Direct mail is a powerful marketing tool with fantastic targeting capabilities. You can reach people who you may never contact online. A successful direct mail campaign can produce stunning results. But your organization could take a huge morale and financial hit if a campaign fails. Direct mail campaigns that fail to covert mostly do so because of poor planning, bad timing, or a variety of other factors.
Here are 5 key reasons some direct mail marketing campaigns fail.
Targeting the Wrong Prospects
The most important rule for a successful direct mail campaign is targeting people who look most like your best members. Marketing to people who don’t have a strong interest in your mission is like throwing money away. Focus on building a list of your ideal prospects. That way, when you develop your message you will speak directly to the most interested prospects.
A Needle in a Haystack
People receive an abundance of mailers throughout the week. When your audience is sorting their mail, size matters. It’s cheap to send small postcards, but they are also more likely to be pushed aside by catalogs, coupon books, magazines, and even bills. You need to think big to ensure people don’t place your direct mail in the junk pile. Oversized postcards may be more pricey to print and mail, but they will get noticed, which helps improve your response rates.
Infrequent Marketing
Direct mail marketing isn’t a one and done approach. You can’t send one mailer and assume everyone remembers who you are and doesn’t need to hear from you again. Since you can’t predict when a prospect will feel the need for your organization, you need to mail with some frequency. Frequent marketing keeps you at the top of their mind and stimulates action. You can send different messages, various offers, or use varying formats. You can turn heads and make your brand more memorable.
It’s All About You
Don’t make your message only about you. The wrong message can result in a failed direct mail project. Try incorporating the audience and their goals into the message. Tell them what’s in it for them as well as how their actions will have measurable results. Otherwise, your message will come across as only an informative flyer, and the recipients won’t feel a calling toward helping your mission.
Sending Mail to Everyone
Saturation mailing can work for some direct mail campaigns, but most campaigns succeed better when you aren’t only targeting individuals based on their location. Put some analytics behind your list, and your campaign will work much better. A targeted direct mail list can provide you with better results overall.
How to Bounce Back After a Direct Mail Failure
Don’t give up on direct mail if you experience a failure. Many options can help your organization bounce back after a failed campaign. Here are two options that will help your next campaign.
Send Personalized Messages
You should create a personalized message for your audience because you can appeal to a person’s likes, needs, and interests. Your response rates will be much higher when you take a personalized approach because the reader feels more connected to your message. No one takes a generic message to heart. Adding a personal touch will help you increase membership and make happier members.
Test Your Messages
If you are afraid of failing again, A/B testing is a great option to test the waters before committing a large budget on a new direct mail campaign. You can experiment with different mailers and messages, usually two options, and see which mailers get the best response from your audience. Then, based on your findings, you can order a more significant production of the more successful campaign. If both tests don’t have great results, you can start over and run more tests until you find the best campaign.
Creating a Successful Direct Mail Campaign with Valtim
Valtim offers personalization methods that will significantly enhance your ability to have a successful direct mail marketing campaign. We provide a mail matching service that allows us to insert multiple personalized pieces into a single mail package. People enjoy receiving personalized mail packages, and your organization will benefit significantly by directly targeting your audience and providing personalized materials. We also help with A/B testing to experiment with different mailers and messages before committing to more massive production.
Contact Valtim to hear more about our personalization options.
