Direct Mail: Honing in on your Target
By Mark Willinger (Modern Builders Supply)
January 31, 2008
Are you tired of putting together direct mail campaigns that cost you a small fortune but reap little results? Do you want to start a direct mail campaign but do not know where to begin? In this article I will explain a few simple ways to improve the return rate of your direct marketing programs by more accurately hitting those "target customers" likely to purchase remodeling and building services.
Before we jump into who this “target market” is and how we can easily find them, lets assume that you have never put together a mailing campaign and do not know where to start. There are several ways to go about it, you could hire a advertising agency to put together a mailing piece for you, or just a designer, you could purchase a desktop publishing program and design the piece yourself or you could even simply hand write letters and mail them to potential customers. Which is the best option is a whole other article so I will not get to deep into which is the best choice, just remember each has a unique cost implication.
Now that you know what to mail you need to know who to mail it to? Instead of just going through the phone book and picking a couple hundred addresses or purchasing a mailing list that will just send your mail piece to a mass audience, lets find the people who most likely want to hear your message. Studies show that new homeowners are much more likely to spend money on remodeling services than those who have been in their homes for an extended period of time. In fact according to an article published by real estate weekly, they spend more than twice as much in the first year of ownership than non-movers. You may have already known that, but do you know how to find them?
You could pay for the services of many lead generation firms or purchase NCOAlink (National Change Of Address), but that would really throw your cost up. Here is a way to get similar information for FREE, use the Internet and sites like www.zillow.com to find recently sold houses, then mail to those addresses. You can assume if the house was sold a new owner will be moving in relatively soon. You could even look up the address to find the previous owner, as sites like www.yellowpages.com are not updated that promptly, and create a database to update later with those homeowners new address where you can target them as new homeowners. By doing this you will be more accurately hitting that target of new homeowners, without all the cost of expensive services.
See this process broken down step by step
Good Luck, hopefully this article will help you improve your direct marketing efforts.
