The three most-important things you need to enjoy success with direct mail are these:
1) The right list
2) The right offer
3) The right copy and graphics
...in that order.
Yes, by far, your list is the most important. Because, as they say, “You can’t sell steak to vegetarians.”
You need a list of people who are ready, willing, and able to buy from you.
But how do you get such a list?
Well, you can’t “get” it. You have to attract it.
There is no magic bullet. But with just a little marketing patience, you can develop a list of your own leads and prospects that will generate big ROI from your direct mail.
This is what you need to do:
Start by compiling your initial list on your own or by acquiring one from commercially available lists.
If you do it yourself, you can use published directories. Most national, state, and local trade, business and professional associations have directories of their members. This is a good starting point for B2B marketers. And your current customer list – especially for consumer marketers – is often a goldmine of untapped sales.
When working with a list broker, you’ll choose the names you want based on “selects,” which is the term for how the list is segmented. For example, by age, gender, marital status, home ownership, occupation, sales volume, number of employees, category of goods bought, price, recency, frequency, or a combination of multiple selects.
You need to mail the people on your list a compelling message and irresistible low-threshold offer. For example, you see mattress companies offer a free information packet on how to get a good night sleep.
They aren’t trying to “sell” anything, yet. They are simply getting new prospects to step forward and indicate interest.
The people they attract become their response list.
And that’s the secret of developing your own hyper-responsive mailing list. Because once the prospect identifies themselves as a hot lead, you can implement more aggressive multi-step follow up marketing.
This saves you time and money because you’ll only be marketing to people who have already told you they’re interested.
Yes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Your response list won’t be either.
But once it is, it’s like finding oil deep inside the earth. All you have to do is go get it.