Direct mail advertising is very different than online advertising.
With direct mail, you have to find or compile a list of people who will be a good fit for your offer. The people you mail may or may not be interested in your product or service. They’ve never asked for you to contact them.
Plus, to complicate matters, the cost of printing and postage can be significant, especially if you’re mailing a large list.
Online, you get a few clear advantages. You either market to people who’ve already given you permission to be marketed to; or you market to people who are searching for exactly what you have to offer.
And, as an added benefit, the cost to advertise online is usually lower than advertising with direct mail.
Before I ever start writing a word of sales copy, I want to know how the message I’m writing is going to be distributed.
Is it going to be sent via direct mail? Is it going to be published in a magazine or newspaper? Is it going to be posted on the Internet and advertised via Adwords? Is it going to be advertised via banner ads on targeted web sites? Etc.
The answers to these questions have a HUGE effect on how you should write your copy and how you should design your conversion process.
Fortunately, I’ve had the opportunity to help with both online and off-line direct mail advertising campaigns. Every experience teaches me something new: sometimes the lesson is obvious, other times it’s subtle.
There is one thing that all forms of advertising have in common. That is you must make sure that you are going after a market that 1) can be reached affordably and 2) has money to spend on your product or service.
If either of these two pieces is missing, you’re headed for swift and possibly devastating failure. (It always depends on how much money you’re spending up front, before you have any results.)
It seems this year I will be doing more work in the direct mail advertising field. I’m really looking forward to it because it seems that there’s something more “real” and gratifying about physical forms of advertising.
Certainly, every piece of mail a client pays to send is that much more accountable to results — a true test of skill and dedication.
-Ryan M. Healy
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About Ryan M. Healy
Ryan Healy is a direct response copywriter. Since 2002, he has worked with scores of clients, including BoostCTR, Alex Mandossian, Terry Dean, and Pulte Homes. He writes a popular blog about copywriting, advertising, and business growth, has been featured in publications like Feed Front magazine, and is a regular contributor to WordStream.com, BoostCTR.com, and MarketingForSuccess.com.
John Wanamaker once said, "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half." But thanks to technology, it's now easy to know which half of your advertising is working... and which half isn't. That's because LinkTrackr reveals the profitablity of ALL your advertising. Start Tracking Now! » |
{ 3 comments }
I use direct mail on a monthly basis to generate leads for my insurance business. The insurance direct mail program I use is consistent and it generates a steady stream of new business for my agency. It is important for my direct mail program that I use a reputable direct mail company based on trying so many with negative results. The company I work with is Influence Direct and they do an excellent job http://www.influencedirect.com/insurance-direct…
Ryan:
I love direct mail advertising too. My background is in magazine circulation management and database marketing for insurance.
I think that you can learn a lot from it and many of the same methods can be used in e-mail, mobile using coupon offers or social networking with Facebook or Twitter. The most successful programs use direct marketing in their methods since this has worked for publishers over the last 100 years.
Tim Little
publisher, MarketingListBroker [dot] com
Another important thing to remember when using direct mail is to make sure you have an idea of what the Long Term Value of a new customer is, and what is an acceptable cost to acquire these new customers is.
Some people new to direct marketing use direct mail one time and say it didn't work for them because the amount of initial sales from new customers didn't pay for the mailing. Yet if they figured in how much an average new customer would spend over the next year or years, they may find out that the effort was hugely successful.
This knowledge helps the copywriter too.
One thing many copywriters and direct mail creators find useful is the publication, Inside Direct Mail.
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