6 Ways to Improve Your Response Rates with Direct Mail Postcards

Posted on by jtredway

6 Ways to Improve Your Response Rates with Direct Mail Postcards

Why give up something that has clearly worked for centuries? Postcards have been around for many years, and many a direct marketer has found success using them.

Still, that doesn’t mean copy/paste is allowed. Each direct mail postcard needs to be unique and optimized in order to get the best results. This requires constant tinkering with your postcard marketing program.

Of course, some strategies have simply shown themselves better and more effective. Here are six ways to boost your direct marketing response rates and get the best ROI:

  1. Don’t be afraid of the big idea.

Make an offer to your customers. Motivate them to action. The trick is not to have just a nice looking postcard, but to offer some value to people.

Before you start writing and designing your direct mail postcard, think first why are you doing it. What is your big idea, the thing that the postcard is supposed to represent?

  1. Approach the right customer

Nothing spells disaster for your direct marketing campaign going for the wrong customer. You can’t use a broad range here and hope to hit something. You need to focus on your target audience. Because of this, you will first need to “mark” your ideal customers, and have them in your direct mail list.

  1. Draw attention, but be clear

When writing a direct mail postcard you need to pull the reader in with a good headline. These days, people tend to “erect walls” around them every time they see a postcard. But just every so often, they’ll be interested enough for you to slip in your direct mail offer. That’s the power of a great, engaging headline.

However, while a good headline can open doors for you, a poorly written body will slam them forever. Don’t expect your customers to know what you are talking about. Instead, be clear and concise. You only have one attempt. If you don’t get it right, your postcard will get a free trip to the trash bin.

  1. One idea per postcard

You have only so much space to use for a direct mail postcard, so use it well. Don’t try to cram several products or ideas in to it. Instead, limit the postcard to just one topic. This is way more likely to get you a response.

  1. Make a strong CTA

Without a call to action, you might as well not have bothered. However, not every CTA will work. The call to action is very important and it needs to be both strong and realistic.

Make sure the CTA is clear and that customers have an easy way to respond. If you want your customers to call you, give them a toll-free 800 number. If you want them to use your website, make sure it’s easy to remember and doesn’t have a lot of complex characters.

The less your potential customer has to do, the more likely he or she will buy from you.

  1. Track and test your results

What works for one direct marketer, may not work for another. Even if they are in the same industry and sell to the same audience.

Always test your message and measure your results. All the rules we talked about earlier will finish about 75 percent of the job. To get past the other 25 percent, you need to test your direct mail strategy over and over again.

 

 

 

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