Going back to direct mail

[Frimley111R]

Have any of you found yourselves going back to direct mail after not getting very far with emailing? Obviously there is the cost implication but also the impact is far far higher.

 

[TheoNe]

We partially migrated back to direct mailing last year after spending two years and a considerable amount of money on an emailing service which delivered very little. As an entrepreneur , I find direct mail to be cost effective, flexible and a highly measurable - which is vital for our small business with limited resources.

 

[Anthony - Westbury]

Has anyone else have any feedback on this as i too am thinking of going back down this route.

 

[Mark T Jones]

I’d broadly say that the more reliant people become on digital communications, the greater impact ‘old fashioned ‘ methods will have


The huge caveat is that the targeting and messAge need to be excellent

 

[HostOX]

It use to work with our Kebab shop, but that is the methods of those businesses - Digital did just as good.

In terms of the business I am in though, I wonder if it will work and fancy giving it a try.

 

[Mark T Jones]

Hi

it is the best way to be honest always has been always will be. if your looking for a dta to call or email shot we can give you 5 free quotes on any data you would require

Regards

Dean

Yeah. Sounds like an impartial, considered response to me

 

[CharlotteS]

Totally depends on the business/your audience I have quite a few clients where we have done direct mail campaigns that have worked really well - I’ve noticed this particularly with local, service based business.

B2b - seen mixed results- as it so depends on the audience - too large - the intended decision maker never sees your material, too niche - the addresses aren’t great etc.

 

[Julia Sta Romana]

I’d broadly say that the more reliant people become on digital communications, the greater impact ‘old fashioned ‘ methods will have


The huge caveat is that the targeting and messAge need to be excellent

Direct mail marketing is effective and cost efficient IF:

• you have a highly targeted list that's primed to buy, and
• if you provide high quality collaterals that are worth keeping.

If you're still in the process of segmenting your list, direct mail isn't something I would recommend. If you send mail to customers in the early parts of your funnel, you could end up losing them instead.

 

[saythisinstead.co.uk]

Have any of you found yourselves going back to direct mail after not getting very far with emailing? Obviously there is the cost implication but also the impact is far far higher.

Do you mean when you are looking for initial contact?

Phone calls, emails, direct mail all work well but where you are in the sales cycle will determine which to use. That means you may start with the phone...maybe then email them something and possibly move forward with some snail mail.

Hope that helps.

 

[WeddingsInWales]

Postage costs are so high now that you will quickly know if the Return on Investment is justified by the actual sales you get in from this source. I had a business (cleaning agency) that relied on leaflet drop to generate clients, and it worked fine until about 2010 when everyone went on-line to find cleaners. Clients could look up numerous cleaning agency websites which everyone was setting up, allowing one man bands to look as professional as the well established agencies, or better, depending on the website.

If you could make 'local' letter delivery work (say, if your service could be targeted at a local area and certain type of housing area), that might be helpful, but only if you hand deliver the letters yourself so they don't all end up in a tip or delivered into council estates etc.

We always delivered our own leaflets, and would get one client for every 500 leaflets in the old days. Our average client value was £420 per annum gross 1/3rd of which was net profit, each client gained after 2 hours delivery work plus cost of the leaflets - marketing cost per client about £20 in the nineties. The business made £300k profit annually due to low cost of client acquisition using this method and was franchised with 96 branches at its peak. Sadly it no longer works. When it took 5,000 to 7,000 leaflets to get one client, we said goodbye to this traditional method of marketing and let that business scale down. It still exists with a few hundred clients, but just ticks over.

Instead we now run a holiday letting and wedding venue business which is very easily promoted on facebook and the internet - without which, it would not work at all. So literally, as the method of marketing changed, one business died - the cleaning agency - and another took over. Hence my cleaning company is now a castle wedding venue.

Everything comes down to marketing, and if a business cannot be marketed by the old traditional methods, and will not respond to the new methods, in my case it was time to change the business.

 

[antropy]

In sales give it a go, nothing ventured nothing gained. If it works then you pick up sales, if it doesn't then look into something different. Alex

 

[E.K]

Does anyone here have any statistics on how your direct mail strategy is performing?
I'm running a fairly new service for finding newly formed companies in the UK and it's probably the main use case for my users, but I still don't have any data on this subject. Would be interesting!

 

[antropy]

Does anyone here have any statistics on how your direct mail strategy is performing?
I'm running a fairly new service for finding newly formed companies in the UK and it's probably the main use case for my users, but I still don't have any data on this subject. Would be interesting!

Mail Chimp always gives good insights into you has opened your emails, how many people have read it and the outreach of your campaign. Alex

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

I don't think you should be going back to direct mail but I still find it an advantage to do mail shots alongside your online activities
Direct mail however is not even 5% of our marketing strategy now

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

@E.K

1 to 1.5% conversion rate and on a 1500 to 2000 mailshot attack this is good for a bloke with a few vans

 

[antropy]

I don't think you should be going back to direct mail but I still find it an advantage to do mail shots alongside your online activities
Direct mail however is not even 5% of our marketing strategy now

But it is very simple to put together and free, so even if you only get 1 or 2 clients a month then it is totally worth it. Alex