How often do your direct mail results end up not meeting your expectations? Does your direct mail resonate with your prospects and customers, or fall flat? Do they understand and remember what you said? If not, you have a big problem. In order to avoid this, you need to be creating direct mail that resonates. Let’s take a look at what you can do to reach your maximum potential.
First we will start with the four types of memory, because they are the key to understanding how to improve your direct mail:
- Early Bias — These are people who best remember the beginning messaging in a direct mail piece. It is important to get right to the point for these people.
- Recency Bias — These are people who best remember messaging that they most recently read at the end of your mail piece. It is important to restate your message at the end without calling it a summary. People skip over summaries.
- Repetitive Bias — These are people who best remember direct mail messages that are repeated. It is important to restate what you want them to remember at least three times.
- Outstanding Bias — These are people who best remember the part of your direct mail message that is different or stands out in some way. It is important to make the effort to reach these people by using out-of-the-box language.
Where do you think you fall with these four memory types? I will reveal a secret: You should fall in more than one. So how can we use these memory biases to increase direct mail response?
- Main Point: State your main point right away and end with your main point. Repeat it throughout your message copy. Then find a quirky way to state it that really stands out. This is what you want people to remember.
- Bullets: If you make a list of bullets, make the most important first, second, second to last and last. You should repeat them in your copy, as well.
- Stories: Use real stories to show how great life will be when they buy your product or service. People read and remember stories. Just make sure you use the story to highlight your main point and get them to take action.
- Call to Action: This is another one that should be repeated across the direct mail piece. This is how you get people to respond. Give them more than one way to respond.
- Images: They should be intriguing and relevant to your messaging. You want to draw attention and help state your message.
When you can bring all of these together cohesively, you have a great direct mail piece. Then it is just up to you to send to the right list of people. By considering your prospect and customer’s memory types, you create a way to really reach each of them in a truly memorable way. If you do not create a mail piece that is compelling, it will end up in the trash. Don’t waste your marketing budget on bad direct mail. Your mail service provider can help you spice up your next campaign and increase your response rates with these tips. Are you ready to get started?
- Categories:
- Direct Mail
Summer Gould is Account Executive at Neyenesch Printers. Summer has spent her 31 year career helping clients achieve better marketing results. She has served as a panel speaker for the Association of Marketing Service Providers conferences. She is active in several industry organizations and she is a board member for Printing Industries Association San Diego, as well as the industry chair for San Diego Postal Customer Council. You can find her at Neyenesch’s website: neyenesch.com, email: summer@neyenesch.com, on LinkedIn, or on Twitter @sumgould.