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Tips for Delivering a Successful Direct Mail Campaign to Your Target Audience

In the marketing world today, there are hundreds of ways to reach out to your customers. But which method allows you to not only reach out but hand deliver your company’s ads and messaging? Direct mail.

Direct mail not only allows you to hand deliver your messaging to your target audience, but it offers a higher return on investment because it’s being delivered to the right person. With direct mail you can select your target audience from past customers to prospecting “look alike” consumers and develop a wider customer base through targeted messaging and brand awareness.

To help you get started on your next direct mail campaign, here are some tips for selecting the right audience and delivering the right message to them.

Know your audience

You need to know exactly who your audience is and then take it one step further. The goal for direct mail is to find the niche audience within your target audience that would benefit and want to receive your mailer. To start, take a look at the demographics of your audience including location, income, gender, and age. Once you’ve formed this list, cut the list down to a more targeted list by analyzing customer’s recent purchases, lifestyle habits, and even magazine subscriptions. This information will provide more in depth knowledge of what your consumers like and their purchasing habits.

How do you form this list you might ask? Luckily, there is an abundant amount of mailer information out there for you to explore. Some top mailing list providers we recommend include:

  • Nielsen- Prizm
  • NetProspex
  • Experian

Deliver messaging that resonates with your audience

To resonate with your niche audience, put yourself in their shoes and get creative with messaging that would attract them. You should also use the large amount of data you obtained about your mailers to your advantage. Did you find out that most of the audience on your mailing list are food and wine connoisseurs? Invite them to a wine and cheese night at your company that will unveil your newest products. This will align their interests with yours so they will interested in finding out more about your company and take the next step in visiting your store.

Create a mailing list rotation

While direct mail is useful in reaching your target audience, the last thing you want to do is oversaturate them with mail. Develop a rotating mailing list to ensure you are hitting the right people, the right amount of times. For example, we’ve divided the 3 audiences we want to reach into 3 tiers:

  • Tier I: Select the best 1-3 zip codes around each store location to target
  • Tier II: Select previous customers
  • Tier III: Select mailers from your targeted mailing list

Cross-reference these tiers to ensure you are not duplicating mailers and rotate the frequency. A good rule of thumb for frequency would be to send one mailer every three months.