Posted by Brian Berg Google+
One of the single most difficult tasks for small business owners can be acquiring new customers through a consumer or business mailing list. Many of us don’t come from a marketing background, making customer procurement a head scratching task for many. Direct mail marketing is a tried and tested way to get your company’s message into the hands (and heads) of customers that have a legitimate interest in your product or service. Here are some direct mail marketing tips to get you started on the road to generating leads and converting them into new customers!
Understand Your Target Audience
Successful direct mail marketing campaigns happen when businesses really understand their best customers. Knowing the customers' basic demographics, such as males 18 to 34 or females with children, is a start. However, a more complete understanding of your customer's profile like their shopping and purchasing behavior, their attitudes toward trends, products, marketing and media or their lifestyle habits help marketers become more effective. Knowing who to mail to and what your mail piece should say will help your campaign generate a high ROI.
Target Your Ideal Customer
Once you understand your customers you can use this information to build a targeted list of potential new leads. Targeted direct mailing lists can be more costly, than a res/occ list that saturates an area, but creates a better response rate of customers that are more likely to create repeat business.
The old formula for direct marketing success was mass marketing: "Mail to as many people as you can; someone has to be interested." In the former days of marketing this worked, but in a world where consumers choose which advertisements they want to see this thought process is no longer effective. Paper, printing and postage costs are always increasing and with so many mail pieces winding up in their audiences recycle bin, marketing have had to change their way of thinking. Why waste money mailing to everyone, when not everyone is interested or needs your product or service? To succeed in today’s world, marketers must target consumers through consumers and business mailing lists that will buy! This is the major difference between targeted marketing tactics and mass mailings. With less waste and more leads responding to your mailing, a targeted direct mail marketing campaign pinpoints your best leads.
To learn more about determining your ideal target audience, creating a profile of your best customer or selecting a targeted direct mail list, contact a member of the BB Direct sales team at (866) 501-6273.