* English and Español

The Hispanic community in the United States is far from homogeneous. South Americans and Central Americans, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and Argentinians all make up the 43 million strong Hispanic population of the United States. They share, however, one crucial bond: language. When asked, 36% of Hispanics prefer their advertising direct mail in Spanish, while 39% prefer it in English. But 72% receive almost all of their advertising direct mail in English. So how will your communications get to Hispanics in the language they prefer? Easy enough: Reach them with bilingual Direct Mail pieces!

Conclusion
Direct mail is an excellent way to communicate with prospects within the Hispanic community and accom...

The African-American population is its own unique ethnic group as much as Italians or Germans or the French.  They have various classes of affluency, taste, political attitude and lifestyle.  Understanding these differences, and the need to speak to these “clusters” of people, will allow you to make great progress in winning the direct mail business within this and any ethnic group.

The dangers of pigeon holing

As all clusters of the population differ in buyer behavior, regardless of ethnicity, direct mail marketers must take notice of responder patterns and attempt to learn how these response clusters continually evolve.  It’s naïve to assume that all African Americans will react favorably or unfavorably to a direct mail offer that includes photo’s of Afric...

Direct mail marketing for furniture store retail is essential to the success of maintaining foot traffic in furniture showrooms across any city. With heavy competition all vying for the attention of the too few buyers of residential furniture, the industry is liken to the auto dealership market. Like the auto dealership market, furniture stores sell most of their products on the weekend sales, offer financing, continually upgrade their merchandise, and attempt to position themselves differently amongst their competitors. The furniture store marketer integrates their brand message within the primary advertising mediums; direct mail, newspaper print, television, and online presence.

The direct mail marketing advantage

Direct mail marketing’s p...

Within the real of furniture store direct mail marketing, there exists a program that most retail future store direct mail marketers adopt, and that is the clearance sale.  The almighty “everything must go close out sale”.  This direct marketing program works best for the sheer fact that people are always on the hunt for new furniture and those people in close proximity will more likely drop in to take a look around.  But not all people will drop in and not all people are likely in the market.  So how does clearance sale direct mail marketer maximize his/her direct marketing return on investment?  How do we choose to add to our mailing list, those people more likely to become direct mail responders than those who likely won’t respond?  The answer is in a three part strate...

When planning your next direct mail campaign, there are a number of items a direct mail marketer should not do without.  The key to success with any direct mail marketing campaign is the preparation.  Before you begin, be sure you know what your costs will be, that you’re matching your direct mail piece with your mailing list audience, and that you measure your direct mail response.

Keeping within budget
Every direct mail campaign will have costs that change from time to time.  The paper cost your mail piece is printed on will change from year to year, the postage cost continues to rise, and your mailing list cost adjusts as well.  But don’t forget, your time.  The more time you spend on each of these campaigns, the more they cost.  All these...

Careful consideration should be taken when determining who your direct mail audience is.  You may have the ideal direct mail offer that pulls at the heart strings of a good prospect, but if mailed to the wrong audience, the mail piece may end is zero sales leads.  Likewise, mailing to the perfect audience and with a lack-luster offer could also end in little to no sales lead response.

One way to define your direct mail audience is to through mailing list data modeling.  Data modeling is a process of using a mailing list of existing good customers to better understand who to mail to in order to find new customers.  Done correctly, data modeling can segment your existing customers as defined by what they’ve purchased, how frequent they purchase, and how much they spe...

The importance of including a personal name within the mailing address label where ever possible instead of “Current Resident” could not be overstated.  People today demand to be spoken to as individuals.  The better you know your direct mail prospects and direct mail customers, the better you’ll be able to communicate to them – and the more likely you’ll experience a favorable direct mail response.  By including a persons name on the direct mail piece, your message becomes more compelling and your offer becomes more credible.

Personalized Digital Direct Mail Printing

In today’s advanced technology, digital printing allows the direct mail marketer to include the personalized names within the content of the mail piece as well as mailing label...

Optimizing your direct mail investment dollars for multi-location campaigns is done by considering the printing and mailing service efficiency of the entire campaign.  With cost cutting strategies to be shared among franchise owners to data capturing techniques for the head quarter marketing arm, the multi-location business can benefit from a number of simple strategies as shown below.

Printing Efficiency
Probably one of the largest expenses to your direct mail campaign is printing.  And with each store location all mailing various messages at differ times to different audiences, the process can be a monumental headache.  Ideally, your goal is to shore up as much of this print waste as possible.  One of the things you should consider is garne...

As most direct mail marketers know, direct mail marketing is measurable.  And response percentage rate is the “barometric” measurement for success.    Direct mail is therefore more of a scientific study on what works better in terms of new customer acquisition.  And therefore, direct mail can measure the success, or failure of, a mailing list choice.

While many advertising mediums are loosely measured by an increase in revenue over time following the TV commercial, space advertising in a magazine, or radio advertising splashing the new brand over the air waves, direct mail can be specifically measured by counting new customer generated from a direct mail campaign.  With direct mail mailing lists, the direct mail marketer is able to pinpoint targets within their mar...

Life event direct mail marketing is an effort to identifying significant changes within a person’s life that signal a refocusing of attention to their priorities, and thus, making your offer at the crucial moment they are most likely to respond.  Direct mail marketing works well with life events because of the ability to identify a large portion of those people experiencing a significant life change, mail a very relevant and appealing message, and measure the response for future targeting.

For the most part, much of what people purchase is random, meaning that one persons decision to shop for a new sofa might happen today or in six months.  For one person It may feel to shop for a new sofa today.   For another person, shopping for a sofa today would be impossible a...