Direct Mail Marketing: It's What's Inside, Too

By Author: Azalea Perron
Total Articles: 5
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Using consumer and business mailing lists in a targeted direct mail marketing campaign is only part of what will make it effective. Besides using a quality mailing list, what is sent as well as how it's presented will be just as important. From the initial impression of the envelope the customer first sees, to the material inside, will make determine how effective the mailing will be. Because of this, careful panning and consideration needs to go into the design of the marketing material as well as the careful selection of a consumer or business mailing list.

The first consideration of the material must be the first thing the prospective buyer of a product or service will see. While the selection of a correctly targeted consumer or business mailing list will be the first and most important step in a successful direct mail marketing campaign, the next most important will be to get the receiver of an offer to actually open the envelope it's delivered in. The way to do this is to put a message of some kind on the envelope that will make the reader want more. This method ...
... has been a staple of retail marketing since it's inception, and it works.

But the challenge doesn't end there. After the prospective buyer receives the offer, and opens it, the offer then has to sell the product. The key to doing this effectively is to focus your material on the most appealing aspect of the offer while keeping the least appealing aspect until last in the offer. This will vary depending upon the actual product or service. Sometimes the most appealing part will be the price, as it usually is with grocery store ads. Sometimes it will be the savings the item will incur over time, like a product to save gasoline and give better mileage. Still other times, it may be about the way the product fills a desperate need or desire.

The point of all of this is to make the reader of an offer read all the way through and become enticed by the advantages of purchasing as opposed to the negatives. Once they've done this, the reader will be
more likely to buy whatever product or service you are offering. So first, make sure you are reaching the people you need to with a targeted consumer or business mailing list, then consider what you are sending.