Build Your Own Direct Mail Marketing Campaign

Earning new business can be a confusing process for small companies, but direct mail marketing campaigns can be easy and effective no matter what your industry is. The simple steps of your campaign will include picking your target audience, choosing and designing a mailer, and then printing and delivering the results. By taking advantage of the experience and knowledge of a professional each step of the way, you’ll have the best chance of reaching your marketing goals.

Understand and Target Your Customers

Whether you sell unique craft items or valuable home services, there are likely to be specific demographics most likely to buy what you’re selling. If you have existing customers, you can study them to find out who those people are. If you’re just starting out, professionals at a direct mail marketing service company like Caldwell can help you pick a target audience that’s most likely to respond to your campaign based on previous client information.

Pick and Create Your Mailer

There are a lot of different types of mailers available, but you should choose a layout that matches your company’s unique style and vision. Maybe you’re launching a new product and want to show it off? A full page flyer with enticing descriptions and colorful pictures could be perfect. If you’re offering a limited discount, a short postcard that gets to the point can get people visiting your shop. Match your mailer with your company’s colors for consistent branding.

Printing and Delivery

Having a design and target audience isn’t much good if you can’t print and deliver your mailers. The most cost-effective way to get your campaign to your target audience is to take advantage of the resources of a full direct mail marketing service like Caldwell. We have high-tech printers for creating high-resolution quality prints, and we have the equipment and tools to send out a large amount of mailers at the most affordable rate. We can make your unique direct mail marketing campaign a success.

Direct Marketing That Won't Annoy Your Audience

Marketing your products and services in ways that won’t turn away your target audience can seem like a challenging task. On one side, you need to be aggressive enough to provoke customers to action without making them feel uncomfortable. On the other side, you want your brand to be engaging in a way that makes customers feel part of something special. This is a delicate balancing act that requires the right methods and practices to succeed, and direct marketing can be one of the most effective path to success.

Why Direct Marketing Matters

When it comes to advertising your products and services in a way that’s not annoying, direct marketing can help you reach a wide range of goals. Technology, like TV and the Internet, has made advertising to big groups of people a lot easier, but ads targeted at big parts of the population tend to be annoying to many demographics, wasting a lot of money. Direct mailers, on the other hand, target people you know are prone to purchasing your products or services, meaning you have a much bigger chance of not annoying your audience and creating sales. By avoiding spending money on advertising to people who may never want or need your business, you can focus your time and money on groups that have the biggest impact on your sales.

Avoiding the Junk Mail Pile

With a direct mailing campaign, you still have the potential to annoy your audience if you don’t design and print the right mailer. After all, we all get things in the mail we immediately throw away because we consider it junk. Whether you decide to send out a brochure, postcard, flyer, or pamphlet, using enticing colors, precise language, and a professional layout will be crucial. Bullet lists, bold letters, and colorful graphics are all good ways to grab the attention of the reader. Your mailer should also be printed on a high quality surface using a high-tech printer that has a good resolution.

If you’re not sure what direction to go in your direct marketing campaign, Caldwell can help.

10 Direct Mail Postcard Marketing Ideas

A direct mail postcard marketing campaign targeting previous or potential customers can improve your sales. Here are 10 ideas that may give you the inspiration you need to create a successful campaign:

1. Introductory postcards are perfect for new businesses who want to make their presence known. The introduction should very clearly state who, what, and where you are.

2. Coupon postcards can get potential customers walking through your door when they otherwise wouldn’t. If your target is a previous customer, you can use their history to create the perfect discount.

3. Happy birthday direct mail postcard marketing can show your previous customers that they’re valuable to your organization. They can include discounts, appointment reminders, or other unique information.

4. Weird postcards can grab the attention of people sifting through their mail in ways straight-up advertisements can’t. Let your creative and innovative side loose.

5. The Superhero postcard approach is popular because it’s effective. You can attract a lot of clients with a simple message that says, “We’re here to rescue you during this difficult time.”

6. A high quality photograph of your product, employees, or project results can help your brand stand out. Include simple contact information on the other side.

7. Testimonial postcards can prove that your company delivers results. This is especially valuable if your company works on large projects that require big investments.

8. Personalized postcards are far more likely to get an initial response from your targets than generic ones. Make your message look like it’s coming from a friend.

9. Announcing a special event or sale is the perfect opportunity for a postcard. Include the date, location, and special details to get the maximum effect.

10. Test your ideas and adapt them. You’ll create the perfect postcard after finding out what does and doesn’t work.

Direct Marketing Mailing Lists

Direct marketing helps all types of businesses engage with new and returning customers, but no direct marketing campaign can be effective without the right mailing list. Due to the costs involved with direct mailers, blanketing your state, city, or even neighborhood with mailers is most likely not effective. By targeting your advertising to people who are most likely to have a positive response, you can get a great return on your marketing investment. The key to creating highly effective direct marketing mailing lists is to know your customers.

Creating Your Own List:

If you’re part of an established business that already has a client base, you can get a ton of valuable information from those existing relationships. Let’s say you sell IT services to local business, and most of your clients have between 10-50 employees. By targeting other small businesses in the area of similar size, you’re likely to find clients who can benefit significantly from your help. At the same time, you’ll want to avoid businesses not within your niche that might ignore the services you have to offer. You can also target firms based on their place in the North American Industry Classification System.

Third Party Mailing Lists:

Direct mailing companies like Caldwell have helped a wide range of businesses of all sizes in creating direct marketing mailing lists to meet their needs. Industry professionals have learned what makes lists work, and they can share this knowledge with you. This can be an especially valuable service if your company is just starting out and doesn’t have an existing list of clients. Caldwell can start you out with a list of highly valuable targets. You can then tweak that list to fit your niche as you figure out who your best customers in the community are.

Direct Order Fulfillment

If you sell products on a website, over the phone, or through a mail catalog, high demand can make it very difficult to fill all your orders accurately and on time. Boxes can pile up in your office, order slips can get lost or switched, and urgent shipments can get confused for routine ones. A successful order fulfillment process requires good software, attentive management, and experience that your company may not yet have. Instead of struggling to do the job yourself, you can take advantage of the expertise and resources of a professional order fulfillment company, keeping you and your customers happy.

When you hire a company like Caldwell to fulfill your orders, you’ll quickly realize how simple things can be. All you have to do is give the fulfillment company a customer’s order and they’ll handle the rest. They’ll hold and track the inventory, pick the product according to the packing list, package the product, label the box, and send the shipment on its way. It’s really that easy. The advantages to using a professional direct order fulfillment service like this include:

• More time for advertising and marketing
• More office space for sales generation
• Consistent on time shipments
• Simpler and more streamlined process

Whether your company sells gourmet baked goods or specialized hardware, you can get the peace of mind you deserve knowing that your products will get where they need to go. An order fulfillment company like Caldwell will treat your products and customers as if they were their own. Tracking data, inventory levels, and any other information you need about your products will be available at a moment’s notice. To learn more about the direct order fulfillment services offered by Caldwell, give us a call today.

Mail Marketing Companies: How Can They Help Me

Direct mail is one of the most effective ways for companies and organizations to generate leads and maintain quality relationships with existing clients. If you want your business or non profit to benefit from direct mail, mail marketing companies can help you with the process from design to delivery. When you pick a company with experience and a proven track record, you can see an amazing return on your investment.

Save Time and Improve Productivity

If you've tried to print and mail your own materials from your own office before, you realize how time consuming and labor intensive the process can be. Trips to the print shop, creating labels, applying postage, sorting addresses, and managing boxes of materials are all headache inducing activities. Mail marketing companies can handle all this work for you, and since their operations are specifically designed for the process, they can do so more quickly and at a cheaper cost than you every could.

Create More Effective Mailers

There's no doubt your organization has a lot of brain power when it comes to marketing, but the experts at mail marketing companies like Caldwell have years of experience seeing what does and doesn't work. With your company's knowledge and the experience of a direct mailing company, you can design and deliver messages that connect with your audience and encourage them to follow your call to action.

Increase Your Return on Investment

With technology now dominating spending in many marketing departments, many organizations are surprised at the return they get on their direct mail marketing campaigns. Professionals at the best mail marketing companies know how to help organizations like yours with cost-effective direct mailers that produce results that you may not see with email, pay-per-click, and other popular digital strategies.

Whether your goal is to get more votes or reconnect with past donors, mail marketing companies can help you accomplish your objectives by providing end-to-end service. Give us a call at Caldwell today to start work on your next direct mail campaign.

What is Direct Mail Service?

If your company or organization needs to send real mail for a campaign but you don't have the resources to print, package, or send the material yourself, it may be time to take advantage of direct mail service. When you let a professional handle your printing and mailing needs, you can make sure your message gets our there while you focus on more important activities related to your organization. At Caldwell, our job is to help you fulfill all your direct mailing needs from concept to delivery.

Targeting Your Audience

Direct mail service starts with a simple question, "Who do you want to send your message to?" You may already have the answer to this question, but if you don't, we can help you create a list of addresses that will be receptive to your messaging. The best audience for your mailers will depend on which goals you have for your organization. We have direct mail experts who have experience with a wide range of businesses, non profits, and political campaigns.

Designing the Mailer

Once you've established a goal and know who you need to reach to meet that goal, it's time to design a mailer that appeals to your target audience. If you don't already have a design, a professional direct mail service company will help you create all the graphics and text needed to communicate your message effectively. There are countless design possibilities that can engage your audience.

Printing and Mailing

This is the part where your project starts coming to life. With our state-of-the-art printing technology, we can create high-quality brochures, leaflets, catalogs, coupons and a whole lot more. Once we print your materials, we'll handle the entire mailing process until it gets to the post office or other courier. We'll address every piece, apply the necessary postage, and send all the materials on their way. There's no need for you to keep piles of boxes filled with printed materials in your office or warehouse.

When you hire a company like Caldwell for direct mail service, you don't need to worry about any step of the process. We can tailor our services to meet your specific requirements and expectations. Call us today for more information.