While direct-mail marketing might be one of the fastest and most effective ways to reach new customers, it is sometimes a tricky adventure. You have seen the letters and flyers come in the mail for products and services you do not want and will not use. Those are direct mail pieces. What do you do with those? Those go in the trash or paper recycling and the person who sent them will never know that you have seen them. Some of them catch your eye and you actually use them. This is the direct mail world you are about to enter.
Sales letters, brochures and postcards deliver your exact message the way that you want your customer to see it. It is important that you do your first direct mailing yourself to cut down costs and so that you will understand the costs involved in having someone else do it.
You can plan on mailing out 1,000 marketing pieces and getting 100 new customers. Why such a low result from such a high-cost marketing?
Take a look at the cost to get that mailing piece out in the mail. First, look at your client and prospect list and make sure you have complete mailing addresses for all of them. You will be literally throwing money away if you do not have a good address. If you have to call them to get the address, be sure to get their email address, too. Next, decide if you will have a three folded printed sheet with a white stick on mailing label. It's pretty easy to do a mail merge from an MS Excel spreadsheet and MS Word so you'll need to buy the printer labels. Keep track of that cost. If you are going to have a flyer custom printed, keep track of the cost of that printing.
Take your sample flyer down to the post office and ask them to put it on their scales and find out how much the postage will be for mailing out 1,000 of them. Is this a first class mailer or can it go out bulk rate? Get all the information you can and study it so you can make a decision to mail less than 1,000 or more than 1,000.
Printing your single sheet sales letter black and white at home:
Cost of white paper: $8.00
Cost of white printer label: $12.95
Cost of printer ink: $17.00
Cost of bulk postage: $22.00
Total cost of your first direct mailing: $59.95
Now figure out how many products or how many services you will have to do just to cover the cost of that first direct mailing. Remember, have a up to date mailing list, keep your direct mail costs down and learn as much about it as you possibly can.
Sales letters, brochures and postcards deliver your exact message the way that you want your customer to see it. It is important that you do your first direct mailing yourself to cut down costs and so that you will understand the costs involved in having someone else do it.
You can plan on mailing out 1,000 marketing pieces and getting 100 new customers. Why such a low result from such a high-cost marketing?
Take a look at the cost to get that mailing piece out in the mail. First, look at your client and prospect list and make sure you have complete mailing addresses for all of them. You will be literally throwing money away if you do not have a good address. If you have to call them to get the address, be sure to get their email address, too. Next, decide if you will have a three folded printed sheet with a white stick on mailing label. It's pretty easy to do a mail merge from an MS Excel spreadsheet and MS Word so you'll need to buy the printer labels. Keep track of that cost. If you are going to have a flyer custom printed, keep track of the cost of that printing.
Take your sample flyer down to the post office and ask them to put it on their scales and find out how much the postage will be for mailing out 1,000 of them. Is this a first class mailer or can it go out bulk rate? Get all the information you can and study it so you can make a decision to mail less than 1,000 or more than 1,000.
Printing your single sheet sales letter black and white at home:
Cost of white paper: $8.00
Cost of white printer label: $12.95
Cost of printer ink: $17.00
Cost of bulk postage: $22.00
Total cost of your first direct mailing: $59.95
Now figure out how many products or how many services you will have to do just to cover the cost of that first direct mailing. Remember, have a up to date mailing list, keep your direct mail costs down and learn as much about it as you possibly can.