Whatever you’re selling, a direct mail campaign remains one of the most effective ways to communicate and market your products to your customers. However, in order to maximise sales, you need to have a clear understanding of who you’re selling to and why your product delivers on their needs, wants and expectations. Effective direct mail campaigns are never random but deliver targeted direct mail to a carefully identified audience.
Profile your customer
Start by evaluating your products and services and deciding who will benefit from their use. Next identify the characteristics of your perfect customer including their age, location, socioeconomic status and market sector. Now assess your current customer base to evaluate the characteristics of existing customers. In this way, you’ll begin to develop a clear, relevant and nuanced profile of your target audience.
Think about markets
Today we live in a world of personalised products and customer experiences, making it easier to gain referrals and build a strong reputation in smaller, niche markets. The next step in direct marketing to a target audience is to segment your markets by factors such as net worth, location or even market sectors. For example, if you create bespoke nursery furniture, you might focus on high net worth individuals who can afford and appreciate your custom-made products.
Target your audience
Knowing your customer and your niche market is only half the story, however. You must also target your audience with the most appropriate approach, one that delivers a clear and consistent message about your product with a strong call to action and incentive for buying. You’ll need access to data that tracks the results of customer engagement to deliver highly targeted and relevant direct marketing campaigns.
The customer journey
Finally, by mapping the entire customer journey you’ll have the tools you need to create a successful direct mail campaign. Understanding the customer journey allows you to understand your customer’s needs, wants and expectations and identify where they are in the buying process. This knowledge allows savvy direct mail companies to deliver campaigns that make a clear and timely offer that your customer will respond to.
Spend some time doing the groundwork, and you can deliver a direct mail campaign that is timely, appealing and designed to deliver a positive RoI.
DIRECT MAIL PLANNING GUIDE
To help you create a perfect direct mail marketing plan we’ve produced a handy FREE direct mail guide with details on the steps you need to take to create your own perfect catalogue.
You can download our guide here.
CALDERSTONE
We can assist you with the entire direct mail marketing process, right through from design work, to delivering the finished materials to your customers. You can find out more about the service we offer, right here.
And if you have any other questions, do not hesitate to contact our friendly customer services team.