Direct Mail Procedure | MT1040

Direct Mail Procedure

The Direct Mail Procedure defines the process for developing and executing a direct mailing marketing plan to inform your company’s target market, build awareness in your company and its products, and increase sales, both on-line or off-line.

The Direct Mail Procedure applies to the marketing and/or sales manager and personnel assigned direct mail roles and responsibilities. (22 pages, 3527 words)

Direct Mail Responsibilities:

The Marketing Manager is responsible for developing the MT1040-3 DIRECT MAIL PLAN, ensuring its implementation, and reviewing the Plan and individual campaigns to ensure their effectiveness.

Customer Service Representatives are responsible for collecting responses (leads), updating the MT1060-2 LEADS DATABASE, and monitoring and reporting on the status of direct mail campaigns.

Direct Mail Definitions:

 Direct mail (DM) – Advertising sent by letter/parcel carrier directly to a target market, usually about a product or service, and designed to evoke a positive response (e.g., visit, inquiry, or purchase order).

Direct marketing – Communicating directly with a customer or business to generate a response in the form of an order, a request for further information, or a visit to a store or other place of business. The acronym “DM” is often used to refer to direct marketing as well as direct mail.

Direct response – Promotional method that solicits an immediate and measurable response, usually by mail and the Internet and occasionally by phone.

Direct Mail Procedure Activities

• Introduction/ Background
• Direct Mail Planning
• Direct Mail Campaign
• Monitoring and Measuring Direct Mail
• Adjusting the Direct Mail Plan

Direct Mail Procedure References

• Data Protection Act (UK)
• Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) (USA)
• 39 USC 335- Deceptive Mail Prevention and Enforcement Act (USA)
• 39 USC 30, 3001, Nonmailable Matter, and 3009, Mailing of Unordered Merchandise (USA)

Direct Mail Procedure Forms

• Direct Mail Planning Worksheet Form
• Direct Mail Budget Worksheet Form
• Direct Mail Plan Form

What Direct Mailing Marketing Teaches Us

Lean and other business improvement methods can help increase your production of goods and services without increasing spending. But translating that into revenue means you need more sales. And sales start with leads. Where will new leads come from?

We can learn a lot by apply methods learned from Direct Mailing Marketing to lead generation or internet marketing. You can attract the prospects most interested in the benefits that you offer by crafting marketing messages from your customer’s perspective, and leveraging the reach of the Internet. Does your sales and marketing process help craft messages from your customer’s perspective?

Connect with your Prospects

Consider what keywords your prospects are thinking, and using, at the time when they are in a frame of mind to care. Otherwise, your website may become just one more lonely corner on the Internet. Only much later will it be time to differentiate your product from all the others. Remember; connect first. Show-and-tell later, much later, maybe never. There are better ways to connect.

First prospects have to know that you have been listening to them, that you understand their concerns, their needs and wants. That’s why great Direct Mailing Marketing content is never about you. It’s about them. But that’s hard to write. Right?

Is Great Content Missing from Lead-Generation Programs?

There are internet marketing techniques for getting people to your site, known as search engine optimization. When you get them there, site visitors need a reason to care, and a reason to click around. For that to happen, your content needs to click with them.

In the art of copywriting, you must dole out content in spoonfuls, leading visitors one click at a time until your goal for their visit has been achieved; for example, when they have volunteered their identity to you and agreed to receive your marketing messages.

Despite the reach of on-line marketing, most sales still originate off-line because very few companies effectively relate to their audience on-line. Most organizations write about themselves, which presents a competitive advantage for those who know better.