Write The Perfect Direct Mail Letter
Like any advertising, for direct mail to be successful it has to stand out from the crowd and from the millions of other letters dropping through letterboxes every year. Not only that, but the message must be compelling, fresh, motivating, and relevant.
Creativity
Whatever the message you want to give, creativity is required to ensure it is noticed. Aspects of creativity that can help to get your mail shot noticed are:
- design
- colour
- use of humour, even
- fear...
A creative brief attempts to deliver on these and direct the look and feel of the pack.
The proposition
The most important part of your brief is the proposition which needs to be simple, clear and single minded:
- Why do they need your product or service?
- What feature will the customer remember?
- How does your product/ service improve their life or job?
The message
The right proposition will make customers take notice of your advertising and desire your product or service.
Don't fall into the common trap of confusing features with benefits - the fact that List-Logic offer advice on which direct marketing list is best for you is one of our features. But the fact that our services save you time and money plus increase your response rates and profitability are the benefits...
The benefit is the key to building desire with your customers by clearly explaining how their personal or work life will be improved and enhanced by your product or service.
When considering your propostiion, remember to::
- Keep it simple
- Keep it short
- Stress the benefits
- Talk about your reader, not yourself
- Keep it legal, decent and honest
The call to action
A great direct mail letter will build desire in your audience but achieve nothing without a clear response mechanism. Having 'sold' your product or service to the reader, you also need to provide them with very clear instructions on how they can get more information or make their purchase.
Provide all contact methods on the letter but make them simple to read and highly visible.You may also want to incentivise a certain type of response that is more efficient or cheaper for you to handle. For example, if you don't have the resources to take hundreds of telephone enquiries you may want to include a prepaid return envelope with response form or a discount code for entering on internet orders.
Whatever you do, make the response mechanisms:
- clear
- convenient
- flexible
and make sure that you are able to service them all efficiently and quickly.