Direct mail has become a great avenue of communication between vendors and their prospective clients, however since it is so powerful it is being greatly misused. The outcome is "junk mail." It is getting to the point that most of us hate the trip to the mail box and the time we have to spend separating "junk" from "jewel." Sowhat is the answer? Abandon direct mail? No! Make it work for you!
Here are some simple guidelines that if properly used can greatly increase the value of your direct mail.
1: To whom do I direct my mailing?
Develop your own database of customers. Find the people who have a relationship with you. Know who these people are and what they like. This database of customers can then be increased in time by adding your own clientele, or you can use this database while you are generating your own customer base. Periodically purge the worthless names and use this as the basis of your direct mail.
You say it takes years to develop a customer base. Not so! You know who your customers are; hire a low-cost part time employee to enter data that you've gathered, or go ahead and buy a database from a reputable company (there are many presented on the internet). Send your direct mail piece, document who responded and then clean the database according to the response. Make sure that the direct mail company you hire will provide you with a disc of this data so that you can keep, maintain and generate further direct mail.
2. What do I send?
Now that you have your database, what should you send? First ask yourself what you are trying to communicate to this client. In your letter, be precise about what you convey. Make it short and sweet. Remember that people don't have much time. If you need to, get someone with experience to write the letter for you. Ask yourself, "If I got an offer of this sort would it be exciting to me?" Make it FUN.
Make sure that in your letter you convey a sense of urgency (rebates end) and a reason why the customer needs to respond (a giveaway of some sort for coming in).
DON'T send a generic letter. "Dear Valued Customer" letters do not draw response. If the customer is so valued, then how come you don't know his name? Personalize your direct mail to the customer, meaning that the letter should include that customer's name (Dear Mr. Jones). If you have a good enough database you can even talk about specifics such as their old car being due for service or that it is now time for a new car. This is where your own database becomes very valuable, since it will have variables (type of vehicle, date of last purchase or even name of salesman) that purchased databases do not have.
If you can, use window envelopes since you do not want to send the wrong letter to the wrong customer. By this I mean that if you plan to generate personalized letters and you are sending five thousand of them, it will then be difficult to match each letter to its correct envelope. The more letters you send, the more you increase the chance of sending "Mr. Smith's" letter to "Mr. Jones." Also, printed envelopes and labeled envelopes are obviously direct mail and have an increased chance of not being opened.
Plan in advance. If you can, divide your database alphabetically and have your salesmen call the customers telling them that there is a special offer in the mail. This call can even be in the form of a message on the recorder.
Whatever you plan to do, it is great to send periodic mailings of some sort to your clients. Do your very best to try and generate a database of the people who have chosen and like to do business with you. If you follow these few simple steps you will be amazed at the results. Good luck!