One Minute Marketing Ideas

A Direct Mail Campaign Can Make Your Phone Ring…Answer It!

The purpose of direct mail advertising is to generate leads. Remember, you still have to make the sale.

The call to action for many direct mail campaigns is the telephone. Who’s answering yours?
- Is it a worker, with other responsibilities, that may consider a ringing phone an interuption?
- Is it someone who is shy and wants to get off the phone as soon as possible?
- Is it a good employee who would do a good job on the phone, if only he or she had been briefed about the mailing?
- Is it your answering machine?

In each one of the situations above, you probably won’t convert that telephone lead to a sale. And a few weeks later you might scratch your head a say, I guess direct mail advertising doesn’t work!

A successful campaign is more than designing, printing and mailing a postcard. You have got to be prepared and answer the phone in a professional manner. Make sure you have the answers to the questions prospects are likely to ask.

Avoid taking messages for call backs. If you must take a message, or if you are using an answer machine, give the caller a time frame (as short as possible) that their call will be returned.

Handle your incoming phones better and you’ll see better results from all of your advertising efforts.

Create A Neighborhood Mailing List Using Mail Carrier Routes

Using United States Postal Service Mail Carrier Routes is an effective way to create a mailing list.

Zip Codes are made up of Mail Carrier Routes. A Mail Carrier Route defines the daily route of a postman and average 300 to 500 deliveries.

A mailing list created with carrier routes will qualify for saturation postal rates – the lowest available.

Compared to a zip code mailing (which can have 10,000 deliveries or more) picking individual carrier routes allows you to target specific neighborhoods. In addition to precise geographic targeting, demographics for each carrier route are also available including the average age and income of the residents and the average home values in the neighborhood.

The illustration below shows a typical mail carrier route boundary map.

Example Of A Mail Carrier Route Map

The business shown in the center (home) of the map can pick specific neighborhoods using carrier routes. The carrier routes chosen do not have to be adjacent to one another and can even include those from another zip code.

If you would like a free mail carrier route map, showing your business in the center, give us a call Mon-Fri 9-6 Eastern Time at 866-594-3069.

Mail More Postcards or Mail More Often?

Is it better to mail postcards to 5000 different prospects one time or to target the same 1000 prospects five times?

The budget will be about the same for both examples. Here are a few things to take into consideration.

A) Is Your Product Or Service An Impulse Sale?
If you are a Realtor selling homes you need to reach your prospects at a time when they are selling. To do this you need to pick a “farm area” and mail your postcards on a regular basis, perhaps once a month. When the time comes to sell, the prospect will feel comfortable choosing someone who has had a consistent presence.

If you are a pizza shop, you might consider a larger territory, as pizza is a consumer favorite and is often ordered once a week by many families.

B) Are You A New or Established Business?
If you are just starting out, you probably should be mailing to a larger terriorty to “get the word out”. An established business can maintain sales levels by dividing his market area into smaller affordable sections and rotate mailings between them.

C) Is This A New Direct Mail Campaign or One That Has Been Tested?
Response rates can be very predictable once you have tested and fine tuned your direct mail campaign. Be prepared to mail a new campaign more frequently until you’ve established an acceptable response rate.

There are of course other considerations. If you have questions, reply to this blog and I’ll try to answer them.