A Guide to Creating a Direct Mail Campaign incorporating Promotional Products
Marketers are constantly looking for ways to differentiate themselves from competitors and with many companies choosing to send the majority of their marketing through emails, there has also been a trend back towards Direct Mail so that companies can have their marketing look different from their competitors. One effective way of differentiating your direct mail from competitors is to include a Promotional Product. According to the Promotional Product Association International the inclusion of a Promotional Products to a mail promotion can increase the response rate by 50% (Reference: The Power of Promotional Products - PPAI). I believe this has a lot to do with the fact that as soon as the receiver sees or feels an item in the mailer they are more inclined to open it. You may increase your response rates even more by using a clear sleeve instead of an envelope that way the receiver can see the promotional item straight away.
Many companies are no longer using Direct Mail and so there is a real opportunity for you to dominate with little competition from other businesses. If you have never put together a Direct Mail Campaign before there are a few things to be aware of:
Please note that I am using an Unaddressed Mail Campaign in this example as opposed to an Addressed Mail Campaign and therefore the specifications may be different.
1. Your first step should be to contact the Unaddressed Mail Team at Australia Post whether by email or phone and ask for a copy of the Unaddressed Mail Service Guide, the Unaddressed Mail Service Information Sheet and the Delivery Points spreadsheet for your State so that you can check the amount of delivery points you want your mail delivered to.
There is no point designing a fantastic Direct Mail Campaign without first understanding any limitations involved in using Australia Post and the costs associated with having a thicker or heavier mail piece.
Remember that there are two types of Delivery Service - Regular Service & Select Service. Basically the difference between Regular and Select is that in Regular you are sending to all the private and/or business delivery points for your chosen locality as opposed to Select where you can nominate to target certain delivery points such as Street, PO Boxes, Courier Mail or Roadside Delivery Points. Select Service does have a higher price.
2. Now that you know how many delivery points and any size or weight limitations there will be you can order your Printed Material and Promotional Products
Having read through the Australia Post Guidelines you would be aware that there are two types of letters:
• Small Letters: Letters which are up to 100g, no smaller than 88mm x 138mm, no larger than 130mm x 240mm, and no thicker than 5mm. Rectangular in shape. There are 3 price categories dependent on your package weight - Up to 50g, Over 50 - 100g & Over 100-250g
• Large Letters: Letters which are up to 250g, no larger than 260mm x 360mm and no thicker than 20mm. Rectangular in shape. There are 3 price categories dependent on your package weight - Up to 50g, Over 50 - 100g & Over 100-250g
Promotional Products suitable for Small Letters:
• Magnets
• Stickers
• Coasters
• Tattoos
• Egrips
• Small Rulers
• Calenders
• Seedsticks
• Mouse mat
Promotional Products suitable for Large Letters:
There is a lot more choice available when you are doing a large letter but some of the more popular items would include:
• Pens, in particular the Flag Pen is very popular
• Post-it-Notes
• Sliding Puzzle
Something also to consider with this is that just because your mailer fits into the size and weight specifications it may not actually suit the requirements. You can submit a sample to Australia Post if you have unusual packaging or are unsure and they will provide you with approval before you need to go further.
3. You should book your job with Australia Post as soon as possible so that you can pick up your mail trays. This will save you time and effort because now what you can do is provide your packing company the mail trays, printed material and promotional products and they will bundle it all reading for mailing. Letters need to be bundled into piles of 100 with two elastic bands on either end of the letter. Australia Post will also provide you with a guide to preparing your mail for lodgement.
4. The last step is to take your letters to your Lodgement Office which you would have nominated when you booked the job. You can ask your packing company to lodge it for you as long as they have the Mailing Tray Labels and the Customer Advice. Otherwise you can lodge it.
5. Measure your success. The most important aspect of all campaigns is measurement. You should make sure you record the geographic location of where your leads come from following the campaign. You can even do simple things like asking where the company heard about you from. One strategy we like to use is to include a limited time Special Offer on the mailer with specific instructions that they need to mention the mailer in order to receive the offer. That way clients will be forthcoming with where they heard about you.
Now just sit back and let your Direct Mail Campaign work for you. Hopefully it will have generated some leads for your business!
Please note the pricing for Australia Post was correct as of May 2009. Please contact Australia Post for their most recent prices.
A Guide to Creating a Direct Mail Campaign incorporating Promotional Products - To learn more about this author, visit Elyse Cabral's Website.
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging DivaŽ, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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