Corrections or additions?
This article by Kathleen McGinn Spring was prepared for the February 5, 2003 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Direct Mail’s Magic
What is the very best piece of direct mail you can send?
No, it’s not a four-color postcard offering a free massage, or a
sweepstakes
letter promising wealth beyond imagining. It’s the type of missive
your mother started hounding you to send as soon as you could clutch
a pencil.
“The most effective piece of direct mail is a thank-you
letter,”
says Jeff Dobkin, owner of a Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania,
marketing
company specializing in direct mail (www.dobkin.com), and the author
of How to Market a Product for Under $500. While unexpected, his
advice
sounds right-on logical. What client expects an out-of-the-blue
thank-you
letter, a simple expression of gratitude asking for nothing at all?
The novelty value alone separates this direct mail campaign from the
mountains of envelopes every business receives every day.
Dobkin speaks on “How to Double Your Mailing Response” on
Tuesday, February 11, at 11:30 a.m., when he addresses New Jersey
CAMA at the Doral Forrestal in Princeton. Cost: $45. Call
609-397-3737.
Dobkin backed into a career in marketing. After graduating from
Oglethorpe
College he invented a product — a burglar alarm for motorcycles
— and set about marketing it himself, reading every marketing
book he could lay his hands on. After he sold the burglar alarm
company,
he set up an advertising and marketing agency. He had always enjoyed
writing, and taught himself the graphics end of the business.
“I had all kinds of clients,” he says. “I did all kinds
of advertising and marketing for 10 years.” Then the Mac computer
came out. Suddenly, he recounts, clients began doubting his role:
“Why do I need Dobkin? He only used one or two typefaces. I have
300 on my computer!”
Dobkin recalls the period immediately post-Mac as one of amazingly
ugly ads, but at the time he had little inclination to fight his
clients’
childlike joy in creating their own multi-color, multi-typeface,
clip-art
filled advertisements. He devoted himself to direct marketing, a form
of advertising he had always liked anyway. “With direct mail,”
he says, “you get attribution.” If the campaign works, the
results are apparent right away, and are easy to quantify — 10
responses per 100 mailings; four sales appointments; and two sales,
for example.
As much as Dobkin likes direct mail, he stresses that there are some
ways to use it that are better than others, and some strategies that
keep the mailings out of the circular file:
Mail during the winter. “If it’s an 85 degree dayin May, are you going to be reading mail?” asks Dobkin. And ifMay — with its fragrant blossoms and novel, warm sun — isa poor month to be sending out solicitations by mail, June, July,and August are worse. In those months vacations join glorious weatheras reasons to neglect all non-essential mail. December, with its rushof parties and shopping, isn’t great either.The best time to send out a mailing is the season when the weatheris so bleak that nearly any letter looks like an entertainmentpossibility.In short, now. Or better yet, February. Or even March, with its nastywinds.Aim for Tuesdays. You don’t want your direct mail to hiton a Monday. Mail travels on weekends, there are no deliveries onSunday, and volume is highest on Monday. Dobkin uses a post officebox, and has observed this pattern over a number of years. He hasalso observed that the fewest number of letters arrive on a Tuesday.Add to light volume the fact that Tuesday is not normally crammedwith interesting social events, and it is easy to see why he suggestsaiming for a Tuesday delivery for direct mail.Wednesday is the second-best day for direct mail delivery, and”Thursdayis good too,” says Dobkin.Mail to people you know. The most effective direct mailis sent to clients with whom your company has a relationship. It ispossible to purchase mailing lists, but it is better to compile yourown, including clients, individuals met at trade fairs, and anyonewho has expressed an interest in your product — or one like it.Send six to seven letters. Just one letter might be allright if it is sent to a highly-targeted audience. But often, onemailing is not enough to grab your prospects’ attention. One hundredletters, on the other hand, would be overkill and a waste ofresources.If a prospect shows no interest after six or seven letters, chancesare that he never will. Forget him and move on.Make the letters build on one another. Don’t just sendthe same offer again and again. Create six or seven different letters,each building on the one before it. The first might be anintroduction,the second a description of a product, the third an invitation toan event, and so on. Each letter should refer to the one that precededit.While sending a letter to qualified prospects works well inbusiness-to-business situations, especially where the universe ofpotential clients is small, this approach will not work for a consumerbusiness trying to get the word out to a large audience.If you are opening a French restaurant, for instance, the mosteffectiveform of direct mail could be a press release. Instead of trying toreach every prospective customer directly, create a compelling newsrelease and hope that your local news outlets do the job for you.And although it’s not required — and certainly not expected —consider dropping your radio station a thank you note if it runs anannouncement of your opening.Previous StoryNext StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
