Direct mail is a cheap, easy and pretty effective way for a small business to draw in new customers or drum up business with established ones.

Small businesses may prefer to create the mailers themselves, for a medium to large business, you may prefer to hire a direct-mail agency or a print broker. For a mail to be successful, it must reach the right person, be read by that person and persuade that person to buy something or to receive a follow-up call from your company.

Getting to the right person.
It is crucial to get your message in front of the right person, otherwise your mailings will be much less effective. From the beginning:

* Who is your audience? Are you looking for new customers or hoping to create new business from your existing ones? What are their characteristics? The more you know about your audience the better when putting together a mailing list and creating a successful direct mail campaign.

* Start with a good mailing list. You will achieve a much higher success rate if your mailing list is of a good quality. That means you must know that the contacts on the list have a need or desire for your product or service. If they don’t have this, then they have to be able to develop it! The addresses and names must be accurate, up to date and going to the decision maker. There are commercially available lists of contacts, from people like magazine publishers, membership directories of trade, special interest, or local organizations, public records and even the phone book.

* Check the list! Eliminate any duplicated names, and check for spelling mistakes and incorrect postcodes. Whether you use your own list or buy one, be sure it’s been updated recently. The Post Office has various services (some free) to help you check your lists.

A poorly-targeted list is a costly mistake in a direct mail campaign. Bad copywriting is another certain way to lose your leads.

Your Direct Mail Piece
A good mailing list is just the first step. The look of your direct-mail piece, how it’s delivered and what it says are the other main factors that work together.

In general, the more personalised your mailing looks, the better the chance that your prospect will open and read it. For the most bespoke approach, this means first-class mail and envelopes are look hand addressed and stamped, not franked. It’s not necessary to go to such lengths, but if you can afford to send items First Class rather than bulk/second class mail, go for it. There are other ways to control costs by choosing a lighter weight paper or reducing the number of pieces you send.

Your prospect may not even want to open an envelope, if your message can fit on a postcard, send one. As well as saving money on postage, your message will get across to the receiver directly, not shielded by an envelope. Anyone else who handles the postcard will also access the message.

You need to ensure that you know what outcome you want from your mailing. Most likely you will want your customer to take some form of action. It must be very clear what action you want them to take and let them know what benefit they will receive from it. Even better, pitch them an offer they can’t refuse. Special offers — especially time-sensitive ones — can help get responses. E.g. “Save 10 percent on your next order if placed before May 3rd” tells customers they can save money if they act by a certain date. It’s easier to get people to respond by telephone than to post something back to you. If you need customers to return an order form or similar via mail, include an SAE.

Build your mailing campaign gradually. You will avoid costly mistakesby starting small and increasing mailings based on your success. Run a code for each special offer and promotion so you can discover which mailings work and which ones don’t. Ask your customers how they heard about your company, your promotion or your sale, and analyse the data. Use this information to tailor further mailings.