Dean Rieck on Direct Mail Tools

I remain a big believer in direct mail.

If done well, it can certainly be far more effective than email marketing, the majority of which goes unread (if it’s not caught in the spam-filter first). And especially these days, when people aren’t so bombarded by direct mail as they used to be. (I know this is hard to believe, and I’m not basing this on anything other than intuition - but I’d bet anything that it’s true.)

Last week, Dean Rieck over on Marketing Profs had a good post on this topic, with a focus on inexpensive direct mail ideas that can yield good results.

First up for Dean is the sales letter, which he views as "one of the simplest and most effective direct-mail tools available." The goal of the sales letter is to get the recipient to ask your for more information, so he suggests keeping it simple - and offering something "free": brochure, demo, sample. He also thinks there should be a bounce-back card enclosed. BRC’s are, of course, a fail-safe way to gauge whether there’s interest in your offer (and whether your campaign is working), but I’m not sure if in this day and age it’s all that necessary. I’d be interested in hearing from anyone on whether BRC’s are effective or a "why bother." (Maybe I’m so immersed in tech that I can’t imagine not just driving people to the Web where, of course, you will have the promised freebie on the homepage or have a separate campaign landing page. Just make sure that the URL is not all that long.)

Dean also likes postcards as a lead generation tool, and I’m with him there. Easy, simple, inexpensive - and online print services like Vista and EasyPrint will print, stamp, and label them for you. The beauty of a postcard is that the recipient doesn’t have to open them to get your message - they can read them while standing over the wastebasket sorting through their mail. I’ve worked on a few low cost, reasonably effective campaigns that used postcards with an interesting image and caption on the top side - enough to get the person to flip the card over - and a brief message on the other side (with the offer/call to action). One interesting usage of postcards is to send a couple out prior to a trade show. Make an offer to those who show up at your booth with the postcard (which, ideally, should have some look-and-feel or thematic tie to your booth). It can work!

A simple flyer is another idea that Dean suggests, especially for local businesses. For Dean, "in a pile of over-designed ad mail, a simple flyer from a local business stands out. People are subjected to so many clever ads, they develop "ad blindness."" Dean has a point, but - unless the business is small and local - you really can’t get away with flyers, or it will make your look like your running a going out of business sale.

Invitations to an event are another option Dean lays out as a "way of presenting an offer that feels personal and important." He’s talking about an event that "requires getting people to a particular location". My observation here is that, unless you have an event that’s so compelling to the audience that wild horses wouldn’t prevent them from attending - something like "Warren Buffett will be giving away a million dollars to everyone who attends" - getting someone to get to a physical location is very demanding, and requires a lot of follow up on the part of sales/telemarketing. And even invites for virtual events - webinars - require a lot of reminders. In both cases - physical and virtual - you can expect a big drop off between people saying their attending and actual attendance. (Unless it’s Warren B with his check book….) Again, I’m filtering this through my experience in B2B tech. Maybe invites without a lot of reminding and nudging work better in the local business world.

Send it Special Delivery. Let’s face it, everyone opens the FedEx package. Of course, you need to reserve this for your A-list prospects because it’s so costly. But this investment can pay off. Dean’s special-d ideas include sending and information kit, video preso, or white paper - along with a personalized cover letter. He doesn’t mention it, but, in my book, that cover letter should say "I will call you", rather than just asking the recipient to contact you. The mailing is apt to be small, so sales can (and should) follow up with everyone on the list.

My variation on a theme here is a dimensional mailer. As with a FedEx delivery, everyone will open up a package if they think there’s something in it for them. (That inner child in all of us is just calling out, ‘present time, present time.’) The dimensional mailer doesn’t have to be 100% tied to your product. It can be current book on a pertinent issue, an analyst report, or just something fun (that, through your messaging, you can relate to your product). If there’s a goodie, people will remember you and know who you are when you place a follow-up call. Again, this is expensive, so you want to use this technique judiciously.

In any case, thank you, Dean, for reminder us marketers that the old-fashioned ways of marketing can and do still work.

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