If our mailboxes are anything to go by, direct mail is still a huge marketing tactic. If you’re like most people, you’ve probably looked at the mail in your mailbox at least once and wondered whether you could use the same methods to market your business.
While we would love to be able to answer with a resounding “yes” in every case, there are some circumstances when large-scale direct mail may not be the best solution for your business. Here are a few good examples.
You Don’t Have a List
If you’ve just started a business and haven’t had time to build your list or develop information about your target customers, then it may be a little early to launch a targeted direct mail campaign. Of course, you could purchase a list or send out direct mail based on geography, but those may not give you a true reflection of the success (or otherwise) of direct mail for your business.
Your Budget Is Too Small
As much as we would love to tell you that direct mail is cheap and everyone can afford it, the truth is that there are scalable costs involved in creating and running direct mail campaigns. With success rates of between 1 and 3 percent not uncommon, you need to run a fairly large campaign to get the ROI you need to justify those costs. If your budget is tight, consider other marketing tactics for a while, and revisit direct mail in a few years. After all, 3 percent of 100 isn’t great, but three percent of 100,000 definitely is!
You Have Limited Time
Direct mail is not something you want to rush. It takes time to get the design right, formulate the right offer, write great copy, determine your audience and to attend to various other critical components. There’s a big investment in printed marketing materials to consider. If you rush your direct mail campaign planning and get it wrong, you can’t just change your tactics and try another direction. If you’re under the gun to come up with a marketing idea, consider email marketing for now and make your long-term goal direct mail. You’ll be glad you took the time.
You Like to Handle Marketing in House
For most small to mid-sized companies not in the direct mail industry, trying to create and run a direct mail campaign in house, from start to finish, is like a landscaper trying to build their own aircraft. It’s theoretically possible, but the time, money and effort required would be monumental.
If you like to handle all of your marketing in house, there are easier ways to reach your target audience. Another alternative could be handling certain aspects yourself, like design and copywriting, and leaving the printing, mailing and tracking to the pros.
Even if you’re not sure that direct mail is the right choice for you now, we’d be happy to talk about options and pricing anytime you like. So even if it’s just for future reference or to test the waters, don’t hesitate to give us a call.
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