Direct Mail Campaign: 4 Easy Steps to Generate Direct Mail Leads

Digital marketers, are you struggling to stand out in an oversaturated online environment? It’s easy to overlook a direct mail campaign as a lead generation tool but it may be the missing piece in your marketing strategy.

Many marketers face the challenge of cutting through the digital noise and reaching customers who have grown immune to endless emails and online ads. With a personal touch, direct mail has the potential to generate warm leads that convert better.

How can you take advantage of this? Stay tuned, and we’ll walk you through four simple steps to boost your direct mail lead generation.

What is Direct Mail Marketing?

The first thing you need to understand is what direct mail marketing really is.

Direct mail marketing is a powerful strategy that involves sending physical mailers, such as postcards, letters, or packages, directly to a targeted audience.

But it’s more than just sending out mailers.

Whether you’re promoting a product, service, or brand, direct mail marketing can be a standalone strategy or part of a larger marketing mix. It’s an excellent tool for customer acquisition, as this approach allows businesses to reach current customers and potential customers and target customers in a cost-effective manner.

Why Direct Mail Marketing Works

Direct mail is a highly effective yet often overlooked way to generate leads. It gives you a direct path to your prospects and a chance to stand out from all the digital noise – those constant ads, emails, and pitches that decision-makers are bombarded with every day.

According to the USPS, around 98% of people scan or read their physical mail daily. Companies without the latest technology to generate direct mail leads efficiently are missing out on opportunities.

What makes direct mail so powerful is the tactile engagement it offers, something digital marketing can’t replicate.

It’s not just another email lost in their cluttered inbox—it’s a well-designed mail personally addressed to them. Think of direct mail postcards; it’s something tangible they can hold in their hands. This physical interaction creates a lasting impression, making your message more memorable. 

How to Create a Direct Mail Strategy That Delivers Results

When sending direct mail marketing, it’s important to incorporate a few fundamental strategies so that it resonates with your target audience. These are:

• Segmenting your list and creating personalized direct mail
• Making your offer irresistible
• Having a clear message and CTA
• Using pUrls

Let’s explore these direct mail marketing strategies in more detail.

1. Segment Your List and Personalize Your Creative

The first—and most crucial—step we always tell our clients? Nail your data segmentation and focus on direct mail personalization in the creative that you send.

Data is the key to segmentation. If you’ve got demographic or behavioral data that you can include in your list, you can use that data to create audience segments. You can then target the segments with personalized messaging, offers and CTA’s.

Learn how to use mailing list segments to test offers and improve response in the Postalytics full overview of mailing list selection and testing.

Personalization is so important for getting your direct mail campaigns noticed and engaged with. Here are a few stats that help to illustrate this point:

• Personalized promotional mailings have 29% higher unique open rates than non-personalized mailings.
• If they get discounts or personalized offers, 63% of millennials, 58% of Gen Xers, and 46% of baby boomers are willing to share personal information with brands.
• 52% of customers expect direct mail to be personalized.

Often direct mail vendors don’t quote prices that include personalization. Why? Because they know that it is hard to do and expensive when done the old fashioned way.

Postalytics offers free personalization of postcards and letters with our easy-to-use variable data and logic tools.

Variable data offers the easiest way to personalize your campaigns using the data you have collected about a prospect. It works just like the “merge tag” concept of email marketing.

You can inject data like a prospect’s first name, last name, city, zip code, phone number, or any custom fields within your dataset into a template.  When your template is dropped into a campaign, it will pull the correct data records and insert them into the final postcard or letter.

This makes it easy for you to deliver campaigns that catch the prospect’s eye and convince them to read more. Wouldn’t you be more likely to check out a piece of direct mail if it had your name in big, bold letters in the headline?

Postalytics also gives you the power to generate dynamic content for different segments of your audience using our variable logic tool.

Using simple IF/THEN statements, you can display relevant text and images to your segments.

For example, you can send different messaging based on where prospects live.

In this case, we highlight the preferred local football team of a given area based on a prospect’s listed location:

With a little creativity, marketers can craft highly targeted messages to each key audience segment.

The great news is that this is a one-and-done process. The same personalization rules will apply each time the template is used in a campaign.

2. Make Your Offer Irresistible

The secret to any successful direct mail campaign is the offer. It’s the magnet that pulls in leads and drives the success of your entire effort. A truly irresistible offer can carry your campaign, especially when it hits home with your target audience.

While the end goal is often to sell your product, service, or solution, your direct mail offer doesn’t always need to be directly tied to that final sale. Instead, it should be something your audience values and can’t resist.

Here are a few key principles to craft an offer that stands out:

• Clearly state the benefit – Your audience needs a compelling reason to share their personal or business information with you. Offer something valuable in return—whether it’s exclusive content, a discount, a free audit, or anything else that speaks to their needs.
• Solve a pain point or tap into a desire – The best offers are emotionally driven. Focus on a problem your audience is eager to solve or a deep desire they want to fulfill. The more personal the connection, the more powerful your offer becomes.
• Add social proof – Testimonials, case studies, and results are persuasive. Show your audience that your offer has worked for others and that it will deliver real value to them, too.
• Include a guarantee – A guarantee helps build trust and reduces risk. Whether it’s a no-risk money-back guarantee or a free consultation, assurances like these make it easier for your audience to say yes.

What an audience finds irresistible varies by segment. Knowing exactly how to word your message and what kind of offer your audience will find truly irresistible can be the difference between an average campaign and one that drives jaw-dropping growth for your business.

3. Create A Clear Message and Call To Action

Segmentation, personalization, and a compelling offer are all critical pieces of a successful direct mail lead generation campaign.

But all of that hard work can go to waste if your message and call to action (CTA) aren’t crystal clear.

It is pretty clear what Tommy John is telling us. And it is also clear how to take action.

On the other hand:

This is an actual postcard back that we received. Unfortunately, it’s unclear what they’re trying to communicate or what action they want us to take. While the front of the postcard had more information, if you only saw the back, it might be easy to overlook or discard.

The most essential aspects of delivering a clear message to your audience come from your headline and call-to-action (CTA).

Let’s take a look at just how important your CTA is for the success of your campaign:

• More than 90% of people who read your headline will also read your CTA.
• Emails with a single call to action saw an increase in clicks of 371% and an increase in sales of 1617%.
• Personalized CTAs convert at a 42% higher rate than untargeted CTAs.

No matter the format—a postcard, a standard letter, or something else, the clarity of your message and CTA is crucial. Clear messaging and a strong CTA guide your audience toward the next step.

An effective call to action requires that they see the action as beneficial and worthwhile. While your CTA copy does have an influence on this, your campaign messaging as a whole works together to drive these points home.

It’s easy to spot the difference between a campaign with sharp, focused messaging and one that leaves people confused. Just always remember the rule: keep it simple and direct.

4. Using pURLS for personalized CTA’s

The final tip is to make your CTAs more personal. With Postalytics, adding pURLs to your mailers is a simple way to give that extra customized touch. Pair this with direct mail through the door to ensure your customized CTAs reach the right local audience effectively.

These unique URLs allow you to track who responds, gather valuable data, and create a more personalized experience for your audience. For instance, a pURL for one of your prospects named John Smith might look something like:

http://JohnSmith.domain.com

Seeing their name (or the name of their company) attached to the URL you are asking them to visit greatly increases the likelihood of them taking action and piques their interest. It’s just another way to inject powerful personalization into your campaigns using Postalytics.

Here’s an example of a pURL call to action:

Postalytics allows you to generate unlimited pURLs at no additional cost. This means that you can include a unique pURL for every prospect that receives your mailer. Our system works differently from other pURL marketing systems in that we don’t require the use of specialized landing page software. 

Our pURLs can be used with any modern landing page or content management system through the use of redirects and tracked through our system.

Drive More Direct Mail Leads with Postalytics

Generating direct mail leads doesn’t have to be complicated – it just takes a solid strategy and focuses on the basics. Follow the steps we’ve shared, and you’ll be set up for success in your next campaign.

At Postalytics, we help marketers do this every day. Want to learn more? Watch our quick overview video to see how Postalytics can help you send personalized direct mail campaigns, automate lead generation, and nurture leads through the entire buyer’s journey.

Savvy marketers are using Postalytics’ direct mail automation to nurture both B2C and B2B leads through the entire buyer’s journey. Ready to do the same? Get your free account today and start driving results!