5 Tips for Successful Direct Marketing

One of the key ingredient to a successful mailing campaign is targeting. Proper targeting of your direct mail will allow for your mail marketing campaigns to connect with people that are more likely to respond to your offer. Targeting your advertising mail does take a little extra up front effort, but when done correctly; it pays dividends with higher response rates.

The tips noted below will assist you in defining the right target audience for your mail marketing campaigns:

1. IDENTIFY IMPORTANT CUSTOMER GROUPS for your Mailing Campaigns:

• This can be achieved by simply adding a segment code to each customer address within your records. Find your best segments by comparing customer sales by segment.

2. CREATE TARGET GROUPS OF SIMILAR SEGMENTS:

• Merge similar customer segments together to create 4-8 target groups.
• Analyze each group by: Demographics, Geography and Media preferences. If at all possible, see if you can define their characteristics even further.

3. SEARCH FOR KEY PROSPECTIVE CUSTOMERS WITHIN THE EXISITING CUSTOMER DATABASE AND TARGET MARKETS:

• Find geographic clusters of top customers, their neighbourhood may hold valuable new customers.
• Look for untapped area’s that share similar demographics/lifestyles.

4. CREATE SEGEMENTED MARKETING THAT APPEALS TO DIFFERENT CUSTOMER LIFESTYLE GROUPS:

• Develop messaging that appeals to your individual target groups. Appeal to what matters most to each segment.

5. TRACK EFFECTIVENESS AND ADJUST YOUR STRATEGY TO IMPROVE RESULTS:

• Track and measure results, this will allow you to better predict future behaviour and refine the target market accordingly.
• Tracking will also allow you to quantify your efforts resulting in a higher and more accurate ROI

Source: Canada Post Partner Newsletter Published July 18, 2014

Proper targeting, teamed up with our print and mail services will result in greater success! Remember, Direct Marketing is personal, interactive and Fun!