By Felipe Alonso • Jul 09, 2017

For a definitive guide on how to effectively source leads for commercial contractors click here.

With the decrease in print mail people receive, businesses and brands have the opportunity to leverage this by including the direct mail in their marketing strategy. A well put together, eye-catching mail template could get more viewership than the many emails that flood inboxes. Cutting through the clutter and going back to basics can help you effectively reach your audience.

To ensure you catch the right eyes with your direct mail campaign, there are a couple of steps involved that you should use as a best practice checklist before sending it out.

Identify your target audience

The first step is to identify the audience you wish to target. Targeting a specific target audience of the population and identifying strong possible client segments can lead to a successful campaign. Personalization and relevance are key. As direct mail campaigns are typically classed as “Below the Line” advertising, they are more strategic in their approach and specifically target a defined segment of individuals, versus “Above the line” advertising which seeks to target a mass audience.

To run a direct mail campaign, gather a strong set of leads within your area of work. For example, if you are a commercial roofer and are looking to target a specific building type, or a security provider firm seeking out companies within a certain geographic area – you can use different tools to filter and target these buildings and/or building owners’ addresses.

Make your brand stand out

Appearance is everything with direct mail. Strong, eye-catching creative including the brand’s colors and logo is rule number one. High-quality materials and a high-quality printer will also work in your favor to maximize your efforts for the desired results.

Add Incentives

Another best practice for direct mail is to include some sort of financial promotion where available. This will further assist your lead conversion efforts of catching the prospect’s attention and adding value to him/her. Incentives can vary from discounts, rebates to any other money deals that make your mailer more impactful.

People need a reason to keep reading, to open the envelope, and ideally to take action.

Have a clear Call To Action

The last best practice step and the most crucial is to ensure your mailer includes a clear CTA (Call to Action). This could be in the form of an email address, a phone number or both. You want to make it as easy as possible for the prospect to get in touch with you.

Reonomy as a lead generation tool

Direct mail campaigns on their own can be an effective way of generating interest and brand awareness to new prospects, but the cost per lead can sometimes be high. One tool which strongly facilitates the implementation of a direct mail campaign is Reonomy – helping you to lower your cost per lead.

Reonomy is a tool widely used by commercial contractors, which provides the user with a vast amount of information on commercial properties – in this case, property owners’ contact information. This information consists of all mailing addresses, phone numbers and email addresses for all owners associated with a property, and can be conveniently exported into an excel file and downloaded onto any device. Finding property ownership information like this can take contractors a significant amount of time and valuable resources to acquire. Reonomy equips contractors with accurate, concise lead lists, allowing them to implement highly targeted sales and marketing initiatives, such as direct mail campaigns, in a timely manner. To find out more about the tool’s capabilities click here.