what is direct mail ?
Direct Mail is one of the most significant, influential and effective forms of marketing communications. It givesyou many competitive advantages in building and strengthening your business, to help you stay ahead of the competition.
The most important difference between Direct Mail and other forms of marketing communications is that you get to know your customers as individuals and, as a result, develop a deeper understanding of their needs and interests. This allows you to employ very personal, targeted and persuasive methods of selling.
Direct Mail gives you many competitive advantages in building your business:
1. Confidentiality: two big advantages here: firstly, you can talk to your customers without your competitors knowing, and, secondly, your customers can see your message without the distraction and clutter common in mass media.
For example: If you're running a TV commercial offering a 5-day holiday in Bali for HK$8,500, your competitors will see it and may respond by cutting their price to HK$7,750 and possibly adding extra benefits such as room upgrades and complimentary breakfasts. When you use Direct Mail, only you and your potential customers know and understand the deal you are
offering.
2.Flexibility:you can mail your potential customers at any time you choose, using a wide variety of designs. You can mail letters, postcards, colour brochures, product samples and even joint promotions, all of which contain a response device. Itʹs entirely up to you to decide what to use, and the only constraints are
your budget and your imagination.
3. Targetability: decide exactly whom you want to reach, and then speak to them one‐to‐one in the privacy of their own homes or offices.
For example: If you want your target audience to sign up for a prestigious golf club where membership costs HK$400,000, a Direct Mail piece should be sent to people who earn more than HK$1,000,000 per year. You could do a TV commercial instead, but this would also be seen by many people who are neither interested in, nor able to afford, a golf club membership.
4. Measurability: nothing is left to chance. The success of a Direct Mail campaign can be easily measured by counting the number of responses, unlike a TV campaign in which you may have no clear idea of how effectively your marketing money was spent.
For example: You're building circulation for a new lifestyle magazine. After testing several different targets and formats of Direct Mail, you discover that by mailing high-net-worth individuals in Kowloon with a personalized letter offering a 6-month free subscription, you get 3 times the response rate than for an offer of wine at a reduced price.Your calculations prove that you will get a lower cost per response by using the 6-month free subscription offer to high networth individuals on Hong Kong Island.
5. Accountability: as soon as youʹve seen just how well Direct Mail can work, it becomes a ʺself‐financingʺ medium.You can actually identify a cost per response and fine tune your future budgets and targets accordingly.
