If you aren't sure you are getting the most "bang for your buck' with your direct mail campaigns these days, think about mixing things up and doing some testing with different options.  Just like almost anything else, your old tried-and-true direct mail program may need a bit of a change to capture new interest.  Here are some ideas to help you test what you are sending out.

Make it Bigger!

  • Your printer can help you send an oversized postcard that may stand out from the rest of your recipients' mail.
  • Get bolder and bigger with your headline fonts and body. Try sending something with less text and bigger, shorter messages that encourage people to call or visit a website.

Make Different Offers

  • A good way to test mail campaigns is to split test your offers- one group gets one type of offer, and the other gets a variation. You'll see what catches people's attention.
  • Experiment with different words associated with your offers. Sometimes the wording of an offer - even when it's the same offer- can make a difference.

Make it More Urgent

  • Make the offers on your mailers time-sensitive.
  • Experiment with new calls to action. Some research shows that 3 calls to action per piece are ideal. It's also ideal to give potential customers at least 2 options to contact you, but the more, the better.

Make it All About Them

  • Personalize your message by including customer data that is unique to recipients ­— some research shows that this could increase your response rates up to 15 times.
  • Send all direct mail from a real person at your company, including with the person's name, photo, contact information and even signature.
  • Print out your company ad or flier and mail it with a personalized note.

Many businesses neglect to do periodic testing of their direct mail campaigns.  To be sure, it's easier to just run the same mailers over and over again, but at some point, yours may become part of the mailbox "noise" because people get used to seeing them.  Change it up- focus on testing one or two parts of the campaign the next time to see if those changes make a difference- for better or (gulp!) for worse.