In a lot of ways, the offer is the most important element of a direct mail marketing campaign. It’s the ‘deal breaker’ – it determines whether your prospect responds immediately or whether they discard your message without further thought. Your offer needs to be carefully thought out and it needs to resonate with the target audience.
Some of the points that you might consider in framing your offer:
- Free gifts – ‘free’ remains one of the most powerful words in the marketer’s vocabulary
- Free information – consider offering a free white paper, e-book or other free advice as these are well-received – much like editorial content in newspapers is better received by readers than straight advertising.
- Exclusivity – this offer is only available to you exclusively, which makes the prospect feel special and creates a justification to purchase.
- Short time only or inclusion of a similar time-based call-to-action – this offer is only available for a limited time, which creates urgency to act.
- Buy one, get one free – it is proven that this is a more effective offer than other common offers, including ‘50% off’ and ‘two for the price of one’ (which is the same offer, but worded differently).
