Intro

Distributing your marketing direct into the hands of your target market can be a great thing to do. On a B2B level, choosing your targets and doing addressed campaigns can work a treat, it can also fail miserably. On a residential level depending on who you distribute with, what time of day and where you distribute to can also have a good impact or again it can fail miserably.

The rule for direct mail outs is - select your targets carefully, make the mail out speak to that niched market and if you are doing an unaddressed distribution deliver the mail at a time of day that all the other junk mail is NOT delivered at - so your mail doesn’t get bundled with the Supermarket junk and thrown in the bin before it even gets in the door.

Definition

Direct mail is the way in which we deliver printed marketing material direct into the letterboxes of our chosen target market.

Benefits

Direct mail does have benefits, although you do have to ensure that you think carefully about what you are sending out, that it is not too generic and actually has a call to action on the mailer, otherwise it will get thrown out.

Pros

• You are targeting your desired customers in a certain location.
• If you get your call to action right it can yield good results
• You can target a mass market in one distribution

Cons

• It can be a complete failure
• It can be an expensive mistake
• It may take more than one distribution to get results

How to Implement this into your Business

• Choose your target market
• Design your marketing material
• Select your distribution agent - use the external resources guide - see heading under Directory listings for a few suggestions
• Get your marketing material printed
• Have your marketing material delivered to the distributors
• Re check the instructions you have given the distributors and that they know what to do
• Check that the distribution happened
• Follow up any leads that come as a result of the direct mail campaign

Tips

• Ensure the message on your mailer speaks to the target market - use a copy writer and a graphic designer to help you
• Plan for more than one distribution to the same areas - being consistent pays off
• If you are offering a deal give it an expiry date - yes this does date your marketing but it also stops people coming in six months later with the flyer when your in-house deals have changed. If you are happy for your deals to be continuous this may not apply and in that case use percentages if you offer a discount and not actual prices.
• Make sure you put a disclaimer on the mailer that states that the offer is not to be used in conjunction with any other offer. Don't get caught out.
• Remember that discounting is not always best - it sells your company as cheap - so be careful how you word your copy.
• If you are doing an Un-addressed mail out to certain areas, to make sure you print the right amount of flyers, use the latest register from Australia Post to give you near enough numbers of homes and business PO boxes in the area. See our Australia Post Info page in Resources.
• Want as better way to send out addressed mail outs? There is a service called Bing mail which you can use to dramatically lower the cost and labour of sending out sales letters and brochures to a database, it effectively is an offsite print driver that you send your mail merged sales letter to, it prints it out, folds it and sends it by post to your database. It is cost effective, fast and accurate. You can even send them your brochures to include in your print job. www.bingmail.com.au