smallbusiness.co.uk: Helping your business think big

Direct mail can be a very cost-effective way for small businesses to reach new customers to drum up new business and to build stronger relationships with existing clients. It is an opportunity to engage with your customers through something tangible.

It's a highly targeted and personal form of marketing that's reportedly worth over £25 billion in sales revenue each year to the UK.

SmallBusiness.co.uk and Royal Mail have this list of points to consider when thinking about direct mail:

Refine your data - Data is at the heart of direct mail. Lists of names and addresses form the basis of every campaign. Refining this raw data helps to target your audience more accurately. It can provide a clearer and better understanding of potential customers, and the more information you can draw on, the more precise you can be in your targeting.

This kind of data can be bought to match your target audience, but you can also conduct market research in an effort to generate a database.

Personalise your mail - Once you have refined your data, try to tap into the interests of your clients and make your mail personal, without being over-familiar.

In any successful direct marketing there must be a compelling reason and convenient way for the customer to respond, like a limited offer only available by mail.

Design your mailshot - Many different formats can be used, including letters, postcards, leaflets, brochures, catalogues, DVDs and samples.

Don’t promise the world - You can make certain promises, but don’t over-do it. Offer to provide the solution to a specific problem, guarantee quality and value if you can substantiate the claim, but try to avoid superlatives like ‘life-changing’ or ‘best ever’.

Unique selling points - Focus on the benefits of a product, not on its technical features. Depending on your product, customers may not need to know technical information and it may put them off.

Think about timing - Try to target you customers when they are most susceptible to marketing for your product or service. Does your product have any seasonality in its sales cycle? Does your customer usually renew their product at a particular time of year?

Further information:
Royal Mail's ‘Mailshots Online’ service allows small businesses to put together a direct mail campaign on the web.

There’s advice on how to combine a mail pack with a well-chosen mailing list, a step-by-step guide to designing your own items and an online demo that guides you through the process.

For more small business information visit Royal Mail or access the Mailshots Online service.

Read also: A guide to organising a mailshot.

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