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Historical roots DMs go back to the 18th century, during the period of active development of mail. In the 19th century, notices and catalogs were actively sent out through its means. And in the middle of the 20th century, DM became one of the highly profitable advertising industries.
In modern Europe and America, the share of DM in the total advertising budget of companies is 35% and 58%, respectively.
In Russia, DM became widespread in the early 90s. in Moscow. In 1991, the first several RAs with a focus on EBM appeared in Moscow. Today there are more than 200 of them in Moscow, and about the same number in Russian cities.
A sharp jump in the DM industry occurred after the default. - 11%.
Thus, there is an active formation of a promising advertising industry. The benefits of EBM are related to:
- the direct nature of advertising communication, the opportunity to contact the respondent directly
- selectivity, territoriality of distribution
- the personality of the message, the individuality of the impact on the client
- higher final communication efficiency
- ease of measuring the economic efficiency of a DM campaign
- opportunity to transfer large number information
- the opportunity to work in an uncompetitive space
- efficiency of mailing
- the opportunity to conduct market research (for this, questionnaires are sent by mail and respondents are promised any benefits for completing the questionnaire)
This is especially interesting when it is necessary to study the demand for a product without resorting to large-scale research. We sent out questionnaires, looked at the market reaction, and we can make decisions objectively.
DM in marketing practice is used especially effectively when selling:
- Expensive goods and services
- Highly specialized products
- Consumer goods in areas where there is a lack of information
There are expert assessments regarding the effectiveness of application in a particular industry (in descending order):
- industrial and construction equipment
- electrical equipment and building materials
- transport and sale of spare parts
- medical equipment
- perfumery
- food products for gourmets
- books (encyclopedias, etc.), subscriptions to newspapers and magazines
- new clothes
- insurance services
The key to DM success is a powerful and up-to-date database.
The address database for each case must be developed individually and be unique.
Types of address databases:
- Lists of clients with whom the company has already worked
- Lists of those who contacted us at least once
- Compiled lists - most common option- consist of various databases:
Mail databases
Regional and industry electronic and printed databases
Address and telephone directories
Exhibition catalogues, periodicals
Internet sites, etc.
Criteria for evaluating address databases
- Database support and update
Complexity and labor intensity. Constant work is needed to adjust the base. Before placing an order, you must view the date of the last update of the database
- Structuring the base- the more accurate it is, the greater the efficiency
- Volume- large bases are difficult to clean
- Organizations included in the list- stationary (large firms - ChTZ, ChMZ - they will not disappear) and dynamic (small firms may disappear)
In the West, there are “Robinson lists” - people who fundamentally do not want to see advertising.
Main mistakes of DM:
- Saving on the number of recipients (you can’t save unless we have a very limited clientele. It’s better to send to all potential clients several times)
- Empty content of sent materials
- Ineffective design, text and printing
- No personal appeal
- Lack of feedback (in the simplest version, the phone numbers, addresses and email of the sender must be provided)
- Constantly busy phone, inexperienced manager, etc.
1. General information (the effect is usually 0.1 - 0.3% of reviews)
2. Detailed information about the product (after 3 weeks)
3. New offers, discounts, additional services, etc. (20% of reviews, on average every fifth contact is triggered)
The effect of DM begins within a week, reaches its apogee after 3 weeks, and fades away within 2 months.
At the same time, if the customer was sent a detailed catalog with complete information, it can work in a year.
IN recent years Facsimile and e-mail, as well as corporate (not postal) mailing or delivery of messages, are added to the traditional media of communicative marketing appeal. All this makes the phrase direct mail rather arbitrary.
Direct mail is a great way to advertise and make yourself known to any company. The beauty of this advertising method is that even with a very small budget you can achieve amazing results. The cost of sending emails is approaching zero. Of course, this doesn't mean that this type of advertising won't cost you a penny. Both the work of the copywriter and designer who will compose the letters, as well as the database through which the mailing will be sent, have their value. But, all these costs are several times lower compared to other types of marketing activities. Advertising on TV, printing catalogs and participating in specialized exhibitions will still cost more.
What can you send by mail?
- catalogs and booklets,
- souvenir products,
- books and magazines, as well as audio and video materials,
- your commercial offer,
- sets of product samples.
You can successfully develop an entire strategy for using mailings throughout the year. So, in one company it was customary to congratulate business partners. But the budget did not allow for a big gift, and besides, the partners were mostly women, and I wanted to impress them. Therefore, the marketing department decided to implement courier delivery small gifts. The set for March 8th consisted of a rose and a bag of fish. Food and care instructions included. This unusual decision caused a storm positive emotions, the company was great. None of the partners changed their mind about breaking up business relations and look for new suppliers.
Conducting direct mail advertising
Firstly, no one will 100% convince you exactly what to do. Each case is unique, and therefore you will have to study your clients very well before sending them anything.
It is worth understanding that any contact with a client is a potential opportunity to either gain trust or lose it. You cannot send letters when they will irritate the client.
Basics of direct mail - sending letters via e-mail
- Be clear about your target audience. Who exactly will the message be intended for? Your audience should be segmented, divided into groups.
- Decide which medium and communication channel to use in this case. Since direct mail is direct mailing, a person can receive information using mobile phone, email or regular mail. It's up to you to decide which channel to use.
- Which offer will outweigh the client's hesitation? You invest money in the newsletter. One way or another you expect to get results. But the client does not expect to part with the money. Therefore, you need to make a unique offer that would weigh in your favor, and the client would easily agree to pay you. What exactly will prompt the client to choose in your favor and buy? But first you need to try to get the person to at least stop his attention on the letter and read it. So let’s move on to the next point.
- It is important to create an attractive, catchy title. It's easier said than done, but without an attention-grabbing headline, it's unlikely to go any further. A person can simply delete the message and remember that the information was unnecessary, and sending messages from you was repulsive. Next time it will be even more difficult to gain attention. Therefore, you need to carefully prepare for any advertising campaign.
So, let's summarize. Direct mail is a marketing tool that allows you to effectively and quickly attract the attention of a potential client. Unfortunately, no one can tell you the formula for mailing efficiency.
Direct mail in business - video
In Russia, direct mail is still not as popular as in the West, and therefore there is an opportunity to learn from other people's examples and experiment. But at the same time, you need to be as careful as possible and understand that serious mistakes will only damage the company’s reputation. The second time, a person may simply refuse to read the correspondence coming from you, and then direct mail advertising will be completely ineffective.
Direct mail (or direct mail, DM) is a personal advertising message to a specific person, sent using postal item to his address. Over the years, direct mail has remained one of the most... effective means advertising and direct marketing. The number of its types is constantly growing, some are losing their power, such as fax mailing, while others, like email mailing, are just increasing their power.
Types of direct mail in media planning
Today, direct mail can be divided into four main types:
– traditional mail,
– email,
Each of them has its own disadvantages and advantages, and its own specific use.
Address database (mailing lists) in direct mail
Typically, the database contains the most important demographic information, as well as, if possible, information about the lifestyle of potential buyers.
For example:
Demographics:
- age;
- floor;
- education;
– occupation;
- income;
– family composition (presence of children, etc.);
– availability of housing (quality characteristics);
– availability of a car (quality characteristics);
etc.
Lifestyle data:
– attitude towards the brand;
– presence of pets;
– attitude towards tourism (preferences);
– attitude towards sports (preferences);
– attitude towards entertainment (preferences: books, cinema, restaurants, water parks...);
– response rate to previous direct mail offers;
etc.
Of course, it is very important to imagine not only the age, gender, income of the potential buyer, but also how he will react to the mail offer.
Mailing lists can be either specially developed or received by the broker for temporary use from any organization that earns additional money in this way. Some organizations with customer or member lists of hundreds of thousands or even a million addresses can earn up to half a million dollars a year.
Lists can not only be rented for money, but also exchanged between interested companies. In this case, they can be provided as lists former buyers, and current clients.
Experts distinguish three types of lists:
– own lists,
– lists compiled based on responses,
– compiled lists.
Proprietary lists are databases of former or current proprietary clients or members. They are compiled on the basis of various sources - personal data, data on concluded transactions, etc. Those companies that maintain their own lists are usually those whose databases have shown interest from participants in the DM market. List building should not only pay for itself, but also be profitable.
Lists compiled from responses are databases third party organizations. They usually consist of the addresses and names of people who have responded to mail advertising previously, have an interest in a particular product/product category and have expressed a willingness to buy it. More often, such lists are used by participants in the consumer rather than b2b market.
Lists compiled on the basis of responses can be lists of previous customers, visitors to any trade, educational and other events, subscribers of various publications, credit and club card holders, philanthropists, etc. These lists can be either separate or combined, in which duplicate names are excluded.
Compiled lists are third party databases. They do not have data about the buyer's interest in a particular product/product category, they include zip codes, demographics and other data. Typically, such lists are used in cases where it is not important for the company whether a potential client has responded to an email offer previously.
Renting and purchasing direct mail mailing lists
List owners will determine whether mailing to a third party would harm their own interests before submitting a list.
List managers serve list owners. They adjust listings by receiving updated data from owners, fulfill orders and maintain accounts. Often, list managers rent out lists other than their owners.
Listing brokers receive a commission from the listing owner or listing manager and do not charge renters. They advise tenants, help them conduct business, and can provide discounts to their clients for large orders. Listing brokers can provide the tenant with useful information about the lists: test results, how the lists helped other companies in similar situations, etc.
There is usually a very large number of various lists, which are assessed by size (number of names), by type (recipient profile, product category focus), by average order size (cost of an average purchase by mail), by mail base (what percentage of addresses are created based on direct mail promotions), “warm-up” of customers (making an order as soon as possible after mailing), according to the purchasing activity of customers (“hot” - ready to buy, “warm” - thinking, “cold” - not thinking, but capable of buying). The more criteria are specified in the list, the more targeted the mailing can be organized.
1. Creating an effective “tabloid”
The purpose of the “tabloid” is to open the letter
The "From" field and the subject of the email are the main key to efficient work your letter. Even if a person has signed up to receive relevant mailings, he may not be able to discern your letter in a large flow of incoming mail.
According to statistics, subscribers open and view no more than 30% of letters, and follow links in no more than 10% of all sent letters.
At the time of viewing the letter, the subscriber may be in a different mood, state, and his interests may be on a different plane. Only those subscribers who are interested in the letter show interest in at the moment are motivated and ready to read your message.
The work of the “tabloid” is aimed at updating the relevant needs of the subscriber and creating motivation to view the letter.
What to write in the “From” field
This field is intended to indicate the name of the organization that is sending the letter. However, in the field of visibility of most email services, this field contains about 25 characters. If the company name is too long, you should include abbreviations, or write the part of the company name that is most clearly associated with your company.
If your company has a brand known to a wide audience, indicating the usual spelling of the company brand increases the number of emails viewed several times. When a company's name is a brand, it is a serious competitive advantage.
In our experience, different email services react differently to the presence of quotes and other special characters in the “From” field. It is better to avoid such characters so that your letter does not end up in junk mail, which will sharply reduce the likelihood of it being viewed.
Examples successful writing"From" fields:
- MIRBIS Business School
- PWC training programs
- MBS schedule news
- RANH MBA programs
- Skolkovo news
- MBS shares
How to formulate a “working” subject line
Our many years of experience in direct mailings convinces us that maximum efficiency in opening letters can be achieved when the subject line of the letter is:
- Intriguing, arouses curiosity
- Contains an element, a word, that allows a person to identify this letter with themselves. For example, a person’s name or his profession, interest.
- The subject line is brief and at the same time maximally capacious in terms of semantic load; it maximally summarizes the essence of the message of the letter.
- Reflects the “zest” of your offer, its uniqueness, and main advantages that meet the needs of the target audience
- Contains verbs that encourage the user to take action
Examples of successful writing subject lines:
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2. Compiling the “body” of the letter and its structure
The body of the letter can be divided into several working parts.
First part letters are an appeal to the user. Personally addressing a person by name gives him a feeling of trust if he understands where he received this letter from. In the case of sending branded letters from the site edu.jobsmarket.ru, the personalized message is output automatically in the letter.
Second part The letter should answer several questions to the subscriber as briefly and succinctly as possible:
- Who applies
- For what reason (in what context) does he apply?
- What exactly does it offer?
The effect of “offering” something to a subscriber from a serious and well-known company is extremely important, since it increases his self-esteem, gives him a sense of belonging to a certain professional community and forms a positive attitude towards your message.
Typical mistakes:
- Too detailed, detailed information overloads the reader and causes negative emotions; the person simply does not reach the link
- The lack of information about who is contacting the subscriber causes distrust and a frivolous attitude towards the letter
- The lack of understanding by the reader of the context of the letter, formulated at the maximum level of generalization of information about the essence of the proposal at the very beginning, causes a general lack of understanding of what is being offered and why the subscriber needs it.
The second part of the letter should fit on the first screen of the subscriber's computer. This is a very important principle. 60-80% of people do not read the letter further.
Third part writing is intended for people with more concrete thinking, prone to more detailed analysis information for which short and succinct information is not enough to click on the link and get acquainted with the detailed offer or register for the event.
When providing details of a proposal, do not give the reader all the information. Leave intrigue, provoke curiosity, leave motivators for moving to your website, where there is a description of a detailed offer and a registration form.
Part four letters - wishes and signature. As a rule, these are fairly standard formulations. But this part of the letter is required. It is necessary to demonstrate the seriousness of your proposal and respect for the reader.
3. Successful elements of writing
Every effective email contains elements that allow you to control the user's attention and achieve a good result.
Such elements can be special addresses, sentences containing verbs in the imperative mood.
For example, you can write a narrative with an infinitive verb and insert an active link to it to go to the registration form. But the effect will be stronger if you put a specially highlighted link or button in a separate line indicating the action “Register for a free lesson”, or “Find out more”, “Ask a question”, “Register and get a discount”.
Graphic elements of the letter (pictures, symbols) can additionally attract attention to the most important information letters.
Individual thoughts of the letter should be separated by lines, and links should be highlighted. The letter should have a certain rhythm in its visual structure.
Contact information in the letter is an additional opportunity not to lose a client. If it is important for you that the user goes to the site and gets acquainted with full version your proposal, please include your contact information at the end of the letter.
You should not use different fonts, many font sizes and many colors. This creates chaos in the perception of information and disorients the reader.
4. Client illusions that lead to disappointment
The most common illusions of clients are quite typical and we often have to convince clients that this is not how the product and information should be presented in email newsletters. To ensure that you are not disappointed by the results of your newsletter, you need to understand that an email newsletter is a channel of communication with the target audience of a product, a tool for stimulating sales, and creating a base of potential buyers. The buyer makes the final purchasing decision on your side, on your website, during the work of your managers. Selling is the job of your sales force.
1 illusion: the more information contained in the letter, the more interest in the product and purchases there will be.
The person reading the letter is in a wide information field. At the time of reading a letter, a person may have different focuses of his interests. Getting someone interested and focused on your message is an art. Do you like reading long and detailed proposals from companies? How many sentences of a letter do you usually read? So your reader experiences negative emotions when he sees a huge letter with a lot of details. Long letters are not readable at all. This has been tested in practice. The letter should be no more than 2 screens in length. The first screen should contain the maximum general information and links, in the second screen details of the offer and product benefits.
Rule 1: necessity and sufficiency.
2 illusion: the product is absolutely wonderful, the name and description of the product are enough to sell it.
There are many details in the presentation of a product that require serious elaboration. marketing strategies, positioning the product on the market, highlighting the unique advantages of the product (UDT), its competitive advantages, differentiation from competitors, highlighting similar products from the background. All this information must be contained in the letter. If you simply offer to buy your product, the reaction will be minimal. The presentation of the product should contain intrigue, energy, information that convinces the potential buyer that this particular product is capable of in the best possible way satisfy the client's needs. Of no small importance is the validity of the price of the product, as well as the development of special promotions, the allocation of privileged quotas, grants, discounts, etc. There are no ready-made recipes here. Each product is unique and you need to look for an individual presentation strategy for each product.
Rule 2: product positioning, UDT differentiation, differentiation from competitors.
3 illusion: the client must make a purchase immediately after reading the letter.
Writing is only a tool that creates top part funnels of consumers who have a need for your product. In order for a potential client to move towards making a purchasing decision, you must think through the motivation for this movement. An important element of working with a client is the company’s website, where detailed information about the product is posted, registration forms, application forms for consultation or purchase, and contact information are located. Often it is poor website navigation that leads to a lack of purchases and customer requests.
A customer's call or request also does not mean a purchase. Here, the motivation to buy is created by proper communication, a quick response to the potential client’s questions, and the proactive position of the customer service manager. When clients ask us questions: why there are a lot of clicks but no purchases, we analyze the work of your company’s sales managers, make test requests and calls, and tell you our conclusions about the quality of customer service. Often the reason for lack of purchases lies in communications with customers. There were cases when a client received a call 3 weeks later after submitting an application from the website!
There is another distortion associated with this illusion. Clients believe that even very expensive and complex products can be sold through mailing lists, such as MBA programs, business education costing over 500 thousand, etc. This strategy is fundamentally wrong. Offering to buy expensive and complex products through a letter is pointless. To make a decision, a potential client needs much more information and needs trust in your company. For proper operation with clients in such cases it is required:
— organization of special presentations, information sessions, free seminars, etc.
— informing the client about financial mechanisms purchases expensive products: installment plan, loan, phased payment, etc.
When average cost purchases from 300,000 rub. you must focus your sales staff on active sales and personal follow-up with each potential client. It is a huge illusion that buyers have to line up and bring you money right away.
A letter aimed at selling expensive and complex products should contain invitations to such presentations, information sessions, free seminars, and not directly motivate to buy an expensive and complex product.
Rule 3: A letter is a tool for creating a funnel of interested buyers. Making a purchasing decision is the result of communication with a potential client by your sales staff.
4 illusion: the buyer must read everything that was written to him
The essence of this illusion is disrespect for the potential client. The letter must in every possible way emphasize your respect for the potential buyer, your concern for him and the best satisfaction of his needs. The red thread of the letter should be respect for the client, emphasizing his sense of self-esteem, significance, and professional identification. Without such a message in the letter, there will be no purchases.
Rule 4: respect for the reader of the letter.
Direct mail- one of the directions of direct marketing.
Direct mail (Address mailing)- This is usually sending paper letters in postal envelopes.
Direct by email call the organization of targeted mailing, which allows solving many problems, the main of which are introducing potential consumers and clients to the brand, communicating information about the availability of a new product or service, attracting and retaining customers.
More often Direct mail- This letters with information about the brand, an offer of a product or service, or an invitation to an exhibition or other event.
The average response rate is 1-3%, which is considered normal.
The results of direct mail are significantly influenced by the degree to which the email list matches the target audience. Addressed advertising requires a serious approach to creating a database, because well-chosen mailing addresses matter more than its content and design.
Using direct mail you can solve the following 4 problems:
- Getting new clients is something we all have to do at one time or another.
- Maintaining contact with existing clients through frequent “soft” or “persistent” communications.
- Cross-selling additional products and services.
- Ensuring repeat sales. You retain existing customers.
Interesting examples of Direct mail:
Canada's Gray agency is sending out cardboard gramophones to show off how superior they are to the competition.
Microsoft held promotion in Berlin and sent out concrete envelopes with the slogan “Tear down the wall” or “Break through the window.” The letter was accompanied by a hammer, with which the envelope was destroyed. The promotion was intended to stimulate growth in sales of the company's software products.
In honor of " world day water” the “Green Belgium” campaign took place.
The letter inside can only be read after spending some time underwater.
Tips for using Direct Mail:
- Tease your audience by starting the message already on the envelope.
- Start with your best offer.
- Show and tell with visuals. To attract attention, place pictures, charts and graphs already on the envelope.
- Try to surprise and even shock! Something different, unique, unusual. At the same time, remain who you are, do not lose your image and do not be like others.
- Draw people on the envelope. Purchasing decisions are made by people, not companies and associations.
- Talk about benefits to your audience. People don't buy red buttons, they buy what happens when you press red buttons. These are the benefits.
- Write facts and figures directly on the envelope. This will attract attention and make the reader look inside.
- Use photos. They make you believe more than illustrations.
- Use envelopes with windows through which “something” will be visible.
- Always use the back of an envelope because three out of four people will turn an envelope over before opening it.