Direct mailing is a timeless form of marketing that gets your business name and brand in front of an enormous number of people. It is good value for money and will ensure that more people know about you, because anybody can receive a piece of mail in the post (not everybody has the internet). Whilst many marketing services are becoming digitised, a large number of businesses still rely on direct mailing as part of their core strategy to make sure they are getting their messages out and casting the new wide, as well as focusing in on their target audience.
Direct mail pieces could be many things:
- Brochures
- Flyers
- Postcards
- Catalogues
Essentially, any kind of marketing communications material can count as direct mail, however these are by far the most common ones for people to see coming through their doors.
The difficulty comes in making direct mail marketing stand out; it can be difficult to make people notice direct mail pieces because they might get multiple items posted through their doors. The key comes in the form of personalisation and making sure that any mail pieces sent out are thoroughly enticing, so that people will be more likely to take notice of them.
Mailing houses and mailing service providers are probably the best option for both designing and producing direct mail, and for sending it out as well. Everything can be done under one roof, making sure that it is an efficient process and you can easily track where you are with everything, without having to have multiple contacts to speak to. From this point of view, direct mail marketing is much simpler than other forms of marketing as it is very easily taken care of.
Direct mail pieces can be personalised in house to give them a unique touch and make them stand out more. Inkjet personalisation is a high-tech way of doing this and producing very high quality results. Envelopes can also be printed on to add another layer of personalisation. Other options for personalisation may include colour variable digital print, and high speed cut sheet mono laser printing. You can talk to the mailing house you are thinking of using to find out more about the personalisation options they have in house, and what services they can offer you.
Mail pieces can then be printed out using high quality printers – mailing houses can usually be relied on to have state of the art printing facilities because so much of their job relies on this. If you are interested in seeing what equipment will be used to verify the quality of direct mail pieces that are sent out on your behalf, you can always ask to see the mailing house’s plant list. Printing in house is highly efficient too and large quantities of mail can be printed so that fulfilment and enclosing can then take place afterwards. When one mailing house can take care of mailing entirely on your behalf, this is preferable for many people who value efficiency and good time management.