If you take a glance at the home page on our website, you’ll see that we claim: We help direct marketers who are struggling with their direct mail programs.
But do you really need a program? Can’t you just send out some mailings occasionally and see what happens?
Of course you can! And we have a number of clients that come to us regularly (or at least periodically) because they want to do a mailing.
So what’s the benefit of having a direct mail program? First of all, it’s important to acknowledge that direct mail doesn’t stand on it’s own. It’s an important part of your overall marketing plan. With that in mind, let’s look at how a program can make your marketing efforts more effective.
Goals
If you’re going to spend money on marketing, you’ll want some clearly defined goals. What are you trying to accomplish? What specific results are you after? If you don’t have clear goals, it’s impossible to evaluate whether or not you succeeded.
Audience
When you have a specific program it forces you to think about your audience. Who are you trying to reach? What are their goals, obstacles, needs?
Messaging
Defining your key messages is an important part of having a direct marketing program. You need to be very specific and consistent about what you want to say.
Consistency
It’s important to keep in front of your audience on a consistent basis. A program helps you set up a regular schedule without having to remember it all the time.
Metrics
Building measurement and evaluation into your program is invaluable. It is, however, a discipline. Part of setting up a program includes making sure that you measure results and record what you learned. That helps you decide how to spend your marketing money in the future. You want to do more of what works and less of what doesn’t work. If it’s part of your program, you have a better chance of actually doing it.
We’ve been helping businesses and organizations with their direct marketing efforts for more than 40 years and one of the things we’ve observed is that it’s relatively easy for companies to begin marketing efforts. But it’s very difficult for organizations to maintain those efforts if they don’t have a disciplined, organized, approach to their marketing. Without a specific plan—a program—it’s too easy to let things slide.
Of course, a big part of a good direct mail program is to make sure you’re doing the right things in the right way. To help you with that and to give you a leg up on your competition, we invite you to download our free eBook, Best Direct Mail Practices in an Evolving Marketplace. It’s packed with helpful information about some of the best ways to use direct mail as part of your overall marketing efforts. Just click on the button below to download your free copy.
