ROI. Ultimately, direct mail will stay around for a long time, but like other traditional mediums, it’s use will evolve to meet the needs of marketers.

Handwriting adds a personal touch that can’t be achieved with any graphic design technique or font. It’s that personal touch causes response rates to increase dramatically when it’s used in direct mail. Obviously you can hand-write names and addresses on envelopes but it doesn’t have to stop there. Handwritten sales or thank you letters can have a tremendous impact and you can even add handwriting to any of your printed marketing materials.

As business owners, we’re not really interested in looking cool though. We are interested in making a reasonable profit, and when it comes to direct marketing, there really isn’t much that can beat a solid postcard campaign. When compared to other forms of direct mail, postcards have a far higher response rate because there is nothing to open or sort through. Your message is right there in your prospects hands. The cost can also be significantly lower than other forms of direct mail.

So how do we get the most from a postcard mailing?

• Start with a highly targeted mailing list. A broad, shotgun approach to direct mail will lower your ROI in a big way. By using a highly targeted list, you are ensuring that only people who would truly benefit from your offering get your message. This keeps your initial costs down while improving your conversion ratio.
• Make an offer they can’t refuse. People can get a 5% discount anywhere, anytime. They will break down your doors for a 20% discount. You’re offer doesn’t have to be a discount though. It could be a 100% money back guarantee, a free product or service with their purchase or anything else of a reasonable value. Just make sure that you don’t give away so much that you are loosing money.
• Have your postcards professionally designed. Yes, you can get your nephew to whip something up for free but doing so will not generate much business for you. Think of it this way ? you probably could perform your own liposuction in your garage but the results would be significantly different than those of a real plastic surgeon. A skilled graphic designer is well worth the investment because they will generate more business for your company.
• Have your postcards professionally printed. Printing your postcards on your own ink jet or laser printer looks unprofessional, is time consuming and actually ends up being more expensive than having them printed professionally. You can have 5,000 4″ x 6″ postcards printed on a heavy gloss stock for less than $250 and present the right image while saving yourself time and money.