You can’t help but admire the technological progress we humans have managed to achieve. It changed everything, and businesses most of all benefited from this surge in technology. Digital marketing came to life and completely changed the game, and small companies could rival multi-million dollar ones using nothing but a Facebook page and a website.
While the tools that were provided by the internet were much more beneficial and helped businesses in many ways, there’s one traditional tool people often forget that can add a lot to your business, and that is direct mail. We’re not talking email, no, but rather good old regular mail. You will need some solutions to help you make the most out of it, especially considering the number of companies that neglect such a powerful resource.
Market research
Direct mail is great in the fact that is, well, direct. You don’t just send it out to anyone, and that alone makes it quite a powerful tool that can do a world of good for your business. It’s a targeted approach. But for that to work, you need to do some market research to find out who you’re going to target in the first place. Market research is the most powerful solution that will help your business make the most out of its mail, and you’ll start approaching people who might actually be interested in your products/services.
Choose the right kind of mail
Now that you’ve identified who you’re targeting, you need to figure out how you’re going to do that. There are various kinds of direct mail, and not all might work for your business. There are different sizes, shapes, materials, and designs, and you have to choose the one that will work best for you. You have postcards, which are the most popular kind for most businesses, and there are also letters as well as catalogs –– and those are optimized for specific businesses. You’ll have to take pricing into consideration, because each kind differs in cost in terms of printing, materials, and designing.
Postcards are generally considered to be the cheapest kind, and they’re also the easiest to design. But you need to make sure that your business is the kind that postcards would work with in the first place. If you’re willing to pay extra money to get the word out about your brand, then you might want to consider product packages.
While this is an expensive solution, it’s a great one that can easily lure a lot of customers. It doesn’t have to be a perfume or anything fancy, but rather office supplies and mugs with your brand logo or slogan on them –- you’d be surprised how much people are into this kind of stuff.
Get a franking machine
A franking machine is a wonderful invention that could do wonders for your business mail. It’s basically a device that allows you to weigh your mail before sending it, which will save you a lot of time and money in the long run. The people at www.fpmailing.co.uk/franking-machine/ add that franked email comes with a lot of benefits, starting with how unique it makes your business look. You don’t add stamps on your letters, but rather a frank mark. The great thing is you can customize that mark to represent your brand in a way that will make it more recognizable for people, which is a great branding technique for businesses.
A franking machine also saves you a lot of time and money in the long run, because you don’t pay any extra money for mail like always when you don’t know the exact weight. You also save yourself the ridiculous amount of time it takes to manually stamp each outgoing email, which is a lot of manpower over a trivial task. There are even discounts for franking machines on postage, so you’ll end up saving quite a few dollars with time. More than anything, a franking machine makes it much more convenient and easy to send mail to your targeted audience, which could definitely expand your brand’s reach and get you more leads.
Make it personal
At the end of the day, you want to use your business mail to grow and expand your reach, but that doesn’t mean you should be random and reckless about it. You can’t afford to send your target audience junk mail; it would just frustrate them and do the exact opposite of what you want it to do. The mail has to be genuine, authentic, and personal as much as possible. The use of handwritten fonts and adding personal touches to the mail you send makes it a lot more convincing to your audience, and it increases your chances of grabbing their attention.
Create a solid mailing list
Creating a powerful mailing list is a very important step you need to take in order for your business mail to count for something. There are shady ways you could go about it, like purchasing a mailing list from a broker, but that means you’ll target random people who might not even want anything to do with your brand, which is simply a bad practice. If you, however, started promoting your brand online and invited people to sign up for a mailing list, that way you’ll have taken a much more powerful and targeted approach that will help you reach just the right people.
Following up
Following up might just be the last piece of the puzzle in your quest to take advantage of your company mail. It’s not really a good idea to send your list just one mail package or postcard and then be done with it. Following up with other mail pieces that call them to action is how you’re going to get phone calls and requests for your product/service.
No matter how advanced we get, and regardless of the number of things we do online, direct mail will always retain its power. People like to see things in front of them, with their own eyes, and this is why your business mail is a valuable opportunity for you to promote your brand in a simple, visually captivating way that can get you a lot more customers than you think.
Video – What are Marketing Tools
Direct Mail is one of many marketing tools that can help boost sales. Watch this Market Business News video to learn more about the term.