Why You Should Never Do Printed Direct Mail Just Once.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make in business is random acts of marketing.

This is when you do something the first time and regardless of the results never do it again. Say you do a flyer drop, and you get a good response, why wouldn’t you do the flyer drop again?

Better still, why wouldn’t you organise a sequence of flyer drops (or direct mail) to the same recipients over a tight time frame to harness the power of familiarity and repetition?

As a general rule if you create a sequence (multiple linked steps – referencing the previous steps) and send them over a tight timeframe of 45 to 60 days you’ll likely get a higher overall response compared to just sending a single shot mailing.

Steps two and three will usually double or triple the total response between them.

Why? (Actually, ‘why’ doesn’t matter, results do. But I’ll explain why anyway.)

You get better results from repetition simply because you are creating familiarity with your audience. Just because you drop the flyer or send the letter doesn’t mean that you’ve sent it at the right time for them to respond. Unfortunately, the world isn’t perfect. People mean to respond and don’t. They get side tracked, life moves on and they never respond. The repetition gets them to respond.

The good thing is, if you test and measure, you’ll know for sure how well each step has worked and if you’ve done the right number of steps and when you should stop.

Here’s how to do a three-step direct mail print campaign.

3 is a good place to start. Not too many steps it is overwhelming and not too few that you don’t get a reward for effort.

• Plan your mailing schedule.
• Prepare the three steps using a proven persuasion formula. I recommend using P.A.S.P.O.G.S. (Problem Agitate, Solve, Proof, Offer, Guarantee Scarcity/Urgency.) Be sure to mention previous mailings in steps two and three.
• Get them printed and fulfilled to your schedule (We can help you with this – so talk to us in the planning phase before you go off and prepare your 3 mailers).

Generally you’ll get as much response from steps two and three as you do from the first.

The repetition will have an impact. The impact needs to be measured in response. Where many ‘brand marketers’ fail is they don’t measure response. You need to know how many repetitions generate an acceptable response in your business. The rewards relative to the costs determine this.

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