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Direct Mail - The Missing Link for Many Firms

By John Stewart

Ok, I’m going to admit something right off the bat – I have received more than 200 invitations from individuals asking me to join them on LinkedIn, and I haven’t the faintest idea what it is all about. Sure, I know it is some type of social-business networking site, but I’m just a bit leery about taking these folks up on their invitations.

Heck, for the first six months of receiving these LinkedIn invitations I was so clueless that I was even pronouncing the name incorrectly…. Somehow I kept seeing the word as “Lidikin” or something like that and it never made sense. At least now I can pronounce it properly, but I’m still not sure I want that many friends or what I would do with them once they became my friends. Actually, I’m not sure why anyone would want me as a friend either! Then again, I’m an introvert.

That brings me to other social networking sites like Twitter, YouTube, and MySpace. I am also seeing more and more web pages inviting me to “Twitter” them with my comments. It sounds pretty interesting, but then I read there was a limitation of 140 characters and spaces for a “Twitter.” Well, you won’t see me “Twittering” any time soon. Heck, my lead paragraph has 279 characters and spaces, and as you can see, I haven’t even warmed up yet.

Direct Mail Still Powerful

Suffice it to say that, while I admit that I’m not really up-to-date on a lot of this social and business networking, I will not find fault with those who find these mediums appealing. Nonetheless, I am convinced that far too much emphasis is being placed on these networking tools at the expense of direct mail – a medium that I believe is still at its core one of the most cost-effective marketing tools available to printers.

In my experience, direct mail, in all its various forms, has been and continues to be one of the most effective marketing tools in our industry. The only difference between now and 30 years ago, when many of us got our start in this industry, is that it is so much easier to implement, manage, and control than in the “old days.”

Thirty years ago, typesetting, designing, and printing a direct-mail piece was a major challenge. Oftentimes, even a simple direct-mail postcard or newsletter took so much time to produce in-house that by the time it was ready to deliver to the Post Office, the expiration dates on the coupons or special offers had already lapsed.

Now, thanks to digital color copiers, better design software, and a variety of marketing services and programs aimed at our market, even the smallest printer can produce attractive, eye-catching direct-mail advertising, newsletters or promotional postcards within just a day or so. Nonetheless, despite the fact that an effective direct-mail campaign is easier to use and implement than ever before, too many printers push it aside as being either ineffective or too expensive to pursue. I say those excuses are hogwash!

Profit Leaders and Direct Mail

I’ve interviewed and consulted with hundreds of printing firms during these past 25 years or so. I’ve studied their financials and I have come to know how they operate. About 20 years ago, during one of the Vice Presidential debates, former Senator Lloyd Bentsen addressed Senator Dan Quayle and said, “I knew Jack Kennedy; Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. And Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy.” I feel the same way about “profit leaders” in our industry. I know the profit leaders in our industry and I know that direct mail, in all its many forms, is frequently at the core of their marketing efforts and programs. In fact, it is one of the primary reasons for their success.

Yes, many of them rely on outside sales representatives to establish sound, one-on-one, face-to-face relationships with customers and prospects. But almost without exception these printers also use direct mail to establish name recognition and initially to help them open doors. In many cases, a prospect has received 15-20 or more mailing pieces from these “profit leaders” before the sales representative gets to set foot inside the door of their prospect’s office.

Whether it’s a simple 2-color flyer, a postcard, or a complex, personalized 4-color newsletter, the winners in our industry simply seem to do a much better job in the area of direct mail. They believe in it, they practice what they preach, and it is an integral part of their approach to managing their business. The result is the ability of these “winners” to maintain sales, and more importantly profits, in both good times and bad.

There is no doubt in my mind that the companies that will come out on top at the end of this current economic recession will be those that never let up, never gave up, and never backed off from reaching out to customers and prospects via the direct mail marketing route.

While many printers give lip service to the effectiveness of using direct mail when times are good, they seem to be the first to postpone or even cancel their regular direct-mail programs when times turn bad. Not so for the profit leaders, who often see a recession as an opportunity to grow market share at the expense of their competitors—who are struggling. It’s not unusual to see the leaders redoubling all marketing efforts, especially those pertaining to direct mail.

Despite my praises regarding the effectiveness of direct mail, I don’t want to mislead anyone into believing that it is easy or simple to implement. If it was, I probably wouldn’t need to write this column. Direct mail takes effort and requires perseverance. But the effort will pay off in new customers and increased orders.

The Power of Nine

Author Jay Conrad Levinson once wrote about what he called the Power of Nine. In Levinson's estimation, a prospect must hear your message nine times before they will decide to purchase from you. In other words, it takes nine impressions to build the credibility, confidence, rapport, and trust needed to make a sale.

This is hardly new or newsworthy. Many others, including myself, have espoused similar ideas, and years of research and results have supported the claim. Ironically, it is often said that most people tend to give up on their outside sales efforts and direct mail after six or seven tries. They come so close, but either become frustrated or just impatient about converting a prospect into a sale. Had they persevered just a little bit longer, they might have received their first order or call.

While nine is the magic number for making an impression, Levinson goes on to say that the average prospect will only remember one out of every three marketing messages you present to them. This holds true across all media, from television and radio to Internet advertising and direct mail.

How is that possible? Well, perhaps one month a secretary intercepts the mail and makes the decision to discard your mailing piece before it hits your prospect's desk. Maybe the recipient is out of the office a different month and never sees it. Or perhaps a major national news story breaks, and virtually all direct mail sent that week is ignored. Whatever the reason, you can expect your prospects to see and remember one out of every three advertisements they receive from you.

So does that mean you'll need to mail 27 times before you can expect to see results? Not entirely. Your first or second mailer might reach a prospect at just the right moment, when they're looking for someone to produce a large print job. Another prospect might call after just a few mailings, curious to know more about what you can do for them. In all likelihood, you will begin to see a trickle of positive results from your direct mail after just a few mailings. But in order to maintain consistent, quality results, you'll need to continue mailing each month, without fail.

Yes, there will be prospects who require 27 mailings before they're willing to give you a try. And yes, there may be others who never call. But as you continue to send your mailings each month, and you continue to get more and better results, before long you'll stop counting the number of months you've mailed and start counting instead the number of customers your efforts have helped to yield.