20 Reasons to Use Direct Mail

1. Target only those likely to buy
Advertising by its very nature is expensive. To reach a lot of people, you need to spend a lot of money. Direct mail, on the other hand, only targets the prospects you want to reach. Instead of pitching your product to a huge audience of potential buyers, you aim your sales message only at prospects most likely to buy.

2. Break through the clutter
Your ad can easily get lost among dozens of competing ads in a trade newspaper. Your sales message is also easily forgotten on radio or television unless you repeat it many times, which is expensive. But a simple letter, addressed to your prospect by name and arriving on her desk in the morning mail (which she must open), cuts through the media clutter and gets her attention.

3. Speak to prospectâ��s by name
Direct mail is also unique in that, unlike any other medium, it can be personalized (Dear Mrs. Smith) and customized to each reader ("As the owner of your own home, you know that..."). Show your prospects that you know them by name and know their needs and interests.

4. Measure your ROI
Direct mail is one of the best mediums for measuring the return on your marketing dollar. Include a business reply card in your mail-out, and count how many return to you in the mail. Then calculate how many of those replies generate a sales meeting or a sale. Now you know immediately - and exactly - how effective your mailing has been. Direct mail numbers never lie.

5. Improve results through testing
Because you can measure your direct mail results, you can also test your mailings. Test one package against another, one list against another, one offer against another, and you'll discover what works and what doesn't. That way you'll spend your marketing dollars where they are most effective (without relying on guess work or hunches).

6. Generate immediate results
General advertising builds brand awareness. Sales brochures inform. But a direct mail letter or postcard asks for action now: "Come to our event!" So if you need to generate sales leads, and don't have time to wait for your ad to appear in "IT Buyers Quarterly" send a direct mail letter and see the immediate response.

7. Make it an experience
Direct mail marketing is the only print medium that involves your prospects and clients in a hands-on kind of way. Your readers not only read your message, they experience it. They open it. Unfold it. Turn it over. Scratch on it with a nickel. Write on it. Mail part of it back to you (with their order). Your direct mail piece is a tactile and personal experience.

8. Keep your marketing private
No other medium lends itself to a one-on-one, intimate, private dialogue between you and your customer. With every piece of communication you send your customers, you draw them closer.

9. Be as creative as your imagination allows
With direct mail, you are not limited to the dimensions of a newspaper or magazine page, or the real estate on a billboard. You can be as large or small as you desire, and stand out!

10. Drive buyers to your website
Attract website visitors by mailing a simple, inexpensive postcard to generate curiosity and awareness. Ask a simple question and tell them they'll find the answer on your website.

11. Acquire new customers
Build your list of prospects, learn about your customers. Surveys are fun and people love sharing their opinions; offer an incentive to the first 100 who respond - and you've got 100 new prospects...or 200...or 300.

12. Strengthen relationships with your existing customers
Send a birthday card. Or an anniversary card (the anniversary of your customer's first purchase). Make sure they know you're there, open for business; keeping your business in the forefront of their minds with regular reminders of what you offer.

13. Qualify prospects before meeting with them
When a prospect responds to your lead generation sales letter, how will you know if the prospect is a qualified lead or not, one who will turn into a buyer, or one who will simply waste your time? By qualifying them before they respond. Direct mail lets you ask qualifying questions on your reply device that separates buyers from brochure collectors.

14. Increase sales with a freebie
Direct mail is the only medium that lets you hand your prospect's an incentive to purchase. When you include a relevant, attractive premium in your package, you increase your chances of landing a sale.

15. Generate business from past customers
Short of picking up the phone or paying them a visit, direct mail is the simplest and most cost-effective way to win back the business of customers you haven't seen for a while. It's non-aggressive and the friendliest way to say "hey, remember us?"

16. Prepare prospects for telephone follow-up
Direct mail is a great way to "warm up" prospects so that your cold call becomes a warm call.

17. Take your store to your buyers
Direct mail catalogs are a unique marketing tool that lets you take your entire store to your customer's home or place of business, making their shopping experience more convenient.

18. Identify affluent buyers
If you're selling a high-end product or service, direct mail is a cost effective way to gather names and addresses of qualified prospects by mailing prospects a letter that asks them to show their interest.

19. Reach every buyer by neighbourhood
When you need to reach consumers or businesses in a particular area, direct mail is the way to go. You cannot trust that they will all read the newspaper, or hear your commercial on the radio. But you can be sure - 100% sure - of reaching every single homeowner or business owner in a given geographical area with your postcard, newsletter, invitation or other direct mail piece.

20. Be direct
Unlike other forms of marketing communication, such as television commercials and magazine advertisements, direct mail gives you total control over the delivery of your message; it waits patiently until attention can be paid to it. When your prospect is heading to the mail box, their attention is..on the mail!