Direct Mail Advertising – A Few Observations
Direct mail advertising is very different than online advertising.
With direct mail, you have to find or compile a list of people who will be a good fit for your offer. The people you mail may or may not be interested in your product or service. They’ve never asked for you to contact them.
Plus, to complicate matters, the cost of printing and postage can be significant, especially if you’re mailing a large list.
Online, you get a few clear advantages. You either market to people who’ve already given you permission to be marketed to; or you market to people who are searching for exactly what you have to offer.
And, as an added benefit, the cost to advertise online is usually lower than advertising with direct mail.
Before I ever start writing a word of sales copy, I want to know how the message I’m writing is going to be distributed.
Is it going to be sent via direct mail? Is it going to be published in a magazine or newspaper? Is it going to be posted on the Internet and advertised via Adwords? Is it going to be advertised via banner ads on targeted web sites? Etc.
The answers to these questions have a HUGE effect on how you should write your copy and how you should design your conversion process.
Fortunately, I’ve had the opportunity to help with both online and off-line direct mail advertising campaigns. Every experience teaches me something new: sometimes the lesson is obvious, other times it’s subtle.
There is one thing that all forms of advertising have in common. That is you must make sure that you are going after a market that 1) can be reached affordably and 2) has money to spend on your product or service.
If either of these two pieces is missing, you’re headed for swift and possibly devastating failure. (It always depends on how much money you’re spending up front, before you have any results.)
It seems this year I will be doing more work in the direct mail advertising field. I’m really looking forward to it because it seems that there’s something more “real” and gratifying about physical forms of advertising.
Certainly, every piece of mail a client pays to send is that much more accountable to results — a true test of skill and dedication.
-Ryan M. Healy
