By Amanda Gingras
Director of Account Services

In 1970, David Ogilvy published a book, Ogilvy on Advertising. In his book, Ogilvy talks about what a great medium direct mail was for some of his most successful account acquisitions – including his successful acquisition of the Mercedes-Benz account through a direct mail initiative. Ogilvy was an advocate of direct mail and even described it as, “Direct mail, my first love and secret weapon.”

It’s now almost 2010 and, although direct mail campaigns have proven to be successful in the past, does any of this hold true today, now that everybody’s mailboxes are inundated with direct mail pieces? Do people even look at direct mail? I never did, at least I never thought I did, until recently I found myself clipping a coupon I received for a buy-one-get-one-free offer. Progressive Grocer announced that coupon redemption rates are up 19% in 2009 compared to 2008. Direct mail has also proven to show a 1-3% return. Is this something we should turn our heads to now that we’re seeing very high returns with Internet Marketing?

Today, everybody’s talking about search engine marketing, social media, Facebook, Twitter and other essential, Inbound Marketing tactics. Hubspot reported that 37% of lead generation budgets, on average, are dedicated to Inbound Marketing. Inbound Marketing allows you to effectively reach your target prospects. You can even test marketing through A/B testing strategies. Why bet the farm on a particular message, call-to-action or creative design that you think will generate leads when you can quickly and easily A/B test all of your messaging, creative, call-to-actions and be certain you’re generating qualified leads?

Now that we’re leveraging these great tools online with Internet Marketing, does this mean we should disregard traditional, seemingly more expensive marketing mediums such as expensive tradeshows, traditional public relations and even direct mail? Absolutely not. Rather, we should leverage what we know with Internet Marketing to make our traditional marketing efforts even more successful, especially direct mail marketing.

By leveraging Internet Marketing, we can prove our messaging, creative and call-to-actions BEFORE sending out our direct mail campaigns, thus increasing the likeliness of effectiveness.

Here are some important direct mail tips to keep in mind as you craft your campaign:

• Post office regulations [http://www.usps.com/] – Make sure to double-check the post office regulations prior to sending out a postcard or letter to make sure you’re not violating any regulations. A reprint can be costly!
• Gold database – Make sure your database is solid. Without a database that targets the right people, with the correct contact information, it doesn’t matter how effective your messaging is.
• Test your messaging – Leverage Internet Marketing techniques to test as much of your direct mail piece as possible. Do A/B tests on the headline, subhead, image, call-to-action, offer, layout, etc.
• Don’t look like junk mail – If your envelope looks like junk mail, it is not likely going to be opened. Make sure the envelope you send your piece in has an “openability” appeal.
• What’s in it for me? (WIIFM) – It’s important that the recipient of the direct mail piece knows immediately, WIIFM? This will increase readability.
• Coupons – Make sure your offers are something you can stand behind. I recently saw a coupon for a FREE Papa John’s Three-Topping pizza, effective on one day, through online ordering. Coincidentally, on that same day, the online ordering for the locations offering the coupons was down, along with the phones.

Have an upcoming direct mail campaign? Call MicroArts, a creative agency.