Direct mail costs can be high when there is no definite strategy outlined. However there's one things that makes it such a reliable method for bringing in new business, and that's the ability to test different versions of your sales offer, package and everything else involved.
If you really want to kill your direct mail business, don't test. When people complain about the direct mail costs, they are not considering the expense of NOT testing. You need to know what is the cost of acquiring a new customer. That will give you much more flexibility when marketing and testing. If your cost per acquisition is low, then you have more money to invest in marketing and testing new methods that you would have otherwise not considered.
You can decrease your direct mail costs by applying a little common sense and simply by testing which produces the best response. Let's take a look at everything that makes up the direct mail piece... the envelope, a personalized sales letter, the brochure, an order form, the reply envelope and lastly the data.
The most important of all these is the data. Which is your mailing list, those that are going to see your offer. Mail out a good offer to a bad list = bad results. Mediocre offer to a good list = good to great results. See the difference?
You may already have a target audience in mind, for example, doctors. You'll be able to get a list of doctors from more than just one source, and you can test it. You can also break it up into may other lists determined by your target audience. Direct mail costs are very flexible as well. The more you do business with a particular company, typically they'll give you some price breaks.
First things first, you must target to get it right. And you only find out if you have it right by testing.
You have so many options, starting with the envelope. You can pick different colors, use a stamp, bulk meter (not recommended). You could use different sizes... so much you can test with the letter alone.
For your letterhead, you can change up the material. Textured paper always works best as studies have shown. The number of options that you have at your disposal are unlimited.
Use these methods over time and you'll see an increase in the effectiveness of your mailings. You have to always test, even when you think you've got the perfect mailing, keep testing. Test, test and test some more. Got it?? That's the best way to keep your direct mail costs down, isn't that what we're all after?
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