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How to Craft an Effective Direct Mail Campaign in 5 Minutes

By Bob Baldridge April 14, 2022 direct mail

Direct mail marketing doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, it’s our mission to make it as simple as possible for Varispark clients to create and deploy direct mail print campaigns. We start by walking new clients through the planning process to make sure the campaign strategy is sound — and then we take it from there.

If you’re interested in printing direct mail postcards, utilizing Every Door Direct Mail® tools, or other direct mail services, follow these steps to quickly craft an effective campaign. 

Step 1: Perfect the Offer

A direct mail piece is only as good as its call to action. In general, ask yourself this question we posted when we wrote about how to design a postcard marketing campaign: “How can you make the recipient’s life easier, save them money, or add something of value to their day?” The classic route is to offer a promotional discount or rebate, but our customers have also seen great success with free consultations and limited-time product offers. 

Either way, make sure the call to action is clear and concise. Does the recipient need to call, visit your website, or use a special code to claim their offer? Keep the action you want them to take front and center when building your campaign. 

Step 2: Define the Targeting

Next, decide who should receive your direct mail campaign. Do you have a house list ready to go, or will you need to work with a print services provider like Varispark to build one? If you’re starting from scratch, Varispark can help you build a targeted list using USPS-validated data and demographics, including location, age, income, and home size. What’s more, we can help you leverage Informed Delivery, a tool from the USPS that allows you to add digital CTAs to your campaign and then delivers stats on the recipients who engage with these digital components. (As of the end of last year, Informed Delivery had 45.7 million users in the U.S. and is continuing to grow, so it’s a good option if you want to go omnichannel with your campaign.) 

If you’re using or building your own list, just make sure the data is clean — or work with a print services provider who can help you prep the list to meet USPS standards. 

Step 3: Let the Design Follow

Once you know what your offer and call to action are and who’s on your final list, you’re ready to design. We’ve got plenty of tips on designing for direct mail and how to leverage variable data printing to supercharge the ROI of direct mail, but it mostly boils down to this: keep your design clean and simple so that your offer can take center stage. If it’s easy to read and compelling, you’ll have a greater chance of conversion. 

Need advice on your direct mail design, or not sure about the intricacies of designing for print? We’ve got plenty of resources to help. 

Our talented team has been executing print projects for decades and knows how to work with you to ensure your campaign gets results. How will you know what the results are? Choose from our recommended analytics to track direct mail campaigns, and we’ll set up the tracking for you.

If you’re ready to press send on a postcard or other direct mail campaign, tell us a little about your project and we can get started right away.