If you run a lending or insurance business then you’ve probably thought about dozens of marketing methods and techniques, and perhaps you have even implemented a few. Without a specialist’s experience, marketing can be a hit and miss—sometimes you “get it”, but other times you don’t.
Direct mail marketing is one particular marketing method that can yield outstanding results, but it is also one of the hardest to implement. If you can learn how to properly put together a direct mail marketing campaign and execute it, you should have no problem converting leads into sales.
Set a budget.
Setting a budget is crucial if you want to run a successful direct mail marketing campaign. A budget is so important because it’s easy to overspend when you have a wide range of options to choose from. If you want to execute your campaign successfully, you might want to build up a complete package for your prospects instead of simply mailing them a postcard.
If you opt for the former, keep in mind that there are many expenses to account for: copywriting services, graphic design, printing services, postage/delivery costs, packaging, etc. It’s easy for these expenses to spiral out of control if you don’t set a budget and stick to it.
Create or purchase a targeted lead list.
As mentioned above, direct mail marketing can be expensive. You don’t want to send your promotional material out to just anybody — it should be reserved only for the prospects that you think will bite. A better conversion rate can be achieved by creating or purchasing a targeted lead list. This means that your prospects are actually going to be interested in the promotional material that you’re sending them.
Creating your own list is the best option if you can do this, but keep in mind that it will require much more time and effort. Purchasing a list is going to speed up the process, but you may be at a disadvantage because the prospects might not have heard of your company before.
Do what you can to impress your prospects.
Now that you have set your budget and created or purchased a targeted list, the next thing you’ll want to do is impress your prospects. You’ll be spending a lot of time, energy, and resources on this marketing campaign, so you’ll definitely want to see a return on your investment.
Do as much as you can to impress your prospects — don’t just send them a postcard with your contact details and some company information. Instead, send them the VIP package. You might want to think about including a brochure, a personalized letter, some company-marked items (i.e. pens, key chains) and even some samples of your products.
It’s possible for direct mail marketing to be a minefield for your particular lending or insurance business— there are just so many factors that you need to take into consideration. The best part of direct mail marketing is the personalization that you can put through every potential customer’s mailbox. The challenging aspect is the amount of time and effort you’ll need to dedicate to personalize your campaign.
We’ll leave you with one more piece of advice before we conclude: Always remember to track the performance of your direct mail marketing campaign. This is often overlooked by most people, but it can help you decide whether it’s worthwhile to run another campaign in the near future.
