Direct mail marketing

Work out the campaign objectives, target audience, response channels, budget and timing.

Objectives

Outline what you want to achieve from your campaign, for example to:

• increase sales or create brand awareness
• promote special offers or supply information
• acquire new customers or win back old customers

Target audience

To define your target market, work out the following:

• Do you want to target existing customers?
• Do you need to include/exclude any particular groups from your campaign?
• What customer demographic and behaviours would be most attractive to your business?
• Do you need to buy or rent a mailing address list to acquire new customers? You can purchase or hire a list from a list broker. Search online for a local list broker.
• If you don’t have a mailing list, you can use Campaign Targeter to find potential new customers with Unaddressed Mail or Acquisition Mail.

Response channels

Define why, when and how your target audience should respond to your mailing. Make it easy for them to respond through multiple channels: phone, email, mail, online, etc. Ensure that you have the resources to handle the anticipated volume of responses.

Budget

Your budget will depend on a number of factors such as:

• The number of people you want to reach. Campaign Targeter can help you determine the size of your Unaddressed or Acquisition Mail campaign at the planning stage
• Whether you need to buy address lists or plan to use your own customer address data
• Whether you are outsourcing your campaign to a mail house or doing it yourself
• Production and creative costs
• Postage costs

Timing

Figure out the best time for you to launch your campaign. Also decide whether you should mail everyone at the same time, or stagger the mailouts to lighten the potential load on your business.

Design your mail pack to suit your target audience, budget and creativity.

Feature your key message prominently and make it clear why the recipient should buy your product or service. Include promotional codes to help track customer response and determine return on investment (ROI).

To strengthen your message, consider the following:

• Why should the customer buy from you? What makes you stand out from your competitors?
• How will it help them? Focus on benefits not features
• What is the product or service?
• Are there any special promotions?
• Use teasers, headlines, visuals and powerful compelling sentences
• Include promotional codes to help track responses and measure ROI

Classic direct mail packs consist of 4 components: envelope, letter, brochure and response mechanism (which may be part of the letter or brochure).

More creative options will help your direct mail to stand out, such as a cut-out image of your product or logo, shaped postcards, scented mail and innovative envelopes.

You can prepare your mail packs yourself or work with a mail house to get your campaign to market. If you're preparing your own mail packs, this can be as simple as print, fold, insert and send.

Whether you’re using a mail house or doing it yourself, there are a variety of cost-effective mail solutions that can offer a discount on your postage when sending mail in bulk.

• Promo Post: If you’re sending more than 4000 items of promotional mail, Promo Post offers you a cost-effective and straightforward way to send your articles in bulk.
• Acquisition Mail: Helps you target potential customers in specific areas with addressed but non-personalised mail. It's an effective way to make your correspondence count, helping you generate sales leads or donations, or sign up new members to your organisation.
• Unaddressed Mail: Reach consumers and businesses more effectively by using our Unaddressed Mail to distribute your letterbox advertising. Send catalogues, flyers and other promotional material nationwide, or target suburbs or postcodes.
• Imprint/Metered Mail: Used to pay for postage to provide a lower cost than Full Rate Mail. Many small to medium businesses use postage meters as a convenient way to pay for postage.
• Clean Mail: Machine-addressed letters with no need to barcode or sort.
• Charity Mail: If you're an income tax exempt charity or an organisation endorsed as a deductible gift recipient (DGR), Charity Mail helps you save money on your bulk mail (300 items or more).
  

Once your mail is prepared to our specific service requirements, lodge your articles at an approved Australia Post Lodgement facility.¹

Payment Options

You can pay for these services using an Australia Post Business Credit Account, cash, debit and credit cards.

Mail house options

For larger volumes (typically more than 300 letters), or if you're time constrained, you may prefer to use a mail house. They can handle both small and large volume mailings. They can also use your existing customer address data or help source mailing lists for you.

An added bonus is their ability to prepare your mail in a way that maximises postage discounts from Australia Post.

You can contact one of our Bulk Mail Partners to assist you with the printing, preparation and lodgement of your mail.