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Common direct mail campaign mistakes

Marketing isn't an exact science. An organization can send out a thousand promotional flyers, but if the advertisers behind the campaign aren't implementing the best available practices, their efforts could be wasted.

The following are a number of common direct mail mistakes many marketers are guilty of making:

Assuming direct mail is the same as broad advertising
Direct mail is not an advertising medium businesses should be using sporadically. One mass mailer isn't going to boost sales. The strategy was designed to act as a long-term solution, following a strict schedule that requires significant planning and discipline. Businesses hoping to include direct mail as a pillar of their broader marketing campaigns should understand that an initial mailer may lose money. It's not the easiest pill to swallow, but the effectiveness of mailed advertisements isn't likely to be apparent until after an organization has had time to refine its efforts. 

Not letting numbers dictate your direct mail strategy
It's a regular practice for larger companies to test not only the effectiveness of their direct mail campaigns, but that of every medium they use to advertise. Testing allows advertisers to understand which techniques are working and which aren't. With the information, these big businesses then make the necessary adjustments to ensure each campaign is progressing as efficiently as possible. However, according to Robert Bly, a marketing strategist, many business-to-business organizations tend to hold off on testing. There are however, few steps that should be incorporated improve your results, such as incorporating address hygiene to make sure that address correction is done.

Without regular evaluations of their own practices, companies are permitting their advertisers to maintain unchanging strategies even when they're failing to generate results. Companies that refrain from testing are losing money, as well as customers. But it's not a tough problem to solve. Testing direct mail is as easy as including an actionable item in the content, like a specific URL to visit or a QR code to scan. When a recipient goes to the specific webpage or use their smartphones to read the code, companies can record those numbers and get a better understanding of how effective their direct mail really is.

Addressing your mailer generically
Direct mail has the distinct benefit of coming in physical form, meaning that customers can see the colors, feel the stock, even smell the mail piece if the advertiser is extra creative. The point is that direct mail is largely customizable, and in a world of increasingly targeted advertisements, it's surprising that more businesses don't take advantage of that. By learning who is reading sent materials, companies can tailor mailers to better identify with them specifically.

Overcoming common direct mail mistakes is simply a matter of implementing the best practices available. And for advertisers hoping to reach existing and potential customers with physical mail pieces, that means investing in mailing software, which helps to consolidate postal operations by automating things like presorting.