Direct Mail Marketing Ideas With a Website Connection

Where do you get ideas for a direct mail marketing campaign? How do you go from a blank slate to a well-crafted marketing message for your postcards or letters? In this article, I'll offer a variety of direct mail marketing ideas you might consider, and I'll also explain the "secret" to creating the best idea of all.

In fact, let's start with the best-case scenario. The most effective marketing campaign is one that springs from a great product or service. In this sense, the product is the marketing. So before you start worrying about how you're going to promote a certain product or service, you need to focus on the development of the item of itself.

There are obvious business reasons for this -- everybody wants to create a solid product. But there are marketing reasons for this as well. If you have a truly unique / useful / effective product, then your marketing campaign will be simple to conduct. This is the secret to coming up with marketing ideas. It all starts with having a product worth talking about.

So let's assume you've accomplished this important first step. You've created a product or service worth promoting, and you're trying to use direct mail to generate sales or inquiries about the product. Where do you start? Here are some direct mail marketing ideas you might want to consider.

Direct Mail to Website - Some Useful Marketing Ideas

Use your postcards or letters to drive people to a specific page of your website where they can learn all about the item you're promoting. This page might include product photos, customer testimonials, information about the various features and benefits, and perhaps even a free trial of some kind. Direct mail and websites go hand in hand, in terms of marketing. A website is a natural extension of a direct mail message -- it's a great way to expand on the information contained within your postcard or letter.

Ask yourself the following when using this direct mail marketing idea to drive web traffic:

What is the biggest benefit of my product or service? What's the one thing that really raises an eyebrow when people hear about it? You should include this on your direct mail piece, in order to generate the initial interest. In fact, the primary benefit can be used within the headline of your postcard or letter.

What are the second and third most important aspects of your product or service? These could also be included within your direct mail piece. But beyond this, it's best to defer other information to the product web page we talked about previously. With postcards, in particular, it's important to limit your initial message to one or two key points. Of course, only tracking and testing will reveal the truth. But in most cases, covering too many points in a postcard is a bad idea for direct mail campaigns.

Once you've created a compelling message for your postcard or letter, it's time to focus on your landing page. In most cases, it's best to send people to a specific page of your site, often referred to as a landing page or a pitch page. This page should be a natural extension of the direct mail piece, and it should pick up where that message left off.

Learn More
If you need more direct mail marketing ideas for your campaign, check out the strategy section of our website. If you're using postcards in particular, you might want to peruse our list of 55 tips for postcard success.

Direct Mail Advertising - New Article

We have posted a new article that explains some of the best practices of direct mail advertising.

In the context of this new article, "best practices" refers to certain tried-and-true techniques that will help you get the most out of your direct mail advertising campaign (i.e., better response rates).

Article excerpt:

Once you have experimented, tested and tracked your direct mail advertising results, you will be able to devise your own best practices. After all, there is no substitute for direct experience. But to begin the process, it's usually best to adhere to certain proven strategies of direct mail advertising. Here are five best practices that apply in most cases.

Read the full article:
Direct Mail Advertising - 5 Best Practices

Good luck and good marketing!

-Brandon

Direct Mail Services - A Buyer's Guide

Anyone considering direct mail as an addition to their overall marketing program should also consider using professional direct mail services. And if you already use direct mail but handle most of it yourself, you should consider a direct mail service for the convenience factor alone!

Why Use a Direct Mail Service?
Because they can save you time and hassle. In many cases, they can save you money as well. This latter point is often overlooked by do-it-yourself marketers. Many people wrongfully assume that a direct mail service will cost them more than if they continued doing it themselves. But when you add up the time spent on a do-it-yourself direct mail program, the savings become clear.

Want to learn more about direct mail services? If so, you'll want to check out the latest article published on the main website: Direct Mail Services - What Do They Do?

Good luck and good marketing!

-Brandon

Direct Mail Promotions - Key Benefits

Direct mail is one of the most popular marketing mediums for promotions. Each year, thousands of companies use direct mail promotions to drive web traffic, generate leads, attract new business, sell products and services, and more.

Why do so many marketers use direct mail promotions? Here are a few of the top reasons.

Timeliness
Depending on the complexity of the mailing, a direct mail promotion can be planned, designed and delivered in a week or two. Because of this, direct mail marketers can be timely with their promotions, sending them in conjunction with other marketing promotions or in response to certain market conditions.

Dependability
With any promotion, the key is to ensure maximum delivery of message. With direct mail promotions, you are working with a fairly predictable delivery vehicle -- the U.S. mail.

Versatility
Direct mail promotions come in all shapes and sizes, from simple postcards to multi-dimensional shaped mailers. With the creation of Customized Market Mail, you can even send your direct mail promotion in unusual, eye-catching shapes that are somehow tied to the promotion itself.

Affordability
The versatility of direct mail promotions also translates to affordability. Direct mail is anything but a "one size fits all" type of product. You can adjust the quantity and complexity of a direct mail marketing promotion to fit just about any (realistic) marketing budget.

Visibility
With banner ads, magazine ads, billboard ads and the like, you are hardly guaranteed a look by your intended audience. But with direct mail, you can be nearly certain that people will see your message because they have to pull it from the mailbox. This kind of visibility is a big benefit of direct mail promotions.

Good luck and good marketing!

-Brandon

Direct Mail Marketing Resources

Should you use direct mail postcards or letters? Where do you get a mailing list? How do you measure your direct mail response rates?

These are just a few of the direct mail marketing questions we've tried to answer with our direct mail resource center. Because let's face it ... when starting a direct mail marketing campaign (especially for the first time), there are questions on top of questions with a side-order questions.

What you'll find in the resource center:

• Product positioning
• Postcards vs. letters
• Direct mail letters
• Parts of a direct mail kit
• Direct mail copywriting tips
• Tips for measuring your ROI
• Links to additional direct mail resources

Go there now

Direct Mail: Letters vs. Postcards

One of the first questions you must ask when planning a direct mail marketing campaign is whether to mail postcards or letters.

In some cases, this will be an easy decision to make. For instance, if you have coupons and other inserts you want to send, a direct mail letter is the only option for you. But other times, the choice is less clear.

This is just one of many topics we cover in our direct mail marketing resource center. Other topics covered include product positioning, mailing lists, direct mail copywriting and more.

Visit the resource center!

Good luck and good marketing.

-Brandon

Direct Mail Resource Center - Now Available

I'm pleased to announce the newest addition to the PostcardSmart website ... a resource page dedicated to direct mail marketing.

It's a work in progress (like any good resource page), but I think you'll find it both helpful and informative. Even better, I believe it will teach you something about direct mail marketing that you didn't know before visiting. That's the goal anyway!

Go there now:
Direct Mail Resource Center

~Brandon