Direct mail is still one of the most effective ways to engage with customers. It has stood the challenges of the modern age of technology and grows from strength to strength. If you are looking for ways to increase your response rates, check out our seven essential tips below.

1) Segment your mailing list

Splitting (often called segmenting) your mailing list into categories is a great way to increase response rates from your direct mail campaigns. It will mean you can send out direct mail that is more relevant to recipients and therefore much more likely to generate a response. This is actually similar to personalisation in a way, which we cover below in that it aims to improve response rates by segmentation through a range of marketable factors.

2) Personalise the mail

At its most basic level, one of the best ways to get people to read your direct mail is to address it to them personally. However, you can go a step further by including personalised content, such as product recommendations based on their previous purchases. Showing customers, you know them by personalising their direct mail is a great way to increase your response rates.

3)    Use a professional design

If your direct mail looks plain, boring or ad-like, it’s not going to make people want to open and read it. Make your direct mail look attractive and eye-catching by creating a professional design. The more appealing your direct mail looks, the more likely customers are to read it and take the required action. Be innovative, use unusual shapes and don’t forget about the envelope, which is the first area of the mailing which will be viewed.

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4) Include an incentive

There’s nothing quite like an incentive to make people sit up and act upon a mailshot. If you want people to read your direct mail and then buy your products or services, why not include a:

• Discount voucher – include a discount voucher to incentivise
• Free trial – alternatively you may wish to offer a free trial (e.g. you could offer a 30-day free trial or perhaps a free product sample in the mail)
• Free product samples – why not include free product samples in your mailing by giving an example of what your product is really like?

Whichever way you decide, the inclusion of incentives is very likely to give customers a good enough reason to respond to your direct mail.

5) Integrate it into a wider marketing campaign

Another way to increase response rates from your direct mail campaign is to integrate it into your wider marketing campaign. By also targeting customers via social media, email marketing and TV marketing, etc. you stand a much higher chance at your message getting through. The concept is to create a strategy where the sum is greater than the individual parts, with each area of marketing integrating and complementing with one another.

6) Use a strong call to action

Don’t expect people to know what to do after reading your direct mail, you need to tell them. Use a strong call to action such as ‘call us today to make an enquiry’ to encourage people to respond to your direct mail. Giving them some sort of deadline can also make them feel like they need to act urgently. Use lines such as ‘for a limited time only’ to spark them to take action immediately.

7) Integration with technology

Finally, integrating your direct mail campaign with technology such as QR codes and NFC is a great way to increase response rates. These technologies automatically take people to your website after reading your direct mail and therefore make it easier for them to buy your product, sign up to your newsletter or do whatever it is you want them to do.

Contact bakergoodchild to increase your direct mail campaign response rates

That completes these seven essential tips for direct mail. We really hope you’ve found this useful, please do contact us here. Call bakergoodchild on 0800 612 1972 to discuss any aspects of your next direct mail campaign.

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