As in most areas of business, defining of rules helps to plan and exercise controls for successful outcomes of various projects. This is no different in the area of B2C direct mail campaigns, here we explore five essential rules to make these a success.
Five essential rules for success from bakergoodchild
Here are five essential rules to include in any B2C direct mail campaign:
1) Be Legal
It stands to reason that the campaign needs to be “above board” and entirely legal. It’s worth mentioning this as some rogue direct mail operators fail to ensure this is the case. Work with a mailing house such as bakergoodchild who will ensure your campaign is fully legally compliant. This includes the use of only opted-in customer/prospect records which comply with the terms of the Data Protection Act and the EU’s – GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). For further information and if in doubt about legal compliance, call bakergoodchild before you mail your campaign!
2) Plan for success
You have probably heard the quote “If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail”. US President Benjamin Franklin is cited as originating this quote and this is also certainly true of a B2C direct mail campaign. There are a lot of factors to consider, e.g. products and services to market, identifying prospects, campaign timing, calculating costs and much more. Don’t rush into these type of campaigns, ensure you do your research and seek support from a specialist Mailing House such as bakergoodchild.
3) It’s Quality rather than Quantity which counts
Many campaign managers make the mistake of mailing to the masses rather than an optimised lower quantity subset. It’s well proven that personalisation based on factors such as demographics (e.g. gender and age, etc.), past behavioural buying patterns, previously expressed interests can massively improve campaign response rates.
Each individual mailing incurs a variable cost (print, mailing, postage costs, etc.), wherever possible avoid paying the variable cost by eliminating duplicated mailings (through data quality) and also through careful personalisation and mailing selection rules. Quality is better than quantity.
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4) Create an emotional connection
High response rates and attractive ROI’s (return on investment) is what every campaign manager is looking to achieve. These will only be attained if an emotional connection can be made with the recipient. Wherever possible personalise the mailing to each recipient (e.g. include an image of a past purchase, viewed product/service or perhaps an expressed interest). Gaining an emotional connection is likely to succeed in an emotional response which in turn will lead to campaign ROI.
5) Be clear and include a “call to action”
Above all else don’t be ambiguous, use carefully selected words and images, speak using “plain English” within the printed campaign materials. In particular, include a “call to action”, which leads the recipient in no doubt as to the next actions to take and any timescale limitations for offers.
But there are more than five rules!
We hear you and there are probably closer to fifty-five rules than five! We can only discuss the topic at a high-level here but clearly the more areas your business plans and controls for the better the likely successful outcome will be.
B2C direct mail support from bakergoodchild
We hope you have enjoyed our article about the five essential rules when planning a B2C direct mail campaign. For more help, advice and guidance why not call us here at bakergoodchild on 0800 612 1972 today? Or if you’d prefer, contact us at https://www.bakergoodchild.co.uk/contact/ and we will be in touch to advise on successful campaign approaches.
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