A direct mail campaign can form a very valuable part of your overall marketing strategy even if you’re a smaller business. However, before embarking on a direct marketing campaign (and any marketing campaign for that matter) it is very important to recognise the potential costs involved.
The largest cost you’ll face is postage costs. The price of stamps is higher than it’s ever been and multiplied across a bulk mailing campaign and this can add up to many thousands of pounds. It’s very important that any expected return outweighs the typically heavy price of postage.
With the above in mind, it’s obviously crucially important that direct mail is targeted properly, i.e. pointed towards your key demographics. Identifying your key demographic and matching this to targeted geographical locations can be challenging.
As well as the costs involved you’ll also have to think about the logistical challenges. Materials will need to be designed, printed, stuffed into envelopes and then franked, i.e. give the correct postage. Again the cost of manpower and the cost of equipment, such as franking machines, needs to be weighed against the closely estimated returns.
If this all sounds too difficult don’t worry and there are shortcuts. For instance, you might outsource much of the above to specialist mailing services. These services will essentially be able to handle everything apart from the design of flyers, which reduces the logistical challenge considerably.
