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Top performing direct mail pieces

If the point of marketing is to drive sales, and the goal of individual advertising techniques is to generate leads, then why isn't every company including direct mail in its overall strategy?

The numbers supporting direct mail are hard to argue. Customers in their early 20s, one of the most sought after demographics, and are the most likely to respond to direct mail, according to the Direct Marketers Association. In 2012, 3 billion mailed coupons were redeemed. Direct mail is targeted, it's personal and it's conducive for testing. It's an incredibly versatile technique and for companies who aren't already including it in their strategies, they should be.

Here are a few helpful ideas for how direct mail can be used to bring in new leads:

1. Postcard
Believe it or not, the DMA recently discovered that postcards are the mail piece that's most likely to be read, with more than half of recipients exploring the parcel's content. This is promising for businesses, because apart from being particularly popular amongst customers, postcards are also exceptionally easy to manufacture and cheap.

When a customer receives a postcard, the time they're going to spend on it is fairly insignificant so it's important for organizations to get their point across quickly. This makes the medium perfect for soliciting a short phone call or suggesting a visit to a website. Companies should work to keep these prompts simple and very succinct. The critical factor here is ensuring that the intended recipients actually receive the postcard, which can be easily resolved by using address hygiene software.

2. Invitations
It's one thing to inspire a future sale through a piece of direct mail, but the goal should be not to sell a single item. Instead, businesses should work toward building a sustainable customer-business relationship. There is perhaps no better way for a business to do this than meeting face to face.

Surprisingly, the event itself shouldn't be the primary concern. Of course, companies should avoid bringing existing or potential customers to a shabby get-together, but, again, the goal is to focus on relationships. Sending a personalized invitation to a specific outing creates a personal feel while fostering a veritable win-win. Worst case scenario is the recipient sees the unique invitation, who it's from and then sets it aside with no intention of attending. It's not ideal, but at least the reader is now aware of the company. On the other hand, if the customer decides to attend the event, that's now a lead waiting to be developed.

There are laundry lists of direct mail ideas businesses can take advantage of to generate new leads, but the overall idea is to simply institute the best practices available. For direct mail, that means investing in mailing software, which leverages sophisticated technology to streamline the mailing process, automating a number of the more laborious aspects of the process, like presorting.