Brand building is one of the key components of running a successful small business. When customers become familiar with a company’s name and mission, it is easier for them to trust the brand’s products and solutions.
- Small Business Direct Mail
- Business To Business Direct Mail Marketing
- Business To Business Direct Mail Marketing Company
If you sit in a position where your business can benefit from a direct mail campaign, then take advantage of the opportunity by creating content that will stand out in the mailbox. Putting a brochure or a flyer directly in a potential customer’s hands will help them distinguish your brand from the rest without you having to break the bank.
To build such a brand, you need to employ direct marketing that has an intention. To be effective, start considering how to utilize direct marketing to your advantage.
How to improve your business
If you want to use a direct marketing campaign for your business, then the best way to get started is to determine your value statement.
- Remember that direct mail is clearly different than just reading a newspaper ad or switching through television channels. Direct mail is putting your information right into the hands of the consumer! The average response rates of direct mail is 8.8% to consumer mailings and 8.4% to business-to-business.
- These days, the marketing world is largely digital. But when done right, direct mail marketing can work with your other channels and make your business stand out. What is direct mail marketing? Direct mail marketing is any physical correspondence you send to customers in the hopes of getting them to patronize your business.
- Direct Mail Cuts Through the Clutter. People aren’t as inundated with direct mail as they are with pop.
According to Process Street, a value statement is “a message which conveys the values and priorities of the company, organization or team it represents. This lets your customers and staff know what’s important to your business and the kind of culture it has.”
Not only does this build trust, but it also provides a mission to your operations and a core value to show to your audience. Once you have your value statement, you can then focus on how it can be delivered to potential customers.
Benefits of a direct mail campaign
Perhaps the most overlooked form of direct marketing comes from using direct mail. According to a recent survey from PFL, “more than 8 in 10 (83%) marketers report good or very good ROI when direct mail is fully integrated into the multichannel campaign mix (versus only 51% without direct mail).“
The biggest benefit of direct mail comes from its availability to recipients. Instead of a spam email that won’t even be seen by the target audience member, direct mail goes right to a person’s mailbox. This means that the materials are in their home and available to other household members.
PFL goes on to say that, “Marketers agree that adding direct mail to the multichannel marketing mix improves overall campaign performance, with half (52%) reporting it delivers a moderate to major improvement. That number jumps significantly when direct mail is personalized and tightly integrated into the channel mix, with 89% of respondents saying it delivers a moderate to major improvement to response rates.”
The advantage of direct mail continue when it comes to small businesses as well. According to Chron, “Direct-mail advertising is cost effective. Companies can easily design colorful or eye-appealing brochures with their computers and desktop software and have thousands of copies printed affordably by a print vendor.”
If you sit in a position where your business can benefit from a direct mail campaign, then take advantage of the opportunity by creating content that will stand out in the mailbox. Putting a brochure or a flyer directly in a potential customer’s hands will help them distinguish your brand from the rest without you having to break the bank.
Want to print materials for an effective direct marketing campaign? See how easy it is with Mimeo.
Watch this video for tips and tricks on ordering and shipping your direct marketing. We show you how to use Mimeo print on-demand for flyers, brochure, catalogs, and posters.
Why sign up for a free Mimeo account
Mimeo was created to give people back time. Customers can upload content to their digital library and organize files by folders. Want a hardcopy printed? Build, proof, and ship in a few minutes. Content can even be shared with varying levels of permissions to other Mimeo users. No order minimums, no commitments, 24/7 support!
You can place a print order for delivery to hundreds of locations with a single click. Instead of hundreds of emails, easily view and map the status of each shipment. What would have once been a massive undertaking is now organized in one screen.
Click around a free account and start organizing your content, regardless if it’s a single poster or 1,000 different corporate brochures varying by geographic region or brand.
Now cross a print project off of your to do list!
Here are 47 creative direct mail examples to inspire your next marketing campaign.
Firstly, Mercedes cleverly use the flap of the envelope to demonstrate the convertible to stand out in the mail.
The shock and empathy used in this example is a questionable strategy, but consider using an emotional hook (fear, guilt, jealousy, greed etc.) to get the audience’s attention and keep them engaged.
KitKat created a fake mail slip for forgotten post to emulate the royal mail missed delivery letter which is left in the letterbox when you miss deliveries. Dropbox folder can only be shared as a link account. This is funny but also effective in grabbing the attention of the reader people’s brains have been wired to associate these slips as being important.
Skoda added a penny to their postcard which invokes curiosity and draws attention because of how unusually it is. There are many ways to invoke curiosity effectively.
This hilarious marketing postcard for dental implants combines natural human impulse and comedy gold to get the attention of the reader. Using humour is a great way to build your brand and have your message retained and shared on social media.
Use jokes, puns, and try to come up with something original and clever like Neopost.
Use cut-outs to stand out and show off your brand
This borders on gorilla marketing, but what kind of materials could you be using, what ways can you use physical materials for people to engage with you in person?
The economist balloons send through the post grow the brain when inflated. A metaphor for subscribing to their magazine.
This Greenpeace glove demonstrates cleaning the waste with the iconic Greenpeace coloured glove. This example shows how being different and standing out will create a huge and lasting impression on whoever receives this.
Often marketers will use size to send oversized or large post. For the smart car the opposite was used, to show how small and nimble the car is for cities, being smaller can also help you stand out.
It’s not just the message which matters, the timing is important too. Send postcards on people’s birthdays or special occasions.
Create direct mail as an experience. BMW does a fantastic job with their mailers and create a luxury experience.
Make your marketing useful, one of the advantages of physical post is you have a much bigger range of things you can offer your audience to provide value beyond information.
Get creative with your envelopes. Try combining the exterior with the interior of the mailer.
What gets people attention more than cold hard cash? This has been done many times with a lot of success. Even including a peak of a fake 1 dollar note inside an envelope always gets the reader’s attention. Just make sure you can relate it to your messaging or brand. Otherwise the reader will feel tricked.
Fold outs and cute animals.
When people receive letters, they are often important. Make sure you give something of value in your message.
When people interact with your mail, they are more likely to remember your message and act on it longer. It’s also more likely to be shared within the household or on social media.
Direct mail doesn’t have to be paper, you can send anything.
Even an emergency box. Would you pay attention if you saw this in the post?
This in an old one, but the technique is good. Verizon cut holes in their mailer to demonstrate how you’d use their phone.
The interactive fish postcard.
The receiver of the gingerbread mailbox, is first delighted, and then curious as to why the foot is missing.
Google maps printed on the envelope to show directions or relay information.
Another incredibly creative example of humour in direct mail.
Send a balloon in a box.
Use origami on your mailing will make your post much more fun and interactive, especially if your product is aimed at households with children.
You’ll notice that interactivity is a common theme in some of these examples. That’s because it’s effective at drawing attention and being retained in memory.
HelloFresh personalise the messages to each person. Think about how you can use personalisation in your post.
The matchbox mailer:
Use fold outs to create a journey and tell a story.
Humans react more to things which are unusual and haven’t been seen before. Think about how you can do the same.
This example is to promote Macbeth at a Theatre.
Funny “miss-fortune” cookies ?
Having your message retained in the household means it will increase the chance of it being auctioned. Create something of value to your audience and encourage them to keep it, as was done well with these discount tickets.
Small Business Direct Mail
If you send products to your customers, think about how you can incorporate direct mail principals into your packaging.
This one plays on the expression “Peanut butter and jelly”
There is no limit to the number of shapes you can use for your mailings.
Origami is an effective way to be different and fun.
Remember when you were a kid, and in school you’d have popup books that you’d spend hours reading and experiencing. They would literally bring your stories to life. Well the same thing works for your mail, look at how Ikea have taken this principal for their marketing.
Bright coloured postcards stand out on the doormat
Check out this DIY Cycle helmet
Papa john – masters of direct mail, have send physical paper versions of their pizzas
Business To Business Direct Mail Marketing
Make your mail seem personal and direct. People don’t receive as much mail as they used to and get excited and look favourably on mail which is humanised.
If you can send it in the post, it’s direct mail.
This postcard has instructions to run it under water, and when you do the message shows.
Business To Business Direct Mail Marketing Company
Running a direct mail campaign can be time consuming, but there is a lot of opportunity in marketing with physical post because it’s much easier to stand out and be noticed compared to digital clutter.
With Postary sending physical post to your customers is now as easy as sending emails. You can design and send beautiful personalised postcards directly to your contacts. Visit https://postary.com to get started today.
For tips on designing postcard marketing campaigns with direct mail, read the essential tips: Essential postcard marketing tips