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With the holidays right around the corner, I’ve noticed a dramatic increase in direct mail marketing efforts both in my work and in my personal mail. So, that led me to the question of whether holiday direct mail is effective. The setting for sending out a piece during this time of year seems to point to yes. It’s no secret that people spend more during the holiday season, so reaching them now is a great way to increase sales. Also, there is a likelihood that people will have time off of work and therefore have the time to go out and spend money.

It can’t be stressed enough that the key is to get your customers’ attention and stand out from the competitors in direct mail. There are two aspects that go into setting yourself apart from your competitors. The first is the offer you make. You need to know your customers and what will prompt them to choose your company. Secondly, your direct mail piece needs to visually stand out from the other direct mail pieces.

If you haven’t already started to plan your holiday direct mail piece, it is not too late. The holiday countdown has begun and you want to make sure your business is ready!

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In a recent survey conducted by BtoB, 39.2% of respondents plan to increase their marketing budgets in 2010 while 47.5% plan to keep their budgets the same as 2009. The article says “As marketers learned from marketing in a recession, nothing beats understanding the customer and marketing to prospects with a laser focus.” Understanding your target customers and catering your marketing to them is the only way to see positive results from marketing campaigns. You can see the full article at BtoB’s website.

The article goes on to talk about types of marketing that will be the focus in 2010. The list includes Web site development, e-mail marketing, search, social media, online video, and webcasts. The article also notes that many marketers plan to “get back to basics” by using innovative direct mail pieces to cut through the clutter.

As I’ve mentioned before, combining online marketing with more “traditional” marketing media, like direct mail, can be an effective solution for increasing ROI.

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Often, small businesses write off plastic card mailer campaigns because they are more expensive than traditional post card campaigns, but as one restaurant owner did recently, taking the time to work through the ROI can help small business owners to see the value behind spending more on this type of marketing campaign up front.

In the case from above, the owner of a single location restaurant figured that she would be spending about $3,795.00 upfront, but based off her average ticket price and the average redemption rate of plastic card mailers, she saw the potential to profit at least $2,500.00 from the plastic card mailer marketing campaign.

How did she come up with that number?

She took an estimated total cost of the plastic card campaign at $3,795.00 (for roughly 5,000 card mailers) and assumed 7% of people would redeem them. She then figured if the 350 additional customers spent the restaurants average ticket price of $30 and her costs are roughly $8,000 including the marketing campaign, then she stood to profit $2,500.00.

While this process does take some time, it can make a big difference when any small business considers a marketing initiative. Because a plastic card mailer campaign that costs more up front can have the potential for a much higher profit than a cheaper traditional direct mail campaign, it is actually a great way for small businesses to use their marketing dollars.

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I recently watched a video blog post that reminded me about an interesting twist on a direct mail piece. You can include BREs-Business Reply Envelopes- in your direct mailer. This option is useful if the goal of your direct mail campaign is to get information, say an order form or payment, back from the recipients. This simple addition to your direct mail piece can help improve the return on the piece.

Of course, there are additional costs when including a BRE because you do have to pay to produce and print on the BRE and then tack or bind it to the mailer. But, the cost of the BRE can be more than recovered if it increases your redemption rate. You would just need to factor this cost into your return on investment calculations to see if it makes sense for your company.

As, I just mentioned, you can either tack or bind the BRE into the direct mail piece. I have seen the BRE bound into a booklet mailing with many pages and tacked onto a brochure mailing with fewer panels.

Adding a BRE is a simple change that can make a big difference because it increases the convenience of replying to your direct mailer for the recipient. Ask your direct mail vendor about this option for your next direct mail campaign.

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