This checklist will assure that your Direct Mail campaign is on track to be a success. 
Checklist
- Decide what your objectives are: for example, making direct sales, maintaining customer relationships or generating new inquiries.
- Identify your target audience, typically similar to your existing customers.
- Establish your budget; consider how much each response will be worth to you, and the likely response rate.
- Plan the timing of the mail piece; avoid holidays, and ensure that mailings that are linked to a specific event arrive in good time.
- Build your own mailing list and keep it up to date; keep records of inquiries and existing customers and ask existing contacts for new leads.
- Consider renting a mailing list; clearly specify your target audience, how many names you want and whether you intend to re-use the list. Ensure that the list has been cleaned to remove any names that have ‘opted-out’ of receiving mailings.
- Ensure that your data has been updated and is correct.
- Prepare a letter with a clear, attention-grabbing message selling the benefits of your offer; prepare any enclosures (eg brochures).
- Design the mail piece to be attractive; personalize the envelope and letter as far as possible, and avoid the appearance of ‘junk mail’.
- Encourage responses: make responding easy (eg with a pre-printed reply card) and consider offering an incentive to reply promptly.
- Use test mailings to establish likely response rates, and to compare the effectiveness of different mailshots or mailing lists.
- Decide how you will handle the response and make any necessary preparations: for example, train employees how to deal with inquiries and ensure you have adequate stocks.
- Send out the mailing; consider using a specialist mailing house to handle large mailings.
- Analyze the response; record which contacts have been mailed and their response, and update your mailing list for any mail ‘returned to sender’ or email bouncebacks.
Cardinal rules
Do:
- be clear what your objectives are and who you are targeting
- use an up-to-date and accurate mailing list
- prepare an attractive, personalized mailing
- encourage responses
Don’t:
- commit to a large mailshot without adequate testing
- overestimate likely response rates
- send out direct mail before ensuring that you can handle the response
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