Integrating Direct Mail and Websites – Part 2

In marketing terms, the biggest difference between the two is that direct mail is proactive while websites are reactive.

In direct mail, you control you gets your message by choosing the right mailing list. You have no such control on who visits your website. Direct mail has four basic elements – list, offer, timing and creative execution.

The list is 40% of the success of a campaign. You can have copy written by Shakespeare and art by Van Gogh, but you won’t sell a lot of lawnmowers in Manhattan.

Offer is the next crucial item, responsible for about 30% of the success of a direct mail campaign. I tell prospects there are 3 words in the English language that get a person’s attention – Win, Free & Sex. Do a promotion that says “Win Free Sex” and you will get a high response rate. May not be legal, but your response rate is almost guaranteed. All you have to do is to look at Adam & Eve in Hillsborough to see the success of this formula.

Timing and creative are important – you want to reach a prospect when they are likely to buy and you want to have a clear concise message. You want a strong call for action and create a sense of urgency to buy now.

You cannot be as specific as to who comes to your website. Although you may think the search engines use magic to determine who comes up on a page, it’s not a random process.

Build it and they well come is not a strategy if you want to make your website an valuable marketing tool. Over the last several years, I have put together a team of professionals who can successfully create an effective website.

On my team, I have a great graphic designer who understands marketing. I have a writer. I have someone who can translate those words and images into the language the web understands – HTML.

However, building a search engine friendly website requires the additional skills of keyword analysis, link building and understanding analytics. Analytics is a fancy term for determining who is visiting your website, what keywords they are using to find you, and how long they are staying.

And you have to understand marketing, and that is my strength.

If you create a search engine optimized site that attracts your best prospects, you will have a successful campaign. If you do not optimize your site correctly, you can have a beautiful site that nobody sees.

Let’s look at how websites and direct mail complement each other. Both your direct mail and website need to be concise and clear.

But with website, you have the opportunity to give your prospect a lot more information. That’s why the two methods working in tandem complement each other.

With direct mail, you grab a person’s attention and invite him to respond. The biggest change over the last several years is that response is likely to be “visit our website.” You obviously want your website and mailer to share a similar “look & feel.” That’s called branding, where your image is reinforced every time a client/prospect contacts you.

It’s about consistency – repetition equals truth. Both direct mail and websites are accountable and measurable.

In direct mail, it’s obvious. You send out X number of mailers, and you get a Y response. You constantly test. With websites, the measuring is done with the analytics. The challenge is to find someone who can take that information and give you knowledge of how to modify your website. Implementing either a direct mail or website marketing campaign require specialized knowledge

There is no way that you can do your current work and still have time to master the intricacies of each marketing media. Designing even a simple postcard direct mail campaign requires knowledge of graphic design, printing, and mailing regulations. There is a reason there is for the expression “Go Postal.” And that is my job security.

If you want to put up an effective website, you need to know about such things as Cascading Style Sheets, W3c validation of your HTML code and how to use a content management system. Why bother when you can call MarketPlace-Solutions.com and get it done on time and on budget. Put us on your team. We look forward to working with you.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 16th, 2010 at 10:32 am and is filed under Direct Mail, Internet marketing, Marketing Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.