Direct Mail in the Digital Age. Lin Grensing-Pophal

a hard fact. The point is that once you’ve developed a USP, you have a hook that can help you grab the customer, but only if you use it effectively in your communication materials.

      Your USP allows you to create awareness of your product or service by differentiating it from similar products or services available to your customers. Once you’ve established what your unique selling proposition is, you need to make sure that it plays an integral role in any marketing communication you do.

      To identify a USP, you need to consider the following:

      • Which product or service benefits are most important to your target market?

      • Which benefits do you “own” (i.e., benefits not already claimed by your competitors and not easily imitated by your competitors)?

      • Which benefits will be most easily understood by your target audience?

      The resulting statement should be a one-line statement that contains a clearly identifiable, unique benefit that is meaningful to your market. Do you remember the following?

      • Wonder Bread: “Helps build strong bodies 12 ways.”

      • KFC: “It’s finger-lickin’ good.”

      • Burger King: “Have it your way.”

      Note that in each of these statements it is not the literal translation of the words, but the overall impact of the benefit implied in each statement that makes the USP truly powerful. That is the challenge that marketing communicators should embrace when working toward the development of copy that will achieve results.

      Note, also, that each of these statements could have been made by the competition in each product category. The power of an effective USP is that it can create the perception of uniqueness in the mind of consumers.

      Once you’ve developed a USP, it should be implicit in all of your direct mail (and other marketing communications) materials.

      4. Is Your Target Market Online?

      An important audience consideration in this digital age is whether or not your target market is online. Despite the fact that the Internet, social media, and online marketing seem to be what “everybody who is anybody” is talking about these days, marketers should not assume that they should be attempting to reach their audience online. It depends. Just as when researching and analyzing other attributes about your potential audience (e.g., age, income, geography), you need to consider whether your target market may be effectively reached online or whether they are still best reached through traditional mail.

General research can provide some direction. For instance, Pew Research Center conducted a survey in 2010^[*] which surprisingly points out that about one-third of the American population does not use a broadband (Internet) connection in their homes. Two-thirds (66 percent) of American adults do currently use a high-speed Internet connection at home, up only 3 percent since the 2009 survey. There are racial differences, as well. For instance, broadband adoption by African-Americans now stands at 56 percent, up from 46 percent in 2009. Clearly not everybody uses the Internet. Therefore, it is very important for marketers to find out whether their target audiences are among the two-thirds who indicate they do use high-speed Internet in their homes. Data also suggests that a significant amount of nonbusiness Internet use occurs in the workplace.

      Here’s what some consumers had to say about the issue:

      • “Snail mail can be useful. It has the ‘different’ factor. A well-written, handwritten note from an advertiser can go a long way toward creating consumer interest … if it has the differentiating factor. It may be a bit tedious to create, but the effect will last longer. Too often email is considered spam and deleted without opening.”

      • “Direct mail if well-presented would lead to it being opened. The fact is, direct mail has a higher rate of being opened than email. With the latter, it’s just so easy to trash it, but when people hold it in their hand and are either walking into the house or the office, they have time to spare and would likely be opening the mail. So, old-fashioned mail is better to me.”

      • “Probably snail mail gets more attention — first because there’s less of it. Second, because it takes fractionally longer to dispose of. I actually have to walk with it to a waste paper bin to drop it in so it has a few seconds to engage my attention. Third, because the physical medium allows a variety of shapes, sizes, even feel of paper and a bulge which just might be a freebie inside that I might be interested in. All email has is bold type in the subject line to get my attention. Fourth, and last, because there’s always a chance that it might be something useful. Most snail mail gets read, whereas with email they’re often just dropped in the trash.”

      Are these comments reflective of your target audience? Who knows? The point is don’t assume, either one way or the other. If you don’t know your consumers well enough to determine whether traditional direct mail, the online variety, or a combination of both would be most effective, it certainly pays to find out!

      5. Structuring Your Offer to Get Results

      In direct mail, it’s all about getting to the point. What is it you want the consumer to do? In short, what’s the offer? The offer is so important in direct mail that many marketers start here first. It makes sense. Before you can adequately begin framing your pitch you need to know what it is you’re trying to sell. In other words, what do you have to offer?

      There are a number of different types of offers, including cash in advance (“refund if you’re not completely satisfied”) and negative option (“I agree to review future shipments and understand that I can return them in X days if I decide not to keep them”).

      Some offers are very simple: “Buy this backpack for only $9.99.” Others are more complex: “Buy this backpack for only $9.99 when you sign up for our DVD-of-the-month club. You’ll automatically be sent our selection of the month every 30 days. You’ll have 10 days to review the shipment and keep or return it. In addition, you can always select from among the titles in our member catalog. Choose any selection for only $14.99. After you’ve made 3 purchases during your first year of membership, you’ll be eligible for even greater savings!”

      The structuring of an offer is an important step in developing your direct mail package. The wrong offer can make your entire mailing fall flat; the right one can make it soar.

      Even the simplest offer can be presented in a number of different ways. What you have to offer is a bit more nuanced than “Buy my widgets!” Your challenge, as a direct marketer, is to select the way that will be most appealing to your customer. The following are a number of different offer options you might want to consider:

      • By invitation only. This can lend an aura of exclusivity to your offer and is particularly effective when used in mailings to your customer list. For example, “Since you purchased from us in the past, we’d like to offer you this new product at a 25% discount. This offer is only available to past customers.”

      • Limited time. You can create a sense of urgency by limiting your offer. “Respond by January 1 to take advantage of this special price,” or “Quantities limited, order now!” are just two of the ways you could structure a limited time offer.

      • Get there first or limited supply. This type of offer creates a sense of urgency and may give prospects that extra push they need to make a buying decision. For instance, “Free widget to the first 100 people to order.” Do you carefully police the number of people who get the free widget? Of course not. By sending a free widget with every order (for a reasonable period of time), you’ll be creating good will with all of your customers because each will feel that they won.

      • Free gift. The free gift or premium offer is very common. You’ve probably seen this type of offer for magazine subscriptions, mobile phone plans,