Keep Up With Your Direct Mail Project and Manage the Chaos
Regardless of the goals of your organization - whether they are fundraising, revenue generation, or raising awareness - marketing is crucial to the success and effectiveness of pursuing these goals. Marketing is how you will make the public aware not only of your organization, but of your goals and how the public can participate in the pursuit of these goals. While there are many different types of marketing, direct mail marketing is one of the most effective forms.
A direct mail marketing project reaches out directly to individuals that you feel are most likely to be interested in your products or services, or in the efforts of your company. It also provides a sense of personal attention that cannot be attained through other forms of marketing campaigns such as television or radio spots. When a person can hold information in their hands, they are more likely to feel connected to it and be more likely to convert.
Of course, a successful direct mail campaign will must rely on strong direct mail project management. A direct mail campaign can be a major undertaking, and if you let yourself get overwhelmed by the chaos, you will lose a lot of the potential effectiveness of the campaign, and may even fall into actions that are counterproductive to your goals.
Direct mail project management can help you with the three components of a successful direct mail campaign:
- Management of schedules, art direction, and the project development as a whole.
- Adherence to your company's underlying message and brand.
- Development of the creative packaging of your direct mail campaign materials to effectively communicate your message.
By balancing these three components effectively, you can increase the potency of your direct mail project. There are multiple smaller tasks and responsibilities that go into the development of these components. Good direct marketing project management will help you to work through all of these different responsibilities and control the administration of each so that you don’t get overwhelmed with handling it all.
What are some of the key elements of managing your direct marketing project?
- It is crucial to properly manage your direct mail campaign from start to finish. A poorly directed project can result in a sub-par end product that fails to get your message across or, even worse, fails to connect with your target audience in a tangible way. Good management includes overseeing art direction, production processes and more, and also necessitates ample communication between vendors and those in charge of the project within your organization.
- Making sure that your company's message, branding, and vision shine through a direct mail campaign is key to its success. You have no doubt worked hard to establish your company's branding and story to your target audience; failing to extend that to a direct mail project could ultimately confuse your audience and result in lost sales for your company.
- Unfortunately, many consumers have been trained to weed out the “junk mail” in their mailbox and throw it away without even looking at it twice. You don’t want your direct mail communications to be misconstrued as useless junk mail. People respond to eye-catching, pretty things, so don’t be afraid to let creativity rule the day with your project. Good campaign management processes will help you to develop creative packaging that will quickly relay your message and encourage consumers to open the package and explore the information further.
So, be sure to develop a thorough, step-by-step plan for good direct mail project management that will ultimately maximize the effectiveness of your campaign and minimize the chaos.