Like direct mail’s results but not the upfront costs?

According to the Direct Mail Association, direct mail resulted in nearly two-thirds of consumers making a purchase. However, the knock on this tried-and-true type of marketing is the upfront costs that don’t exist with email outreach—notably printing, materials and postage.

Here are some ways to keep those costs down, making your direct mail program more efficient and effective in the process:

1. Work with a direct mail service provider invested in keeping your costs under control versus getting the tab up to pad their profits;

2. Refine your mailing list, prioritizing your best potential buyers. Create profiles for your best buyer groups based on common attributes and demographics, then focus your messaging to appeal to their preferences and needs. This enables scaling down printing costs and improves ROI because you’re “hitting ‘em where it hurts…or helps.”

3. Make your offer hard to refuse, engaging and immediate. If a recipient sees the offer as having something significantly beneficial, response likely will be much higher.

Sources: Why Direct Mail Still Yields the Lowest Cost-Per-Lead and Highest Conversion, Online Marketing Institute; 5 Ways to Save Money on Direct Mail Marketing, YFS Magazine

Why are so many advertisers painting pictures vs. blatantly hawking their wares?

Last Super Bowl, the Budweiser commercial where the horses protect a puppy from prowling wolves made for a real feel-good experience. Noticeably absent was a bunch of promotion about Budweiser.

Increasingly, advertisers are following suit—creating stories that soothe the soul and touch the heart, engaging people along the way. This is a direct result of the social media-inspired trends toward “customer engagement.” This philosophy promotes winning the support of buyers largely with emotional appeals instead of hitting them over the head with selling features and benefits.

To accurately target using this approach, it’s important to get inside the heads and hearts of the audience. For example, instead of focusing on a car’s horsepower, suspension and turning radius, appeals now hone in on the needs, wants and pains of a specific buyer segment.

A young adult moving up the corporate ladder may want to use a car to demonstrate career progress. A young couple starting a family likely will look closely at safety features. A retiree on a fixed income may just want reliable, economical transportation from point A to B.