Direct marketing can be an extremely effective way to deliver your message to your prospects. It is different to advertising, in that the messages are delivered to named individuals. Of course, like most activities, you can do it well or you can do it badly. Much of the problems with direct marketing are associated with choosing your targets badly. New technology has created new opportunities such as e-mail, SMS and interactive TV.

Direct Mail

Direct mail has developed something of a poor reputation. This is mostly associated with our own personal experience of being sent inappropriate mailings that go straight into the bin. It also seems to be the height of extravagance when an agency intimates that if you get more than a one per cent response it will be a success!

So how do you get a better response? How can you avoid being ‘junk’ mail?

Power Of Direct Mail

The power of direct mail is in the word ‘direct’. It enables you to directly target a number of prospects and deliver your message direct to them. It is not as precise as direct sales but it is much more targeted than advertising. The benefit is in the numbers. It is an invaluable way of getting the attention of a large number of targets at the same time with the same message, while you are off doing something else.

Response usually peaks within a couple of weeks and you can then accurately measure the profitability of the campaign.

Costs

Costs can be kept low. It is possible to send a complete mailing at the minimum postage rate for around 50 pence if you just use one A4 page plus a cheap envelope and do the complete mailing yourself. If you use postcards it can be even less. Costs can increase dramatically if you have to rent a list or you use an outside agency.

The Right Target

The success of any direct mail activity depends on the quality of the list. Your list must be of people that are going to be interested in your offer. If you are promoting your restaurant then the prospects must live within a certain distance. If you are trying to develop interest in your new meeting room then your named list must be contacts that actually book meeting rooms. This seems very obvious but sometimes the appropriateness gets lost along the way.

If you are mailing to your own list it is relatively easy to keep the offer appropriate. What you need is a database that enables you to highlight exactly what your customers are interested in. Not all your business users will be interested in your Christmas package. Your previous overnight guests from 300 miles away will not be interested in your new lunch menu!

If you are buying a list you have to be more careful in specifying exactly what customers you are targeting.

List Making

Buying in lists from outside your hotel can be effective. For instance, if you are trying to promote your weekend packages you could obtain a list of people who have previously bought such a product from elsewhere. Here you need to check how closely your product matches the product they have previously bought.

You could alternatively ask a list broker to put together a list of likely purchasers based on some demographic, psychographic or geographic parameters that you supply, based on your experience of your previous guests. Of course, for this to work effectively, you need to gather the same sort of information on your current users.

Often the company data kept by a hotel is not very accurate. No contact is very useful unless you have the correct contact name, company name and complete postcode. As with consumers, business data changes very frequently. Dun and Bradstreet reckon that seven per cent of businesses move each year and if you add in contact moves and promotions there can be some sort of change in company data of up to five per cent per month.

There are many sources of business data, but you need to work with a company that takes note of your current data and activity and builds a list of prospects with you. Avoid organisations that just want to sell you a list.