Want More Out of Your Direct Mail Campaigns? This Checklist Can Help.

Why Direct Mail?

Direct mail can be a powerful ally for any shop wanting to stay top of mind with customers. Keep in mind—42% of direct mail recipients scan their mail, so you have a great opportunity to get your brand in front of customers. Although you need both email and direct mail channels to add layers to the funnel, there’s a lot less competition in a potential customer’s physical mailbox than an email inbox. Plus, people tend to keep their mail around for an average of 17 days before tossing it.

Strategy is everything.

Before you think about sending that first postcard or mailer, there are some things you should tick off your list to ensure your campaigns are set up correctly and run smoothly. Try the simple checklist below to help you build your audiences and campaigns, so you get better results and ROI.

Make sure your budget supports your goals.

Before you start, ask yourself what your goal is and whether or not you have the budget to achieve that goal. If your target audience is too large to mail to, you may need to scale it down and go for a smaller target market.

Remember, less is often more when it comes to audience size, because you can achieve more focused targeting, which makes it more likely your marketing will resonate and helps your budget go a longer way.

Know your target audience.

Making sure you’ve got the right audience for your direct mail campaigns can make or break your ROI. It’s crucial that you segment your audiences, so they feel the direct mail piece they got from you was truly meant for them.

Here are some ideas you can steal to help you segment your audience:

Geography & Climate: Are there challenges their geographic location or climate might pose for them that you can help solve? Age of Homes: How old are the homes in your audience’s neighborhood? How and when they were built can provide clues as to what these homeowners might need. Income: What do you know about your audience’s average income? Service Need: Who has bought a home in your area recently that might have disposable income and needs service to help spruce up their home?

Pro Tip: The more you’re able to narrow down your audience, the better. Try combining some of the above segments to build your audience, so it’s more focused.

Check for additional segmentation options with your mail vendor.

Some mail vendors can help you determine a potential audience based on information from your existing customer demographics. Here’s an example: Look at your ServiceTitan reporting data and check your customers’ zip codes to see where revenue, and conversions (including membership conversions) are highest. Then have your vendor take those zip codes and customer behaviors and see what your potential new customer reach is based on that data.

Pro Tip: If you’re using EDMM (Every Door Direct Mail), be careful of wasted spend. If your shop serves only or mostly residential customers, you may want to exclude commercial businesses from your audience. You might have a few renters fall into the audience too, so ask if those can be excluded as well.

Choose the right mailing format.

It’s not always easy to know which mailing format you should use for a direct mail campaign. Consider your message—for example, if you’re targeting people who’ve recently moved to your service area and aren’t familiar with you, an envelope mailer might be appropriate. This larger format gives you plenty of room to introduce your business, welcome the homeowner to the neighborhood, and maybe throw in a coupon for them to use on their first service.

If your message is meant to be very brief, smaller pieces such as postcards can get the job done. Postcards work nicely if you’re sending an automated follow-up (such as a thank you message after a completed job) or seasonal service reminders.

Regardless of how you choose your mailing format, be sure to test different sizing formats to learn which work best in your market.

Account for delivery and production time.

When you schedule your direct mail campaigns, be mindful of the time it will take to produce mail pieces. You’ll need to bake this time into your campaigns. Consider review and approval processes, and estimate accordingly.

Your delivery method will also affect campaign scheduling. Standard mail delivery may take longer than first-class mail, so if your campaign is time-sensitive, choose the right delivery method to prevent your mailers from arriving at a customer’s home too late.

Pro Tip: Make sure your mail vendor provides good quality digital printed mailers if you’re mailing in bulk. Bulk sorting can affect print quality, resulting in less-than-professional-looking mailers.

Test and track your campaigns to see what’s working and what isn’t.

It’s difficult to ensure your campaigns are running as intended and that they’re giving you the results you want unless you continuously track your results. Make sure your mailers contain a tracking number customers can call or text to reply, or add a QR code they can scan with their smartphones that links to a booking widget. The more ways you give customers to reply, the better.

Pro Tip: If you have particular audiences or zip codes that are giving you pretty good results, use them to test out new campaign ideas.

Build your brand with neighborhood-focused campaigns.

If your brand isn’t quite as prevalent in your target markets as you’d like it to be, there are a few campaign ideas you can try to strengthen your brand’s presence.

• Capture potential leads in profitable neighborhoods you’ve visited by running prospecting campaigns with simple messaging like, “Hey! We were just in your neighborhood and want to introduce ourselves.”

• Create a campaign for existing customers offering an incentive for referring their neighbor/family/friend. Even better, offer the person being referred an incentive, too.

• Find a specific problem that’s prevalent in a particular area and market for that issue by route.

Most importantly, make your direct mail branding campaigns part of a multi-channel marketing approach. The more ways you utilize to reach your customers, the better your results will be. A multi-channel approach also helps you retain customers and keeps your brand top of mind once they decide to book their first service.

ServiceTitan Marketing Pro makes this remarkably easy to do. With a wide range of ready-made direct mail as well as email templates, you can keep customers engaged and help them remember you when they need service.

Haven’t tried Marketing Pro yet? Schedule a free demo today, and give your branding efforts a major boost!