Direct Mail Programs for Retail Stores and Chains

Digital marketing may be all the rage, but nothing beats putting a powerful mailer into the hands of your customers.

While digital ads disappear with the delete button, direct mail sticks around on the coffee table or kitchen table for a long time – which leads to greater brand awareness, higher engagement and more response on the part of your customers.

If direct mail is part of your marketing mix, we can help you…

• we can do everything for you – under your supervision of course
• we can set up your program and create your mailers – and give you everything you need to run your own program.
• we can work with your team to advise you and guide you in the entire direct mail process.
• we can review your existing program and make recommendations for improvement.
• we can develop a multi-store program that allows your local stores to run their own programs under your rules.

The point is we have the flexibility to work with you in whatever way you want.

Reach everyone in your local market

If everyone in your geographic area is a potential customer, we can run a direct mail that reaches everyone. But only if it makes sense.

Or target specific household types and demographics

But more often than not, you need to reach specific people in your geographic market.  We can help you reach those people – including new movers, homeowners, families with children, families with pets, households by income, households by age, mortgage holders, households by network – and so much more.

Introduce yourself to new movers to your area

Many local businesses have found great success in reaching new movers or new homeowners to their market area.  Programs can be set up to target all new movers or homeowners on a monthly basis.

Print and mail on demand – with no fuss

Once we get you set up with your own approved mailers, you’re ready to go. Just select a target area, choose your quantity and place your order.

Mailing Campaigns for Chains or Franchises

If you have are handling direct mail for retail chains or franchises, we will set up your mailing program in much the same way as we described above.

We will work with your home office to develop one or more mailers which we can then show to your individual stores for their customization.

Your individual stores could then select their geographic market area and mail according to their own budget and schedule.

Payment can be handled directly with the store, with your home office or with some combination of the two.

Let’s discuss how we can work together.

Follow our 9-step process

We’ve put together a process that you will find easy and intuitive to follow:

Step 1 – Select a geographic market

This can be anything from a single zip code (or even a neighborhood) up to multiple zip codes, a metropolitan area, a state or region.

Obviously retail locations primarily serve local areas surrounding a store, but the distance from the store can vary by the type of business.

We can help you select your geography by a particular zip code, by a radius from your store or by mapping a specific target area.

Step 2 – Select a household type 

Are you looking for all households or just homeowners?  Or single-family homes vs. multi-family homes or apartments? Do you need to reach households with children or pets or some other criteria?  What about new movers or new homeowners? Does it make sense to reach them separately. We can do that on a weekly or monthly basis.

Step 3 – Select demographic filters 

You can overlay your previous selects with additional demographic criteria such age, income or net worth. We have access to all sorts of mailing lists. Don’t hesitate to ask about your particular list requirement.

Step 4 – Get some preliminary counts 

Based on your previous steps, we can generate some estimates for the number of people who fit this criteria.  This will give you a sense of how large your potential audience may be. You don’t have to mail to the entire list, but it’s good to how large it is.

Step 5 – Choose a mailer designer 

You have many choices with your mailer, but the most popular choices are postcards and letter mail. Each of these also come in different sizes and shapes.  We will work with you to find the mailer for you.

Step 6 – Develop a customized mailer just for you

Based on your mailer selections and design preferences, we can developer for your review.  If you prefer to write and/or design the mailer yourself, that’s okay with us.

Step 7 – Prepare for response handling

How do you want people to respond to your mailing?  You have several choices – by phone, in person, by reply mail or by landing page (with a QR code). We’ll need to make preparations for these choices.

Step 8 – Set a budget or pick a quantity

You know how many people you could mail to, but you can mail any quantity you want.  Just give us a number and we’ll order that exact quantity.  If you are running a new mover or new homeowner type mailing, you won’t know the quantity because it changes every week or month, but these are typically very small mailings.

Step 9 – Print mail and deliver to the post office

Once the mailing list arrives, we can merge it with our printing/mailing process to create a fully prepared mailer with an exact postage amount.

Learn more about our retail direct mail marketing services

If you have a question, want to discuss a project or would like a proposal, contact Bob McCarthy at 508-473-8643 or bob@mccarthyandking.com.