What is Direct Mail and how can I use it in my business? 

Direct Mail by definition is:

Advertising mail

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“Advertising mail, also known as direct mail, junk mail, or ad mail, is the delivery of advertisingmaterial to recipients of postal mail.^[1][2]The delivery of advertising mail forms a large and growing service for many postal services, and direct-mail marketing forms a significant portion of the direct marketingindustry. Some organizations attempt to help people opt out of receiving advertising mail, in many cases motivated by a concern over its negative environmentalimpact.

Advertising mail includes advertising circulars, catalogs, CDs, “pre-approved” credit cardapplications, and other commercial merchandisingmaterials delivered to both homes and businesses. It may be addressed to pre-selected individuals, or unaddressed and delivered on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis.”

All types of businesses will use some type of Direct Mail marketing in any given campaign. Direct Mail is a very effective way to get a message out to a prospect or potential client. Because of its ability to get directly into the hands of the prospect, Direct Mail is a great tool for a small business that may not have a large budget to utilize many different marketing strategies.

If you were to consider that if you were to purchase a radio campaign with one of your top local radio stations. The radio agent would sell you a campaign and not a single radio commercial. This campaign would cover a number of days, weeks or months and this they would explain would provide you with the best coverage to ensure some results. However it is very difficult to ascertain the effectiveness of a radio campaign and it is also very difficult to ensure that your target audience is listening to your commercial at the exact time that it is playing on the air. Let’s say for arguments sake that 7% of all radio listeners listen to that station and of that 2% are your target audience. The chance that you will reach your prospect at the exact time that your spot is aired is very small.

Let’s also say that if you were to use Newspapers to advertise and your rep explains that you must commit to a frequency campaign in order to find success in your marketing initiative. Among the population of your target area, 10% read that specific newspaper.

Let’s pretend that you are also using television and have been convinced that you must, based on a frequency model to success in advertising commit to a long term campaign. Out of the population 5% watch that particular station.

You have just built a great marketing campaign and would probably see some relative success based on your efforts. This campaign would cost a significant amount of money and most small businesses probably cannot afford to advertise in multiple channels at the same time.

There is only one place that 100% of your prospects go for information and it is the most cost effective way to reach your future customer...

THE MAILBOX

You do not always need to over analyze or come up with innovative and creative ways to market to your prospect. At times the simplest solution is the most effective. Direct Mail is a great and economical way to communicate direct to your target audience.

a.        Addressed Admail

i. There are many ways to distribute information to your clients but one of the best and most trusted ways is through Canada Post. Addressed admail allows a business to use a list of addresses that they have collected and mail out information to these addresses at reduced rates from the standard postage rates. There are some policies and restrictions to the types of information that may be sent out using addressed admail and one of our consultants can help you to complete your next campaign.

b.       Unadrressed Admail

i. Businesses use many different methods to perform blanket or targeted marketing to an audience. They may use the radio, television, and the internet or bill boards. All of these forms of advertising work mainly on impressions. All of these are great ways to expose yourself to your audience but there is only one place where all of your customers must go... The Mailbox. Unaddressed admail allows you to expose yourself to a large audience at relatively low prices. These postage rates are drastically reduced over addressed rates and still give you the ability to target by different geographic and psychographic criteria. Including but not limited to: Income level, dwelling age, type of dwelling, ethnicity, type of car and habits. Unaddressed admail is the foundation of many marketing campaigns and could easily be introduced to your next marketing initiative. Allow us to show you how easy and cost effective it is to incorporate unaddressed admail into your business.

c.        Coop Direct Mail 

i. Some businesses require more coverage areas or only wish to target a small area for distribution. We offer hybrid direct mail products that allow businesses to target to specific postal codes or do national distribution. These coop direct mail products promote multiple businesses in one specialty product. The reason that these hybrid products were created was to allow businesses take advantage of sharing the costs of printing and postage rates and receive reduced rates for their marketing initiatives. Speak to one of our marketing consultants and find out if our coop direct mail programs are right for you.