Sutton University:Sales and Marketing

Direct Mail

An Avenue to Build your Business

Direct Mail can be a great way to leverage your time and money. It can introduce you, educate or keep you “Top of Mind”, when you are not there. Where do you start? Listed below are some simple steps to develop a Direct Mail campaign:

1) Determine your Budget – How much money do you want to spend on your promotional piece and its distribution? What is the return on investment? What is your breakeven point and what percentage of sales would you be happy with?

2) Establish your Objectives – What is the purpose of sending out your promotional piece? Make it quantifiable. E.g. Generate 100 new leads within 4 weeks.

3) Define your Message – What do you want your prospective clients to know or do? How do you want to position yourself or your product? What do you want to offer the audience? What are the benefits your prospective customers will have/enjoy? How will you get them to take action?

4) Decide your Creativity – How do you want your piece to look? What kind of a feeling do you want the audience to feel after they’ve read your information? What colours will you use? Is it all text or will there be pictures? What action do you want the readers to take?

5) Construct your Project – Who do you need to hire or bring on board to make and execute your direct mail piece?

6) Distribute – What regions will you distribute direct mail? How many pieces are you distributing, how often will you launch your project?

7) Evaluate – Track your campaign. How many pieces did you mail out? How many people responded? What made them respond? What was your cost per response? What do you need to improve – your message, your offer, time frame, return on investment?