5 Ways to Build Your Mailing List

Direct mail marketing remains a powerful and effective way to reach potential customers, especially when combined with digital strategies. But lists don’t build themselves out of thin air. You have to make them! How do you do that? Let’s look at five proven techniques to take your existing list, improve it, and boost your results.

1. Purchase a trade show attendee list

Trade shows are industry-specific events that attract decision-makers and potential clients. Acquiring an attendee list from crucial trade shows in your market vertical can provide you with a highly targeted audience. Trade show attendees also tend to be decision-makers, so this is a high-value add.

2. Purchase a Media List

Specialty magazines, including trade magazines, have well-defined target audiences; some may be willing to sell or rent their subscriber lists. These lists often come with valuable demographic breakdowns, making them effective tools for targeted marketing.

3. Tap Your Content Marketing

If you have a content marketing strategy, capitalize on it to build your direct mail list. For instance, if you offer an e-newsletter, ask recipients for their street addresses during sign-up. Similarly, when website visitors download white papers or case studies, prompt them to fill out an online registration form with an option to provide their contact information. By collecting this data, you can expand your direct mail list with engaged prospects who have already shown interest in your content.

4. Use Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM)

Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) from the United States Postal Service is an affordable way to target households within a specific demographic radius. While EDDM lists do not include individual names, they are highly cost-effective. Not only are these campaigns inexpensive to mail, but once particular recipients respond, you now own those contacts and have their names.

5. Purchase a Cloned List

If you already have a productive direct mail list, consider leveraging it to create a cloned list. Start by creating a profile of your best customers based on demographics, interests, and buying behavior. Then purchase a list that closely mirrors this profile to expand your reach in your local area or help you move into a new one.

A successful direct mail campaign requires a great list. By utilizing the techniques discussed above, you can improve the accuracy of your targeting and reach new, high-value prospects just like them.

5 Tips for Refreshing Your Design

No matter how effective your direct mail, marketing collateral, and emails have been in the past, every marketing toolbox needs a refresh now and then. Is it time for yours? If so, here are five tips for giving your projects a fresh look.

1.   Update your colors. There are few things more important than the colors you choose. While some colors are perennial, such as white, navy blue, gray, and black, “trendy” colors and palettes change over time. Every year, PANTONE puts out its “color of the year,” as do the leaders in markets such as paint, fashion, and interior design. Use these to inform your color choices.  

2.   Go heavy on the visuals. It has been said that people only read 20% – 28% of the words on any given page. That’s why photographs, illustrations, and graphs are so important. Not only does the brain process images 60,000 times faster than text, but when relevant images are paired with text, people remember that information 65% of the time.

3.   Keep it short. Keep your text to a minimum. According to Who’s Mailing What!, an online database of nearly 150,000 mailpieces, the average amount of text on a direct mailpiece is 25% less than in the past. People are busier than ever, so keep it short and sweet. Use your mailings to drive people online or to call for more information.

4.   Add more white space. When it comes to marketing, white space is a good thing. Let your text and images “breathe.” Keep your information punchy. Tell your story in lists and bullet points to make your message even quicker and easier to absorb.

5.   Tap into social proof. Buyers trust each other more than they do brands, so incorporate what is called “social proof.” Add Google or Yelp! Reviews. Work in testimonials from social media. Add official logos and badges such as PayPal Verified or McAfee Secure to ensure credibility and trustworthiness.

Your marketing materials are your "face to market." Customers and prospects will judge the quality, credibility, and trustworthiness of your brand based on what they see. So keep your face fresh. Make sure that your face to market represents who you are and everything you stand for today.

Relevance: The Key to Success in Personalized Printing Campaigns

The ability to tailor documents with precision, incorporating variables like gender, income, and geographic location, holds immense potential in print and email marketing. But savvy marketers know that data points, by themselves, don’t make communication effective. So what does? Relevance.

Relevance is the secret ingredient that transforms a personalized document from simply compiling variables in a database into a compelling communication piece. So how do you create it? By getting to know your audience on a deeper level. Go beyond surface-level data and delve into their habits, preferences, and aspirations.

Say you promote women's all-natural health and beauty products, personalizing direct mailings based on name, age, and life stage. Despite experimenting with different variables, the response needs to be higher. At this point, it might be tempting to think personalized print doesn’t work.

Rather than abandoning the approach, however, you decide to dig deeper. You conduct a print or email survey to learn more about what motivates your audience. You discover that a significant percentage of your prospects are single moms. While they appreciate the value of natural products, budgets are tight, and time management is a greater priority than personal pampering.

Armed with this newfound knowledge, you can adjust the marketing pitch. Instead of focusing on the personal appeal of all-natural products, highlight their cost-effectiveness compared to commercial alternatives. You might emphasize how these products can boost energy levels, enhance sleep quality, and provide long-term health benefits for growing children.

The marketing pitch becomes more persuasive and relevant by tailoring the message to address the audience’s unique circumstances.

We’ve all heard the saying, "Knowledge is power." That holds in marketing, too. The power to understand customers profoundly and deliver relevant messaging enables you to unlock the full potential of personalized printing. When documents resonate with recipients personally, their impact is amplified, leading to higher response rates, increased engagement, and, ultimately, higher profits and revenues.