Customer Aquisition

How New Mover Marketing Generates Loyal Customers

With so many options, retail marketing has taken on an entirely consumer-centric approach to sales and has created a battleground for businesses, particularly when it comes to courting and retaining loyal customers.

With so many brands and products to choose from, a campaign to develop a loyal customer base is the primary objective of many businesses.

This is particularly true for grocers, where a single loyal customer shopping for a family of four can equate to thousands of dollars per year in consistent revenue, year after year. Throughout this blog, we’ll discuss the age of consumerism, how new mover marketing acquires loyal customers, and why it’s a tool one should be careful not to overlook.

The Age of Consumerism

When we say “The Age of Consumerism,” we’re referring to the current trend in retail sales that caters to the consumer before the business. The competition is fierce – particularly in our digital world – and consumers are expecting choices (lots of them), all coming from the same retailer.

It makes sense – this is more or less that natural progression that gave rise to grocery stores in the first place, largely doing away with consumers visiting the dairy, the butcher, the bakery, etc.

The key takeaway is that consumers are expecting options – not just in terms of products, but also in terms of accessibility, technology and delivery – and there are plenty of grocers delivering, particularly when we look to retail ecosystems, like Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods.

New Mover Campaigns to Better Target Consumers

A great example of a campaign designed to acquire and retain new loyal customers is our new mover product – SmartMove. It relies on three core elements – targeted outreach, personalization, physical and digital integration.

There’s little more reassuring than going into a stressful event – a first day at a new school, a new job, moving into a new neighborhood – and being greeted by someone instantly and warmly. One of the best ways to develop loyal customers is to simply introduce yourself to new consumers just entering your market.

Let’s look to our SmartMove campaigns.

In our SmartMove campaign, the first step in creating loyal customers focuses on digital methods like geofencing for precision targeting of new movers, then we use variable-data to create advanced personalization campaigns, creating an immediate connection with potential customers.

The next step in creating loyal customers is courting and retention. Reaching out to new movers is good, but reaching out to new movers with attractive offers is even better. Better still? Reaching out in both physical and digital mediums, seamlessly integrating multiple channels to optimize their shopping experience.

Benefits of SmartMove

So now that we’ve gone over the strategy of SmartMove, let’s look to its benefits.

The first benefit is a jump on the competition. In order to effectively compete for business where consumers have nearly unlimited options all offering a similar variety of choices, one of the few concrete advantages a grocer can have in customer acquisition is getting to those potential customers first. Using geofencing and proactive outreach, SmartMove makes this possible.

The second benefit is the level of connectivity SmartMove affords to grocers looking to court new movers. With advanced personalization techniques, coupled with attractive offerings via digital and direct mail outreach, SmartMove allows you to build the connections you need to gain new, loyal customers.

Want to explore the Strata’s systems for creating and retaining loyal customers? Contact us to see how SmartMove can make a difference for your business today. 

Understanding How to Make an Impact in a Complex Sector

Healthcare marketing is complex stuff — marketing professionals in this sector know this.

They also know how to overcome whatever challenges these complexities present with a solid understanding of healthcare marketing strategy, beginning with their target audience. Of course, their target audience represents six generations, all the way from the GI Generation to Generation Z.

Unsurprisingly, “understanding the ins and outs of healthcare marketing strategy” isn’t exactly a simple task.

Don’t worry, we’re here to help.

Let’s break down the anatomy of healthcare marketing into two parts: healthcare marketer responsibilities and the primary problem they face with effective marketing.

Responsibilities

Website and Social

Let’s start by prioritizing. Healthcare Marketers are spread pretty thin when it comes to all that their job demands of them.

When it comes to the most basic of digital assets — social media and websites — marketers need to make sure they have their bases covered.

For websites that means ensuring mobile responsiveness, offering ample opportunity for conversion and placement of clear, obvious info hubs. It’s important to lay this groundwork while being careful not to neglect strategic SEO to beat out the competition.

In addition, they also have brand management related responsibilities with their website, particularly when it comes to website reviews.

Patient Acquisition

Healthcare marketers are also in charge of patient acquisition strategies, which can be extremely time-intensive.

Often, accessibility plays a key role in conversions, and giving potential patients ample opportunity to connect and stay connected is a big part of that. Referral programs are also a critical component of a successful patient acquisition strategy.

Mergers of two hospital systems can be a confusing time for patients and marketers alike — it’s important to emphasize practice-specific marketing as a key focus in ad campaigns, ensuring that patients will continue to receive high-quality, specialized care while promoting new assets to retain patients, and boost patient acquisition.

Taking Orders

Unfortunately, many of the priorities that healthcare marketers are faced with day in and day out are directives from their superiors. This can be anything from fulfilling collateral orders and completing sponsorship requests to updating staff bios.

These tasks tend to under-utilize the skills healthcare marketers have to offer as strategists and can be a frustrating part of a healthcare marketer’s day-to-day. 

The Primary Obstacle: A Wide Audience

Now that we’ve identified the major day-to-day responsibilities of healthcare marketing professionals, it’s time to talk about their obstacle: diversity within their audience.

Everyone needs healthcare at some point. Whether it’s the GI Generation or Generation Z, the healthcare market spans each generation of consumers.

Such an ample audience is good for business, but the problem arises in communicating with that audience and the resources needed to connect with each segment as individuals. Each generation seeks information about healthcare differently, often choosing channels that are unique to them — where younger generations may respond to healthcare advertisements delivered via social media, older audiences may respond better to television advertisements.

Solving the Puzzle

Fortunately, there is a solution to this multi-generational puzzle, and it revolves around where we focus the crux of our attention.

Primarily, healthcare marketers should realize that an omnichannel approach is absolutely necessary for reaching all target audiences in effective ways — investing too much in any one medium, like social, will only neglect certain segments of your audience.

It’s important to remember that healthcare is largely about comfort, and in healthcare marketing, marketers need to communicate in the ways your audience feels comfortable with. This makes a strong case for the necessity of blending online and offline tactics.

It’s also important that healthcare marketers focus on creating solutions that are scalable and efficient. Segmenting your audience, building out personas and marketing to those personas utilizing smart MarTech solutions is a solid strategy to accomplish this.

Get the Tools

Healthcare marketing can put marketers in frustrating positions as they try to deal with the industry’s inherent challenges, but your marketing goals are far from out of reach. Contact us to see how Strata can help with the tools you need to develop a truly integrated healthcare marketing plan.

Understanding How it Impacts Everything from Customer Acquisition to Back-office Operations

Industries are shifting, whether that’s a demand for goods and services, the way we deliver those goods and services, or new emergences in the way we do business. This is true for every business, including grocers.

Let’s take a look at some of the drivers shifting industry standards and how we can leverage one specific driver to create better opportunities for grocers.

Three Drivers of Retail

1. Shifts in Consumer Expectation

There’s perhaps nothing that changes more constantly than consumer expectation, and in the era of home delivery and subscription meal prep services, consumer demands are varied, and quite frankly, challenging.

Consumers expect the ability to buy anything, anytime, and from anywhere. Finding ways to cater to these new expectations is a major driver of business for grocers.

2. Stiff Competition and the Emergence of Ecosystems

An even more pronounced trend is the sheer level of competition that’s out there. Grocery chains are collapsing under the pressure of large-scale competition and the emergence of ecosystems. A great example is Amazon purchasing Whole Foods and using the Amazon infrastructure to fold Whole Foods operations into its business model. 

3. Technology

The last driver for grocer-specific retail is technology. As technology advances, it opens doors to help grocers better compete for the attention of consumers. With the introduction of AI, advance analytics, and IoT, grocers have more capability than ever to analyze and connect with consumers.

Technology, more than any of the other three drivers above, can stand out as a primary factor in operational effectiveness with the ability to reduce overall cost in the value chain.

This is particularly true in the realms of customer acquisition, customer engagement, commercial effectiveness, and warehouse/back-office operations.

Customer Acquisition and Engagement

When it comes to technology’s role in customer acquisition and engagement, the benefits are obvious. Better analytics leads to better targeted messaging across multiple delivery vehicles, such as digital ads.

Technology is also crucial to creating highly targeted and hyper-personalized offerings, enabling grocers to connect with consumers on a more specific level, resulting in better customer acquisition, engagement, and loyalty.

Another area of advertising where technology plays a crucial role is in enhancing digital direct marketing properties, like the addition of promotional QR codes attached to emails or digital coupons.

Commercial Effectiveness

Technology can also help grocers maximize their commercial effectiveness by using advanced analytics to make better choices. These choices can include everything from the products grocers carry to the way they’re priced.

It can also help in making decisions related to promotional initiatives, helping to take the guesswork out of what promotional offers to run.

Operational Efficiency

One of the most appealing aspects of heavy technological integration within grocer systems is the potential for higher efficiency in day-to-day operations. Technology opens the door to automating warehouse functions, as well as in-store and back-office operations.

Why it Matters

If there’s nothing else to take away from this article, let it be this: technology allows you to compete for business in a market driven by choice, increasing existing customer loyalty, and driving customers to physical stores instead of online ordering sites.

These three benefits make it imperative that grocers embrace technological solutions for many of their day-to-day operations and needs. In an era so heavily dependent on technology for communication and promotion, without it, grocers will fall behind.

Interested in learning more about the role of technology in the value chain for grocers? We have the tools that can help ensure your tech is where it needs to be.

Whether that means operational efficiency with an MRM system or acquiring new customers with our SmartMove, new mover program, contact us to see what Strata can do for you.

Dissecting Data to Anticipate Marketing Trends

Data drives everything.

Whether you’re looking internally into your best practices and evaluating production cost/benefit, or looking externally to segmented messaging and customer acquisition, we are always sifting through data in order to gauge results, successes, and shortcomings.

In our current era of marketing, we have more data than ever to inform our business decisions.

Marketers as Data Scientists

There are two types of marketers: those who eagerly follow trends and those who anticipate them.

While simply keeping your finger on the pulse of the marketing world is a strategy that will yield consistent results, the true leaders of the industry have made it a habit to predict where marketing is heading, recognizing the future, and being at the forefront.

It may seem like sorcery to some, but the reality is that recognizing a diverse field of data points and subsequent careful market analysis can predict trends and position smart marketers for future success.

In line with all of this, the best marketers think of themselves not only as salespeople, but as data scientists, analyzing and understanding complex data to predict market trends.

Insight and Data Collection

Determining where to find this data is more than half of the battle.

Earlier in the series, we discussed the importance of going straight to the source and getting as much data from our customers (and potential customers) as possible. In the digital world, there are endless ways to collect this data, including:

  • Google Analytics
  • Cookies and Web Beacons
  • Social Media
  • Email Tracking
  • App Usage
  • Data Mining Companies

Whether you choose to acquire the data yourself or hire data companies to do it for you, the raw data is at your fingertips.

Make Your Data Useful

Large databases seem attractive — the more the merrier — but the reality is, unless they’re curated by trusted sources and expertly maintained, a big database can equal a big mess.

The solution to a major technical headache lies in prevention: it’s essential to make sure that the data you have is as far from corrupted as possible. Major sources of data corruption can be anything from improper formatting to old data.

Remember: always use trusted services for data acquisition and consider investing in data management software to mitigate human error in data handling.

Keep Data Up to Date

The market is evolving and customers are evolving with it. For the first time, we can track our customers in real time and evolve with them too.

It should go without saying that maintaining current data is crucial to ensuring your company is able to anticipate market trends and the needs of customers. Not only does up to date data inform more strategically sound campaigns, it also works to give your business the agility to make changes in messaging and customer approach on the fly.

Current data gives marketers the ability to double down on successful marketing efforts proving their return or cut their losses when a campaign has proven to yield weaker ROI than they had hoped for.

Use It

We’ve touched on using data to predict marketing trends and how marketers should think of themselves as data scientists, but it’s also important to remember that when push comes to shove, sales is still at the heart of what we do.

Data needs to be utilized effectively to be worth the effort it takes to harvest and process it, and that utilization goes far beyond market speculation. Data allows us to launch campaigns with more precise levels of customer targeting and, like we’ve outlined in our previous installment of this series, approach the goal of true one-to-one marketing.

It allows us to hyper-personalize, make impressions on high-value prospects, streamline the customer journey, and make major changes to our campaigns on the fly – with the end goal of increasing ROI across the board.

The bottom line is this: there’s a reason “data-driven marketing” makes an appearance in the tagline of so many successful marketing companies.

You don’t have to make it your slogan, but you should make it a priority.

Looking for a way to utilize your data in a tech-based marketing campaign? Contact us to see how we can help.

Utilizing a multitouch approach to connect with your top prospects

Take a moment and consider all of the tools you have at your disposal to connect with someone and perfect your client acquisition. Phones, text messaging, email, traditional mail, apps – the list goes on and on. So why does it seem like it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to actually connect with someone?

If you’re reading this, you can probably relate to this scenario. You’ve come across the right prospect for your product or service and you send an initial email making an introduction but on the other end all you hear is crickets. Rather than using all of the tools in your communication toolbox, you abandon the prospect just because he/she didn’t respond after your first attempt. Think of all of the missed opportunities.

But if you’re open to persistence, there’s a solution. Multiple touches make prospects feel special and you unforgettable. And in today’s increasingly crowded and competitive business environment they aren’t optional, they’re mandatory. Think about it – if you’re not actively connecting with them, someone else is.

So, how do you do this without being overbearing and for lack of a better word “pushy”?

Figuring Out the Magic Number

Surveys show that when it comes to products and services, 72% of consumers prefer an integrated, multitouch marketing approach. Think of this as starting with an email, followed up by a phone call, next an invitation to a webinar, and then a dimension mail swag box that links to a branded landing page. It may seem like a lot, but studies show that a typical customer accesses as many as 23 touch points before he/she is even ready to talk. Yes, TWENTY-THREE!

So, while timing between touches is key, don’t hold back when it comes to multiple touches. They may just be assessing your product and comparing it to your competitors.

However, keep in mind that the customer journey doesn’t stop after those initial touch points and the first conversation. As every good sales professional and marketer knows, after that first conversation it’s about presenting your value, engaging, nudging, closing, and then ultimately retaining. Try doing all of that with a one-touch and done approach – it’s impossible. And yet, there are still so many professionals using a single-touch approach.

This needs to change.

A Customized, Tailored Approach is Key

Every campaign, no matter the size, has influence, so consistency is key and an integrated, multitouch campaign can help. Each prospect that you’re trying to convert is different, meaning each campaign needs to be tailored accordingly. It’s important to take into account your messaging, what you’re sending, when you’re sending it, and how you’re following up. Put yourself in your prospects’ shoes and go from there.

Then, you can select touch points and channels that will have maximum impact, utilize resources and services that will help you execute on the highest levels, and track your ROI.

At the end of the day, it’s about using all of your marketing tools to take someone on a journey that’s compelling, authentic, and resonates.

Are you interested in utilizing a multitouch approach but unsure how to go about it? Contact us today to see how we can help you get started.

Effective direct mail means creating a unique user experience.

We’re getting used to being impressed, and not just by a superior product — we’re getting used to being impressed in the ways we’re made aware of that product.

Traditional direct mail is still important — it’s a good way to send follow up mail, surveys, and cover large areas for direct marketing campaigns — but when it comes to selling high-end products and services (particularly in the B2B sphere) traditional direct mail just isn’t as effective as it used to be.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is that there’s a solution to the direct mail rut we may find ourselves in, and that’s the User Experience (UX) Mailer.

What is a UX Mailer?

A UX Mailer is any sort of direct mail marketing effort that sells to a target audience, but does so in a genuinely engaging way focusing on the end user experience.

UX Mailers include pitch-related gifts, tools for viewing the mailer’s content, special die cuts, or a unique response vehicle. Many UX Mailers fit into the category of dimensional mail, but there are plenty of options for 2D UX Mailers.

Some examples of UX Mailers include:

  • A dimensional mailer with a small LED screen that plays a video upon opening
  • A “scratch-off” style mailer, where the user reveals QR codes leading to discounted promotions
  • A flat mailer with a QR code and fold-out cardboard VR headset meant to hold a user’s phone for a first-person product tour
  • A dimensional mailer containing a set of quality headphones to play an audio message, which can then be used with the recipient’s other devices

How to Use UX Mailers

UX Mailers are powerful tools when used correctly. Given the fact that UX Mailers typically require a fairly significant initial investment (more on this in the next section), you’ll want to make sure that your UX Mailer campaign is run as effectively as possible.

In general, best practices generally dictate that UX Mailer campaigns should target a significantly smaller audience than your average direct marketing campaign. This means that your company should focus its efforts on only the highest value prospects and convertible leads. So how small should your target audience be? It depends.

Even large companies employing a UX Mailer campaign frequently limit their target audience to less than 100 prospects, particularly if the UX Mailer is expensive. In more extreme examples, with the right information and projected success of conversion, some UX Mailer campaigns cross over the threshold into the mythical domain of 1-1 direct marketing, focusing all efforts to engage a single target.

On the flip side, there are times where a UX Mailer can be inexpensive enough to broaden the scope of your campaign, focusing on a more traditional direct mail audience. While you’ll always likely pay more for a UX Mailer campaign, there are many options that won’t increase cost prohibitively. For instance, a UX Mailer campaign with special die cuts may cost more to set up initially, but has little-to-no additional cost per-piece, making it a great option to run a larger campaign.

Investment and Return

You knew this was coming: UX Mailers are often a significant investment.

Of course, they’re only as expensive as you choose to make them — there are companies that put actual iPads in their UX Mailers and there are companies that rely on things like QR codes to keep cost down.

The reality is most campaigns fall somewhere in the middle.

For example, a company recently ran a customer appreciation UX Mailer campaign including a Tile key fob. The fobs were sourced in bulk, keeping the cost down to $8 per piece, with the campaign reaching 152 customers.

UX Mailers are an investment, and just like any other investment, their cost should be contextualized in the scope of projected return. With some industry data pointing to dimensional UX Mailers being opened nearly 100% of the time, our experience is that around 19% of UX Mailers result in response.

There’s virtually no other method of outreach with comparable engagement, making UX Mailers a worthwhile investment.

Why You Should Use the UX Mailer

As we’ve touched on, UX Mailers have a distinct set of advantages that boil down to two main points: they have incredibly high rates of engagement and can be tailored to fit most budgets.

Although they are an investment, UX Mailers are undeniably effective, particularly in the B2B sphere. With most B2B deals resulting in $10,000 to $250,000 gross return, the juice is well worth the squeeze.

Are you ready to put your best foot forward with a smart UX Mailer campaign? Visit us at gostrata.com to see what Strata can do for you.

Tips to Make Your Direct Mailer Successful

Great direct marketing is a mixture of utilizing time tested technique, adapting to new market trends and consistent creative excellence.

That’s no small order.

The fact is, the road to great direct marketing can be anything but direct, and while your team may experience the occasional misstep, here are 6 direct marketing mistakes you don’t have to make.

  1. Using Bad Outreach Data
    There’s no better way to shoot yourself in the foot than working with a bad list of corrupted data. In fact, the Harvard Business Review recently found that bad data costs US business around 3 trillion dollars each year. Most data needs some cleaning up upon acquisition, and basic data hygiene and maintenance is important, but there’s a difference between cleaning up good data and diverting excessive resources to salvage a bad list. Here are some indicators your team may be working with bad data.
  2. Failing to Consistently and Quickly Change
    Change is a good thing and the only constant in any thriving industry. Direct marketing—particularly direct mail marketing—has seen a lot of change over the years. As new mediums have come to rise (like specified social media direct marketing) and time-tested mediums have been adapted to better perform (like direct mail offerings in the form of dimensional mailers), many direct marketing campaigns have achieved success by adopting the latest in techniques. Keeping up with sites like MarketingWeek.com or TargetMarketingMag.com (here are their dominate direct marketing trends for 2018) can keep you in the loop when it comes to new trends taking over the direct marketing world and identifying those on the horizon (here’s a link to our own blog, consistently updated with more original content). Remember: new tech means increased efficiency, even for traditional methods of marketing many mistakenly believe tech will render obsolete. Here’s a great article by Forbes on how tech is changing traditional direct mail for the better.
  3. No Call to Action
    It’s shocking, but it’s something even otherwise great direct marketing pieces occasionally fail to include: a clearly defined call to action. A CTA that catches the eye and does its job of provoking an immediate response is one of the most powerful direct mail marketing tools you can employ, particularly when it comes to digital direct marketing and the ability to bring users from an outreach email to your website. Many campaigns use their CTA as a sort of mission statement or slogan. Here are seven of the best.  Make sure your campaign includes a clear CTA in each of your direct marketing efforts—it may be the key to turning your direct marketing efforts into responses and conversions.
  4. Bad Design Elements
    Good design can be the difference between direct marketing that is considered or direct marketing that is ignored. This is particularly true for direct mail campaigns—unlike digital direct marketing (where the opportunities to effortless link other related content are endless), direct mail has to stand on its own. First and foremost, your direct marketing has to be visually interesting and easy to read. When it comes to content, consider the size, color and fonts you choose very carefully. While the majority of your designers’ effort may go into a direct mail brochure or nailing the layout of your newsletter, the vehicle in which is arrives should be considered. For instance, oversized envelopes have the highest household response rates at 6.6%, per the 2017 Data and Marketing Association Response Report. Looking for a place to get started? Entrepreneur discusses some of the most popular ways to package and format your direct mail here.
  5. Forgoing personalization
    Some campaigns fail to invest in the means to personalize their direct marketing, even when sources like the Wharton School of Business report that 85% of marketers notice increased response through personalization. In the digital and direct mail world, personalization means using data to provide prospective customers with a truly individual direct marketing experience via data driven marketing. Personalization can mean different things for different direct marketing campaigns, but including efforts to personalize is considered good practice across the board. Even if it’s something as small as including a prospective customers name in the design of your marketing materials, it’s simply worth doing.
  6. Saving the Best for Last
    When your team is choosing how to best present the benefits of a product or service to prospective customers via direct marketing outreach, it may be tempting to bring it all home by saving the best benefits and ad copy for last. When pitching via direct marketing, your best writing on the best benefits should always be up front, capitalizing on the limited window in which your audience will decide whether or not your outreach is worth their time. Don’t save the best for last, we didn’t.

Planning a direct marketing campaign and don’t know where to start? From mailers to cutting edge digital solutions, see what Strata’s 25 years of print and marketing excellence can do for you.

Helpful Tips to Make Your Box Mailer Stand Out

Box mailers (also commonly referred to as box mailers or 3D mailers) can command high direct marketing response rates. With their bulk and size, they rise to the top of the mail pile.

Due to their nature, however, box mailers also come with a higher price tag. They’re typically used for efforts such as:

  • Small mailings to targets with decision-making power
  • Follow-up on “hot” leads and priority prospects
  • Converting prospects where a notable return can be expected

When executed correctly, three-dimensional mailers can communicate that your company – like the mailer itself – stands out and offers real value.

  1. Be Savvy to Boost ROI
  • Consider streamlining dimensions
    • The larger the mailer, the more expensive it will be.
    • Even a small bulky item will accomplish the mission of standing out, so going big might not up the impact enough to justify the extra cost.
  • Select a vendor who can guide you on mailing options.
    • Your print vendor should be able to advise you on batch size and package dimensions for optimal postal rates.
  1. Select your Premium Item Carefully
  • Consider audience demographics, including age, gender, and industry. What’s something they’ll actually use?
  • The item also should make sense within the context of the mailing, aligning with message, creative direction and end goals of your campaign.
  • Brand the item with your company’s logo and website.
  • Take it a step further and personalize it with the recipient’s name for extra staying power.
  1. Design and Message
  • Plan ahead so that your copy and design will work cohesively on the multiple pieces of your mailer. A three-dimensional mailer will typically include:
      • An outer box
      • Inside packaging
      • Any labels and/or outer sleeves used
      • Area around the premium item
      • Any inserts included, such as a postcard or business card
  • Work closely with your printer to ensure you have the correct dimensions for design purposes.
  • Go for minimal copy. Be personal – aim to tap into emotion, and connect with your targets.
  • Include a strong CTA.
      • Maybe it’s an offer you want them to take advantage of: a free consultation or trial. Or sign-up for an event or a mailing list.
      • Drive leads to a landing page, where you can track response.
      • Send recipients subsequent emails or direct mailings to follow up.

Next Steps

Plymouth Meeting, PA-based Strata Company specializes in helping companies create more relevant, personalized marketing. A leader in direct mail marketing for nearly two decades, Strata has experience helping businesses create highly targeted multichannel marketing campaigns. Contact us to learn more.

470,000: the approximate number of words in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

Your direct mail copy challenge: Find the magic combination that will command the reader’s attention (i.e., dodge the recycle bin) and compel action.

Yes, direct mail writing can be intimidating. But the following steps can help you write direct mail copy that will get noticed – and get your prospects motivated.

  1. Grab Attention with Your Headline
    Many leading copywriters believe in the rule of 80/20 – that writing the headline should take 80% of your effort, and the copy below should take 20%. Why? The headline has to work really, really hard to hook readers. If it falls flat, no one will read past it.
    • Focus the headline around a leading benefit.
    • Build intrigue – tease with just enough information so that it’s impossible to ignore what follows.
  2. Expand (a little) on the Most Important Benefits
    Your body content needs to strike a balance between being informative and being concise. Again, stay benefits-focused, and give readers information that will convince them they need to act on your offer.
    • Tell readers how the product or service will improve their lives.
    • Present information in a logical order.
  3. Be Brief and Readable
    Your words are not the star of the piece. Rather, the recipient should be kept front and center. Copy should focus on their needs, and never compromise readability.
    • Limit the amount of copy in your mailer.
    • Save longer, more detailed explanations for product/service websites, landing pages or brochures.
    • Break up blocks of copy with subheads.
  4. Write for a Persona
    Writing for a persona can help you key in on the needs and motivations of your target audience.
    • Address their specific concerns.
    • Craft copy that connects on an emotional level.
  5. Craft an Irresistible Call to Action
    Finally, you need to ask for the reader’s business with your call to action (CTA).
    • Give the reader direct, specific instruction on how to take the next step.
    • Use active verbs.
    • Imply urgency – the offer will expire; they can’t afford to delay; time is running out; be one of the first, etc.
  6. Test to Find Out What Works Best
    A simple A/B test – where a control group receives a version with one varying element – can help you uncover the most effective copywriting approaches for your audience.
    • A/B test elements such as headlines, CTAs and envelope teasers.
    • Track results, and refine future mailings accordingly.

Going Multichannel?

Ensure you align your direct mail copy with other pieces of the campaign – emails, landing pages, digital ads, broadcast media. The message needs to be cohesive, or you’ll confuse your audience.

Strata Company, a Plymouth Meeting, PA-based marketing services and technology solutions company, has been a leader in direct mail marketing for 25 years. Our multichannel marketing programs combine award-winning creative with superior data practices to attract the right prospects and keep them engaged. Contact us to speak with one of our direct marketing experts.