Myles Robinson

When talking about how to create successful direct mail, there is always a huge emphasis on the benefits of using personalisation within it.

It’s a fact that people are far more likely to buy from you if they feel that they are familiar with your brand and can trust you, which can be done by building a relationship through how you communicate within your direct mail campaigns.

There are lots of ways you can choose to add that personal touch to your direct mail. Many of these are simple techniques, like using the customer’s name to address them, which is much more personal than ‘homeowner’, and by including personalised product recommendations, so that the customer will feel like your company is taking a genuine interest in their purchase habits. Another way that you can increase your return on investment with direct mail is through using image personalisation.

The Impact of Images and the Power of Personalisation

The use of both imagery and personalisation are two great tools in their own right, proven by the statistic that around 84% of customers have said that if a brand were unable to personalise offers based on the customer’s preference and purchase history, they would no longer buy from them. In addition to this, a massive 98% of customers believe that the use of personalisation is very important.

However, you cannot understate the power of imagery either. Using an image is a brilliant way to capture the attention of a recipient as quickly as possible, in turn also appealing to the 65% of the population that are visual learners.

Why not combine both of these powerful techniques by using personalised images within your direct mail?

How do You Personalise Images in Direct Mail?

Any images you use with your direct mail campaign can be personalised in the same way that you personalise the content of the mail. You have to break it down using demographic factors like:

• Previous purchasing habits
• Age
• Sex
• Feedback from previous campaigns you’ve run or used data you’ve gathered

How does this help you decide what images to use? The majority of the male population are going to have a different preference to the female population, as well as the younger generation might not be to relate to the same images as those a lot older than they can. Relating images to someone’s interests will make them much more likely to convert. If you’re aiming to convert lots of different people, variable data printing is what you’re looking for.

Using Variable Data Printing

Variable data printing is one of the most successful ways of enhancing the return on investment of a direct mail campaign. This allows for multiple variations of a mailshot to be printed, such as different content and colour and multiple images, all within a single batch of printing.

By using this method, it means you can appeal to multiple customers, whilst still only printing the same number of items as if you were printing a batch of standard direct mail, all of this costing you the same in terms of money and time.

Using the Direct Mail Company to Personalise Your Direct Mail

By not personalising your direct mail, you can guarantee its chances of success will be massively decreased.

If you need assistance from a reputable mailing house, with gathering the correct data to personalise your direct mail, the personalisation itself or information on our Bulk Postage services, don’t hesitate to contact us today – sales@thedirectcompany.co.uk.

What is transactional direct mail?

It describes mail that is sent out to complete a transaction or exchange with an individual customer; basically, any mail that is not for marketing purposes.

Transactional mail covers a wide-range of applications and we have produced a detailed description of ten of these below:

1. Saying thank you to a customer

This is a simple yet very useful way of using transactional direct mail. By thanking a customer, simply just for their loyalty or for a recent order, adds a big personal touch to your overall marketing strategy. Doing this builds emotional rapport with the customer which is guaranteed to leave them wanting to shop with you again.

2. Recent receipt of an order

When a customer completes a new purchase, they are sent a form of transactional mail to confirm the order itself, show a list of what the customer has ordered and the total cost of the order. This should cause the customer to hand you up to date address information, which can be used as valuable data further down the line in the future.

3. Changes to an account

If your customer or you decide to make a change to an account, you typically have to send out transactional direct mail to confirm this, as well as to notify the customer in case the changes were not made by them. By doing this, it helps to reassure customers that any changes they have made recently have been confirmed and have come into effect, as they will have been provided with physical evidence.

4. Account updates

You can also receive other types of account updates through transactional mail, like receiving a new follower on social media or a general notification. This is a very adaptable piece of transactional mail, as people can adjust it to set how often they want to receive notifications like this, which is a good way of getting a full round up of the latest activity on their account.

5. Invoices

Invoices are a more formal example of transactional mail that have to be sent out with no marketing purpose, yet are still crucial to your business nonetheless. By invoicing using this method, you can keep a paper record of recent transactions as well as clearly displaying what is owed and why to the recipient.

6. Statements

These are very similar to invoices in the way that they also give a total breakdown and summary of the figures. They are an immensely helpful type of transactional mail and also offer snippets of figures, on a monthly basis, as well as being used to deliver an annual overview of an account.

7. Collection letters

Collection letters are also similar to invoices; however, they are written in a more urgent tone. Invoices are basically a recent receipt of order with the intent to explain to you what is owed, whereas collection letters demand more of an immediate action, like for instance these would be used by a company looking to collect on unpaid debts or loans.

8. Renewals

Renewals can be automatic or require action from the customer, either way, you can justify using transactional mail in both situations to continue to establish contact with the customer. For example, if a customer’s membership was due to run out, a piece of transactional mail is sent to inform them of this, either telling them it will renew automatically and another charge will be issued or if they want to renew it before it gets cancelled.

9. Changing agreements or T’s & C’s

It is very often that companies make changes to their agreements and T’s and C’s, this benefits both themselves and their customers, and using transactional main is the best way of emphasising this. It makes the receiver aware of the changes that have occurred, as well as allowing them to read through it themselves and re- sign any outstanding agreements that include the new changes.

10. Welcoming new registrations

This is one of the most important pieces of transactional mail and is sent immediately after a customer has signed up with a company. This gives the customer instant confirmation that they have been successfully registered with the business and can sometimes ask for verification. However, this still gives a personalised and warm feel to the customer when receiving it, helping to build a relationship between business and consumer.

Transactional mail with The Direct Mail Company

There is a massive range of transactional direct mail available to you and it’s crucial that you make use of each of the applications. This is so that you can deliver the most secure and successful strategy from the start to finish. Despite these types of mail not requiring as much marketing as Direct Mail, they still need to be well constructed to keep a customer happy and wanting to return over and over again.

Do you need our help making use of the many varied applications for transactional direct mail? Whether you need help managing your data or a mailing house to take care of the physical printing and mailing of the transactional mail itself, we are here to help you.

You can contact us today, The Direct Mail Company, for more information on our direct mail and bulk postage sales@thedirectcompany.co.uk or call us on 0808 2533 836.

Direct mail can have a massive impact on your audience. However, this relies on how well you choose to construct it. Last year a report from the Royal Mail showed that 83% of people surveyed preferred to receive direct mail than E-mail- contrary to popular opinion, people still enjoy receiving ‘old fashioned’ mail!

Creating your Campaign

Not sure where to start? Research into your best-selling products, find what your customers are most attracted to and create an offer they can’t resist based around that information- 62% of consumers enjoy receiving mail that contains relevant offers! Not many people enjoy reading through lots of pages of information and can easily lose interest, so make sure your content is direct and to the point, make it fast and easy for them to take advantage of what you’re offering them.

Creating your mail for your company can seem like an overwhelming task, particularly if it’s something completely new to you. There’s a lot to think about when creating your winning campaign, so it’s important to spend time planning and preparing to guarantee its effectiveness. However, some companies do not have the time or the resources to do this themselves, which is why choosing a mailing house that offers a complete end to end service, saving time, stress and money, is a fail-safe plan.

Bringing your Direct Mail to Life

Once you’ve constructed your campaign, you can work together with an experienced designer to make your direct mail distinctive straight off the doormat guaranteeing to keep your brand on their mind. By working with a designer, you can ensure that you stay true to your brand, as well as establish it by keeping your literature recognisable, as consumers are more likely to buy into a brand that feels familiar and trustworthy. After helping you develop and create your design, the direct mail specialists can then arrange the print to maximise your responses.

Direct Mail Fulfilment

By choosing the right mailing house that offers a complete end to end service, you can guarantee full control over secure data handling, design, print, enclosing and postage too high standards of quality. By securing a reputable and cost-effective mailing house to manage your campaign, you can guarantee the use of the latest technology with intelligent software for highly sensitive documents, giving you peace of mind that the correct customers are receiving your mail.

A key part of sending direct mail which is often overlooked is a follow-up, get in touch with your audience to check they received your mail and acted on it, find out what they thought about it. Doing this is priceless as it aids the improvement of your future direct mail campaigns, making them more effective and successful.

For more information on our direct mail services or bulk postage rates by the Direct Mail Company, please feel free to get in contact today sales@thedirectcompany.co.uk or follow us on Facebook.

This mailing for Solidor was a bespoke mailer that featured an edgy double gatefold square folded leaflet to promote their new door ranges to trade.

We completed the complete direct mail fulfilment, with only the artwork and data being supplied by the client.

Job Background 

Solidor is a large UK door manufacturer who specialises in fantastic looking composite doors for a wide range of homes and businesses.  The aim was to drive trade customers to enquire and become a retailer for Solidor.

Fulfilment Needs 

We were supplied with print a print-ready PDF of the double gatefold leaflet, so once the job was confirmed, we printed that on 170gsm silk. Once printed, we inkjet the personalisation to each flyer (name & address) of which then finally goes to get a small perforated disk to seal the leaflet, so it does not come open in the postal process. We then hand the flyers over to Royal Mail, and they were delivered in 2 days, on time and as promised.

Outcome 

We were able to offer substantial discounts on bulk postage rates, so straight away there were big savings to be had as well as The Direct Mail Company being able to provide a mailer with a bespoke print job that is 590mm long when it is unfolded.

The mailer was a success for Solidor, to welcome new trade clients being exceeded and the mailing was very well received.

If you are looking for a direct mail company to send transactional or advertising mail, or want to save on bulk postage, please give us a call on 0808 2533 835 or email sales@thedirectcompany.co.uk.

FENSA is the market-leading Competent Person Scheme for the glazing industry, and we regularly fulfil their ‘FENSA NOW’ newsletters that we distribute to inform member companies of the latest news.

Fulfilment Needs 

1 x A4 newsletter, double-sided

1 x  A4 cover sheet

Enclosed in a clear polybag & posted

The newsletters we printed were fantastic looking double-sided A4, printed on 170gsm silk.

We also opted to print a cover sheet that will have the personalisation of the recipient’ address and their member number.

To ensure that the recipients know it’s not circular, the two inserts were enclosed into a clear oversize A4 polybag.

This ensures that the member company instantly knows that it’s the FENSA newsletter.

We positioned the contents strategically as one side of the A4 newsletter had the FENSA branding on. The cover sheet also had the FENSA logo, meaning that either way it landed after passing the letterbox the FENSA logo was showing.

Outcome

Polybag jobs like these are classed as unsorted large letters, which cost over 90p per mail piece, so we offered substantial savings here as we always do on postage.

If you are looking for a direct mail company to send transactional or advertising mail, or want to save on bulk postage rates, please give us a call on 0808 2533 835 or email sales@thedirectcompany.co.uk

Here at the Direct Mail Company we often get asked to fulfil last minute jobs that need to be sent that same day or next day, whether this is for complete fulfilment or an ad-hoc bulk mailing collection.

Here at the Direct Mail Company, we are experts in fast turnaround direct mail.

We can turn jobs around very quickly with our production printers and high-speed mail enclosing machines that enclose around 4,000 items per hour which give us the ability to process high volumes of direct mail per day, ranging from simple A4 letters enclosed into an envelope or up to 9 inserts enclosed in one letter.

Sometimes our clients enclose the mail, and we collect from their business, and they benefit from our huge savings on postage.

We work with our postal providers to get you the very best rates dependant upon the size and weight of the items, of which are significantly cheaper than Royal Mail / Franking prices.

Many companies such as accountants and solicitors require our mass mailing services; we collect their direct mail from their business enclosed and presented ready for us to collect.

We hand this over to Royal Mail, and it is delivered with every other mail item sent in the system.

Why not try us for yourself?

Whether you have a bulk mailing for us to collect and mail via our bulk postage option simply, or if you have a transactional or advertising mailing, let us know, and we will get a quote over to you within 2 hours.

Whether you require fast turnaround direct mail or bulk postage, contact us today for a speedy response.

sales@thedirectcompany.co.uk

Forget the headlines on Facebook and Google, old school Direct Mail remains to be an essential and statistically superior marketing tool.

Believe it or not, even the internet giant, Google is using direct mail.

Yes, the heavyweight of PPC and SEO still use direct mail to target business clients and consumers- but why would they do this unless this time-honoured marketing method was still very much significant?

Let’s Look at the Figures

Charities have been using direct mail for a very long time to promote their cause and increase donation.

Additionally, the latest statistics show that charities spend a higher proportion of their advertising spend on direct mail, £239m of 394m, compared to other forms of advertising.

In 2016, businesses invested more than £1.5 billion into direct mail as well as direct mail accounting for 13.9% of all advertising spend and 26% of all income in the business mail sector.

In a report conducted by the Direct Marketing Association, it was found that the response rate for direct mail to an existing customer averages at 3.4%, which might not seem a lot until it gets compared to the email marketing customer average, coming in at a measly 0.12%. Direct mail has also been found to offer a high return on investment especially compared to online advertising, specifically that an ROI of £3.22 can be achieved for every £1 spent on direct mail, compared to £3.12 for every £1 spent on online.

Countless Benefits

The Royal Mail has also developed some fascinating benefits for direct mail including-

Personalisation- The latest figures show that 92% of all direct mail is opened and 48% of people have said they have taken action as a result of engaging with the content. A reason for this effectiveness is thought to be due to the personal touch within direct mail compared to the synthetic and methodical appearance of an email.

Direct Mail uses the most up-to-date technology in data and print to help you create a unique, customised piece that will target your customers directly in an effective way.

Integration- By creating an integrated campaign, this adds another dimension to internet marketing as direct mail can reinforce messages seen in poster campaigns and adverts in the press. It can provoke people to visit websites and social media pages, raising more awareness for your business.

Targeting-  Direct mail can be targeted a lot more successfully than TV or radio adverts, providing you have a good database to use it with. Don’t worry if you don’t have a database, a mailing house that offers Direct Mail Services will help you here. They can update data to build a relationship with potential customers and ensure more successfully targeted mailshots.

Measuring-  By enclosing a return envelope or an order card, you can accurately assess the number of responses and make the most of the measurability of Direct Mail.  Alternatively, provide the customers with unique email addresses, phone numbers or discount codes so when they contact you through using one of these, it can easily be tracked and recorded that the source was from a recipient of the Direct Mail that was distributed.

The Real Deal- In our experience, nowadays the internet is fleeting, making it very easy for potential customers to delete multiple messages at once, therefore neglecting the opportunity to read marketing emails. Figures reported that 92% of all mail is opened and 48% of people take action from them, responders said they valued something more if they could both see it and touch it rather than only being able to see it.

With so many benefits, it is no surprise that Direct Mail is still so popular, so why not start planning your campaign today?

For more information on our direct mail and bulk postage services by the Direct Mail Company, please feel free to get in contact today sales@thedirectcompany.co.uk or call us on 0808 2533 836.

Who said direct mail was dead!

Facts show that last year in the UK alone, companies spent more than £1.5 billion on paper-based direct mail, in fact, Google, who control almost 70% of the internet still send out direct mail.

So why do reports continue to insist that direct mail is becoming extinct?

Some reports claim that it’s difficult to prove the ROI of direct mail and that it’s impossible to build the kind of customer relationships that are achievable through digital media. But in the emerging era of cross-media communication, this argument no longer stands.

Direct mail is still one of the most powerful tools in a marketer’s plan.

The facts speak for themselves: research from Royal Mail shows that 83% of people still believe that direct mail is easier to consume than email.

When statistic show that 92% of all direct mail is opened and 48% of UK adults take action after receiving it, it’s not surprising that direct mail is responsible for driving 44% of traffic to brands’ websites.

When compared to digital, direct mail delivers an average £3.22 ROI compared with online’s £3.12 for every £1 (who said it was difficult to prove the ROI of DM?).

Personalised direct mail increases open rates even further.

If the statistics aren’t enough, when direct mail is used as part of a larger marketing strategy, it has the potential to transform customer engagement and build long-term brand loyalty.

Want to find out more about our direct mail services and our bulk postage? Let’s have a chat!

Email us sales@thedirectcompany.co.uk or give us a call 0808 156 0115

Source: DMA

Big or small, flat or folded, there is no written rulebook on how your mailshot should look, but we’ve provided five simple steps to help you to make the most out of your campaign.

A strong campaign doesn’t necessarily require a huge budget or large numbers; it just needs some small measurements, careful planning and a lot of imagination, so follow our steps to make your campaign a knockout!

1. Set Yourself Goals- How will you know if your Direct Mail campaign worked well?

Only achieving results and hitting the goals you set beforehand will define if your campaign was effective. It would help if you decided what you want to achieve from your mailshot- a majority of the time the target is increasing sales.

Still, it’s also used to gain sign-ups or the offer of a gift as a way of building an active marketing database for the company.

These goals will be used to measure the effectiveness of the content of your mailshot. If you set yourself a level of sales to achieve through your Direct Mail, you can use this to establish the return on investment of your campaign and compare this to alternative marketing spend.

2. Keep Your Data Clean and Current- How will you guarantee responses and optimize your budget?

You will need to use a database to launch your MailShot, and the quality of this data is crucial, it could make or break your campaign. Make sure to use a Data Processing professional to regulate the quality of the data by removing duplicate addresses and ‘gone-aways’.

UK companies waste £18m a year by mailing deceased people, by taking the time to optimise your data, you can start to ensure that you’re not wasting postage or adversely affecting your response rates. You may need assistance in collecting data or in building an active mailing list of genuinely interested buyers.

3. Make Your Offer Irresistible- How can you make your audience engage immediately?

You need to your audience an offer they cannot refuse- a mailshot is not about just posting existing brochures or leaflets that have already been circulating for a while.

It would help if you gave the customer a reason to act instantaneously after reading your offer; without this, your campaign is likely to go unnoticed. Keep it simple, and keep it direct, adapt your tone and language to your target audience to guarantee they will understand and want to respond.

4. Keep Track of Your Campaign- How else can you measure your campaign’s success?

If you don’t track your campaign, there is no way of measuring if it has been effective and generated interest in your company. It is vital that some tracking is incorporated within your campaign, for example. Using unique email addresses, phone numbers or discount codes featured on the mailshot, so when they contact you through using one of these, the source can be traced to back to being from Direct Mail.

Make sure to test all of the links you publish on your mailshot before sending out the material and keep an eye on the responses.

5. ­­­­Show your Creative Flare- How will your mailshot stand out from the rest of the post?

A campaign using direct mail gives you the perfect opportunity to think outside the box- everything must be considered from the packaging you put it into the vibe and look of the overall campaign.

It is a great chance to build up your brand image with your audience and develop an emotional connection to your target consumer. If you struggle with design, you can use experienced design agencies who can offer you their assistance and Direct Mail Specialists who can also offer advice to guarantee the success of the campaign.

For more information on our direct mail services or bulk postage rates by the Direct Mail Company, please feel free to get in contact today on sales@thedirectcompany.co.uk or 0808 2533 836 or follow us on Facebook.

Direct mail is the perfect communications tool for raising awareness of your business, promoting your products, services and special offers and building customer relationships.

There are lots of ways to get creative with direct mail these days. You need to grab the attention of your audience’s but don’t forget that a well-written letter with a strong offer may do just the job. It all depends on your market, your brand and your offer. Get it right, and your direct mail could help you retain your customers for the future – and that’s a nice position to be in – so it’s worth spending time on.

Make sure you get these right:

• The proposition – is it the same for all recipients, or targeted? Is it simple and easy to understand?
• The offer – it’s a good idea to test which incentives work best for your market.
• Copywriting and design – take inspiration from examples of direct mail you think to work well.
• Testing – try things out to see what work.
• The call to action – be clear about how the recipient can respond.

We can help with all these.

There are three elements to producing your direct mail:

1. Printing – of the mailer itself and the envelope
2. Personalisation – personalise your mailing for your recipients.
3. Folding and inserting – folder inserters can be done at 4000 per hour.

Postage can take up a fair proportion of your budget if it isn’t fully thought through. Being clever about the size of your mailing (A5 and under is more cost-effective) and batch quantity (over 500 items in a single mailing will attract a discount.

Because we are a double-sided company, offering 1^st class design and marketing through our sister company Jam Marketing & Media, print solutions and direct mail through us, we can offer great savings, professional service, a quick turnaround and everything done under one roof.

Direct mail marketing done right can make a huge difference to your business.

Find out more about our discounted bulk postage. 

Contact us at – sales@thedirectcompany.co.uk