Writing Copy for Direct Mail Marketing

There are a handful of Must Dos when it comes to writing copy and designing products that go in the mail. There are hundreds of different packages that you can mail…postcards, letters, foldover cards, booklets and self mailers to name a few. Here are few tips for designing and writing copy for postcards. 

1. Write a compelling headline on the mail panel side. Think of it as a billboard you see driving down the highway at 65 mph. You have about 3 seconds to grab someone’s attention with a great headline. According to studies, people almost always read the side of the postcard that has the mail panel on it. Don’t count on them reading the other side.
2. Use bullet points. People don’t expect (or want) to read long blocks of copy on a postcard. If your headline draws them in to read more, use bullet points to get the rest of the message across.
3. Write about benefits, not features. Here’s the difference:
• Feature:     Our product comes with a user’s guide.
• Benefit:      Our Free User’s Guide takes you step by step through set up and guarantees your safety when using our product.
4. Break up copy with meaningful visuals. Pictures, drawings, graphs and charts can tell a story and compliment copy.  Visuals along with copy should motivate the reader to read on and, most importantly, make an inquiry.
5. Call to action. You have to tell the recipient what you want them to do and the more ways they have, the more likely they'll actually do it. If you want them to make an inquiry, give them phone numbers, web addresses, email addresses, personalized web sites, store locations and anything else available to make that inquiry.
6. And finally . . . A professional copywriter and designer can get you better results so consider letting a professional design and write copy so you get the most out of your Direct Marketing dollars.

Mike Baber

"I know we need to do something different."

This is one of the most common responses we get from customers and prospects when we're talking to them about how their marketing is working for them. Some companies that have traditionally used direct mail as the sole marketing tool have found that it is harder and harder to get the kind of response they're used to. Marketing is different these days and for the people that have always received a good response from direct mail, that's hard to swallow.

At Baber Direct, we know that having more ways to connect with a target audience means a better chance of actually connecting with them. And that means improving the response you're getting now. Having a good, solid, professional Direct Marketing Plan is the right way to start doing something different and start getting better results with your direct marketing dollars.

Doing something different can mean a lot of different things.

• Using more than one medium to connect with your audience. This is Cross Media marketing. Here are six different ways to deliver your messages:

1. Direct mail
2. Email
3. Personal web sites
4. Telemarketing
5. Texting
6. Social Media

• List segmentation. Deliver different messages to different people on your list. Don't send the exact same postcard to everyone. Segment the list into categories of people that have certain things in common like age, family status (married, married with children, single, empty nesters etc.), income and buying habits like how much they spend with you and how often.

• Survey your customers and prospects. There are a lot of ways to do this. In-store, email, personal web sites or mail. The point is, get to know your customers.

• Use Variable Data Printing so the message you send is different for each recipient. Your messages will get read and when your customers notice that you're doing something different, you'll notice something different. You'll get better results.

• Build your database with more information about your customers and prospects. Get relevant information so you can deliver a more personal message that will get read. Build a culture at your company around making your database accurate and complete.

• Get back to the basics that have made Direct Marketing effective for decades.Select the right list, make a compelling offer, determine how often to deliver the message and measure the results.

To see real life examples of "doing something different", read some of the Case Studies on our web site at www.baberweb.com/casestudies.htm.

Whether it's using Cross Media, improving your web site, creating a strong Social Media plan or using technology in creative ways, when companies learn what to do and they see improved results, they know that doing something different was the smart thing to do.

Mike Baber

5 Reasons to Use Variable Data

Every time you communicate with your target audience you need to maximize the impact of your communication.  Using Variable Data Printing is a unique way to make a connection with your target audience.  It can be a simple as using their name or as complex as sending the same direct mail piece with different photos and messages based on who will receive it.  For example, if you're sending out postcards and one recipient is a young mother, her postcard would have a picture of a young family with a message designed to speak directly to the needs and concerns of a young mother.  Another postcard in the same mailing might go to a single, middle age man.  The picture and message for the young mother would probably not hit home with him, but a picture and message that targets him would.  It's just that simple.  With today's technology combined with the data you already have in your database, the possibilities are unlimited.

Here are the top 5 reasons to use Variable Data in your next campaign:

• Higher Response Rates

Creating a message that is personalized to speak directly to your target is proven to generate a better response rate than sending a generic or "static" message.  When a personalized piece is received, the message is relevant to the recipient since it has been designed to gain and hold their interest.

• Build Connection

Personalization, whether by using a recipient's name or by using pictures or information about the recipient, shows them that you know who they are. You know what they like. You know what they care about. By putting forth the time and effort to speak to them in a personal manner, you let them know that you are listening to them.

• Test Messages (and offers)

Variable data is perfect for trying different messages and offers to see which one works best.  If you want to try a new idea, just pick a small sample of recipients and send them a special message to see what results you get.  This minimizes any risk, but allows you to reap the rewards if it works.

• Maximize Marketing Budget

Marketing budgets are beginning to loosen up for many, but every dollar still counts.  If you already have information about your target audience and are already planning a mail or email campaign, why not go one step further and use your data to make the piece highly relevant and highly targeted.

• Increase ROI

ROI means Return On Investment.  Variable data allows you to deliver a "one-to-one" message. Instead of sending a generic message to a broad audience, you send a message that makes a direct connection with the recipient. This direct connections peaks their interest which leads to them responding.  The more responses you receive, the higher the opportunity to increase your ROI.  And that's the bottom line for determining the success of any Direct Marketing Campaign.

Denise Ellison

Email or Mail?

Seems like a simple question, right?  But there are a lot of different answers to this question.


Merits of Each

• The best thing about email is the low expense.  You can send 5,000 emails to your list for a little as $50 which is considerably lower than using mail.
• The best thing about mail is the response rate.  It routinely outperforms email in solo campaigns tested against each other. Another benefit with mail is the flexibility of design and package.  You can put hundreds of different kinds of packages in the mail system, from postcards to letters to 3-D mailings.

Complexity
Anyone can create an email and send it, as opposed to mail where you really need the experts to prepare it to get the lowest postage rate possible.  Email and mail have both proven to be quite complex in the know-how it takes to make them truly effective.


Flexibility
Emails are static. You can use the names of the recipients in the email but basically, you're sending the same email to the whole audience - same headlines, same pictures, etc. Direct mail can use a technique called Variable Data Printing to create a unique mailer for each recipient based on information in your database.  Go to baberweb.com and look at the first case study under insurance (Insurance-Disability) and you'll get an idea of what you can do with variable data when you have just age and gender information.


Customer's Choice
You should give your customers the choice when it comes to how you communicate with them. They should have the choice to receive email or mail from you and you should be prepared to use both methods of delivery.  Baber Direct Marketing can give you more information on how to give your customers the choice and let them know how much you appreciate them by asking which they would prefer.


The Final Answer . . .
Why not both?  Cross Media using email and mail (or any other direct channel) can increase response by as much as 35% when compared to email alone or mail alone according to a study by InfoTrends.  I would hate to have to use either one by itself to meet my clients' goals.  Together, they are the final answer to a lot of complex questions about how to market these days.


Mike Baber

Hand Delivery

I recently had someone ask me if I would print something that would be hand delivered.  She asked because she knew we did a lot of direct mail and this wouldn't go in the mail.  It was a flyer that she intended to put in people's doors or in their hands.  I told her absolutely.


I consider hand delivery to be one of the best ways to connect with a customer or prospect.  And it is absolutely a form of Direct Marketing.  Let's say you want to get something in the hands of consumers (as opposed to businesses). First, you have to pick a neighborhood to go to.  You'll pick that neighborhood based on what you know about your current customers or based on the kind of customer you want to start doing business with.  That's what you do when you order a mailing list.  You target certain Zip Codes.  You're actually doing something a little better than targeting a whole Zip Code.  With hand delivery you're targeting a neighborhood within a Zip Code.


The best thing about hand delivery is that it gives you the chance to actually talk to the consumer face to face and more importantly, for the consumer to talk to you.  No other channel of delivery in Direct Marketing does that.  Having a 1 to 1 conversation on the phone with someone is great.  Having a 1 to 1 conversation with someone in person is even better. 


Another one of our customers in in the lawn care and landscaping business.  He uses door hangers.  And he does it mainly because he gets to meet people and listen to what they have to say about their lawn care.  It's his way to connect.


Baber Direct has six different ways of delivering your messages to your clients and prospects.  Direct mail is only one.

• Email Marketing
• Personalized Web Sites
• Social Media
• Texting
• Telemarketing

Go to baberweb.com and click on Services to read more about all of these channels of delivery.


Mike Baber

Benchmarks

The most consistent challenge I have as a marketer is obtaining reliable information from new clients on the results of previous marketing campaigns. When I ask a new client about how well a particular mailer or email deployment or telemarketing campaign worked, the answer is usually along the lines of “didn’t do too good” or “it increased traffic a little” or “we had more people calling in than usual”. I rarely get a quantitative answer like “65 people brought the postcard in and 37 of them bought resulting in sales of $16,500”. That last answer is what we need to create a benchmark for a new client. A benchmark is something we use to measure our Direct Marketing campaigns against. When we establish a benchmark, Baber tries to create a campaign that will outperform it. Then, we continue to try to create better and better Direct Marketing campaigns.  If a client simply does not have the information necessary to create a benchmark, then the results from our own campaign become the benchmark. When I make a proposal to a new client, it will contain information about how to track response and I do my best to get the information. It takes some discussion with the client to find a way to do it. Everybody’s operation is different and we have to find a way to make it work in each operation. I’ll recommend delaying an email deployment or mailer if I know the client is not set up to track the results. Sometimes it takes a culture change within the organization to make sure they get the information I need. But once new clients see how important it is, they’re eager to get the information I need to analyze the results of a Direct Marketing campaign. Mike Baber