Five Direct Mail Ideas to Stand Out

Direct mail response is on the rise. Helping your customers capture attention with their direct mail helps you grow. The increase in their ROI can be attributed to you. You become a partner, not just a printer and mailer. First, they need a mail piece that gets noticed. You can do that by making some suggestions. Not sure what you should say? Here are some suggestions.

5 ideas to get your customer’s direct mail campaign to stand out and get noticed:

1. Use color envelopes. Color is inviting and not used often enough. The envelope will be opened because it is unique. There are many standard colors available that do not drastically increase costs. Keep in mind some colors are not USPS approved.
2. Use stamps. There is a stamp for each postage class, use them. Indicia’s are the most common type of postage so be different.
3. Use larger pieces. You can use up to a 6.125 x 11.5 piece and still pay the lower postage rate. Take advantage of that. Larger pieces get noticed. If you are creating a booklet, the maximum size is 6 x 10.5.
4. Add fun taglines to your envelopes, get your recipients excited about what they are going to find in the envelope. Also known as teaser copy, taglines generate interest.
5. Target your message to the individual. The better targeted the message the more likely they are to respond. You can use variable data printing to really personalize your message and offer.

Ok so you helped them get noticed, now what? In most cases your customer will send you the list. Sometimes they ask to purchase potential prospects. The best prospects are the ones that are similar to their current customers. You can help them profile their current customer list to identify best prospects. Then segment the customers and prospects to identify the best offers for each segment.

The better targeted the offer, the more likely they are to make a purchase. Talking to your customers about the best way to segment their list to get a better response is key. Depending on what they sell, there may be many segments or just a couple. The number of segments is not as important as getting the right offer to the right person.

Make sure that your customer is focused on the consumer and what is in it for them. Do they have a clear call to action and provide benefits people get by responding? Help them utilize the power of direct mail. 54% of consumers keep an interesting piece of mail and refer to it later. Make sure the piece they keep is yours.

When trying a new design such as the 5 suggestions above, keep in mind that it is a good idea to have a control group to test against. That way you can see if the changes you made to the test group produced better results. Improving direct mail ROI is the goal. Testing helps you know what works best. Are you ready to get started?