Sometimes we get so comfortable in the “swing of things” with our marketing we let details slip because we aren’t paying quite so much attention. That’s especially easy to do with direct mail postcards, when your ongoing campaign is smoothly and consistently generating new customers and revenue. But what if it could be even better?
It might be time to review your marketing execution to see how you can take your direct mail postcards to the next performance level. Here are XXX to-dos you simply can’t forget if you expect top-notch results:
1. Know your audience.
Virtually every business and organization has multiple segments within the overall target audience. Have you created personas for each of those segments to help tailor your marketing, and have you identified which of your personas is the target of each postcard campaign? Every other marketing to-do depends on this.
2. Know your goal.
You want your business to grow and make more money, but exactly what does that mean? Realistically, marketing can only address those overarching (and vague) goals in bite-size increments. When you set a specific goal for each marketing effort – gain 15 new patients a month, increase revenue by 20% for the spring quarter, etc., you can craft the most pertinent content for your postcards and also measure results.
3. Review your marketing strategy and implementation plan.
Don’t forget about the versatility of postcards. If you’ve been using them strictly to attract a steady stream of new customers, perhaps it’s time to expand your options. And if you’ve overlooked postcards as a means to augment your online marketing, perhaps it’s time to capture those additional opportunities to broaden your reach. Postcards are very effective to:
- Introduce something new – your new address location, product, service or key staff person.
- Promote limited events such as your church’s Christmas pageant, a community festival, an annual sale or your lawn service’s early-bird discount.
- Boost revenue during slow periods with special offers.
- Generate referrals, with bring-a-friend or similar promotions.
- Drive traffic to your website.
- Win back lapsed customers. Any business that has been around a while suffers a certain amount of attrition. Customers move away or age out of your scope of work, but sometimes they become disenchanted or they – horrors! – simply forget about you. Deliberately wooing these people back with a targeted postcard mailing can be surprisingly effective. If you’ve been writing off lost customers, you’re losing money.
4. Refine your elements.
As powerful as postcards can be simply because people love postcards, you can’t rely on that to reach your marketing goals.
Top-performing postcards are created element by element, so each one is just right. That starts with a can’t-miss headline that instantly tells recipients what your postcard is about and piques their interest, images that speak beautiful volumes about your business, back up text that explains what sets your business apart from the competition, special offers that entice readers to act (and urges them to act quickly) and a call to action that makes it easy to respond.
If any one of these elements of off, your postcard may work, but every improvement you make helps your postcards work better.
5. Double-check your mailing list.
Putting your postcard into the hands of the wrong people is a complete waste. Even if your targeting is right-on, when was the last time you checked your list to be sure it’s accurate and up to date? People move – in and out. If you don’t keep up, you’re eroding your chances to make the right impression to your mailing list.
6. Analyze results.
Do you really know how well your direct mail postcards are performing? You should be tracking results to see what works best, to refine your marketing. You should also calculate the financials – not only response rate and sales generated, but overall return on investment. It’s the to-do that brings your marketing full circle — only way to know if you are reaching your goals.