Don’t Let Your Direct Mail Be Fashionably Late
Are you someone who regularly arrives at a social function just a little later than everyone else? Do you feel this gives you an advantage in such situations and helps draw more attention to you? Being fashionably late in social situations may make you stand out, but if your package mails late in the world of direct mail, it is definitely not an advantage. In fact, it can ultimately mean a loss for your business or your cause.
Direct mail is a very effective way to get your message and your brand to your potential customers or supporters in a timely, efficient, personal, and memorable way. Using direct mail to communicate with your target audience allows you to provide information, offers, and benefits directly to each person and create a sense of personal involvement. By including vouchers, special codes or reply forms, it also allows you to measure the effect of your marketing or the strength of your message. However, to be able to utilize any of these benefits, your direct marketing must be relevant and reach your audience on time. Good direct mail management practices are essential to helping you meet your deadlines.
Know what you want to achieve
Direct mail management begins with you; what are you trying to achieve through your direct mail? Knowing what your goals are will make the whole process smoother and quicker; it will allow your vendor a framework within which they can work while helping you to achieve the best results and meet your deadlines.
Create a timeline
As with any project, you need to know when you want to have it completed by; in this case, you need to know when you want the direct mail to be received by your target group, what stages you will need to go through and in what order, and, most importantly, how long it will take to get to each stage. When selecting a vendor, it’s essential to go for one that has a flexible approach, who will openly discuss how long each stage will take, and who can help you meet your deadlines without making you feel rushed or obliged to make decisions before you are ready.
Special order envelopes and materials
You want to make sure that your direct mail stands out from that of other companies or organizations; your vendor will be able to discuss personalizing your mail to make it unique and to carry the message that you want to get across. However, when deciding the shape, size, and weight of your envelopes and materials, you can save time and money by ensuring they are the right size to be carried as standard mail. If they require special handling, the postage will cost you more, and it may be returned to you until the correct postage is used. Use a direct mail management company to alleviate these problems, as your chosen vendor should be aware of all postage regulations.
Check your address lists
To help you meet your deadlines you need to ensure that your mail is going to the right person at the right address the first time round. To ensure this, you need an up-to-date mailing list, and you need to be able to track your potential customers or supporters if they move. Your direct mail vendor can process the mailing lists to merge and purge duplicate or bad records and keep your lists current using the National Change of Address (NCOA) software.
And Finally
Once you know what you want to achieve, have developed a workable timeline of how you are going to achieve it, double-checked the U.S. Postal Services regulations, and have your current address list(s), there is only one thing left to do, and that is to put your plan into action and reap the benefits of using direct mail. While you can attempt to do all of this by yourself, you can save time, money, and a lot of effort by using a good direct mail production company to oversee the project from beginning to end.