This is part 2 of a 5 part series featuring information from Dean Rieck's Whitepaper, "Getting Response in a Down Economy - 4 Key Principles to Boost Your Direct Mail Profits in Today's Difficult Market."Smart direct mailers always look for ways to cut costs and in today's economic climate, cutting costs is a must. Here are some simple ways to trim the fat from your mailers, without sacrificing sales appeal.
Talk to your printer. You may have a well-designed direct mail piece, but is it efficiently produced? Can you make small changes in the layout that will allow you to use more of the paper stock and create less waste? Are you using an odd shape that is making production or postage more expensive? Is the piece printed on unnecessarily expensive stock or stock that requires a special order and extra freight charges?
You should also look at the piece from a creative point of view. Do you really need UV coating or die cuts? Can you eliminate a piece or combine two pieces to lower weight and cut postage? Would a lighter weight stock work as well with your design? Often features you like don’t affect results and are unnecessary.
Consider Digital Printing. There was a time when you had to print on a standard four-color press to get full color. But today, digital presses are common. The final product looks good for most commercial purposes and it’s generally faster and cheaper.
Digital presses also let you do personalization and versioning for more targeted and relevant messages. If that doesn’t cut your cost directly, it can certainly improve your return on investment with potentially better response.
Test into smaller formats. There is a tendency for many businesses to cut testing programs when the budget gets tight. That’s a mistake. When times are good, you should be testing. When times are tough, you MUST be testing.
What should you test to reduce costs? Try removing your brochure. Sometimes it doesn’t affect response if you have a strong letter. Try turning a 6” x 9” package into a #10. If you’re generating leads, have you tried a postcard or flyer? Could you remove an order form and send customers to a Web form? Does your letter have to be 8 pages or would it work just as well at 6 pages? There’s almost always something you can cut, shrink, or modify.
Boost Profits by Testing Cheaper Formats
In addition to the standard envelope package, there are plenty of alternative formats you can test. Often, your response will be lower with these formats, but the idea is to lower your costs while maintaining enough response to offset the difference with more net profit.
Reduce costs with a self-mailer. It offers low-cost and a quick read, good for quickly recognized content. It also helps speed response, because it’s not as in-depth as a full package and looks more urgent and newsy. To make a self-mailer work at peak efficiency, combine elements of a standard direct mail package and a print ad, including:
- A strong headline in bold type
- Copy in easy to read sections
- Bullets, boxes, borders, and subheads to convey information quickly
- Strong visuals
- A clear offer
- A reply card and toll-free number for easy response
- A message or mini-letter printed near the recipient’s address
- Plus, a feature list, testimonials, guarantee, and other elements
Signal exclusivity with an invitation. To make an offer special, you can issue an invitation in the appropriate format, usually a smaller envelope and letter on higher-quality paper with an RSVP. This works best for offers targeted to higher-income prospects, professionals, and executive level positions; for events such as conferences, meetings, and presentations; or for offers that need a quality feel
Add urgency with a telegram. This is a good idea that is, unfortunately, wildly overused. It can be little more than an envelope design, such as “Urgent Gram,” “Speed Gram,” or some variation. Or it might be an envelope and letter combo resembling an actual telegram printed on yellow paper with tractor-feed holes down the sides of the letter. One way to make this format work is to create your own urgent-looking envelope for fulfillment materials. This allows the envelope to get noticed — which is the whole point, and assures that the contents will be relevant and interesting, instead of boilerplate.
Create an official look with a snap-pack. This format is often used for official notices or statements, so it gives your ad message the same feel. And because the recipient has to rip open the edge of the envelope and pull out the contents, it is naturally involving. It’s good for generating inquiries or for organizations with recognizable and trusted names. It has been used with particular success in the nonprof t sector to deliver what appears to be an urgent, cheap appeal for funds. Remember, a snap-pack is basically a direct mail package with a special envelope these days, so you don’t necessarily need to shrink your contents to one or two sheets as in the old days.
Generate quick leads with a postcard. Direct sales are possible with postcards, but only for simple offers, such as magazine subscriptions. They are much better for building traffic for local retail, driving people to a Web site, or for generating inquiries for familiar services, such as real estate or carpet cleaning. However, because response is so easy, lead quality is often low. But it’s worth testing. Just remember you still need a clear benefit headline, a strong offer, a picture of what you’re offering, lean copy, and a bold call to action. One downside is that nearly everyone is testing postcards now.
Use dimensional mailings cautiously. Boxes, bags, tubes, folders, and other unusual formats are great for getting attention. But while there are plenty of examples of successfulcampaigns, these formats are usually misused, wasting money on a novel format when a standard format could deliver a more powerful message and net a greater response or profit. One way to use dimensional mailings effectively is for small, highly targeted lists coupled with a high-priced product or service.
When in doubt, use an envelope package. The classic direct mail package consists of an outer envelope (usually #10, 6” x 9”, or 9” x 12”), a letter, brochure, reply card or order form, maybe one or more inserts, and a reply envelope. The reason this format is a standard is that it has been developed, tested, and perfected over many years. It works. Test other formats, but don’t be different just to be different. You can cut costs with smart sizing and printing.
While trimming the fat from your mailings can help improve your profits, you can never sacrifice content. Part 3 of our series featuring Dean Rieck's information, discusses how to make your sales message crystal clear. Come visit our blog next week for that timely article.
For more of Dean Rieck's marketing tips, visit his website, www.directcreative.com.
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