Particular Supply: Designing a Higher Direct-Mail Advertising and marketing Piece

• As efficient as on-line advertising will be, it must be mixed with unsolicited mail to attain the most effective outcomes.
• To promote extra pizza, any unsolicited mail piece ought to embrace a robust supply and a transparent name to motion, says Josh Davis of Mail Shark.

Associated: Learn our full Q&A with Josh Davis of Mail Shark right here.

By Rick Hynum

Everybody loves a particular supply on a pizza. You don’t want PMQ to inform you that. However, with inflation driving up costs and whittling away at discretionary revenue, shoppers immediately are hungrier than ever for deal. And Bluedot’s September 2022 “State of What Feeds Us” report discovered that 43% of shoppers lately are checking their mail for restaurant coupons and comparable affords—their snail-mail, that’s.

“As efficient as on-line advertising will be, the actual fact stays that it may be a really crowded area with a relentless stream of advertisements which can be competing, most of which you don’t cease to see as you scroll by,” says Josh Davis, chief income officer for Mail Shark, headquartered in Mohnton, Pennsylvania. “The mailbox is way much less cluttered and ensures that your prospect sees your advertising. You have to take a look at your mail to determine whether or not to maintain it or not, which ensures your advert is seen by the meant prospect, offering the best learn fee of any advertising channel.”

“There’s completely a spot for unsolicited mail as a part of any advertising marketing campaign for any enterprise, notably pizza,” Steve Heaney, president of Minuteman Press in Toledo, Ohio, instructed PMQ again in 2020. “Junk mail is a looking lure—you are attempting to get to a really specific demographic.”

Davis notes that unsolicited mail is “hyper-targeted to the precise neighborhoods you wish to penetrate. Social media will be hyper-targeted as nicely. The distinction is, not everyone seems to be on-line to see your ads. Junk mail ensures that you simply contact the precise prospects you’re focusing on.”

That doesn’t imply you must abandon digital advertising. Quite the opposite, Davis says. “Junk mail is a good way to transform potential prospects to go surfing. With a robust name to motion—to order on-line, obtain an app or be a part of a loyalty plan with some incentive—it’s a good way to get shoppers to behave and go surfing whereas permitting you to seize buyer information, supplying you with the flexibility to remarket to these prospects once more.”

Selecting Your Piece

What’s the best unsolicited mail piece? Begin with a ten.5”-by-17” tri-fold menu, Davis recommends. “With this massive format, you get extra advertising area than nearly another unsolicited mail piece. It provides you ample area to essentially inform your restaurant’s story with menu objects, footage, and many others., and present your prospects precisely what you must supply.”

Davis factors to different sturdy performers, like postcard magnets—they’ll robotically go on the shopper’s fridge—and scratch-off postcards that give the recipient an opportunity to win one thing. “For instance, one of the crucial standard is ‘Scratch to win free pizza for a yr!’ There’s sometimes one grand-prize winner, and the remainder are given some sort of low cost or particular supply that makes them really feel like they’ve gained one thing. You may then use the reverse facet of the cardboard for added affords and different content material, making scratch-off postcards a robust advertising piece.”

Plastic postcards, with the texture and thickness of a bank card and a shiny or shiny end, are one other strong choice, Davis says. “They supply the flexibility to create pop-out affords which can be the very same dimension as a bank card and match completely in a pockets or billfold, whereas key-tag affords will be popped out and put in your prospects’ keychains.”

“Many shoppers maintain on to their mail for lengthy intervals of time, giving your unsolicited mail advertising message longevity and the flexibility to create repeat orders.”
— Josh Davis, Mail Shark

The Supply and Name to Motion

To promote extra pizza, any unsolicited mail piece ought to embrace a robust supply and a transparent name to motion, Davis says. For coupons, you could suppose strategically. “Many instances, pizzeria homeowners wish to run coupons solely providing giant bundle offers that embrace very particular objects, the reason is to create a bigger ticket. Nevertheless, most markets include singles, {couples} and smaller households, not simply giant households that a big bundle deal would probably solely enchantment to.”

As an alternative, Davis provides, “It’s a greatest apply to scale back the variety of bundle offers and add different affords, comparable to a generic tiered dollar-off supply, that will enchantment to anybody—singles, {couples}, small households and even giant households that wish to order what they need with out being compelled to buy the precise objects within the bundle deal.”

Excessive-value offers that get outcomes embrace providing $3 off any order of $20 or extra or $5 off any order of $30 or extra, he says.

When you’ve hooked them with the deal, you need them to behave on it. “We advocate this name to motion be one thing like driving prospects to put an order on-line, becoming a member of a rewards program, downloading your app when you’ve got one, and many others.,” Davis says. “All of those actions result in gathering necessary buyer information. It’s crucial that you simply attempt to collect your prospects’ information” so you possibly can preserve advertising to them.

“It’s a greatest apply to scale back the variety of bundle offers and add different affords, comparable to a generic tiered dollar-off supply, that will enchantment to anybody—singles, {couples}, small households, and even giant households.”
— Josh Davis, Mail Shark

“As a result of all of those actions name the shopper to go surfing or to their telephone to obtain one thing, it’s a greatest apply to incorporate a QR code that simply takes them to the vacation spot you need,” Davis provides. “Simply bear in mind to at all times embrace verbiage that explains the aim of the QR code, like ‘Scan Right here to Order On-line.’”

Associated: The Secret Message: Textual content your strategy to pizza advertising success

Heaney recommends incorporating social media into your general technique as nicely—he calls it the “social match” method. “Individuals are extra inclined to take motion after they’re seeing a multimedia hit, whether or not a postcard after which social media; or social media earlier than, throughout and after a direct-mail marketing campaign. As individuals see the supply a number of instances in a number of locations, you’ll get a greater end result.”

One other beauty of unsolicited mail advertising? It’s constructed to final. “Many shoppers additionally maintain on to their mail for lengthy intervals of time, giving your unsolicited mail advertising message longevity and the flexibility to create repeat orders,” Davis says. “We’ve got name monitoring information from a unsolicited mail menu despatched out by a neighborhood mom-and-pop store that reveals a number of repeat calls from the identical menu over time and calls coming in over one yr after the menus had been despatched out. That is the facility of unsolicited mail and is a win throughout.”  

Rick Hynum is PMQ’s editor in chief.