Direct Mail Marketing Tips for Retailers

Direct mail marketing tips to drive retailers more traffic to your front door.

Business is lousy. The economy is sunken. You’re looking around your store and saying, “Where is everyone?”

Good news: If you’re a retailer, here are some direct mail marketing tips to show you how to get people to show up at your door. If you work for a service business, here are some direct mail tips that show you how to make your phone ring. If you own a restaurant, I usually get hungry around 7 pm If the campaign works really well, I’ll bring some friends.

1. Track the response of all your direct mail.

Learn what works in your direct mail program and, just as important, what doesn’t. Leave a notepad next to each phone and when you get a call, at the beginning of the conversation, say, “And how did you hear about us?” Write the answer on the notepad and throw that paper in a specific drawer and forget about it. At the end of the month, count all the slip-ups and you’ll have a pretty good idea of ​​which direct mail campaign brought in the most customers.

2. The best direct mail campaign of all time: Send to your home list.

No matter what industry you’re in, what you’re selling, or what type of business you own, your direct mail strategy and direct response email campaign should have only one priority: regularly emailing your home list. . This is the most effective and lowest cost direct marketing strategy you can have. Hmmm… Lowest cost? More effective? Any questions?

Preferred customer sales, private sales, presale access before opening to the general public – make the people on your home mailing list feel special. They are. Start by collecting the names and addresses of current customers. If you don’t have an “internal file” of clients, a list of the names and addresses of all your clients, start one now. This will become your most valuable asset.

Get people on your FREE Preferred Customer mailing list every time! Keep a card by the cash register and by the front door, or both. Don’t be afraid to recommend each person who fills out the card so you can put them on your private mailing list to receive special offers and preferential customer treatment (and prices!)

3. Specify direct mail lists to target your “best prospects” and get a customer for $0.44

Depending on your type of business, getting new customers through direct mail can be a precisely targeted direct marketing campaign sent only to your best prospects, with no wasted advertising expense. Send your direct mail to geographic targets (near your store), demographic targets (people similar to your current customers who like/can afford to shop at stores like yours), and industry-related staff, in the specific markets you serve care, hearing aids, etc.).

Additionally, direct mail lists can be specified based on zip code, income, number of children and ages, pets, home value, net worth, and an endless variety of other parameters. Think about what characteristics your current customers have and order your mailing list with people who have similar traits. If you don’t have a great list of direct mail prospects, start one of those mailing lists now. Yes right now.

4. Send a gift certificate

A gift certificate is inexpensive to print, lightweight, and inexpensive to mail. The pretty letter you send with her? Same. The goodwill it generates, invaluable. A gift certificate is a double-duty piece of direct marketing. It’s good for the customer and great for you too. Gift Certificates A) bring people to your store; B) offer discounts on selected surplus merchandise; C) they are cheap to print and D) light to mail; E) they are naturally easy to track with great precision; and F) always have a high perceived value. They work with new and returning clients. To make sure people open your envelope, print “Gift Certificate Enclosed!” in the envelope.

Best of all, a gift certificate has a cost only if the customer actually shows up and redeems it. No customer, no cost.

5. A direct marketing campaign to get referrals

Feel free to ask any of your best customers if they have any friends they’d like you to send them a $5 gift certificate—with their compliments, of course. As an added incentive and surprise bonus, mail an additional gift certificate to the referring customer. Include a letter that says, “Thank you for the recommendation.” Then send the new referred prospect a letter and gift certificate – courtesy of your original customer (and you, personally).

This “referral method” is one of the most effective direct mail campaigns on the planet and is the best way to acquire new (and similar) customers who immediately have faith and trust in you, your company, your services. Cost of customer acquisition for this direct marketing campaign: only $0.44 in shipping costs. That five dollar gift certificate? Well, that has been deducted from the bill for the merchandise or the food: so it didn’t really cost you five dollars, did it? It was the discounted cost of their products.

Whether used for new customer acquisition, referrals, or to keep customers coming back to your store, direct marketing campaigns using gift certificates are one of the most effective uses of direct mail. This is one of the best marketing tips for any business. All of your direct marketing campaigns should include some form of referral marketing techniques and gift certificates to make this campaign easy to succeed.

6. Specify geographic direct mail lists to precisely target your retail market

Retail direct mail campaigns typically target a geographic center. Everyone likes to shop in their own backyard. Limit your direct mail marketing to people who live or work within driving distance. That “geographic market segment” rating of your prospects varies by store type and average sale. Generally speaking, the bigger the ticket item you sell, the longer people will drive to get it.

Reaching people with your direct mail can get expensive fast, especially if you’re reaching the wrong group of people who aren’t buying your products or services. On the contrary, since direct mail can be tightly targeted, it can be the most effective and measurable marketing method you can use.