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4 Components of a Complete Direct Mail System

The goal of every direct mail marketing campaign is to generate leads and then convert as many of those leads as possible. In order to do that you need to construct a complete marketing system that leaves no lead behind. You also have to integrate print and online resources in order to convert the most leads. There are four essential components you must include in your marketing strategy if you want to construct a complete direct mail marketing system.

Let’s take a look at each one:

Component 1: Direct mail postcards cast your marketing net

Postcard marketing is a proven marketing method that consistently brings in results for those who use it. The key is to take advantage of targeted mailing lists in order to generate quality leads. These are prospects that already need your product or service, but just don’t know your company exists yet. For example, a pediatric dentist might get a targeted mailing list of households containing children of an appropriate age (say 2 to 17).

You shouldn’t only mail to raw prospects—those who haven’t contacted you—though. It’s important to also build your customer loyalty by marketing to your current customer base. The only way to build consistent and sustainable growth is by attracting new customers while at the same time strengthening the loyalty of every customer you bring into the fold.

Component 2: Mail tracking prepares you for impending success

Once your postcards are designed and mailed, you’ll need to stay on top of your mailing campaign and be prepared for the success it brings. The USPS offers a service that uses barcode technology to track your postcards all the way to your prospects’ mailboxes. This allows you to prepare your company in a cost-effective manner.

When your responses start pouring in, you may need an extra employee to help field calls or help out in your operations. However, it won’t be cost-effective to bring people in unless you know your cards have arrived in your prospects’ hands. With mail tracking you can make informed business decisions regarding your marketing.

Component 3: Online follow-up to build an integrated marketing system

The phone response your cards generate is just the beginning of your true marketing results. These days, 90% of your prospects will visit your website before they call your office. This means your online presence is critical to converting the most potential leads. Fortunately there are some great online resources at your disposal as a small business. The best of these, in my experience, is Google Remarketing.

Google can give you a web code to include in your website that tracks the activity of your website visitors. It can tell what your visitors do while on your site. Did they fill out a contact form? Did they complete a transaction? If they don’t interact with your site or give you any contact information, Google shows them targeted ads on any of the thousands of websites included in the Google Display Network. This includes high traffic sites like Dictionary.com, HGTV.com, and CNN.com. Google Remarketing then shows these ads until your online prospect returns to your site and becomes a customer. The great thing about it is it’s free unless a prospect clicks on your ad.

Component 4: Call tracking to enable continual improvement of your results

Now that your online prospects are being given automatic targeted follow-up, you need a way to make the most of your phone responses. Luckily, there’s a great resource at your disposal for this as well—call tracking, which allows you to use a unique phone number for each of your postcard campaigns. This number routes your call responses to your office while tracking how many responses each campaign is generating. This information allows you to experiment with design tweaks or different marketing messages in order to get the absolute best results possible. This technology also records these responses so you can analyze the quality of your reception process or sales tactics. Call tracking gives you the power to improve your results with every campaign you mail.

These are the four components that are essential for a complete direct mail marketing system. Implement all four and just watch how your lead generation and lead conversions soar.


Joy Gendusa is the owner and CEO of direct mail marketing firm PostcardMania. Joy began PostcardMania in 1998, with nothing but a phone and a computer. Find Joy on Google+.

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