Stand out with direct mail
Small business marketing series
Originally published in Small Business Charleston, June 2008
By Tiffany Jonas
Done well, direct mail can provide a way to stand out and bring in new revenue for a small business. Many marketers have shifted to sending out less expensive emails, leaving a door of opportunity open for you.
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Several weeks ago I received a letter. The envelope was hand-addressed to me—with both my last name and my company name spelled correctly, no small feat—and a professionally designed logo sat pertly in the corner. Inside was a simple sheet of letterhead, also professionally printed, addressed to me, and hand-signed by the owner of the firm. The message: a technology company in business for six months invited me to call if its staff could be of any help with my office technology needs.
That company was Cantey Technology. Today I'm a client, and in just eight weeks I've spent nearly $1,000 on their services.
Done well, direct mail can provide a way to stand out and bring in new revenue for your business. "Junk mail" of old took on a bad name as Americans found themselves deluged daily with mass-addressed mail printed on the cheapest possible paper and sent via bulk mail. Now, many of those same marketers have shifted their attention to sending out even cheaper emails… leaving a door of opportunity open for you.
Why am I a client of Cantey Technology? Because they took the time to address me specifically and politely… and a glance at their professionally designed and printed materials told me they were serious about succeeding in their chosen line of business. This was no fly-by-night company; they had carefully invested in their firm. They were here to stay.
In contrast, I can't tell you the number of times I've received flyers—from the most well-intentioned small businesspeople—badly typeset on cheap copy paper, often featuring poorly lit photos snapped with a cheap camera in someone’s living room. I don't want to hurt feelings, but with this approach, a small business can look like it's ready to skip town on an instant's notice.
"I know, you could design [brochures and flyers] yourself and print them on your personal printer," writes Michael Port, author of Book Yourself Solid. "Please don't. ...Don't you want materials that represent you and your work to be brilliantly designed and highly sophisticated? Most brochures and flyers that I see professional service providers using are just plain horrible. They're usually designed using a Microsoft Publisher or Word template, printed on regular thin copy paper, and filled with bland clichés and bland copywriting that doesn't even remotely speak to the talent and professionalism of the brochure's owner."
About the author
Aio Design founder Tiffany Jonas graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Journalism degree in advertising from the Missouri School of Journalism, a top journalism school. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and has taken coursework toward an MBA. She’s a member of Mensa, an organization for those who have tested in the top two percent of the population on a standardized intelligence test. She has been the two-time recipient of an 11-state award for design, honored at the Chicago Book & Media Show and was chosen as one of the Charleston Regional Business Journal’s 2008 Forty Under 40, honoring those who have achieved professional success while contributing to the community.
