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Piece Together a Direct Mail Campaign

Step 2: Design the Mailer

Direct mail design doesn’t have to win awards to produce results. “In many cases, ugly works better,” says Scott Swedenburg, CEO of Mail Enterprises, Birmingham, Ala., and author of a newsletter Direct Marketing Tips. “It may be a simple postcard, and one side may say ‘Buy one, Get one free,’ and that may be enough for the recipient to act.”

The key to good creative, which includes graphic design, copywriting and the choice of mailer, is matching it with the right list and offer, says Swedenburg: “I could have incredible creative and offer for a Porsche dealership, but if I mail a postcard to females who are more than 70 years old and have incomes less than $30,000, I’m not going to get any response.”

Distributors and printers who run direct mail campaigns should spend a considerable time questioning clients about whom they’re trying to reach, since their in-house lists may contain a range of customer types. “Let’s say you’re a bank. Some customers may bank with you because of convenience—your branch is the closet to their house. Some may come because you have the best rates, and others may come because they want the experience. When they come in, there’s coffee in the corner, and they can sit down and visit with their local banker,” says Swedenburg. “The more you know about your customer, the better you can tailor your direct mail creative toward their needs. If we know this person is driven by convenience, we may send an offer, for those select customers, that the bank is open an extra two hours.”

The creative aspect also depends on the campaign’s objectives. “Are you trying to make a sale? Are you trying to get a lead? Do you want recipients to go to your website?” asks Swedenburg. “A postcard may be a good approach if you’re just trying to get a lead. In other cases, you’ve got to tell a story, so a letter package might be best. It kind of depends on the action you want your prospect to take.”

For example, nonprofits that send fundraising letters want recipients to write a check and mail a donation. The letter should support that goal. “For fundraising, you want to present the problem. It has to be something the recipient sees is a problem,” says Swedenburg. “Then you present a solution and show how the recipient can be part of the solution. They’re the salvation. Then you spell out what you want them to do.” Many companies assume recipients know what to do and fail to complete this step. “There’ll be a phone number, but the piece won’t say ‘Come into our stores and get 50 percent off,’” says Swedenburg. Companies also fail to integrate a tracking method into their direct mail and aren’t able to adequately track response. “We want an appeal code, or if they come into the store, we want them to bring the postcard or bring the coupon,” he says.

Creative in Practice
There are few universal rules to increasing response rates, but Swedenburg follows a few principles that he’s found successful over time. “It’s always better to personalize if you can,” he says. “Say, ‘Dear Mr. Brown’ or whatever. If you can’t personalize the names, it’s okay to say ‘Dear Friend,’ but try to tie it closer to their interest. Let’s say it’s a Porsche dealership: It might be ‘Dear Sports Car Enthusiast.’ Let’s say it’s a mailing for Atlanta Braves apparel. It might be, ‘Dear Atlanta Braves Fan.”

He suggests avoiding colons in the salutation and always indenting paragraphs. “Always write like you’re writing to your mom,” he says. Another technique that Swedenburg uses is a P.S. note. “It’s one of the second or third things people read. The first is to look at their name and see if it was spelled correctly.”

Sometimes the design and writing take a back seat to the offer. Other times, creative plays a much larger role. “One way creative works extremely well is if you’re doing an involvement device,” says Swedenburg. “We did something with a humane society and asked people to return a happy holidays card to the animals. We also asked them to attach pictures of their pets. The response rate was 20 percent.”

This application illustrates one of the biggest changes in direct mail. “You have to be much more targeted in everything you do,” says Swedenburg. “People hate junk mail, but if my product or my organization is something of interest to this person, it’s no longer junk mail.”

—Andy Brown